Recurring problem: File system with errors, check forced

[Kit_Carmelite]

I've been running Linux Mint 19.2 successfully since just before 2020. On March 15, I had a problem where the solution was to modify the file system by typing fsck /dev/sda2 -y in the terminal. This solved my problem until a few days ago.

I found the document I'd written about this and repeated the process. This time it only solved the problem for about an hour. The next thing I did was to re-install Linux Mint 19.2 from the DVD I'd made. I thought my problem was solved since I chose the option to erase the disk and re-install. Less than two days later, it happened again.

The laptop was purchased in 2020. I had removed Windows 10 completely to install Linux Mint. Here is what I documented about my last interaction in these forums about this problem.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/184s ... sp=sharing

This is the forum entry from March 15th.
Get a black screen with text after briefly seeing Linux icon - SOLVED
viewtopic.php?f=46&t=345099&p=1987531#p1987531

Why does this keep happening? What is the long-term solution?

Thanks

[sleeper12]

I've read that it could be a sign of a failing hard drive. But, if your machine is from 2020, that seems unlikely. I don't know what else might cause it.

[SMG]

Yes, I agree that continued corruption is often a sign of a drive going bad.

However, if the computer was new in 2020, it probably should be running an newer version of Mint than LM19.2 for best performance.

Please give us information about your install by entering this command in a terminal: inxi -Fxxxrz
Click </> from the mini toolbar above the textbox where you type your reply and then place your cursor between the code markers and paste the results of the command between the code markers [code]Results[/code]. This will let us know how Mint sees your hardware.

[Kit_Carmelite]

Hope this helps!

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System:
  Host: monique-Lenovo-ideapad-130-15AST Kernel: 4.15.0-142-generic x86_64 
  bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 7.5.0 Desktop: Cinnamon 4.2.4 wm: muffin 4.2.2 
  dm: LightDM 1.26.0 Distro: Linux Mint 19.2 Tina base: Ubuntu 18.04 bionic 
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: LENOVO product: 81H5 v: Lenovo ideapad 130-15AST 
  serial: <filter> Chassis: type: 10 v: Lenovo ideapad 130-15AST 
  serial: <filter> 
  Mobo: LENOVO model: LNVNB161216 v: SDK0J40700 WIN serial: <filter> 
  UEFI: LENOVO v: 8ZCN23WW(V2.02) date: 05/09/2019 
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT1 charge: 25.3 Wh condition: 25.3/30.0 Wh (84%) volts: 8.5/7.5 
  model: LENOVO PABAS0241231 type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: Full 
CPU:
  Topology: Dual Core model: AMD E2-9000 RADEON R2 4 COMPUTE CORES 2C+2G 
  bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Excavator L2 cache: 1024 KiB 
  flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm 
  bogomips: 7186 
  Speed: 2138 MHz min/max: 1200/1800 MHz boost: enabled Core speeds (MHz): 
  1: 1205 2: 1210 
Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Stoney [Radeon R2/R3/R4/R5 Graphics] vendor: Lenovo 
  driver: amdgpu v: kernel bus ID: 00:01.0 chip ID: 1002:98e4 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.19.6 driver: amdgpu,ati 
  unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,radeon,vesa resolution: 1366x768~60Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: AMD STONEY (DRM 3.23.0 4.15.0-142-generic LLVM 10.0.0) 
  v: 4.5 Mesa 20.0.8 direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Device-1: AMD vendor: Lenovo driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
  bus ID: 00:01.1 chip ID: 1002:15b3 
  Device-2: AMD Family 15h Audio vendor: Lenovo driver: snd_hda_intel 
  v: kernel bus ID: 00:09.2 chip ID: 1022:157a 
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.15.0-142-generic 
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL810xE PCI Express Fast Ethernet vendor: Lenovo 
  driver: r8169 v: 2.3LK-NAPI port: 3000 bus ID: 01:00.0 chip ID: 10ec:8136 
  IF: enp1s0 state: down mac: <filter> 
  Device-2: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9377 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter 
  vendor: Lenovo driver: ath10k_pci v: kernel port: 3000 bus ID: 02:00.0 
  chip ID: 168c:0042 
  IF: wlp2s0 state: up mac: <filter> 
  Device-3: Atheros type: USB driver: btusb bus ID: 1-1.2:3 
  chip ID: 0cf3:e500 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 1.82 TiB used: 873.71 GiB (46.9%) 
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Toshiba model: MQ01ABF050 size: 465.76 GiB 
  speed: 6.0 Gb/s rotation: 5400 rpm serial: <filter> rev: 6E scheme: GPT 
  ID-2: /dev/sdb type: USB vendor: SanDisk model: Cruzer Micro 
  size: 245.0 MiB serial: <filter> rev: 0.3 scheme: MBR 
  ID-3: /dev/sdc type: USB vendor: Seagate model: ST1500LM003-9YH148 
  size: 1.36 TiB rotation: 5400 rpm serial: <filter> rev: SF04 scheme: MBR 
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 456.96 GiB used: 22.26 GiB (4.9%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 50.4 C mobo: N/A gpu: amdgpu temp: 50 C 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Repos:
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list 
  1: deb http://packages.linuxmint.com tina main upstream import backport
  2: deb http://ubuntu.mirror.globo.tech bionic main restricted universe multiverse
  3: deb http://ubuntu.mirror.globo.tech bionic-updates main restricted universe multiverse
  4: deb http://ubuntu.mirror.globo.tech bionic-backports main restricted universe multiverse
  5: deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic-security main restricted universe multiverse
  6: deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ bionic partner
Info:
  Processes: 202 Uptime: 1d 4h 55m Memory: 3.80 GiB used: 1.23 GiB (32.3%) 
  Init: systemd v: 237 runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 7.5.0 alt: 7 Shell: bash 
  v: 4.4.20 running in: gnome-terminal inxi: 3.0.32 
monique@monique-Lenovo-ideapad-130-15AST:~$ ^C
monique@monique-Lenovo-ideapad-130-15AST:~$ 

