Help Center> Elastic Cloud Server> Troubleshooting> Disk Space Management Issues> How Do I Fix the "Read-only file system" Error When I Delete a File on a Linux ECS?
Updated on 2022-07-15 GMT+08:00

How Do I Fix the "Read-only file system" Error When I Delete a File on a Linux ECS?

Symptom

When you delete or modify a file on a Linux ECS, the message Read-only file system is displayed.

Possible Causes

The possible causes are as follows:

  • The file system goes into the read-only mode.
  • The file system is mounted as read-only.
  • The hardware is faulty, for example, there are bad sectors in the disk or the RAID controller card is faulty.

Precautions

  • Repairing file systems may cause data loss. Back up data in advance.
  • If the issue you encounter does not fall into either of the following scenarios, check whether a hardware fault occurs.

Scenario 1: File System Mounted as Read-only

  1. Run the following command to check how the directory containing the deleted file is mounted:

    # mount |grep Mount point

    If ro is displayed in the output, the directory is mounted as read-only, and go to step 2.

    If rw is displayed in the output, the directory is mounted as read/write, and perform procedures described in Scenario 2.

  2. Run the following command to remount the file system as read/write without restarting the system:

    # mount -o remount,rw Mount point

    To mount the file system as read/write upon the next startup, modify the parameters in the fourth column in the /etc/fstab file.

Scenario 2: File System Error Occurred

  1. Run the following command to check the file system information in the kernel:

    # dmesg |egrep "ext[2..4]|xfs"

    If the output contains "I/O error... inode", the file system goes into the read-only mode due to an error.

    As shown in the preceding figure, the file system needs to be repaired. Back up data before repairing the file system. Since file systems cannot be repaired while in use, switch to the single-user mode, in which all file systems are unmounted, to repair the file system.

  2. Restart the system and switch to the single-user mode.
  3. Query the all available devices and file systems.

    # blkid

  4. Check the files systems on device vdb1. For ext file systems, run the following command:

    # fsck -n /dev/vdb1

    If the output indicates that the file systems are mounted, unmount these file systems.

    1. Run the following command to query the file systems mounted on the device:

      # mount

    2. Run the following command to unmount these file systems:

      # Umount Mount point

  5. Repair the file systems on device vdb1.
    • For Ext file systems, run the following command:

      # fsck /dev/vdb1

    • For XFS file systems, run the following command:

      # xfs_repair /dev/vdb1