fsck is failing to clean a filesystem

[Ian Smith]

On Tue, 9 Feb 2016 22:10:14 -0800, Paul Beard wrote:
 > > On Feb 9, 2016, at 9:14 PM, Ian Smith <smithi at nimnet.asn.au> wrote:
 > > 
 > > I know your problem is with /usr, but I 
 > > find the fact that /var is full or too nearly so rather concerning, and 
 > > wonder whether that might have contributed to your problem in some way, 
 > > and whether freeing up some space there might yet help?
 > 
 > Yeah, itÿÿs a mess, running a full system in a 64Gb virtual disk is 
 > probably asking for trouble. I think there is some cruft in /var 
 > (databases that are no longer in use) that can be pitched.

64GB should be plenty, depending on usage of course.  A full /var is a 
worry, especially if it runs short of room for logging.

 > > Also, does 'du /usr/lost+found' reveal anything?
 > 
 > It was full of stuff /usr/src, best I could make out. Not sure why it 
 > all ended up in there.

Well at least /usr/src is easily replaced.  Might be worth just deleting 
all that, though of course you need a read-write mount first .. perhaps
after booting from a memstick or live CD?

You might also check (before and after deleting anything) that /usr 
isn't running short of inodes (df -hi)?

Just stabbing in the dark .. scrambled filesystems are the pits!

cheers, Ian