Unable to change permission of log folder("Read Only file system")

[Smoot Carl-Mitchell]

On Tue, 2009-04-07 at 21:50 +0530, dheeraj bansal wrote:
> Hi All,
> 
> I am not able to change the permission of log folder at the
> location /var/log , and the prompt is "cannot change permission, read
> only file system". Can anybody tell me what does this "Read only file
> system" means and how this problem can be fixed. Any sort of help will
> be appreciated.

Usually 'read only filesystem' means the filesystem itself is mounted
read-only.  If it is no one, not even root can change file or directory
permissions.  This should not be the case on a running system.  However,
if there is corruption in the filesystem, the OS may remount it
read-only to protect the data.  If this is the case, I'd suggest
rebooting and see if you see any uncorrectable filesystem errors as the
system comes up.

-- 
Smoot Carl-Mitchell
Computer Systems and
Network Consultant
smoot at tic.com
+1 480 922 7313
cell: +1 602 421 9005