[Solved] Why does my drive become readonly?

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Rander
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[Solved] Why does my drive become readonly?

Post by Rander »

Been experiencing this for some time now (a few months), but it seems to have become more frequent...

Every day, when starting my computer, in the first five minutes or so, it starts working a lot on the disks, almost like i Windows-machine cleaning up it's swap-file.

I have three disks - an SSD which contains / and swap, and two mechanical drives, one containing /home and one with a few data-partitions, including one for timeshift.

When it starts doing its thing on the disks, I can hear that it is doing it to the mechanical disks - it may be doing something to the SSD too, I don't know. The problem is that at the end of this, my / partition is more and more frequently readonly. I can then run an fsck on the partition, reboot and it's fine.

I checked the SSD, there doesn't seem to be any problems with it - so why is it doing it, and how can I make it stop? And what is it doing during those 3-5 minutes beating away at the disk(s)?

Last entries in syslog when it happens:

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Oct 22 08:57:37 deltop kernel: [  927.429761] ata1.00: READ LOG DMA EXT failed, trying PIO
Oct 22 08:57:37 deltop kernel: [  927.430806] ata1.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x8000 SErr 0x0 action 0x0
Oct 22 08:57:37 deltop kernel: [  927.430811] ata1.00: irq_stat 0x40000008
Oct 22 08:57:37 deltop kernel: [  927.430814] ata1.00: failed command: READ FPDMA QUEUED
Oct 22 08:57:37 deltop kernel: [  927.430821] ata1.00: cmd 60/08:78:f8:0f:51/00:00:09:00:00/40 tag 15 ncq dma 4096 in
Oct 22 08:57:37 deltop kernel: [  927.430821]          res 41/40:00:f8:0f:51/00:00:09:00:00/00 Emask 0x409 (media error) <F>
Oct 22 08:57:37 deltop kernel: [  927.430823] ata1.00: status: { DRDY ERR }
Oct 22 08:57:37 deltop kernel: [  927.430825] ata1.00: error: { UNC }
Oct 22 08:57:37 deltop kernel: [  927.436471] ata1.00: configured for UDMA/133
Oct 22 08:57:37 deltop kernel: [  927.437555] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] tag#15 FAILED Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE
Oct 22 08:57:37 deltop kernel: [  927.437558] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] tag#15 Sense Key : Medium Error [current] 
Oct 22 08:57:37 deltop kernel: [  927.437561] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] tag#15 Add. Sense: Unrecovered read error - auto reallocate failed
Oct 22 08:57:37 deltop kernel: [  927.437564] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] tag#15 CDB: Read(10) 28 00 09 51 0f f8 00 00 08 00
Oct 22 08:57:37 deltop kernel: [  927.437567] blk_update_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 156307448 op 0x0:(READ) flags 0x3000 phys_seg 1 prio class 0
Oct 22 08:57:37 deltop kernel: [  927.437607] ata1: EH complete
Oct 22 08:57:37 deltop kernel: [  927.437620] EXT4-fs error (device sda2): __ext4_find_entry:1531: inode #4850639: comm updatedb.mlocat: reading directory lblock 0
When running fsck, it usually gives a bunch of "Deleted inode 7340071 has zero dtime. Fix<y>?" (with different numbers, obviously), but today it had a bit more:

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$ LC_ALL=C sudo fsck /dev/sda2
fsck from util-linux 2.34
e2fsck 1.45.5 (07-Jan-2020)
/dev/sda2 contains a file system with errors, check forced.
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
Deleted inode 7340071 has zero dtime.  Fix<y>? yes to all
Pass 2: Checking directory structure
Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity
Pass 4: Checking reference counts
Pass 5: Checking group summary information
Block bitmap differences:  -7569926
Fix? yes

Free blocks count wrong for group #231 (20190, counted=20191).
Fix? yes

Free blocks count wrong (47327403, counted=47171546).
Fix? yes

Inode bitmap differences:  -7340071
Fix? yes

Free inodes count wrong for group #896 (8153, counted=8154).
Fix? yes

Free inodes count wrong (13951063, counted=13951044).
Fix? yes


/dev/sda2: ***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****
/dev/sda2: ***** REBOOT SYSTEM *****
/dev/sda2: 671676/14622720 files (0.3% non-contiguous), 11306534/58478080 blocks
Hardware info:

