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When I turn on my computer (a CR-48), I keep loading tty1. I have tried xstart, and all I get is:

Fatal server error:
Could not create lock file in /tmp/.tX0-lock

When I attempted to make the directory (both sudo and not), I received these two errors:

sudo: Can't open /var/lib/sudo/don/tty2: Read-only file system (I've gotten other tty's for different virtual terminals)
mkdir: cannot create directory '/tmp/tX0-lock': Read-only file system

Before I got to the only terminal state, I had the computer moving a few files from a network server to the computer, I put it to sleep without stopping the transfers, and started the computer again away from my home network, and attempted to stop the transfers, the computer than restarted.

Running sudo reboot puts me right back in the virtual terminal, and I can't get into any sort of x application.

Sid
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dkuntz2
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5 Answers5

7

The hard drive is read only because it's got some errors on it. These have been detected during a scan and now your drive is read only. You need to run fsck against your main root partition while the partition isn't mounted or read only. It's read only so you should just have to run fsck.

If it's possible to run the LiveCD, you can use the gui tools to fix the issue, you can do all this using the System > Administration > Disk Utility once you're booted into the LiveCD desktop:

disk utility screen

Once you've run the checks, make sure your disk isn't full (delete some stuff if you have to) and then reboot.

Martin Owens -doctormo-
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  • I can't load into a portable operating system. It's a CR-48, I had to hack it just to install ubuntu. – dkuntz2 Jan 26 '11 at 16:18
  • I must add that this method of fixing this issue is VERY similar to the way you would fix the same issue on a Mac. – djangofan Jan 24 '12 at 21:15
0

It seems your filesystem has problems, and has mounted itself in "read only" mode. There could be a lot of causes.

I'll go out on a limb and suppose that you have only one root filesystem. Try to reboot like this:

shutdown -r now -F

This will mark the filesystem as "dirty", and check it on reboot. It doesn't guarantee that it'll fix it, but could help.

You could also try to remount the root filesystem in RW mode. Try this as root:

mount -o remount,rw /

And check if you can write something in /tmp. If you can't, there's not much we can do with the data you provide. Check dmesg to see if there are any obvious errors.

Sorry not to be of much help.

rsuarez
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0

Just to add onto this for a chromebook. If you're stuck and need to change something in the filesystem that's read only.

Boot back into the chrome os, then do a Ctrl + Alt + ->

Login as chronos and then login to root

mkdir test
mount -w /dev/sda7 test

Then from there, in test, you can edit the setting that you changed that cause your system to go readonly

then finally: umount test when you're done

Oyibo
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rwarner
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  • Don't know why this was down-voted. All it is, is providing help for those with a chromebook using Ubuntu. Pure help. – rwarner Dec 13 '12 at 23:59
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I have had a similar error. I fixed it by remounting the filesystem read-write:

sudo mount -o remount,rw /

after that system executed startx

However, it is a temporary solution as after reboot I need to redo all over again...

Linux Mint 20.04

PS
I have noticed that my Firefox and Update manager have lost connection to internet. When I checked the internet connection with Tor browser - it does connect to Internet, so I'm still puzzled.

Zanna
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Mr.B
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-2

My amazing skills of observance led me to seeing that I was being told to run fsck manually. I did that, and everything is fine.

dkuntz2
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