Root is still read-only. That’s why Firefox, Thunderbird, and dpkg fail - they cannot write lock files.
If the drive drops writes, ext4 flips straight back to ro even after remount.
Check what the kernel says right now:
findmnt /
sudo dmesg -T | grep -i -E "ext4|ata|error|journal" | tail -n 25
Did you swap the power cable from the PSU too, or only the SATA data cable?
Hi.
I only changed the Data cable. The power cable is a long continuous cable from the Corsair power supply, with 4 connectors coming out at various points along the cable. I would call this a daisy chain cable.
If you suspect that this could be the problem, I would try plugging in another of the Power Connectors and redo the upgrade.
My Desktop Tower runs cool and I used extra long interconnect cables to avoid any cable strain. The cables look like new - no cracks or fraying. However, my Desktop is heavily used and 12 years old. I never though about cables deteriorating over time. I ordered a new set of Data Cables that should be here on Tuesday.
findmnt /
TARGET SOURCE FSTYPE OPTIONS
/ /dev/sda2 ext4 rw,relatime,discard,emergency_ro
sudo dmesg -T | grep -i -E "ext4|ata|error|journal" | tail -n 25
[Fri Oct 2 14:25:57 2026] systemd-journald[326]: Failed to write entry to /var/log/journal/9a822e4e6fd940629c562193b7fbef98/system.journal (21 items, 729 bytes) despite vacuuming, ignoring: Read-only file system (Dropped 5299 similar message(s))
[Fri Oct 2 14:25:58 2026] systemd-journald[326]: Failed to write entry to /var/log/journal/9a822e4e6fd940629c562193b7fbef98/system.journal (21 items, 718 bytes) despite vacuuming, ignoring: Read-only file system (Dropped 5205 similar message(s))
[Fri Oct 2 14:25:59 2026] systemd-journald[326]: Failed to write entry to /var/log/journal/9a822e4e6fd940629c562193b7fbef98/system.journal (21 items, 729 bytes) despite vacuuming, ignoring: Read-only file system (Dropped 5404 similar message(s))
[Fri Oct 2 14:26:00 2026] systemd-journald[326]: Failed to write entry to /var/log/journal/9a822e4e6fd940629c562193b7fbef98/system.journal (21 items, 729 bytes) despite vacuuming, ignoring: Read-only file system (Dropped 5234 similar message(s))
[Fri Oct 2 14:26:06 2026] systemd-journald[326]: Failed to write entry to /var/log/journal/9a822e4e6fd940629c562193b7fbef98/system.journal (22 items, 772 bytes) despite vacuuming, ignoring: Read-only file system (Dropped 1753 similar message(s))
[Fri Oct 2 14:26:12 2026] systemd-journald[326]: Failed to write entry to /var/log/journal/9a822e4e6fd940629c562193b7fbef98/system.journal (11 items, 316 bytes) despite vacuuming, ignoring: Read-only file system (Dropped 498 similar message(s))
[Fri Oct 2 14:26:15 2026] systemd-journald[326]: Failed to write entry to /var/log/journal/9a822e4e6fd940629c562193b7fbef98/system.journal (21 items, 619 bytes) despite vacuuming, ignoring: Read-only file system (Dropped 500 similar message(s))
[Fri Oct 2 14:26:17 2026] systemd-journald[326]: Failed to write entry to /var/log/journal/9a822e4e6fd940629c562193b7fbef98/system.journal (22 items, 752 bytes) despite vacuuming, ignoring: Read-only file system
[Fri Oct 2 14:26:23 2026] systemd-journald[326]: Failed to write entry to /var/log/journal/9a822e4e6fd940629c562193b7fbef98/system.journal (33 items, 981 bytes) despite vacuuming, ignoring: Read-only file system (Dropped 492 similar message(s))
