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Sasha Buzko avatar Ubuntu

Read-only errors on multiple drives with a fresh install of 20.04 LTS

cn flag
Sasha Buzko

I've been using CentOS for a long time but since Red Hat decided to kill it off, I decided to give Ubuntu a try. However, I ran into problems right from the start. I installed 20.04 LTS first on a new 2TB drive but after an uneventful installation, I started having read-only filesystem errors. I thought the disk was problematic and I used another brand new drive (8TB).

After some tweaking of partitioning (a separate issue) was able to install. But I once again started seeing these errors literally after 30 minutes of use. Hard drive error can be ruled out, because the errors start happening at the same time on two separate physical drives (OS and an additional 18TB encrypted data drive). Reboot clears them but they come back in a few minutes, so the system is unusable.

No clear cause from syslog. It simply started dumping FileNotFoundExceptions:

Aug 27 12:39:41 redwood nautilus[2185]: message repeated 5 times: [ gtk_revealer_set_reveal_child: assertion 'GTK_IS_REVEALER (revealer)' failed]
Aug 27 12:39:45 redwood gnome-shell[1835]: value "-1.000000" of type 'gfloat' is invalid or out of range for property 'width' of type 'gfloat'
Aug 27 12:39:45 redwood gnome-shell[1835]: value "-1.000000" of type 'gfloat' is invalid or out of range for property 'height' of type 'gfloat'
Aug 27 12:39:45 redwood gnome-shell[1835]: value "-1.000000" of type 'gfloat' is invalid or out of range for property 'width' of type 'gfloat'
Aug 27 12:39:45 redwood gnome-shell[1835]: value "-1.000000" of type 'gfloat' is invalid or out of range for property 'height' of type 'gfloat'
Aug 27 12:41:01 redwood nautilus[2185]: gtk_revealer_set_reveal_child: assertion 'GTK_IS_REVEALER (revealer)' failed
Aug 27 12:41:03 redwood nautilus[2185]: message repeated 3 times: [ gtk_revealer_set_reveal_child: assertion 'GTK_IS_REVEALER (revealer)' failed]
Aug 27 12:42:33 redwood gnome-shell[1835]: value "-1.000000" of type 'gfloat' is invalid or out of range for property 'width' of type 'gfloat'
Aug 27 12:42:33 redwood gnome-shell[1835]: value "-1.000000" of type 'gfloat' is invalid or out of range for property 'height' of type 'gfloat'
Aug 27 12:42:33 redwood gnome-shell[1835]: value "-1.000000" of type 'gfloat' is invalid or out of range for property 'width' of type 'gfloat'
Aug 27 12:42:33 redwood gnome-shell[1835]: value "-1.000000" of type 'gfloat' is invalid or out of range for property 'height' of type 'gfloat'
Aug 27 12:42:33 redwood org.gnome.Nautilus[1703]: java.io.FileNotFoundException: /work/apps/cpp/workspace/.metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.linuxtools.cdt.libhover/C/tmpFile (No such file or directory)
Aug 27 12:42:33 redwood org.gnome.Nautilus[1703]: #011at java.base/java.io.FileOutputStream.open0(Native Method)
Aug 27 12:42:33 redwood org.gnome.Nautilus[1703]: #011at java.base/java.io.FileOutputStream.open(FileOutputStream.java:291)
Aug 27 12:42:33 redwood org.gnome.Nautilus[1703]: #011at java.base/java.io.FileOutputStream.<init>(FileOutputStream.java:234)
Aug 27 12:42:33 redwood org.gnome.Nautilus[1703]: #011at java.base/java.io.FileOutputStream.<init>(FileOutputStream.java:123)

After a few more similar exceptions, this:

Aug 27 12:42:34 redwood gnome-session[1706]: gnome-session-binary[1706]: WARNING: Client '/org/gnome/SessionManager/Client26' failed to reply before timeout
Aug 27 12:42:34 redwood gnome-session-binary[1706]: WARNING: Client '/org/gnome/SessionManager/Client26' failed to reply before timeout
Aug 27 12:42:35 redwood gnome-session-binary[1706]: Entering running state
Aug 27 12:42:35 redwood gnome-shell[1835]: Ignored exception from dbus method: Gio.IOErrorEnum: GDBus.Error:org.gtk.GDBus.UnmappedGError.Quark._g_2dio_2derror_2dquark.Code19: Operation was cancelled

And finally:

