This is the third time I've tried to send this message. The second time, the machito spam filter caught it, and told me to add "banana" to the subject line to let it through.
-----
oops... too bad the Reply-to header doesn't Do The Right Thing by
default. Here's my advice:
----- Forwarded message from Richard Darst <rkd zgib.net> -----
From: Richard Darst <rkd zgib.net>
Date: Mon, 1 Nov 2004 19:34:04 -0600
I once had something like this happening to me. Check the output from
"dmesg" and see if there are any clues. maybe
/var/log/{syslog,kern.log}.
You imply that it was working alright before, so I will assume that
it's not configuration. For me, the disk had errors, so the kernel
was detecting errors and remounting the filesystem read-only as a
safety catch.
The way I bought myself more time without rebooting was:
mount -o remount,rw /
This takes the filesystem that is ro (here, /) and moves it back to
rw. Of course, the kernel made it ro for a reason, so beware. It may
go back to ro if it detects more errors. If it doesn't fault again
too fast, maybe you are OK for the time being. For me, I had to put a
command in crontab to test for read-onlyness and remount if it was.
(Not that it was the safest thing to do, but oh well).
AFAIK, the mount command above is safe from the kernel point of view,
but if the disk is bad or something is corrupted, there may be big
problems. (i.e. I have no worries using it on a properly working
system.) It won't let you switch from rw to ro if files are in use.
Of course, maybe something entirely different is wrong. Tell us how
it turns out.
RD
On Mon, Nov 01, 2004 at 03:56:57PM -0600, William L. Jarrold wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have been getting some odd behavior from my home debian linux
> machine lately. Consider the following...
>
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~$ echo testing1234 >> junk.text
> -bash: junk.text: Read-only file system
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~$ ll junk.text
> -rw-r--r-- 1 billj 79438 Oct 24 21:50 junk.text
>
> ...the above I consider very odd behavior. Just for grins, what
> happens when I try this...
>
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~$ chmod u+w junk.text
> chmod: changing permissions of `junk.text': Read-only file system
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~$
>
> ...Hrm....Well, I searched google groups and am pretty bamboozled
> (because fixes appear to involve scary commands such as "fsck" and
> "mount" about which I know nearly nothing). They chatter in google
> groups seems to further suggest hard drive issues. Uh oh.
>
> This seems to be the root of other new problems: E.g. Firefox is
> complaining. And gunziping some archived files is impossible. When I
> try these things, I get the same error, i.e. "Read-only file system".
> I get a nice close shave with Occum's Razor so am I remiss in assuming
> this is all caused by the same problem?
>
> Might these odd behaviors be related to sudden downtime freeze ups I
> have had recently? Here is what happened: My linux box froze (and,
> Dear Windows fans, this is something that happens about 1 time per
> decade with me). I power cycled and it appeared to rebooted happily
> (to my ignorant eyes at least). Did I try to write anything
> immediately after this reboot? I dunno.
>
> I should also add that over the summer I had some signs of disk
> failure in the making. In fact I emailed siglinux about them. This
> was when I was budget cutting and my apt was warmer than usual.
> People (off this list) said disks are very sensitive to temp. When I
> lowered my room temp, failure ceased. So, I assumed all was well
> enough.
>
> I've been getting that scary sound again (kind of like a relay that
> keeps turning on an off...sometimes once in isolation, sometimes 5-20
> times in rapid succession) tho maybe not as often/intensely. Has my
> apt temp been creeping up again? Maybe. In response I've reverted to
> keeping my apt cooler still. Has that sound happened less often? I
> think so.
>
> So, I am going to suspect that I need:
>
> (1) a new hard drive...it is about to fail permanently.
>
> (2) until (1) more frequent backups to CD Rom.
>
> (3) a fix so that my file system is no longer read only.
>
> I can take care of (1) and (2) but can someone offer guidance on (3)?
>
> chmod does not seem to fix things.
>
> Bill
> _______________________________________________
> Siglinux mailing list
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> http://machito.utacm.org/mailman/listinfo/siglinux
>
--
Richard Darst - [EMAIL PROTECTED] - lefschetz: up 58 days, 17:14
"Ye shall know the truth and -- the truth shall make you free"
0x91DEC237 - http://rkd.zgib.net/pgp/
----- End forwarded message -----
--
Richard Darst - [EMAIL PROTECTED] - lefschetz: up 58 days, 17:55
"Ye shall know the truth and -- the truth shall make you free"
0x91DEC237 - http://rkd.zgib.net/pgp/
--
Richard Darst - [EMAIL PROTECTED] - lefschetz: up 58 days, 18:03
"Ye shall know the truth and -- the truth shall make you free"
0x91DEC237 - http://rkd.zgib.net/pgp/
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