[Fri Oct 2 14:26:24 2026] systemd-journald[326]: Failed to write entry to /var/log/journal/9a822e4e6fd940629c562193b7fbef98/system.journal (21 items, 729 bytes) despite vacuuming, ignoring: Read-only file system (Dropped 4995 similar message(s))
[Fri Oct 2 14:26:25 2026] systemd-journald[326]: Failed to write entry to /var/log/journal/9a822e4e6fd940629c562193b7fbef98/system.journal (21 items, 718 bytes) despite vacuuming, ignoring: Read-only file system (Dropped 4778 similar message(s))
[Fri Oct 2 14:26:26 2026] systemd-journald[326]: Failed to write entry to /var/log/journal/9a822e4e6fd940629c562193b7fbef98/system.journal (21 items, 729 bytes) despite vacuuming, ignoring: Read-only file system (Dropped 5310 similar message(s))
[Fri Oct 2 14:26:27 2026] systemd-journald[326]: Failed to write entry to /var/log/journal/9a822e4e6fd940629c562193b7fbef98/system.journal (21 items, 718 bytes) despite vacuuming, ignoring: Read-only file system (Dropped 5158 similar message(s))
[Fri Oct 2 14:26:28 2026] systemd-journald[326]: Failed to write entry to /var/log/journal/9a822e4e6fd940629c562193b7fbef98/system.journal (21 items, 718 bytes) despite vacuuming, ignoring: Read-only file system (Dropped 5015 similar message(s))
[Fri Oct 2 14:26:28 2026] systemd-journald[326]: /var/log/journal/9a822e4e6fd940629c562193b7fbef98/system.journal: Read-only file system, rotating. (Dropped 99114 similar message(s))
[Fri Oct 2 14:26:28 2026] systemd-journald[326]: /var/log/journal/9a822e4e6fd940629c562193b7fbef98/system.journal: Read-only file system, rotating.
[Fri Oct 2 14:26:28 2026] systemd-journald[326]: Failed to rotate /var/log/journal/9a822e4e6fd940629c562193b7fbef98/system.journal: Read-only file system (Dropped 99115 similar message(s))
[Fri Oct 2 14:26:28 2026] systemd-journald[326]: /var/log/journal/9a822e4e6fd940629c562193b7fbef98/system.journal: Read-only file system, rotating.
[Fri Oct 2 14:26:28 2026] systemd-journald[326]: Failed to rotate /var/log/journal/9a822e4e6fd940629c562193b7fbef98/system.journal: Read-only file system
[Fri Oct 2 14:26:28 2026] systemd-journald[326]: Failed to rotate /var/log/journal/9a822e4e6fd940629c562193b7fbef98/system.journal: Read-only file system
[Fri Oct 2 14:26:29 2026] systemd-journald[326]: Failed to write entry to /var/log/journal/9a822e4e6fd940629c562193b7fbef98/system.journal (21 items, 729 bytes) despite vacuuming, ignoring: Read-only file system (Dropped 5347 similar message(s))
[Fri Oct 2 14:26:30 2026] systemd-journald[326]: Failed to write entry to /var/log/journal/9a822e4e6fd940629c562193b7fbef98/system.journal (21 items, 729 bytes) despite vacuuming, ignoring: Read-only file system (Dropped 5446 similar message(s))
[Fri Oct 2 14:26:35 2026] systemd-journald[326]: Failed to write entry to /var/log/journal/9a822e4e6fd940629c562193b7fbef98/system.journal (22 items, 772 bytes) despite vacuuming, ignoring: Read-only file system (Dropped 1951 similar message(s))
[Fri Oct 2 14:26:42 2026] systemd-journald[326]: Failed to write entry to /var/log/journal/9a822e4e6fd940629c562193b7fbef98/system.journal (22 items, 741 bytes) despite vacuuming, ignoring: Read-only file system (Dropped 470 similar message(s))
[Fri Oct 2 14:26:47 2026] systemd-journald[326]: Failed to write entry to /var/log/journal/9a822e4e6fd940629c562193b7fbef98/system.journal (22 items, 752 bytes) despite vacuuming, ignoring: Read-only file system (Dropped 498 similar message(s))
Let me know if you want me to redo the 24.04 → 26.04 upgrade again with a different Power Cable connector plugged in.