Aug 27 12:42:40 redwood gnome-session[1706]: gnome-session-binary[1706]: WARNING: Unable to open shell end session dialog: GDBus.Error:org.gnome.Shell.ModalDialog.GrabError: Cannot grab pointer and keyboard
Aug 27 12:42:40 redwood gnome-session-binary[1706]: WARNING: Unable to open shell end session dialog: GDBus.Error:org.gnome.Shell.ModalDialog.GrabError: Cannot grab pointer and keyboard
Aug 27 12:42:40 redwood gnome-session-binary[1706]: Entering running state
Aug 27 12:43:03 redwood gsd-print-notif[1972]: Source ID 2 was not found when attempting to remove it
Aug 27 12:43:03 redwood kernel: [ 1461.533551] rfkill: input handler enabled
Aug 27 12:43:03 redwood systemd[1675]: Stopping D-Bus User Message Bus...
Aug 27 12:43:03 redwood gsd-color[1522]: failed to connect to device: Failed to connect to missing device /org/freedesktop/ColorManager/devices/xrandr_Dell_Inc__DELL_2707WFP_RJ4907AG02DS_sasha_1000
Aug 27 12:43:03 redwood gnome-session[1706]: gnome-session-binary[1706]: GLib-GIO-WARNING: Error releasing name org.gnome.SessionManager: The connection is closed
Aug 27 12:43:03 redwood gnome-session-binary[1706]: GLib-GIO-WARNING: Error releasing name org.gnome.SessionManager: The connection is closed
Aug 27 12:43:03 redwood gvfsd[1845]: A connection to the bus can't be made
Aug 27 12:43:03 redwood systemd[1675]: xdg-permission-store.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Aug 27 12:43:03 redwood systemd[1675]: xdg-permission-store.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Aug 27 12:43:03 redwood deja-dup-monito[2404]: Owner of volume monitor org.gtk.vfs.UDisks2VolumeMonitor disconnected from the bus; removing drives/volumes/mounts
Aug 27 12:43:03 redwood deja-dup-monito[2404]: Owner of volume monitor org.gtk.vfs.GoaVolumeMonitor disconnected from the bus; removing drives/volumes/mounts
Aug 27 12:43:03 redwood deja-dup-monito[2404]: Owner of volume monitor org.gtk.vfs.MTPVolumeMonitor disconnected from the bus; removing drives/volumes/mounts
Aug 27 12:43:03 redwood deja-dup-monito[2404]: Owner of volume monitor org.gtk.vfs.AfcVolumeMonitor disconnected from the bus; removing drives/volumes/mounts
Aug 27 12:43:03 redwood deja-dup-monito[2404]: Owner of volume monitor org.gtk.vfs.GPhoto2VolumeMonitor disconnected from the bus; removing drives/volumes/mounts
Aug 27 12:43:03 redwood zeitgeist-daemon[2507]: #033[31m[16:43:03.622973 WARNING]#033[0m zeitgeist-daemon.vala:454: The connection is closed
Aug 27 12:43:03 redwood zeitgeist-fts[2515]: Error releasing name org.gnome.zeitgeist.SimpleIndexer: The connection is closed
Aug 27 12:43:03 redwood zeitgeist-fts[2515]: zeitgeist-fts.vala:252: The connection is closed
Aug 27 12:43:03 redwood gnome-software[2234]: lost session service

At this point, it looks a lot like an OS problem. Perhaps it doesn't play along with the board (ASUS Z9PE-D8 WS), but it's unclear why everything works fine for a while and then suddenly both physical disks drop into a read-only mode.

I did try to install 18.04 LTS and after a while it started doing the same thing. Can anyone help?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions

Sasha

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user535733 avatar
cn flag
user535733
Brand-new drives occasionally fail. That's why they have warranties. Add SMART output to your question to conclusively demonstrate that the drive is not the problem.
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Sasha Buzko avatar
cn flag
Sasha Buzko
Three separate brand new hard drives from a reputable manufacturer (WD/HGST data center grade)? Failing at the same time? I've never seen it in 20 years of using Linux.
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in flag
matigo
How are you "tweaking the partitioning"? A little more info about how you are trying to install Ubuntu might reveal a cause/effect situation, as Ubuntu != CentOS
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Sasha Buzko avatar
cn flag
Sasha Buzko
Yes, the default installation on an 8 TB drive kept producing an unbootable system. So I manually created partitions: /boot (500M), /swap (256GB for 128GB of RAM), root partition (200 GB), a 32 GB BIOS partition and the rest for /home (~7.8 TB).
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Level9 avatar
cn flag
Level9
Please attach relevant errors and messages from boot and syslog.
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Sasha Buzko avatar
cn flag
Sasha Buzko
For the read-only errors, there are no warnings on boot. I'll post syslog messages shortly. Right now I'm trying to install the 18.04 LTS on a blank 2TB drive to see if the read-only drive issue is OS version-specific. Will post the result as soon as I get it up and running. Thanks.
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ChanganAuto avatar
us flag
ChanganAuto
Such partitioning is absurd in so many levels that it's impossible to fit in a comment. But let's start with something. GPT is preferred even if installing in BIOS mode for which a small (1-2MB!!) unformatted partition **at the beginning** of the drive is required, and ONLY for this mode. UEFI mode requires a FAT32 small partition (200-500MB) also at the beginning (preferably). A separated swap partition is no longer needed, Ubuntu uses a dynamic swapfile by default. A /boot partition isn't needed either.
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ChanganAuto avatar
us flag
ChanganAuto
Please post the hardware specifications. If installing in an old machine you should consider the possibility it may not support such large drives. And also that the problem you're experiencing may not have to do with drives themselves but with the controller.
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Sasha Buzko avatar
cn flag
Sasha Buzko
Actually, the partitioning scheme was borrowed from a Dell support site specifically for Ubuntu installations, so the absurd part is clearly very subjective. As for an old machine, I previously had CentOS 7 on this system and it worked with 18 TB drives without any issues whatsoever.
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ChanganAuto avatar
us flag
ChanganAuto
Please edit the question with the requested information and add a link to that Dell support site that told you to create a "32GB BIOS partition".
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Sasha Buzko avatar
cn flag
Sasha Buzko
Will add the logs. The BIOS partition size was a typo. I actually made it 32 MB.
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Sasha Buzko avatar
cn flag
Sasha Buzko
Unfortunately, the partitioning scheme has nothing to do with the problem at hand, because I get read-only errors even when installing on a 2 TB drive with the default partitioning.
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Score:0
Sasha Buzko avatar Ubuntu
cn flag
Sasha Buzko

By trial and error, I figured out what was causing the problem. I mentioned an 18 TB encrypted drive in the original post and it turned out the OS was unable to use it for longer than a few minutes. The drive itself is fine (I'm using it right now), but the OS simply can't use it with encryption. After a few minutes it would lock up ALL drives and render the system unusable.

I still don't know why exactly it was happening, since the logs didn't contain any useful information. Posting it in case someone runs into a similar problem and at least will have a starting point for troubleshooting.

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