Troubleshooting guide for Vultr instances that boot with read-only filesystem access due to corruption or mount failures
If your Vultr Compute Instance boots into a read-only filesystem state, it usually indicates a serious issue, such as filesystem corruption or a failed disk mount during boot.
To identify the cause, review system or kernel logs using the Web Console or Recovery Mode.
| OS Family | Log File Location |
|---|---|
| Ubuntu / Debian | /var/log/syslog |
| RHEL-based (e.g. AlmaLinux, Rocky) | /var/log/messages |
Use a text editor or less to inspect the logs:
$ sudo less /var/log/syslog # Ubuntu/Debian
$ sudo less /var/log/messages # RHEL-based systems
You can also check kernel logs (if available):
$ sudo less /var/log/kern.log
If logs show signs of filesystem corruption, boot into Recovery Mode from the Vultr Customer Portal, then run a file system check:
$ sudo fsck /dev/vda2
Replace /dev/vda2 with the correct root device for your instance. You can confirm this by running lsblk.
fsck on a mounted volume. If unsure, boot your instance using SystemRescue ISO to safely run checks.