Thanks,
M…
findmnt shows emergency_ro
Filter out journald noise to see what tripped ext4:
sudo dmesg -T | grep -i -E "ext4|ata" | grep -v "systemd-journald" | tail -n 25
Try a different SATA power connector on that cable.
The dpkg failure is refind failing to find the ESP.
Mount /dev/sda1 to /boot/efi before configuring:
sudo mount /dev/sda1 /boot/efi
sudo dpkg --configure refind
Hi.
I’m off to Montreal to see my mom today.
I will continue the saga tomorrow.
Thanks and have a nice day,
M…
Hi.
I did the 24.04 - > 26.04 upgrade again with the SSD in a different port, and a different Data Cable and a Different Connector on the SATA Power Cable.
Prior to the Upgrade I did this:
sudo dmesg -T | grep -i -E "ext4|ata|error|journal" | tail -n 25
[Sun Oct 4 12:16:47 2026] ata3.00: ATA-11: Samsung SSD 870 EVO 1TB, SVT04B6Q, max UDMA/133
[Sun Oct 4 12:16:47 2026] ata3.00: 1953525168 sectors, multi 1: LBA48 NCQ (depth 32), AA
[Sun Oct 4 12:16:47 2026] ata3.00: Features: Trust Dev-Sleep NCQ-sndrcv
Looks good - then I did the 26.04 upgrade.
When completed, it asked for the password. System will not listen to the keybard - it’s like keyboard is locked. Mouse works.
Manual Boot
Kernel Panic
Booted older kernel
Then to confirm no disk errors:
sudo dmesg -T | grep -i -E "ext4|ata|error|journal" | tail -n 25
[Sun Oct 4 13:27:33 2026] ata3.00: supports DRM functions and may not be fully accessible
[Sun Oct 4 13:27:33 2026] ata3.00: ATA-11: Samsung SSD 870 EVO 1TB, SVT04B6Q, max UDMA/133
[Sun Oct 4 13:27:33 2026] ata3.00: 1953525168 sectors, multi 1: LBA48 NCQ (depth 32), AA
[Sun Oct 4 13:27:33 2026] ata3.00: Features: Trust Dev-Sleep NCQ-sndrcv
[Sun Oct 4 13:27:33 2026] ata3.00: supports DRM functions and may not be fully accessible
[Sun Oct 4 13:27:33 2026] ata3.00: configured for UDMA/133
[Sun Oct 4 13:27:33 2026] scsi 2:0:0:0: Direct-Access ATA Samsung SSD 870 4B6Q PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
looks okay to me.
No wifi. So I tried this:
sudo rmmod bcma
rmmod: ERROR: Module bcma is not currently loaded
sudo modprobe wl
modprobe: FATAL: Module wl not found in directory /lib/modules/6.14.0-37-generic
sudo rfkill unblock all
I need to update 7.0.0.38-generic so this did nothing.
Try to fix kernel panic:
sudo update-initramfs -u -k 7.0.0-38-generic
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-7.0.0-38-generic
dracut-install: Failed to find module 'netdevsim' /lib/modules/7.0.0-38-generic/kernel/drivers/net/ne
tdevsim/netdevsim.ko.zst
dracut-install: Failed to find module 'rpmsg_wwan_ctrl' /lib/modules/7.0.0-38-generic/kernel/drivers/
net/wwan/rpmsg_wwan_ctrl.ko.zst
dracut-install: Failed to find module 'wwan_hwsim' /lib/modules/7.0.0-38-generic/kernel/drivers/net/w
wan/wwan_hwsim.ko.zst
..
..
sudo update-grub
This does not look good, but I tried booting using Kernel 7.0.0.38-generic.
System complained about Missing Modules:
cat /proc/modules ls dev does not exits.
Than said the UUID … did not exist. I know the UUID is correct as I can boot the older kernel and GParted Info shows me the correct UUID.
