Sudo Chown Not Working/Entire HDD Read Only

[Xplorer4x4]

I have all my HDDs(and SSD boot drive) hooked up and working minus one hdd. This is a new Kubuntu install performed about 3 days ago. The drive is stuck in read only. I tried sudo chown -R but I realized I already own the entire contents of the drive. According to mount, I should have write permissions:

Mount:

/dev/sda1 on /media/WD3 type ext4 (rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=udisks)
/dev/sde1 on /media/WD3TB type ext4 (rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=udisks)

cd /media && ls -al

drws--S--T 107 xplorer4x4 xplorer4x4 20480 Dec 30 12:58 WD3
drwx------ 22 xplorer4x4 xplorer4x4 4096 Dec 25 21:41 WD3TB

There are more drives, but these are almost identical drives. Both are formatted with EXT4. Both are WD 3TB Caviar Green SATA 3. The only differences is WD3 is using a SATA3 port and cable. WD3TB(A temp name, i really need to update lol) is using a SATA 2 cable/port. It's strange the WD3TB shows a date od Dec 25, because the install was done the 26th or 27th. Is it possible that the xplorer4x4 references are some how tied to my old xplorer4x4 user account?

[james147]

There are more drives, but these are almost identical drives. Both are formatted with EXT4. Both are WD 3TB Caviar Green SATA 3. The only differences is WD3 is using a SATA3 port and cable. WD3TB(A temp name, i really need to update lol) is using a SATA 2 cable/port. It's strange the WD3TB shows a date od Dec 25, because the install was done the 26th or 27th. Is it possible that the xplorer4x4 references are some how tied to my old xplorer4x4 user account?

Permissions are stored as UID and GIDs not user and group names, and are looked up on the fly from /etc/passwd and /etc/groups... so they cannot refer to an old user account with the same name.

1) Which drive are you having trouble writing to?
2) Can root write to the drive?

sudo touch /media/MOUNTPOINT/test.file

cd /media && ls -al

Tip: It is simpler to run

ls -la /media

[Xplorer4x4]

Drive is WD3TB

sudo touch /media/WD3TB/test.file
touch: cannot touch `/media/WD3TB/test.file': Read-only file system

As for ls -al, I thought so to but for some reason it didn't work first time around. Must have been a typo.

[james147]

So it is not a permissions problem, it is a mount problem... What happens if you unmount and remount it manually?

[Snowhog]

Two likelihoods here. First, the OS wasn't unmounted cleanly. Second, the time stamp on the OS when it was closed (cleanly) is 'in the future' when compared to the clock time on a subsequent boot.

[Xplorer4x4]

Thanks for the info guys. James, unmounting worked, and the time stamp is now up to date.

[Xplorer4x4]

I spoke to soon...that worked for a second. Then I noticed Vuze was still unable to write to the disk.I tried unmounting and remounting via dolphin again.

An error occurred while accessing 'Home', the system responded: The kernel driver for this filesystem type is not available.: Error mounting: mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sde1,
missing codepage or helper program, or other error
In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
dmesg | tail or so

xplorer4x4@xplorer4x4-MS-7673: dmesg | tail 
[50264.678794]         72 0b 00 00 00 00 00 0c 00 0a 80 00 00 00 00 01 
[50264.678801]         4b 80 09 00 
[50264.678804] sd 5:0:0:0: [sde]  
[50264.678805] Add. Sense: No additional sense information
[50264.678806] sd 5:0:0:0: [sde] CDB: 
[50264.678807] Write(16): 8a 00 00 00 00 01 4b 80 09 00 00 00 00 08 00 00
[50264.678814] end_request: I/O error, dev sde, sector 5561649408
[50264.678820] ata6: EH complete
[50264.678944] JBD2: recovery failed
[50264.678948] EXT4-fs (sde1): error loading journal

[james147]

I suggest fscking your drive... I/O errors are never a good sign.