[spamegg]

Check your drive for failure:

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sudo apt install smartmontools

Then run the long tests (will take a long time, several hours)

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sudo smartctl -t long /dev/sda

You can do the shorter self-tests through Menu/Disks/Smart tests:

If disk is fine, it's probably a kernel issue. You can force the file system check at boot by modifying one line of the file /etc/default/grub:

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GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash fsck.mode=force fsck.repair=yes"

then running sudo update-grub.

[SMG]

However, if the computer was new in 2020, it probably should be running an newer version of Mint than LM19.2 for best performance.

The information I found indicates the AMD E2-9000 came out in 2017 and the 4.15 kernel was first released in early 2018, so it's possible the 5.4 kernel may be a better fit for your hardware. Should you upgrade to LM19.3, the 5.4 kernel is an option you can use and is available in Update Manager.

I suggest checking the hard drive first.

[Kit_Carmelite]

When I followed the first instruction, I got the following screen and didn't know what to do. The OK wasn't something I could click on. I wasn't sure if the process completed since it didn't bring me back to the terminal.

[Kit_Carmelite]

How do I get to this menu for Menu/Disks/Smart tests: ?

[SMG]

How do I get to this menu for Menu/Disks/Smart tests: ?

After you open the Disks app and make sure your disk is highlighted, click the three vertical dots which are in a purple square in the upper right side of the image spamegg included in that post. When you click those three dots, the drop-down menu with Format Disk, Create Disk Images, etc. will show. Select the SMART Data & Self-Tests option.

[Kit_Carmelite]

I've already tried re-installing Mint with the erasing the disk option but that didn't solve the problem.

Would it make a difference if I formatted the drive then re-installed Mint? If so, how would I go about doing that?

[SMG]

I've already tried re-installing Mint with the erasing the disk option but that didn't solve the problem.

Would it make a difference if I formatted the drive then re-installed Mint?

When you do the erase the disk option, that reformats the disk and installs Mint, so you have already done this.

[rene]

Please note that this is as often or perhaps more often a RAM rather than disk issue; filesystem structures getting corrupted in memory and being written back to disk "correctly" in said state.

In any case the quickest way to check your drive is sudo apt-get install smartmontools and

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sudo smartctl -A /dev/sda

Attribute 1 you want to show as having a RAW value of zero (but does not always) and most specifically attribute 5 should. If attribute 5 shows nonzero you can conclude that your drive is dying (and in that case, 196/197 tend to show nonzero as well).

If the above says all's fine with the drive RAM is the likeliest culprit. You can run a memtest from the Grub boot menu (which if you don't get it automatically you will by holding Left-Shift or hitting Esc at the time that the boot starts loading from disk; can be a little finicky). A recent thread on same found that indeed one DIMM was faulty --- or badly seated, or with a few dirty contacts, or...

[Kit_Carmelite]

When I did the short test with the Disk utility, it showed
Overall Assessment says Disk is OK 344 bad sectors.

If there are that many bad sectors, how can the disk really be OK? Do I need to replace my hard drive or should I just replace the entire laptop? I do most of my stuff in the cloud.

When I tried it with the extended version, the self-test failed. I've attached the results

[rene]

Yes, while attribute 5 is still 0 (meaning you still have spare sectors left) you have a 344 current pending sector count (a count of sectors found bad and in the process of being retired) and that means you can already conclude the disk to be teetering on the brink.

There's as far as we know from this no specific reason to retire the entire laptop: only the drive should do. Now that 5 is still 0 there's a possibility you may be able to "fix" things with a firmware-level format but that's relatively technical and involves fully empting out your drive at least. Say if you want to try but I see it's a HDD still: I'd use this as an excuse to replace it with an SSD of about the same size. They are not expensive any more and will give you a much, much speedier experience of your system.

[Kit_Carmelite]

Knowing the drive is on the brink is helpful. My warranty plan allows for complete replacement so that's what I'll do.

Is there anything I might have done to cause this? The hardware is less than 2 years old.

[rene]

Potentially. If you move the computer around a lot and/or jerkily while it is running, certainly when you dropped it while it was, that could potentially cause the HDD heads to smash into the platter and cause bad sectors. Although a laptop is not mobile for nothing, so you'd really would have had to be quite rough. In this case it seems those newly retiring 344 sectors were probably damaged while the computer was sitting steadily through a SMART selftest, so likely it is not of that nature. Have no experience with Toshiba HDDs but had it been a Seagate I'd have squarely put it on the drive (they're just garbage).