My start9 server keeps crashing

I’m running on a Lenovo thinkpad, 8gb ram, 2TB SSD with lcache. I’ve only installed btc knots and electrs. It keeps crashing, showing over and over the same few lines, the most prominent is: “failed to start avahi-daemon.service start9”. Couldn’t find a solution specific to start9 or btc.

I’d initially assume there’s something else going on rather than the one line of many you’d honed in on in the logs. If a service on linux doesn’t start, it should not crash the whole system. Instead, something else is crashing the system and while crashing a service fails to start.

What are the symptoms of “it” “crashing”?

Is Knots ok? What is it say under the health check at Services > Bitcoin Knots? If that’s what keeps crashing, check its log @ Services > Bitcoin Knots > Logs

I think I figured out the problem. For anyone else in the future, what happened, I think, was my /etc/systemd/logind.conf was reset to default settings when I last updated either knots or electrs, since I updated both at the same time. So I ssh into start9 and edited the logind.conf so the laptop wouldn’t suspend when I shut the lid. I think the conf file was reset because I had no problem with the lid being closed before I updated. Hope this helps someone in the future, and fingers crossed that this was the problem!

“Well, it looks like my changes to the logind.conf file isn’t sticking. After I change the file, I save and exit. Then I run sudo systemctl restart systemd-logind.service and the screen crashes on the server, but somehow I’m still able to connect remotely… until it crashes altogether. When I reboot, logind.conf is back to the defaults. I’m guessing I have to do something else before restarting the systemd-logind.service?”

Nope. That is wrong, it’s still crashing. The following is what shows on the screen over and over again after the crash:

[7559.968387] BTRFS error (device sda3): bdev /dev/sda3 errs: wr 0, rd 3590, flush 0, corrupt 0, gen 0

three of those lines with increasing numbers between brackets and after rd, then:

[7559.972459] systemd[1]: Failed to start avahi-daemon.service - Avahi mDNS/DNS-SD Stack.

“The server shows line after line of the same error messages. I’m assuming the problem is when I close the lid, it tries to hibernate. Knots is running fine. Health checks are fine, both say success.”

Nope. That is wrong, it’s still crashing. The following is what shows on the screen over and over again after the crash:

[7559.968387] BTRFS error (device sda3): bdev /dev/sda3 errs: wr 0, rd 3590, flush 0, corrupt 0, gen 0

three of those lines with increasing numbers between brackets and after rd, then:

[7559.972459] systemd[1]: Failed to start avahi-daemon.service - Avahi mDNS/DNS-SD Stack.

As far as I know, StartOS won’t listen to any hibernation signals from the hardware, but if you want to try to save your logind.conf settings use this shell:

/usr/lib/startos/scripts/chroot-and-upgrade

Setting changes there will actually have them stick upon reboot.

If that fixes it, let us know, but other than that, I’d say you’re looking at disk errors on sda3.

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Well I’m at a loss now. I tried running all kinds of scans on the SSD via a live linux boot up and they all come back successful without any errors. And I no longer think it is a hibernation type problem because I’m leaving the laptop open and it still crashes. Not right away mind you, but after a few hours up to a day. I even tried a system rebuild from the start9 menu, and it is still crashing. Any other suggestions?

Can you post your dmesg output?

[7559.968387] BTRFS error (device sda3): bdev /dev/sda3 errs: wr 0, rd 3590, flush 0, corrupt 0, gen 0

Means you’re having thousands of read errors from the disk. Could be the disk, filesystem, disk controller, etc. Do you have another disk you can try? Do you have a backup of your services?

I can make a backup of my services, but it doesn’t backup the actual blockchain, right? I’d have to buy another disk…I’ve linked the dmesg log file here: Download 2025-12-20 - StartOS - BTC node - error log - dmesg.odt | LimeWire

It doesn’t backup the Blockchain but it’s just good practice to use a hefty hard drive. Especially if you’re using file storage, nextcloud etc

No, it’s a dedicated drive for a btc node. I’ll be using a separate setup for things like nextcloud

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Content not found

It will only stay on the site for 7 days…I just re uploaded the file: Download 2025-12-20 - StartOS - BTC node - error log - dmesg.pdf | LimeWire

BTRFS is reporting tons of errors reading from sda3.

Can you try another disk? Looks like a disk issue. It may be dying/dead.

Hopefully you can either do a transfer with the new disk inside the unit and the old disk in a USB enclosure attached by USB:
https://docs.start9.com/0.3.5.x/misc-guides/transfer-data

Or you can restore from backup onto the new disk if you have a backup.

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Thanks for the quick reply.
Also just uploaded some screenshots with errors when trying to make an image backup of my entire SSD with clonezilla…maybe it is corrupt and I need to replace it?

Cool, I’ve never seen that page on start9.com before, even though I tried searching for it. Thanks again!