Question

How to Fix: "Failed to open serialization file readonly file system"

Hi, I performed apt update +upgrade and rebooted the machine when prompted to do so. Now my droplet fails to boot and gives a message of “Failed to open serialization file readonly file system” Is there any guidance on how to resolve this issue?

Show comments

Submit an answer


This textbox defaults to using Markdown to format your answer.

You can type !ref in this text area to quickly search our full set of tutorials, documentation & marketplace offerings and insert the link!

Sign In or Sign Up to Answer

These answers are provided by our Community. If you find them useful, show some love by clicking the heart. If you run into issues leave a comment, or add your own answer to help others.

Accepted Answer

Ok so after running up a new droplet with my week old backup and updating to the point that it broke as described. I identified that it was the snapd package (snapd/bionic-updates 2.42.1+18.04 amd64 [upgradable from: 2.40+18.04]) that caused the break.

I then booted via the recovery console and removed the snapd package. I then shutdown and switched back to booting via the standard method and the test system is now working as expected.

I am now going to fully update the test system and reboot.

If this works I will replicate this to my live system.

Edit: This has worked and I have replicated to live system and all is working. The ‘snapd’ package was the issue for me, once removed all was good.

@ghostseven @alexanderlndbrg Did you get any resolution from DigitalOcean’s support staff?

In my case, Once in a day someone responds, "Hey we checked your console. Everything is fine!"

My response of “That’s because it is booted in recovery mode. It does not work in normal mode” falls on deaf ears…

I have also posted to serverfault without any response https://serverfault.com/questions/994177/digital-ocean-failed-to-open-serialization-file-readonly-file-system-issue-u

Just wanted to chime in to say that I had the exact same issue right now. The recovery-reboot method worked for me as well. I’ve also created a ticket.

Become a contributor for community

Get paid to write technical tutorials and select a tech-focused charity to receive a matching donation.

DigitalOcean Documentation

Full documentation for every DigitalOcean product.

Resources for startups and SMBs

The Wave has everything you need to know about building a business, from raising funding to marketing your product.

Get our newsletter

Stay up to date by signing up for DigitalOcean’s Infrastructure as a Newsletter.

New accounts only. By submitting your email you agree to our Privacy Policy

The developer cloud

Scale up as you grow — whether you're running one virtual machine or ten thousand.

Get started for free

Sign up and get $200 in credit for your first 60 days with DigitalOcean.*

*This promotional offer applies to new accounts only.