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It may be a hardware problem since I'm using new computer but I'll ask anyway. So it happens sometimes - system becomes unable to write anything on hdd, applications start to crash, I forced to reboot. I encountered it twice (and I suspect I will again), first after suspension to RAM and right now, out of the blue. Has anybody encountered similar problems? Or guessing what could be the cause?

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3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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Linux configurations by default are often to place the permissions to write on the disk to read only to preserve the integrity of the system.

I have encountered similar problems before due to:

bad RAM
damaged/old hard disk
faulty wifi drivers
buggy chipset
damaged USBs memory sticks (they could affect drivers, this is fixed by now)

It could also be due to ACPI problems, notebooks are notorious for that, try disabling it in grub and test for a while.

Link: how to disable ACPI

https://askubuntu.com/questions/160036/how-do-i-disable-acpi-when-booting

"You can make this workaround permanent by:

sudo nano /etc/default/grub

Change line GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash" to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi=off"

sudo update-grub

Reboot .... "

As a last note, you can always remount the disk read/write after an event like that, however unless it is to change something to be able to boot, normally it is not the best of the ideas.

You can also instruct Linux to reboot after such events placing in /etc/sysctl.conf

kernel.panic = 10 kernel.panic_on_oops=1
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  • I have no idea how to create bullet points, all the lines breaks are destroyed when I try that. Commented Nov 24, 2015 at 7:59
  • To put code blocks or multiple paragraphs in a bulleted list, intend everything except the bullet lines by 4 more spaces. Commented Nov 24, 2015 at 22:44
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There is a common mount option for several file-systems (including ext2/3/4, fat, jfs) of errors=remount-ro. This tells the kernel that if there are any read or write errors while accessing the file-system, the fs is to be remounted as read-only.

For some filesystems (fat), errors=remount-ro is the default. For ext2/3/4, the default is set by tune2fs.

The intention is to save the fs from the possibility of further corruption being written to it.

See man mount and/or the man page for the filesystem you are using for details.

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  • remount-ro is often configured in /etc/fstab for the / partition Commented Nov 24, 2015 at 8:06
  • Yes, there is such option. But should I change it and more importantly, how to find out what's the cause if all this? Commented Nov 24, 2015 at 8:35
  • No, I wouldn't change it. You should examine your logs to see if there are any disk read-write errors (e.g. in /var/log/kern.log) or logged to the console (as log files can't be written either). Remounting as RO is a symptom, not the cause of the problem. Most likely the disk is failing or a cable is loose or you have other hardware problems with your system. Another possibility is that your disk is connected via an interface with a less-than-perfect driver. For example, I don't know if it's still the case but some nvidia and marvell SATA chipsets could be unreliable several years ago. Commented Nov 24, 2015 at 8:40
  • do you have another machine you can configure syslog to send logs to? Commented Nov 24, 2015 at 8:41
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Try to boot off of a Parted Magic or gparted CD or DVD and pick the load to memory option. If this loads to its graphical OS than the memory is probably OK. Run G-parted and check the partitions for damage and try to repair it. You could have an operating system file that fails a crc check or a disk inconsistency possibly a bad hard drive or possibly a root kit that must be removed. By using a live disk or the parted magic disk you can rule out memory or bad chipset as the boot will fail.

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  • It happened only twice and haven't occurred ever since I've written this post. Commented Nov 27, 2015 at 10:38

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