Code: Select all

System:    Kernel: 5.4.0-89-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.3.0 Desktop: Cinnamon 5.0.6 
           wm: muffin dm: LightDM Distro: Linux Mint 20.2 Uma base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal 
Machine:   Type: Desktop System: Dell product: OptiPlex 7010 v: 01 serial: <filter> Chassis: 
           type: 6 serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: Dell model: 0GY6Y8 v: A02 serial: <filter> UEFI: Dell v: A16 date: 09/09/2013 
CPU:       Topology: Quad Core model: Intel Core i7-3770 bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Ivy Bridge 
           rev: 9 L2 cache: 8192 KiB 
           flags: avx lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 54276 
           Speed: 3784 MHz min/max: 1600/3900 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 3796 2: 3793 3: 3807 
           4: 3756 5: 3824 6: 3836 7: 3852 8: 3785 
Graphics:  Device-1: AMD Lexa PRO [Radeon 540/540X/550/550X / RX 540X/550/550X] 
           vendor: Sapphire Limited driver: amdgpu v: kernel bus ID: 01:00.0 chip ID: 1002:699f 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.11 driver: amdgpu,ati unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa 
           resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz 
           OpenGL: 
           renderer: Radeon RX550/550 Series (POLARIS12 DRM 3.35.0 5.4.0-89-generic LLVM 12.0.0) 
           v: 4.6 Mesa 21.0.3 direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel 7 Series/C216 Family High Definition Audio vendor: Dell 
           driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1b.0 chip ID: 8086:1e20 
           Device-2: AMD Baffin HDMI/DP Audio [Radeon RX 550 640SP / RX 560/560X] 
           vendor: Sapphire Limited driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 01:00.1 
           chip ID: 1002:aae0 
           Device-3: Creative type: USB driver: snd-usb-audio bus ID: 1-1.1:3 chip ID: 041e:30df 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.0-89-generic 
Network:   Device-1: Intel 82579LM Gigabit Network vendor: Dell driver: e1000e v: 3.2.6-k 
           port: f040 bus ID: 00:19.0 chip ID: 8086:1502 
           IF: eno1 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 7.50 TiB used: 1.05 TiB (14.1%) 
           ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: SanDisk model: SSD PLUS 240GB size: 223.58 GiB speed: 6.0 Gb/s 
           serial: <filter> 
           ID-2: /dev/sdb vendor: Seagate model: ST6000DM003-2CY186 size: 5.46 TiB speed: 6.0 Gb/s 
           serial: <filter> 
           ID-3: /dev/sdc vendor: Seagate model: ST32000641AS size: 1.82 TiB speed: 3.0 Gb/s 
           serial: <filter> 
Partition: ID-1: / size: 218.57 GiB used: 38.63 GiB (17.7%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2 
           ID-2: /home size: 5.41 TiB used: 484.04 GiB (8.7%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sdb1 
USB:       Hub: 1-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 3 rev: 2.0 chip ID: 1d6b:0002 
           Hub: 1-1:2 info: Intel Integrated Rate Matching Hub ports: 6 rev: 2.0 
           chip ID: 8087:0024 
           Device-1: 1-1.1:3 info: Creative type: Audio driver: snd-usb-audio rev: 1.1 
           chip ID: 041e:30df 
           Hub: 1-1.2:11 info: Terminus Hub ports: 4 rev: 2.0 chip ID: 1a40:0101 
           Device-2: 1-1.2.1:12 info: Logitech Marble Mouse (4-button) type: Mouse 
           driver: hid-generic,usbhid rev: 1.1 chip ID: 046d:c408 
           Device-3: 1-1.2.2:13 info: Logitech type: Mouse,HID driver: hid-generic,usbhid rev: 2.0 
           chip ID: 046d:c08e 
           Hub: 1-1.2.3:14 info: ASIX ports: 7 rev: 1.0 chip ID: 0b95:6802 
           Device-4: 1-1.2.3.1:15 info: Logitech type: Keyboard,HID driver: hid-generic,usbhid 
           rev: 2.0 chip ID: 046d:c336 
           Device-5: 1-1.3:5 info: Seiko Epson type: <vendor specific> driver: N/A rev: 2.0 
           chip ID: 04b8:013d 
           Device-6: 1-1.4:6 info: Chicony Genius LuxeMate i200 Keyboard type: Keyboard,HID 
           driver: hid-generic,usbhid rev: 2.0 chip ID: 04f2:0402 
           Hub: 2-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 3 rev: 2.0 chip ID: 1d6b:0002 
           Hub: 2-1:2 info: Intel Integrated Rate Matching Hub ports: 8 rev: 2.0 
           chip ID: 8087:0024 
           Hub: 2-1.5:3 info: Terminus Hub ports: 4 rev: 2.0 chip ID: 1a40:0101 
           Hub: 2-1.5.1:4 info: Terminus Hub ports: 4 rev: 2.0 chip ID: 1a40:0101 
           Hub: 3-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 4 rev: 2.0 chip ID: 1d6b:0002 
