fsck error on boot: /dev/sda6: UNEXPECTED INCONSISTENCY; RUN fsck MANUALLY

Question

I dual boot Ubuntu and Windows 7.
I was browsing on FireFox in Ubuntu and all of a sudden I get some error message, so I rebooted.

Now when I try to boot into Ubuntu I get this message:

fsck from util-linux 2.26.2
/dev/sda6 contains a file system with errors, check forced.
/dev/sda6: Inodes that were part of a corrupted orphan linked list found.

/dev/sda6: UNEXPECTED INCONSISTENCY; RUN fsck MANUALLY.
        (i.e., without -a or -p options)
fsck exited with status code 4
The root filesystem on /dev/sda6 requires a manual fsck

Busybox v1.22.1 (Ubuntu 1:1.22.0-15ubuntu1) built in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.

(initramfs) _

How can I fix this?

Have you been able to find out the root cause? I experienced exactly the same issue two times within two days using Kubuntu 16.04. Is this some software problem or an indication for defective hardware? — Silicomancer, Aug 14 '16 at 10:19
@Silicomancer, I had this, and other related issues, and it seems quite likely to be related to a failing hard drive. I know my hard drive failed some of the S.M.A.R.T diagnostics right around when this problem occurred. Sometimes a manual 'fsck /dev/sdaX' would fix it, but other times the problem wouldn't be resolved and I'd get a kernel panic on the next boot. I've got a new HD in the mail. — gammapoint, Apr 14 '17 at 21:05

score 520 · Answer 1 · edited Jan 16 '19 at 18:10

520

Try this:

fsck /dev/sda6

(where /dev/sda6 is the partition mentioned)

And enter Yes (y) to for each error. Or press a one time for always-yes.

Then reboot and it should be fine.

edited Jan 16 '19 at 18:10

Zanna

70,465

answered Nov 12 '15 at 14:01

Nikolay Nikolov

6,205

This worked, however in Ubuntu I still get this error message: An error occured, please run Package Manager from the right-click menu or apt-get in a terminal to see what is wrong. The Error message was: 'Error: Opening the cache (E:Read error - read (5: Input/output error) E:The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.) This usually means that your installed packages have unmet dependencies. – Jordy Nov 12 '15 at 14:11
17

Ok, so run fsck -a /dev/sda6 and enter Yes to all errors. – Nikolay Nikolov Nov 12 '15 at 14:13
Sorry, I submitted my comment to your answer too quickly by accident, I wasn't done typing yet. – Jordy Nov 12 '15 at 14:15
And when I do apt-get update, it hangs on "Could not open file /var/lib/apt/lists/partial/pkg.tox.chat_debian_dists_nightly_release_binary-i386_Packages - open (30: Read-only file system) – Jordy Nov 12 '15 at 14:17
4

Reboot linux, and if all looks good from the booting, then you should go to the apt-get again. If puts you again to busybox terminal, run fsck -a /dev/sda6 and repair the errors. – Nikolay Nikolov Nov 12 '15 at 14:21
I get fsck from util-linux 2.26.2, /dev/sda6 containsa filesystem with errors, check forced, /dev/sda6: 252365/2445984 files (0.1% non-contiguous), 1433171/9764864 blocks, fsck exited with status code 1, Welcome to emergency mode! After logging in, type "journalctl -xb" to view system logs, "systemctl reboot" to reboor "systemctl default" or ^D to try again to boot into default mode. root@jordy-desktop:~# – Jordy Nov 12 '15 at 14:28
And when I do fsck -a /dev/sda6 I get "e2fsck: Cannot continue, aborting." – Jordy Nov 12 '15 at 14:35
Something really wrong with this ubuntu setup... I don't have any other ideas.. sorry. – Nikolay Nikolov Nov 12 '15 at 14:37
This fucked me! and my workstation goes to read only mood. :( – Abdulla Al Sun Mar 15 '17 at 10:16
30

do not forget to add -y at the end, or else glue your finger pressed to y – aditya May 21 '17 at 12:00
15

@aditya: You could also press 'a' for always instead of 'y' without using -y – Arigion Aug 12 '17 at 10:17
Okay, this temporarily solves the error but sooner or later I get the same error. What's the problem? Is my disk at fault or Ubuntu itself? – Rishabh Agrahari Sep 08 '18 at 03:42
4

@Rishabh Agrahari, I think maybe the disk. You should test it with smartd tools. – Nikolay Nikolov Sep 11 '18 at 06:31
where to type fsck /dev/sda6?? – Jasom Dotnet Oct 03 '18 at 06:12
2

@JasomDotnet On your terminal where you see : (initramfs) – Nikolay Nikolov Oct 03 '18 at 06:32
2

Someone give this user the "Life Saver" badge... Please!! I was worried for a second there – Robin Hood Oct 29 '18 at 12:46
@NikolayNikolov I'm facing similar problem again. I forgot how to open initramfs. Am I right when I do it way: Advanced options > Recovery... ? Because under this path I see this error. Is there any other way ho to open initramfs – Jasom Dotnet Nov 28 '18 at 13:19
2

Can anyone explain what are the consequences of facing this error and going through the solution outlined in this answer? – LIvanov Jun 25 '19 at 07:56
reboot did not work for me, does anyone know why? I had to manually reboot – Chagai Friedlander May 07 '20 at 11:53
It is work, thank you, but can anyone answer why this error occur? – Александр Родин Oct 11 '21 at 20:36
I had to run it on both /dev/sda2 and /dev/sda4 for it to work. my sda2 mounted / and sda4 was mounting /home, for some reason both were corrupted – ekl1pse Sep 04 '22 at 09:07
1

Thanks (+1), I did then fsck -fy /dev/sdc1 that repaired the fs after then I did exit and it booted again. – franc May 08 '23 at 08:27
Please help, after running this and typing exit, my laptop says, "Kernel Panic, not syncing. Kill init!" What should I do? – alu Feb 28 '24 at 14:08

score 110 · Answer 2 · edited May 26 '17 at 07:11

110

I have noticed that even if you do a fsck on the disk the problem may occur again in a few days.

