Read-only file system error
 

When copying a Windows folder (i.e. /mnt/home/Documents and Settings/Administrator/Application Data) from sda1 to an external drive (i.e. /mnt/sdb1/C_BAK), the Puppy Lucid's COPY command window shows the following message:

Application Data as /mnt/sdb1//Application Data
ERROR: Read-only file system (in red text!)

Done
There was one error.

Question #1: is the above error occurring in the sda1 drive or in the external sdb1 drive?

Question #2: how do I go about changing the 'Read-only' attribute to 'Writable'? Please provide a detailed instruction for making this change.

Khun Phet in Thailand

@ Khun Phet:-

Let me ask you one question. What version of Windows are we talking about here? If it's a recent one, with 'Fast-Boot', 'Secure-Boot', and all the rest of that rubbish, then it never actually switches off; it only ever hibernates.

'Read-only' status is just Windows' response to any attempts to read/write to it while in that condition. Saves any chance of corruption, that way.

The problem ain't at Puppy's end, I can guarantee that. It'll be due to MyCrudSoft's dozy programming.

The simple answer is to fully 'power-down' your Windows install before booting into Puppy. Works every time.


Mike. ;)

Read-only file system error
 

The HP-Mini laptop that I am using has Win XP SP3 installed on it and recently it did not allow me to cut & paste or to connect the Internet. After many attempts to remedy that situation, I decided to copy all the folders on its Drive C: to an external World Elements 2T drive so that I might be able to re-install Windows. However, since Windows wasn't allowing me to cut & paste, I was unable to move the folders on the HP-Mini over to the external drive.

Not to be blocked in my wish to copy the HP-Mini's drive C: contents, I opted to use my Linux Puppy Lucid to by-pass Windows completely and perform the transfer of files. Thanks to Puppy I was able to mount drives C: as sda1, drive D: as sda2 and the external drive as sdb1 and proceeded to start transferring the HP-Mini's drive C: folders but the Puppy COPY command eventually showed the error mentioned, as such:

Application Data as /mnt/sdb1//Application Data
ERROR: Read-only file system (in red text)

Done
There was one error

At this point, I decided to seek the help of more experienced users to help solve the problem. I would like to add the following information:

Exiting Puppy and restarting the HP-Mini to inspect the attributes of Drive E: (i.e. the intended destination for receiving the copied folders and files from the HP-Mini's HD), I noted that:
1) the file system of E: was NTFS
2) Permissions were given to a) Built-in security principals, b) Groups and c) Users.
3) Permissions allowed are: a) Full Control, b) Modify, c) Read & Execute, d) List Folder Contents, e) Read and f) Write.

Nothing is denied to anybody as only myself uses the World Element Drive.

Another matter I noted was that the HP-Mini's Local Security Settings i.e. Account Policies, and Local Policies which include Audit, User Rights Assignments, and Security Options all show a lock on their respective folder icons.

Might any of these last observations be related to the ERROR: Read-only file system message that prevented Puppy from completing the COPY command I was trying to do earlier?

Hope these details may shed some light on the problem at hand.

Regards,
Khun Phet in Thailand


Addendum: The status for the Hibernation option on the HP-Mini is shown as "Never".

@ Khun Phet:-

Mm. You are aware, I take it, that ALL support for XP (including the POS 2009 'embedded' version, which spawned all the update 'hacks' that have kinda kept it going for the last five years) has now - finally - ceased?

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...-embedded-2009

(Of course, this wouldn't prevent XP from actually running.....but I would strongly suggest that you permanently disconnect it from the internet from now on, and only use it for perhaps running 'legacy' programs that won't behave themselves in more recent versions.....)

But it doesn't explain why it won't copy'n'paste any more.....and as for the permissions thing, well; it's so long since I used XP (and that was my last contact with anything to do with MyCrudSoft, which shows you how long I've been using Linux exclusively!), I honestly don't remember how all that stuff used to work any longer. Wish I could be of more help.


Mike. ;)

Hello Mike!

Yes, I am quite aware that WIN XP is no longer supported by Microsoft. But I'm also aware that because of that, the bad guys are now much less, if at all, interested to mess around with WIN XP now that they've got newer bloated versions of OSes from Microsoft to contend with. I do very little roaming on the Internet; it's mostly for checking my emails and doing my offline legacy software.

Thanks for your suggestion however and it's because of that I do use Linux.

I won't close this post yet as there may be other Puppy users who might be able to point me in the right direction.