           Hub: 3-3:2 info: Genesys Logic 4-port hub ports: 4 rev: 2.1 chip ID: 05e3:0610 
           Hub: 4-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 4 rev: 3.0 chip ID: 1d6b:0003 
           Hub: 4-3:2 info: Genesys Logic hub ports: 4 rev: 3.0 chip ID: 05e3:0616 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 29.8 C mobo: 27.8 C gpu: amdgpu temp: 36 C 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A gpu: amdgpu fan: 1122 
Repos:     No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list 
           1: deb https: //repo.vivaldi.com/archive/deb/ stable main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/anydesk-stable.list 
           1: deb http: //deb.anydesk.com/ all main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/gezakovacs-ppa-focal.list 
           1: deb http: //ppa.launchpad.net/gezakovacs/ppa/ubuntu focal main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list 
           1: deb [arch=amd64] http: //dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/hizo-mkv-extractor-gui-focal.list 
           1: deb http: //ppa.launchpad.net/hizo/mkv-extractor-gui/ubuntu focal main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mkvtoolnix.download.list 
           1: deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/gpg-pub-moritzbunkus.gpg] https: //mkvtoolnix.download/ubuntu/ hirsute main
           2: deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/gpg-pub-moritzbunkus.gpg] https: //mkvtoolnix.download/ubuntu/ groovy main
           3: deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/gpg-pub-moritzbunkus.gpg] https: //mkvtoolnix.download/ubuntu/ focal main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/obsproject-obs-studio-focal.list 
           1: deb http: //ppa.launchpad.net/obsproject/obs-studio/ubuntu focal main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list 
           1: deb http: //mirrors.dotsrc.org/linuxmint-packages uma main upstream import backport
           2: deb http: //mirror.netsite.dk/ubuntu/archive focal main restricted universe multiverse
           3: deb http: //mirror.netsite.dk/ubuntu/archive focal-updates main restricted universe multiverse
           4: deb http: //mirror.netsite.dk/ubuntu/archive focal-backports main restricted universe multiverse
           5: deb http: //security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-security main restricted universe multiverse
           6: deb http: //archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ focal partner
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/teams.list 
           1: deb [arch=amd64] https: //packages.microsoft.com/repos/ms-teams stable main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ubuntuhandbook1-apps-focal.list 
           1: deb http: //ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntuhandbook1/apps/ubuntu focal main
Info:      Processes: 299 Uptime: 9m Memory: 31.32 GiB used: 1.98 GiB (6.3%) Init: systemd v: 245 
           runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 9.3.0 alt: 7/9 Client: Unknown python3.8 client 
           inxi: 3.0.38 
SMART-status:
Image
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
Rander
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Posts: 43
Joined: Mon Nov 12, 2018 2:02 pm

Re: Why does my drive become readonly?

Post by Rander »

Well, to whoever finds this post in the future: I solved it myself. The end. :-D

Oh, okay then... Googling around, deep in the dark corners of the net, I found someone saying that the excessive disk activity was problably caused by a daily cron job that updated the database for the locate command (which I never use). So, I tried deleting (well, moving) /etc/cron.daily/mlocate and it no longer pounds the disk every day - Even better, it no longer screws up the file system.

As I suspected, the two problems were connected, and moving/deleting this file solved both. You're welcome.
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deck_luck
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Re: [Solved] Why does my drive become readonly?

Post by deck_luck »

You are treating the symptom and not the root cause. The errors in syslog are hardware errors. The /dev/sda device has unrecoverable medium error(s). When a file system detects a hardware i/o error it can put the file system in read only mode to prevent further corruption of the file system.

You should scrape up the money and buy a replacement drive for the /dev/sda disk.
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