I have found that the problem is worse on SSD disks than the regular HDD disks. I have found some steps that may fix the problem temporarily.

fsck -fy /dev/sda1

if sda1 is the right partition - the prompt will tell you exactly which one requires fsck.

After that if the systems boots up you may have another problem with the package management system, so if you open a terminal and type sudo apt-get update you may get an error. Do not worry. Run these commands:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get clean
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

My opinion is that there is serious problem in Ubuntu with regard to SSD disks. The community should fix it.

I have found a possible cause of this problem: Probably the system did not shutdown normally.

edited May 26 '17 at 07:11

Zanna

70,465

answered Sep 08 '16 at 09:44

farmuel Angel

1,211

1

After the fsck command type he command exit to force the system to boot again in runlevel 5 or just reboot with init 6.! Your choice.! – farmuel Angel Sep 08 '16 at 09:47
7

Please [edit] your own posts if you want to add or clarify something. – David Foerster Sep 08 '16 at 10:28
I was facing such problem for at least ~10 times for now and actually now I recall that before that I was always installing something. But not every installation followed by such problem. – Slaus Aug 07 '17 at 16:33
1

Running fsck directly didn't work with me. I had to reboot, then choose from the boot menu to run Ubuntu in Safe Mode, and then running fsck worked. – mostafa.elhoushi Mar 10 '20 at 02:34
I'm still having these issues occasionally often when I leave ubuntu on overnight - my gut says SSD is worse as well and I've seen a post mentioning some task the OS does for SSD occasionally. Wondering what the solution is... – karns Sep 16 '20 at 18:42

GNK · Answer 3 · 2019-02-04T18:45:21.867

16

UNEXPECTED INCONSISTENCY; RUN fsck MANUALLY means there is some file system error in the disk. Run the fsck command manually. After that it will ask some more questions - just answer y and press enter and finally reboot the server.

edited Feb 04 '19 at 18:45

answered Dec 08 '16 at 14:13

GNK

2,839

score 14 · Answer 4 · answered May 21 '20 at 14:29

14

Type exit into the prompt, and it should tell you which partition has an error, e.g. /dev/sda6. Type fsck /dev/sdaX -y where X is the partition mentioned in the error. The -y flag answers yes to all the prompts it would otherwise have given you - you don't have to use it but it is recommended. Once it has finished, type reboot into the prompt, and if prompted, select to continue normal startup.

answered May 21 '20 at 14:29

O A

188

this worked. Thanks – Amal Jul 11 '21 at 08:14
Great! You are a big help man! – Wellington Lorindo Sep 03 '21 at 00:45
Perfect answer! – Fahima Mokhtari May 15 '22 at 18:53

score 2 · Answer 5 · edited Jul 22 '21 at 07:42

2

fsck -y /dev/sda

eg:

fsck -y /dev/sda1
fsck -y /dev/sda2

edited Jul 22 '21 at 07:42

αғsнιη

35,660

answered Jul 11 '21 at 08:13

Amal

71

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Feb 09 '22 at 03:56

1

In (initramfs) prompt, type the command "fsck" then the path to your hard drive, for example "fsck /deb/sda2" , after add "-y" in order to accept all the fixing errors, for example "fsck /dev/sda2 -y", then the computer will check the errors on the filesystem to repair them.

answered Feb 09 '22 at 03:56

Sir. ACHRAF SELLAM

39
1
1
6

1

The minus y is a very bad idea you wont be able to see what it is fixing and maybe have a clue as to what was or is wrong. – David Feb 09 '22 at 05:59
1

Indeed might be a bad idea to use the -y. In the worst case, it will tell you that you can use a to accept all following prompts. – marcelocra Apr 08 '22 at 22:21

score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Mar 11 '23 at 07:37

If you don't already have a recent backup of the partition, you may wanna run a backup first to before doing anything else. Repairing the disk should be safe in most cases, but may be better to have a backup in case things go awry. You will need to mount your backup drive to write to a backup compressed image file for example. Make sure you know which dev/sdX is which!

sudo mkdir -p /media/username/mydrive
sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /media/user/mydrive
# if= <----- your source to backup goes here!
sudo dd if=/dev/sda1 conv=sync,noerror bs=64KB | gzip -c > /media/user/mydrive/system-backup.img.gz

Now that you have safely created a backup image, you can safely try to fix disk errors

sudo fsck /dev/sda1 # enter y at prompts or a for all

Reboot should get you working again. Now make a good habit of regular backups.

fsck error on boot: /dev/sda6: UNEXPECTED INCONSISTENCY; RUN fsck MANUALLY

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