I think at this point we can assume that there is no hardware issue.
Something ‘funny’ about my 24.04 or bugs in the ubuntu UNITY 26.04 upgrade ??
What on earth do I do now ?
Thanks,
M…
Hey 
The cable swap worked - dmesg shows the drive is finally running at full UDMA/133 with zero resets
Kernel 7.0 panics because dracut built an initrd without storage modules, so it cannot see the disk to find your root UUID. And rEFInd keeps tripping dpkg because /boot/efi is not mounted.
boot into 6.14 and run-
sudo mount /dev/sda1 /boot/efi
sudo apt install --reinstall linux-modules-7.0.0-38-generic linux-modules-extra-7.0.0-38-generic linux-headers-$(uname -r)
sudo dpkg-reconfigure bcmwl-kernel-source
sudo update-initramfs -u -k 7.0.0-38-generic
As for the keyboard on login - try clicking the password box with your mikey mouse
This will resolve to 6.14.0-37-generic 
when booted with the old kernel
(And you really also want the “linux-generic” metapackage in that list to get security updates)
Exactly, pulled 6.14 headers so DKMS builds wl on the live system right away.
Hah, sorry, I didn’t get your intention, mea culpa
Hi.
sudo mount /dev/sda1 /boot/efi
sudo apt install --reinstall linux-modules-7.0.0-38-generic linux-modules-extra-7.0.0-38-generic linux-headers-$(uname -r)
Notice: Ignoring file 'surfshark.list.migrate' in directory '/etc/apt/sources.list.d/' as it has an invalid filename extension
Error: dpkg was interrupted, you must manually run 'sudo dpkg --configure -a' to correct the problem.
sudo dpkg-reconfigure bcmwl-kernel-source
dpkg-query: package 'bcmwl-kernel-source' is not installed and no information is available
Use dpkg --info (= dpkg-deb --info) to examine archive files.
/usr/sbin/dpkg-reconfigure: bcmwl-kernel-source is not installed
sudo update-initramfs -u -k 7.0.0-38-generic
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-7.0.0-38-generic
dracut-install: Failed to find module 'netdevsim' /lib/modules/7.0.0-38-generic/kernel/drivers/net/netdevsim/netdevsim.ko.zst
dracut-install: Failed to find module 'rpmsg_wwan_ctrl' /lib/modules/7.0.0-38-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wwan/rpmsg_wwan_ctrl.ko.zst
dracut-install: Failed to find module 'wwan_hwsim' /lib/modules/7.0.0-38-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wwan/wwan_hwsim.ko.zst
...
...
dracut-install: Failed to find module 'bochs' /lib/modules/7.0.0-38-generic/kernel/drivers/gpu/drm/tiny/bochs.ko.zst
dracut-install: Failed to find module 'panel_mipi_dbi' /lib/modules/7.0.0-38-generic/kernel/drivers/gpu/drm/tiny/panel-mipi-dbi.ko.zst
sudo dpkg --configure -a
Setting up python3-more-itertools (10.8.0-1build1)…
Setting up snapd (2.76.3+ubuntu26.04)…
Created symlink '/etc/systemd/user/sockets.target.wants/snapd.session-agent.socket' → '/usr/lib/systemd/user/snapd.session-agent.socket'.
snapd.failure.service is a disabled or a static unit not running, not starting it.
snapd.gpio-chardev-setup.target is a disabled or a static unit not running, not starting it.
snapd.snap-repair.service is a disabled or a static unit not running, not starting it.
Setting up python3-attr (25.4.0-1build1)…
...
...
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.43-2ubuntu2.4)…
Processing triggers for libvirt-daemon (12.0.0-1ubuntu5.5)…
Processing triggers for initramfs-tools (0.151ubuntu1)…
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-7.0.0-38-generic
Processing triggers for sgml-base (1.31+nmu1build1)…
Now I can boot 7.0.0.38:
Still no systray
When I try to invoke Firefox, system says it is already running. Sound familiar ?
