"RPC ERROR read only" System randomly stops and asks for password but says "unauthorized"

DIY, Hacking, & How-To
1

On a system i repurposed a laptop for.

32GB Ram

Using an external SSD.

System randomly locks me out with “RPC” Error and when i try to login i get the below error. Have to force a reboot and then i can log back in.

Totally random. Sometimes system runs for a week then this happens and other times it happens a few times a day.

Only BTC Core, LND, and RTL running. It is more than locking me out, appears my node goes offline too.

“RPC ERROR: Database Error error returned from database: could not open file “base/16385/2601”: Read-only file system”

Above is a copy paste of the error.

Any help is appreciated.

2

I did a quick search on your error. It might be related to the fact that you are using an external SSD. The search I did suggested issues relating to file system corruption. It could be your disk going out or a bad connection. I would make sure you keep a recent backup until you get the issue resolved. Make sure you use the fastest, highest quality connection you can when using external SSD. This was just with a minimal search. The senior techs will be on here during the day and may have more insight into this matter

3

To add to Rick’s answer - a reboot may fix this, however as he mentioned, you likely have an issue with your data connection or power delivery. Can you let us know your hardware setup? Moving to DIY

4

Thanks. I bought a server from start 9 but it did not work as expected due to storage size and a pruned Bitcoin core node.

Tried building my own using a spare machine to run a full node.

Start OS is the only system running on a dell precision 7530

6 core processor
32GB ram

2TB SanDisk Extreme portable SSD. New.

A reboot fixes it but i cant get to the logs to see what is triggering the event as they all clear at restart. Its random best i can tell.

5

Thanks. I found the same general advice when searching. Decided to post to try and find a solid solution

6

In terms of getting to the logs to see what is triggering the event, you can SSH in to the server from your client to try to gather the logs in parallel. Here is our documentation on how to do that. In terms of commands to run via CLI to access the logs, other team members would be more knowledgeable, but you could try sudo journalctl -xefa to start.