[plug] aarrgh - file system becomes 'read-only'

[Gavin Chester]

On Thu, 2006-11-09 at 17:36 +0800, Arie Hol wrote:
> 
> On 9 Nov 2006 at 16:41, Gavin Chester wrote:
> 
> > I have an intermittent problem whereby every partition, for every user and
> > root, becomes 'read-only' mid-flight and ... well, you can imagine the
> > problems that causes :-( 
> > 
> 8<-------- snip ----------->8
> > 
> > Any ideas welcome.  BTW:  I can recover by rebooting and repairing the
> > file system. 
> > 
>  
> I have read an article recently where it explains that an "error" in the 
> filesystem can cause the filesystem to become 'read-only' in order to 
> protect data affected by the filesystem error.

I did some more googling on this issue and found this on another mail
list that seemed pertinent:

"If the operating system detected a bad spot on your hard drive it might
have changed the file system to read-only in order to preserve data."

So, taking that hint I used a scsi drive checking utility 'sgdefects'
that found 30 defects on one of the pair of drives in the logical
volume.  It was supposed to write the list of defects to a log, but that
log's empty and I'll have to work out what & why next.  For the record,
I also found reference to debian systems (including Ubuntu, of course)
having an fstab entry to mount partitions 'read-only' by default if
errors are detected.  Mine is suse running ext3, and my fstab has no
such entries, so that's not the cause.  

> I am not an expert here - but have you checked your filesystem for errors 
> ???
> 
> What about your partitions ?
> 
> Do they have any errors ????
> 
> The article in the July 2006 edition of "Linux Magazine" on page 87, 
> covered various aspects of 'mount' and 'fstab' when using the 'command 
> line'.

I'll see if I can read it online.  Thanks, Arie.

Gavin