No SU. Boot failures across multiple distros. Suspect FS config issue or elusive hardware issue.

English Hardware
1

Running Leap 42.1 with GNOME on a Lenovo Thinkpad X250. My system is configured with 1 account, which is an admin.

I installed openSUSE only a couple of hours ago, and after installing a few packages via YaST and poser cycling the machine a few times I cannot SU.

Clicking YaST icons in the GNOME app launcher opens the password popup. I input my password and the prompt disappears, but YaST does not appear.

I can open the Software app, but software installs fail consistently.

Attempting to launch YaST via terminal yields the following:

gus@linux-2fz2:~> sudo yast2 sw_single

We trust you have received the usual lecture from the local System
Administrator. It usually boils down to these three things:


    #1) Respect the privacy of others.
    #2) Think before you type.
    #3) With great power comes great responsibility.


root's password:
sudo: unable to mkdir /var/lib/sudo: Read-only file system
sudo: unable to mkdir /var/lib/sudo: Read-only file system
IO Error (mkdir failed errno:30 (Read-only file system)).
y2log: Error opening logfile '/var/log/YaST2/y2log': Read-only file system.
y2log: Error opening logfile '/var/log/YaST2/y2log': Read-only file system.
y2log: Error opening logfile '/var/log/YaST2/y2log': Read-only file system.
y2log: Error opening logfile '/var/log/YaST2/y2log': Read-only file system.
y2log: Error opening logfile '/var/log/YaST2/y2log': Read-only file system.
y2log: Error opening logfile '/var/log/YaST2/y2log': Read-only file system.
y2log: Error opening logfile '/var/log/YaST2/y2log': Read-only file system.
y2log: Error opening logfile '/var/log/YaST2/y2log': Read-only file system.
y2log: Error opening logfile '/var/log/YaST2/y2log': Read-only file system.
/usr/sbin/yast2: line 440:  4360 Segmentation fault      $ybindir/y2base $module "$@" "$SELECTED_GUI" $Y2_GEOMETRY $Y2UI_ARGS
Invalid snapshot ''.
gus@linux-2fz2:~>

I have had similar issues with Fedora on this same machine. First su commands would bounce back as “read-only file system,” then the system eventually lost the ability to find the kernel on boot. You can see the results of that here. My previous Manjaro installations met similar fates, only they skipped the “read-only” step and went straight to booting in emergency mode.

I suppose I should also point out that the Fedora install had full-disk encryption enabled (LUKS on an LVM). Of my Manjaro installations, one was LUKS encrypted and one was not. My current openSUSE install does not have encryption enabled. I used the default partitioning settings on install.

I swapped out my SSD for a shiny new HDD before the openSUSE install, so the drive is not the culprit. I have also run Lenovo’s built-in diagnostic software (embedded in efi bios). Memory tests, disk tests, and processor tests all finish with zero errors.

I am completely baffled here, and would appreciate any help solving this issue.

2

A read-only filesystem is definitely bad. If you did not do anything
post-install and you are getting that, particularly across distros, your
hard drive may be going bad. If the kernel detects something like this,
it will automatically change the filesystem to read-only to protect it
from irreparable damage.

It also looks like you are using btrfs. Whenever you load a YaST modules,
btrfs is instructed to take a pre-snapshot, and then when you exit it
takes a post-snapshot, on the root btrfs volume/subvolume. As a result,
you can easily rollback accidents made while in YaST, which is a good
thing. Since your filesystem is read-only, the snapshot cannot be taken,
thus the big list of errors there, not to mention the other errors under
/var/lib/sudo which are also because the filesystem is read-only.

Everything goes back to the filesystem, and happening in multiple distros
leads strongly to issues with the disk.

–
Good luck.

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3

Thanks, for your reply, ab. I’ll try swapping in a third drive.