Then I get a
Javascript error in the main process
Uncaught Exception
Error EROFS Read only filesystem, write
Yikes! Back to the Read only filesystem. I seem to be going in circles!
Now here is something you might want to know with regards to the new Samsung SSD where I keep trying the 24.04 → 26.04 upgrade - I didn’t know any easy way to make the new guy bootable.
I used Gparted to copy the EFI (SDA1) and Ubuntu 24.04 (SDA2) from my 24.04 SSD. The destination SSD booted so I was happy.
So there is no Grub as, I understand it, in the first 512 bytes of the new SSD. In fact I imagine there is nothing in the first 512 bytes.
Okay, don’t shoot. This does not explain the ‘read only fielsystem’ and javascipt error.
Now what ?
Thanks for hanging in there.
M…
Copy-pasting partitions in GParted makes a raw bit-by-bit clone, so you literally copied the corrupted ext4 state from the bad cable onto the new drive.
Two things to do:
If the old SSD is still plugged in, disconnect it so the kernel does not see duplicate UUIDs.
Boot from a Live USB (or recovery) so /dev/sda2 is unmounted, and run:
sudo e2fsck -fy /dev/sda2
Let it clean up the cloned metadata errors. After that, your read-only loop will be gone.
Hi.
I’m not sure I understand this - the original ext4 was fine - it is my Active 24.04 desktop. The most recent copy was done with the new cables and the destination SSD was plugged into the new Port on the motherboard.
I’m always careful to never have 2 SSDs with the same UUIDmounted at the same time.
Okay I booted a USB with a 24.04 on it. SDA2 is our 26.04.
sudo e2fsck -fy /dev/sda2
e2fsck 1.47.0 (5-Feb-2023)
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
Inodes that were part of a corrupted orphan linked list found. Fix? yes
Inode 1089069 was part of the orphaned inode list. FIXED.
Deleted inode 8660807 has zero dtime. Fix? yes
Inode 8668017 was part of the orphaned inode list. FIXED.
Inode 8668095 was part of the orphaned inode list. FIXED.
Inode 8668098 was part of the orphaned inode list. FIXED.
Inode 8668109 was part of the orphaned inode list. FIXED.
Inode 8690196 was part of the orphaned inode list. FIXED.
Inode 8690199 was part of the orphaned inode list. FIXED.
Inode 8690214 was part of the orphaned inode list. FIXED.
Inode 9437213 was part of the orphaned inode list. FIXED.
Inode 9437214 was part of the orphaned inode list. FIXED.
Pass 2: Checking directory structure
Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity
Pass 4: Checking reference counts
Pass 5: Checking group summary information
Block bitmap differences: -(1541444--1541467) -(1542400--1542636) -(1839104--1841151) -4228890 -(5781477--5781830) -(7092224--7096319) -(10461184--10463231) -(10819584--10821631) -(14562727--14562750) -(15799623--15799646) -(15800232--15800255) -(15818887--15818910) -(28153832--28153855) -(28266496--28268543) -(28484231--28484254) -(28974599--28974622) -(47494081--47494088) -(49317888--49319935)
Fix? yes
Free blocks count wrong for group #47 (22022, counted=22283).
Fix? yes
Free blocks count wrong for group #56 (9176, counted=11224).
Fix? yes
Free blocks count wrong for group #129 (24053, counted=24054).
Fix? yes
Free blocks count wrong for group #176 (9382, counted=9736).
Fix? yes
Free blocks count wrong for group #216 (12894, counted=16990).
Fix? yes
Free blocks count wrong for group #319 (8308, counted=10356).
Fix? yes
Free blocks count wrong for group #330 (17981, counted=20029).
Fix? yes
Free blocks count wrong for group #444 (2818, counted=2842).
Fix? yes
Free blocks count wrong for group #482 (1011, counted=1083).
Fix? yes
Free blocks count wrong for group #859 (5928, counted=5952).
