Linux Mint read-only errors + fsck loop (new SSD didn’t fix)

[Johnny7815]

Hi everyone,

I’m new to Linux and this is my first time really working with it, so please bear with me if I’m missing something obvious.

I bought a used Dell Latitude E5250 specifically to install Linux, test things, and just play around. I decided to go with Linux Mint Cinnamon. I created a boot USB, installed it successfully, and everything seemed fine at first.

After some time, I started noticing a strange issue: Firefox wouldn’t open anymore, saying that another instance was already running. However, I couldn’t find any running process, even with commands like sudo killall firefox. Around the same time, I also couldn’t install updates or new software because the system suddenly became read-only.

The only temporary fix was a reboot.

After rebooting, I was dropped straight into BusyBox. I had to repair the filesystem manually using fsck, and after that, the system would boot again and seem fine - but only for a while. Then the exact same problem would happen again.

I tried diagnosing the issue with the help of ChatGPT and used smartmontools (sudo smartctl -a /dev/sda2). It showed a lot of ATA errors and read/write errors on the disk. So I assumed the hard drive was failing.

I replaced it with a brand new SSD (Intenso - yes, I know it’s a budget brand, but this laptop is just for experimenting). I reinstalled Linux Mint from scratch, but unfortunately, the exact same issue still occurs: filesystem errors, read-only mode, fsck repairs, repeat.

Now I’m wondering what else could be causing this. I’ve read online that it might be a hardware issue, possibly the SATA controller or motherboard. If that’s the case, it probably isn’t worth replacing the motherboard for such an old laptop.

At this point, I’ve spent a lot of time trying to fix this and I’m running out of ideas

Does anyone have suggestions on what else I could check or test? Could it really be the SATA controller, or is there something else I might be missing?

If you need more information (logs, command outputs, etc.), I’m happy to provide it.

I’m not sure if this is the right place to ask, but I hope someone can help.

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[Condobloke]

G'day Johnny, Welcome to Linux .org

Did you disable secure boot in bios before installing Linux Mint ?

Also check the drive connection.....make sure the drive connects properly, no looseness ?

 

[CaffeineAddict]

To diagnose this I suggest to install lnav, it will let you harvest all logs, combine them and sort chronologically.

sudo apt install lnav

Run it with the following command the the issue happens:

sudo lnav -r /var/log

when it load press q only once to close loading dialog.
After that maximize terminal window to take whole screen, you'll need it to see more info.
You scan scroll it up and down with mouse scroll and left and right with SHIFT + H and SHIFT + L

Find anything suspicious in the output and share it all here.
Note that as you scroll back some errors will repeat, so ship them.

 

[Johnny7815]

G'day Johnny, Welcome to Linux .org

Did you disable secure boot in bios before installing Linux Mint ?

Also check the drive connection.....make sure the drive connects properly, no looseness ?

Yes, I disabled secure boot before installing and checked drive connections. No looseness or anything that seems suspicious...

I already ordered a new cable to exclude a connection issue but delivery takes about 10 days :/

 

[dos2unix]

Do you have a "live USB" drive you can boot from? If so..

What does this show?

lspci | grep -E 'SATA|Volatile'

What does this show?

fdisk -l

If you are brave, you can try some of these things.

Thread 'How to recover "dead" disk drives (sometimes).'

Apr 28, 2026

Warning: This is mostly for advanced users. Yes, some of these commands can fix a broken drive. On the other hand, some of these
commands can break a fixed drive. I'm not responsible for broken drives, run at your own risk. There is no recovery from running some of these commands the wrong way, on the wrong device. - Moderators: If this is too dangerous, delete it.

sgdisk


Part of the gdisk package, sgdisk is the scriptable command-line version of GPT fdisk. Where fdisk gets confused or corrupted by GPT weirdness, sgdisk speaks native GPT.


Print partition table, non-destructive...

• dos2unix
• Replies: 1
• Forum: Command Line

• 
• 
• 

I would highly recommend reading the entire article before doing anything.

 

[Johnny7815]

To diagnose this I suggest to install lnav, it will let you harvest all logs, combine them and sort chronologically.

sudo apt install lnav

Run it with the following command the the issue happens:

sudo lnav -r /var/log

when it load press q only once to close loading dialog.
After that maximize terminal window to take whole screen, you'll need it to see more info.
You scan scroll it up and down with mouse scroll and left and right with SHIFT + H and SHIFT + L

Find anything suspicious in the output and share it all here.
Note that as you scroll back some errors will repeat, so ship them.

I created a link with the error logs, if that helps: https://dpaste.com/9lk8dp53r

I got the logs with
journalctl -b -1 | grep -i ata
And
dmesg -T | grep -i error

Or do you need the lnav stuff?

 

[osprey]

I created a link with the error logs, if that helps: https://dpaste.com/9lk8dp53r

I got the logs with
journalctl -b -1 | grep -i ata
And
dmesg -T | grep -i error

Or do you need the lnav stuff?

Thanks for the error messages. They indicate serious problems. The following shows the meaning of a number of the error messages which was found by placing the exact error message in a search engine and then trying to select the essence of that meaning.

Device: /dev/sda [SAT], not found in smartd database 7.3/5528.