[Snowhog]

Dated, but should still be applicable. Given that you are being told "Error mounting: mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sde," You might want to check that out.

HOWTO: Repair a broken Ext4 Superblock in Ubuntu

[Xplorer4x4]

I will check in to those when I get back home in like 30-45 min or so. For what it's worth, the drives been unomunted since my last post. I tried to mount it via dolphin and it worked fine with out error. Could it be that I mounted and unmounted to fast?

[Xplorer4x4]

Dated, but should still be applicable. Given that you are being told "Error mounting: mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sde," You might want to check that out.

HOWTO: Repair a broken Ext4 Superblock in Ubuntu

Did the trick! Thanks!

[Xplorer4x4]

Does it matter if I use /dev/sde instead of /dev/sde1? I realize the former is the disk, while the later is the partition, but the reason I ask is this:

xplorer4x4@xplorer4x4-MS-7673:~$ sudo fsck.ext4 -v /dev/sde
e2fsck 1.42.5 (29-Jul-2012)
ext2fs_open2: Bad magic number in super-block
fsck.ext4: Superblock invalid, trying backup blocks...
fsck.ext4: Bad magic number in super-block while trying to open /dev/sde

The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2
filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2
filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock
is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
e2fsck -b 8193 <device>

xplorer4x4@xplorer4x4-MS-7673:~$ sudo fsck.ext4 -v /dev/sde1
e2fsck 1.42.5 (29-Jul-2012)
WD3TB: clean, 27543/183148544 files, 544160294/732566272 blocks

I don't understand why it is good one way, but not the other? Oh and I should mention, I kinda rushed through the tut, shame on me I know, and just let fsck.ext4 fix a bunch of stuff. I don;t recall the exact thing it did, but I interpreted it as simply doing "sudo e2fsck -b block_number /dev/xxx" automaticly rather then having to issue it as a separate command.

[kubicle]

I don't understand why it is good one way, but not the other?

fsck is a filesystem check, and there is no filesystem on /dev/sde (it refers to the whole disk).

[Xplorer4x4]

Thanks for stating what should have been obvious lol.

Anyways the bad blocks kept coming back, so I was able to format it today. The drive keeps disappearing though:

I checked dmesg and here is part of the out put as it failed while using rsync(through luckybackup) to back up the data. Smart test follows that and a test of the file system.