Fix? yes
Free blocks count wrong for group #862 (6315, counted=8363).
Fix? yes
Free blocks count wrong for group #869 (2289, counted=2313).
Fix? yes
Free blocks count wrong for group #884 (1553, counted=1577).
Fix? yes
Free blocks count wrong for group #1449 (17923, counted=17931).
Fix? yes
Free blocks count wrong for group #1505 (17044, counted=19092).
Fix? yes
Free blocks count wrong (31303756, counted=31318884).
Fix? yes
Inode bitmap differences: -1089069 -8660807 -8668017 -8668095 -8668098 -8668109 -8690196 -8690199 -8690214 -(9437213--9437214)
Fix? yes
Free inodes count wrong for group #132 (0, counted=1).
Fix? yes
Free inodes count wrong for group #1057 (0, counted=1).
Fix? yes
Free inodes count wrong for group #1058 (0, counted=4).
Fix? yes
Free inodes count wrong for group #1060 (3, counted=6).
Fix? yes
Free inodes count wrong for group #1152 (8103, counted=8105).
Fix? yes
Free inodes count wrong (12270966, counted=12270977).
Fix? yes
ubu_26.04_EVO: ***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****
ubu_26.04_EVO: 836223/13107200 files (0.9% non-contiguous), 21109916/52428800 blocks
I guess my Active Desktop had some issues.
I booted the 26.04 SSD and got the Javascript error. I tried to start Firefox and it said it was already running. Doesn’t look like this last attempt changed anything ?
I will be busy for the next 2 days, but I will try to make some time to continue this saga.
Thanks,
M..
OK, let’s sum up what we have here:
That zombie JavaScript popup is Stacer refusing to die 
AFAIR I told you to purge it earlier, but root was read-only so apt failed.
Stacer is still sitting in your autostart. When you log in, it tries to write logs, hits the read-only disk, and crashes with EROFS.
Same story with Firefox. It tries to drop a .parentlock file in your profile on startup, gets EROFS, and assumes another instance is running.
GParted does a raw block-level clone without checking filesystem health. When that bad cable dropped writes earlier, it left a pile of broken bitmaps and orphaned inodes.
GParted copied that exact broken block image onto your shiny new EVO. e2fsck had plenty of garbage to clean up, so running it was definitely needed.
Why is it still ro on boot… - By default the kernel mounts root ro first. Then systemd reads /etc/fstab to remount it rw. If fstab has bad entries (remember your missing /boot/efi?) or ext4 trips over a journal error, it stays ro.
When you get back to the machine, run these
findmnt /
systemctl status systemd-remount-fs.service
sudo dmesg -T | grep -i -E "ext4|remount"
sudo mount -o remount,rw /
IMHO one of these will immediately point to the culprit
Most systems use initrd and initrd usually mounts root read-write before switching to it.
Not in Ubuntu.
initramfs-tools defaults to readonly=y, so with ro on the cmdline (which rEFInd passes by default) it mounts root with -r.
Flipping it to rw after switch_root is left to systemd-remount-fs.service based on /etc/fstab.
Hi.
All my 26.04 woes have been caused by a bad cable & stacer ??? Yikes!!
findmnt /
TARGET SOURCE FSTYPE OPTIONS
/ /dev/sda2 ext4 rw,relatime,discard
systemctl status systemd-remount-fs.service
● systemd-remount-fs.service - Remount Root and Kernel File Systems
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/systemd-remount-fs.service; enabled-runtime; preset: en>
Active: active (exited) since Mon 2026-10-05 08:11:31 EDT; 1min 37s ago
Invocation: 7f253db18e1b45d3bdab335982e6ce90
Docs: man:systemd-remount-fs.service(8)
https://systemd.io/API_FILE_SYSTEMS
Process: 349 ExecStart=/usr/lib/systemd/systemd-remount-fs (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Main PID: 349 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Mem peak: 1.8M
CPU: 12ms
...skipping...