Smartctl output: smartctl has a database of drive models, but this one is not in the listings. This output is just informational and not fatal.

Device: /dev/sda [SAT], ATA error count increased from 189 to 228

Smartctl output: The increasing count of errors suggests the drive will soon fail. If the count increases on subsequent outputs, it's a definite sign of impending failure.

kernel: ata2.00: irq_stat 0x28000000, host bus error, interface fatal error

Kernel message: The SATA controller and the drive are failing to communicate. This is almost always a physical hardware issue.

kernel: ata2.00: failed command: WRITE FPDMA QUEUED

Kernel message: Queuing is a feature that allows SATA drives to optimize the order of received read and write commands. A damaged or loose SATA cable is the most frequent cause. It can also indicate a failing hard drive (HDD) or solid-state drive (SSD).

kernel: ata2.00: exception Emask 0x70 SAct 0x10e00000 SErr 0x400900 action 0x6 frozen

Kernel message: The "ata2.00: exception... frozen" log means that the ATA command layer failed to read from or write to the device because the device became unresponsive or sent garbage data, and the kernel has "frozen" that port while trying to recover.

kernel: ata2.00: irq_stat 0x28000000, host bus error, interface fatal error

Kernel message: This kernel output indicates a critical hardware communication failure between your SATA controller and a storage drive (ATA device 2). It means the system tried to read or write data, but the connection was interrupted, corrupted, or failed completely, leading to a "frozen" or "offline" drive.

One could follow the same procedure as above in a search engine for all of the other error messages, but the basic error output does seem to point to serious hardware issues, which at best are just loose internal connections, but at worst, corrupted hardware that needs to be replaced. In a laptop, I guess one can take it apart somewhat and check the internal leads to see if that makes a difference, but if that can't be done, or doesn't make a difference, then the machine needs major renovation, probably professional. That's my take on it anyway at this point.

 

[Johnny7815]

Do you have a "live USB" drive you can boot from? If so..

What does this show?

lspci | grep -E 'SATA|Volatile'

What does this show?

fdisk -l

If you are brave, you can try some of these things.

Thread 'How to recover "dead" disk drives (sometimes).'

Apr 28, 2026

Warning: This is mostly for advanced users. Yes, some of these commands can fix a broken drive. On the other hand, some of these
commands can break a fixed drive. I'm not responsible for broken drives, run at your own risk. There is no recovery from running some of these commands the wrong way, on the wrong device. - Moderators: If this is too dangerous, delete it.

sgdisk


Part of the gdisk package, sgdisk is the scriptable command-line version of GPT fdisk. Where fdisk gets confused or corrupted by GPT weirdness, sgdisk speaks native GPT.


Print partition table, non-destructive...

• dos2unix
• Replies: 1
• Forum: Command Line

• 
• 
• 

I would highly recommend reading the entire article before doing anything.

Thanks, I'll read through it and will try the things you suggested from my live usb
After I'm done I'll report back here.

 

[Johnny7815]

Thanks for the error messages. They indicate serious problems. The following shows the meaning of a number of the error messages which was found by placing the exact error message in a search engine and then trying to select the essence of that meaning.

Device: /dev/sda [SAT], not found in smartd database 7.3/5528.

Smartctl output: smartctl has a database of drive models, but this one is not in the listings. This output is just informational and not fatal.

Device: /dev/sda [SAT], ATA error count increased from 189 to 228

Smartctl output: The increasing count of errors suggests the drive will soon fail. If the count increases on subsequent outputs, it's a definite sign of impending failure.

kernel: ata2.00: irq_stat 0x28000000, host bus error, interface fatal error

Kernel message: The SATA controller and the drive are failing to communicate. This is almost always a physical hardware issue.

kernel: ata2.00: failed command: WRITE FPDMA QUEUED

Kernel message: Queuing is a feature that allows SATA drives to optimize the order of received read and write commands. A damaged or loose SATA cable is the most frequent cause. It can also indicate a failing hard drive (HDD) or solid-state drive (SSD).

kernel: ata2.00: exception Emask 0x70 SAct 0x10e00000 SErr 0x400900 action 0x6 frozen

Kernel message: The "ata2.00: exception... frozen" log means that the ATA command layer failed to read from or write to the device because the device became unresponsive or sent garbage data, and the kernel has "frozen" that port while trying to recover.

kernel: ata2.00: irq_stat 0x28000000, host bus error, interface fatal error

Kernel message: This kernel output indicates a critical hardware communication failure between your SATA controller and a storage drive (ATA device 2). It means the system tried to read or write data, but the connection was interrupted, corrupted, or failed completely, leading to a "frozen" or "offline" drive.

One could follow the same procedure as above in a search engine for all of the other error messages, but the basic error output does seem to point to serious hardware issues, which at best are just loose internal connections, but at worst, corrupted hardware that needs to be replaced. In a laptop, I guess one can take it apart somewhat and check the internal leads to see if that makes a difference, but if that can't be done, or doesn't make a difference, then the machine needs major renovation, probably professional. That's my take on it anyway at this point.

Thanks for the detailed answer.
While I’m waiting for the replacement cable, I’ll take the laptop apart and inspect the motherboard traces and connections.