On 2024-01-29 at 11:42, Gary Dale wrote: > I'm running Debian/Trixie on an AMD64 workstation. I've lost the > ability to see the root directory even when I am logged in as root > (su -). > > This has been happening intermittently for several months. I > initially thought it might be related to failing NVME drive that was > part of a RAID1 array that is mounted as "/" but I replaced the > device and the problem is still happening. > > I had been able to fix it by booting to SystemRescue and running an > fsck on the device but it didn't work this time. The device checks > out OK (even when using fsck -/dev/mdx -f) but I still can't list the > root. "ls -l /" just hangs, as do any attempts to see the root > directory in a graphical file manager. In dolphin this means there is > nothing in the folders - and since that is the default starting point > I have to manually enter a folder name (e.g. /home/me) in the > location bar to be able to see anything - but even then the folders > panel remains empty. > > Even running commands like df -h hang because they can't access the > root folder. However the system is otherwise running normally.
I'm not sure it'll help lead to anything, but out of curiosity and/or as a possible diagnostic: when the problem is manifesting, what happens if you run 'stat /'? Does it report data (similar to what you'd get from 'stat' on another directory), or does it hang, or give errors, or...? My thought is that this will give information about the filesystem object that is the root directory, without trying to also access information about the *contents* of that directory. If the one succeeds where the other fails, that might help narrow down where the actual issue is. -- The Wanderer The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. -- George Bernard Shaw
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