● systemd-remount-fs.service - Remount Root and Kernel File Systems
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/systemd-remount-fs.service; enabled-runtime; preset: en>
Active: active (exited) since Mon 2026-10-05 08:11:31 EDT; 1min 37s ago
Invocation: 7f253db18e1b45d3bdab335982e6ce90
Docs: man:systemd-remount-fs.service(8)
https://systemd.io/API_FILE_SYSTEMS
Process: 349 ExecStart=/usr/lib/systemd/systemd-remount-fs (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Main PID: 349 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Mem peak: 1.8M
CPU: 12ms
~
~lines 1-10/10 (END)
sudo dmesg -T | grep -i -E "ext4|remount"
[Mon Oct 5 08:11:30 2026] EXT4-fs (sda2): mounted filesystem 1ccc02a7-c272-4a3c-83f6-90d46e1fb1ee ro with ordered data mode. Quota mode: none.
[Mon Oct 5 08:11:31 2026] systemd[1]: Starting systemd-remount-fs.service - Remount Root and Kernel File Systems...
[Mon Oct 5 08:11:31 2026] EXT4-fs (sda2): re-mounted 1ccc02a7-c272-4a3c-83f6-90d46e1fb1ee r/w.
[Mon Oct 5 08:11:31 2026] systemd[1]: Finished systemd-remount-fs.service - Remount Root and Kernel File Systems.
[Mon Oct 5 08:12:03 2026] EXT4-fs warning (device sda2): ext4_end_bio:369: I/O error 10 writing to inode 1054596 starting block 11418368)
[Mon Oct 5 08:12:03 2026] EXT4-fs (sda2): failed to convert unwritten extents to written extents -- potential data loss! (inode 1054596, error -5)
[Mon Oct 5 08:12:06 2026] EXT4-fs warning (device sda2): ext4_end_bio:369: I/O error 10 writing to inode 1089839 starting block 22508288)
[Mon Oct 5 08:12:06 2026] EXT4-fs error (device sda2): ext4_wait_block_bitmap:582: comm PK-Backend: Cannot read block bitmap - block_group = 862, block_bitmap = 27787278
[Mon Oct 5 08:12:06 2026] EXT4-fs (sda2): Delayed block allocation failed for inode 1089839 at logical offset 2048 with max blocks 2048 with error 5
[Mon Oct 5 08:12:06 2026] EXT4-fs (sda2): This should not happen!! Data will be lost
[Mon Oct 5 08:12:06 2026] EXT4-fs (sda2): failed to convert unwritten extents to written extents -- potential data loss! (inode 1089839, error -5)
[Mon Oct 5 08:12:13 2026] EXT4-fs warning (device sda2): ext4_end_bio:369: I/O error 10 writing to inode 1064171 starting block 10552064)
[Mon Oct 5 08:12:13 2026] EXT4-fs (sda2): failed to convert unwritten extents to written extents -- potential data loss! (inode 1064171, error -5)
[Mon Oct 5 08:12:13 2026] EXT4-fs warning (device sda2): ext4_end_bio:369: I/O error 10 writing to inode 1064171 starting block 8082176)
[Mon Oct 5 08:12:13 2026] EXT4-fs (sda2): failed to convert unwritten extents to written extents -- potential data loss! (inode 1064171, error -5)
[Mon Oct 5 08:12:13 2026] EXT4-fs warning (device sda2): ext4_end_bio:369: I/O error 10 writing to inode 1064171 starting block 9958144)
[Mon Oct 5 08:12:13 2026] EXT4-fs (sda2): failed to convert unwritten extents to written extents -- potential data loss! (inode 1064171, error -5)
[Mon Oct 5 08:12:14 2026] EXT4-fs warning (device sda2): ext4_end_bio:369: I/O error 10 writing to inode 1064171 starting block 11383552)
[Mon Oct 5 08:12:14 2026] EXT4-fs (sda2): failed to convert unwritten extents to written extents -- potential data loss! (inode 1064171, error -5)
[Mon Oct 5 08:12:14 2026] EXT4-fs warning (device sda2): ext4_end_bio:369: I/O error 10 writing to inode 1064171 starting block 7183104)
[Mon Oct 5 08:12:14 2026] EXT4-fs (sda2): failed to convert unwritten extents to written extents -- potential data loss! (inode 1064171, error -5)