[ 1393.001546] ata1.00: link offline, clearing class 1 to NONE
[ 1393.017526] ata1: EH complete
[ 1393.036265] ata1: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x4040000 action 0xe frozen
[ 1393.036272] ata1: irq_stat 0x00000040, connection status changed
[ 1393.036276] ata1: SError: { CommWake DevExch }
[ 1393.036317] ata1: limiting SATA link speed to 1.5 Gbps
[ 1393.036322] ata1: hard resetting link
[ 1393.811215] ata1: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 310)
[ 1393.811219] ata1.00: link offline, clearing class 1 to NONE
[ 1393.814633] EXT4-fs error (device sda1): ext4_find_entry:1209: inode #150994945: comm rsync: reading directory lblock 0
[ 1393.827167] ata1: EH complete
[ 1393.844777] ata1: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x4040000 action 0xe frozen
[ 1393.844782] ata1: irq_stat 0x00000040, connection status changed
[ 1393.844785] ata1: SError: { CommWake DevExch }
[ 1393.844792] ata1: limiting SATA link speed to 1.5 Gbps
[ 1393.844796] ata1: hard resetting link
[ 1394.620959] ata1: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 310)
[ 1394.620966] ata1.00: link offline, clearing class 1 to NONE
[ 1394.636852] ata1: EH complete
[ 1394.654212] ata1: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x4040000 action 0xe frozen
[ 1394.654215] ata1: irq_stat 0x00000040, connection status changed
[ 1394.654216] ata1: SError: { CommWake DevExch }
[ 1394.654220] ata1: limiting SATA link speed to 1.5 Gbps
[ 1394.654222] ata1: hard resetting link
[ 1395.042340] EXT4-fs error (device sda1): ext4_find_entry:1209: inode #150994945: comm rsync: reading directory lblock 0
[ 1395.042363] EXT4-fs error (device sda1): ext4_find_entry:1209: inode #150994945: comm rsync: reading directory lblock 0
[ 1395.042418] EXT4-fs error (device sda1): ext4_find_entry:1209: inode #150994945: comm rsync: reading directory lblock 0
[ 1395.042438] EXT4-fs error (device sda1): ext4_find_entry:1209: inode #150994945: comm rsync: reading directory lblock 0
[ 1395.042476] EXT4-fs error (device sda1): ext4_find_entry:1209: inode #150994945: comm rsync: reading directory lblock 0
[ 1395.042502] EXT4-fs error (device sda1): ext4_find_entry:1209: inode #150994945: comm rsync: reading directory lblock 0
[ 1395.042521] EXT4-fs error (device sda1): ext4_find_entry:1209: inode #150994945: comm rsync: reading directory lblock 0
[ 1395.430589] ata1: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 310)
[ 1395.430595] ata1.00: link offline, clearing class 1 to NONE
[ 1395.446538] ata1: EH complete
[ 1395.463638] ata1: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x4040000 action 0xe frozen
[ 1395.463641] ata1: irq_stat 0x00000040, connection status changed
[ 1395.463642] ata1: SError: { CommWake DevExch }
[ 1395.463647] ata1: limiting SATA link speed to 1.5 Gbps
[ 1395.463649] ata1: hard resetting link
[ 1396.240275] ata1: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 310)
[ 1396.240281] ata1.00: link offline, clearing class 1 to NONE
[ 1396.256215] ata1: EH complete
[ 1396.272104] ata1: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x4040000 action 0xe frozen
[ 1396.272106] ata1: irq_stat 0x00000040, connection status changed
[ 1396.272108] ata1: SError: { CommWake DevExch }
[ 1396.272112] ata1: limiting SATA link speed to 1.5 Gbps
[ 1396.272113] ata1: hard resetting link
[ 1397.045972] ata1: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 310)
[ 1397.045977] ata1.00: link offline, clearing class 1 to NONE
[ 1397.061912] ata1: EH complete

xplorer4x4@xplorer4x4-MS-7673:~$ sudo smartctl -d ata -H /dev/sda
smartctl 5.43 2012-06-30 r3573 [x86_64-linux-3.5.0-21-generic] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-12 by Bruce Allen, http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

xplorer4x4@xplorer4x4-MS-7673:~$ sudo smartctl --attributes --log=selftest /dev/sda
smartctl 5.43 2012-06-30 r3573 [x86_64-linux-3.5.0-21-generic] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-12 by Bruce Allen, http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate 0x002f 200 200 051 Pre-fail Always - 0
3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0027 253 143 021 Pre-fail Always - 3550
4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 58
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 200 200 140 Pre-fail Always - 0
7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x002e 100 253 000 Old_age Always - 0
9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 099 099 000 Old_age Always - 1440
10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0032 100 253 000 Old_age Always - 0
11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0032 100 253 000 Old_age Always - 0
12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 58
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 52
193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 196 196 000 Old_age Always - 12286
194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0022 116 108 000 Old_age Always - 36
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0030 200 200 000 Old_age Offline - 0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate 0x0008 200 200 000 Old_age Offline - 0

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num Test_Description Status Remaining LifeTime(hours) LBA_of_first_error
# 1 Short offline Completed without error 00% 1424 -
# 2 Short offline Completed without error 00% 44 -
# 3 Short offline Aborted by host 50% 44 -

xplorer4x4@xplorer4x4-MS-7673:~$ sudo fsck.ext4 -v /dev/sda1
e2fsck 1.42.5 (29-Jul-2012)
Music3TB: clean, 499/183148544 files, 12093273/732566272 blocks