Regards,
Khun Phet in Thailand

After starting up Puppy Lucid, I connected my World Elements 2 TB external drive and tried to mount it. I received the following message:

NTFS WARNING
The ntfs-3g driver was unable to mount the NTFS partition and returned this error message:
Failed to write lock '/dev/sdb1' : Resource temporarily unavailable
Error opening '/dev/sdb1' : Resource temporarily unavailable
Failed to mount '/dev/sdb1' : Resource temporarily unavailable

So, the inbuilt kernel NTFS driver has been used to mount the partition read-only.

okay (above message is in black text with a red background)


Maybe this is the cause of my original problem "Read-only file system error" !!!

If so, how do I resolve the above NTFS WARNING?

Regards,
Khun Phet in Thailand


N.B. The sda1 icon at the bottom left of the screen has a red ball in front of it; the sda5 and the sdb1 icons both have green balls in front of them. HHmm.....

The red ball indicates it is the boot drive. The green balls indicate the drives being currently mounted, so you can read/write from/to them.

Lucid Puppy is from 2010. Probably it is just too old for the 2TB hard drive?

Or maybe it wasn't built with fuse support, which is needed for the ntfs-3g user space driver.

Read-only file system error
 

Thanks for some new ideas about Puppy Lucid:

a) Lucid Puppy is rather old (2010)
b) It maybe doesn't work with a 2TB hard drive
c) It maybe wasn't built with fuse support - which is needed for ntfs-3g driver

Being but an inexperienced Linux user, I don't know how to get around the above points. I do have a different distro (Debian GNU/Linux) in hand, but it balks when the installation gets to configuring the network with DHCP; i.e. I get the message "Network autoconfiguration filed. Your network is probably not using the DHCP protocol."

At this point, I apparently some guidance to get over this DHCP hic-cup in order to get Debian up and running as an alternative to using Puppy Linux for solving my original problem. Any and all suggestions are welcomed ...

Regards,
Khun Phet in Thailand

Khunphet,

it would be good to know which version of Lucid Puppy are you exactly using. There have been and there is still many different versions. I recall the first one which was really bug-free was Lucid Puppy 5.2.8-004. This was the base of which I created my first LazY Puppy. At these times (2012/2013) I was able at least to use a CnMemory 1TB external USB HD drive in read and write modus.

Edit:

Maybe trying a newer version of Puppy (Precise, Tahr, Xenial etc.) dependent on the age of the your machine/computer.

The Lucid Puppy that I am presently using Linux is 5.2.8. You indicate your preferred version as 5.2.8-004, which may be its build. Is there some way (or terminal command) I can query my version or build my particular Lucid Puppy is? That might be useful to you (and to me as well)!

Regards,
Khun Phet in Thailand

N.B. By snooping around and typing cat /proc/version into a terminal window, I learned the following:

Linux version 2.6.33.2 (root@puppypc) (gcc version 4.4.3 (Ubuntu 4.4.3-4ubuntu5)) #1 SMP Thu May 27 10:56:32 EST 2010

which is somehow different than what the splash screen shows when I start Linux, i.e. The Puppy icon and the version # of 5.2.8 HHmmm...

This: Linux version 2.6.33.2 is the kernel version while the version # of 5.2.8 is the version/release of Puppy.

Unfortunately the different versions of 5.2.8 did not find its place in the naming of Lucid Puppy. From 5.2.8 to 5.2.8-004 they all came as puppy_lucid_5.2.8.sfs. However, there's a good chance you have 5.2.8-004. Can you check the .iso for its creation date, please?

What about my suggestion in my previous post of to try another, a newer version of Puppy?

I located 'lupu-525.005.iso' on my WD Elements 2TB HD, which I downloaded in Sept. of 2015.

Then I searched the internet and located

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/vie...=554253#554253

which describes the .iso I downloaded. That URL gives a version date of April 05, 2012. I hope this will provide you the details you have asked me for and eagerly await your further instructions.

Regards,
Khun Phet in Thailand

You mean 528.005 or 525.005 ?

528 is the successor of 525!

Ok, I summarize...

The your .iso (and therefor Puppy) is 528.005 and its version date is 5th of April 2012 as mentioned in the topic of the Puppy forum. I never tried/used a later version of Lucid Puppy than 528-004. So, I can't tell anything about the differences and/or bugs that may have appeared in between .004 and .005.

Could you just try to download a newer version of Puppy, just booting it from the CD and checking the 2TB drive for write capability?

Or maybe trying my LazY Puppy 2.0.2 to make the testings on the 2TB drive?