[Mon Oct 5 08:12:14 2026] EXT4-fs warning (device sda2): ext4_end_bio:369: I/O error 10 writing to inode 1064171 starting block 7185152)
[Mon Oct 5 08:12:14 2026] EXT4-fs (sda2): failed to convert unwritten extents to written extents -- potential data loss! (inode 1064171, error -5)
[Mon Oct 5 08:12:16 2026] EXT4-fs error (device sda2): ext4_wait_block_bitmap:582: comm kworker/u32:0: Cannot read block bitmap - block_group = 863, block_bitmap = 27787279
[Mon Oct 5 08:12:16 2026] EXT4-fs (sda2): Delayed block allocation failed for inode 6029359 at logical offset 206 with max blocks 1 with error 5
[Mon Oct 5 08:12:16 2026] EXT4-fs (sda2): This should not happen!! Data will be lost
[Mon Oct 5 08:12:16 2026] EXT4-fs warning (device sda2): ext4_end_bio:369: I/O error 10 writing to inode 1064171 starting block 22629120)
[Mon Oct 5 08:12:16 2026] EXT4-fs (sda2): failed to convert unwritten extents to written extents -- potential data loss! (inode 1064171, error -5)
sudo mount -o remount,rw /
Hope this helps. Thanks for all this.
M…
Stacer definitely had nothing to do with this.
Your dmesg shows I/O errors (EIO) during writes, and ext4 failed to read its block bitmaps.
Ext4 drops to read-only by design to prevent broken writes from damaging valid data.
Forcing mount -o remount,rw / here is risky - without readable bitmaps, the kernel cannot allocate blocks safely and will drop data.
Replacing the cable won’t fix metadata that was already corrupted on disk.
Boot from a Live USB and run fsck.ext4 -fy /dev/sda2 offline before touching anything else.
I would also check smartctl -a /dev/sda for pending sectors versus CRC errors to verify if the drive is failing or if it was only cable transmission errors.
Hi.
sudo fsck.ext4 -fy /dev/sda2
e2fsck 1.47.0 (5-Feb-2023)
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
Pass 2: Checking directory structure
Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity
Pass 4: Checking reference counts
Pass 5: Checking group summary information
Free blocks count wrong (31280307, counted=31289803).
Fix? yes
ubu_26.04_EVO: ***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****
ubu_26.04_EVO: 836228/13107200 files (0.9% non-contiguous), 21138997/52428800 blocks
smartctl -a /dev/sda
Command 'smartctl' not found, but can be installed with:
sudo apt install smartmontools
ubuntu-unity@ubuntu-unity:~$ sudo apt install smartmontools
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package smartmontools
I tried: ‘sudo apt install smartmontools’ but it couldn’t find the package.
So it looks like a 26.04 Upgrade is not possible for my situation ??
Looks like I will have to start with an ubuntu unity 26.04 iso and build my desktop. I’ve been through this before for 22.04, and it is a long frustrating experience since apps are all over the place. I will start with these 3:
home/mg
/etc
/snap
Any other directories I should transfer ? Is there a smarter way to do this ??
Also, is there a replacement for Stacer - bleachbit?? How do you clean up your unnecessary files, and remove cache and logs?
Definitely not, this is just the location for the mount points of the snap packages, if you back that up it will be gigantic and snap updates will just mount over these dirs, so you waste a lot of disk space (likely gigabytes, depending on the number of snaps)…
Instead of backing this up, take a look at snap help specifically on the snapshots command, that backs up all data from a snap. Make backups for all app snaps, then write down the list from snap list … On the new machine just install the list of snaps again and restore the snapshots…