EXT3-fs error

[de Selby]

Hello all

I've been using Ubuntu successfully for a few weeks now and have been
very happy with it. Today however, I've come across a strange error
that I don't understand so I turn to you folk before giving up and
re-installing... the problem is this:

After about 5 to 10 mins of login most everything in Gnome pretty much
freezes. The only thing I am able to do is change terminals with
Ctrl-Alt-F#,  but when I do so I get a continuous stream of the
following message:
--------

EXT3-fs error (device hda1) in start-transmission: Readonly filesystem

-------

My syslog is the only record I can find with something strange in it,
which I give directly following this message. I gather that something
is wrong with .gconf and .gconfd but beyond that I'm at a loss. Will
simply changing the permissions on these folders fix things or is
there some more fundamental problem here?

For your info, I formatted my hd as ext2, so I'm not sure why there is
an ext3 error (but perhaps that is expected?).
Anyway, if I'm overlooking something simple, please let me know.
Otherwise I may just re-install and try again. Apologies if this is a
simple problem, but as is probably obvious I'm fairly new to Linux and
am sort of bumbling my way through. Other than this little problem
(well, big problem), I've been very happy with Ubuntu and am hoping to
make it comfortable on this machine.

Much thanks in advance,
de Selby

--------

Oct  6 16:40:07 localhost gconfd (username-4241): starting (version
2.8.0), pid 4241 user 'username'
Oct  6 16:40:07 localhost gconfd (username-4241): Resolved address
"xml:readonly:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.mandatory" to a read-only
configuration source at position 0
Oct  6 16:40:07 localhost gconfd (username-4241): Resolved address
"xml:readwrite:/home/username/.gconf" to a writable configuration
source at position 1
Oct  6 16:40:07 localhost gconfd (username-4241): Resolved address
"xml:readonly:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.defaults" to a read-only
configuration source at position 2
Oct  6 16:40:20 localhost gconfd (username-4241): Resolved address
"xml:readwrite:/home/username/.gconf" to a writable configuration
source at position 0

Oct  6 16:40:30 localhost gconfd (root-4357): starting (version
2.8.0), pid 4357 user 'root'
Oct  6 16:40:30 localhost gconfd (root-4357): Resolved address
"xml:readonly:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.mandatory" to a read-only
configuration source at position 0
Oct  6 16:40:30 localhost gconfd (root-4357): Resolved address
"xml:readwrite:/root/.gconf" to a writable configuration source at
position 1
Oct  6 16:40:30 localhost gconfd (root-4357): Resolved address
"xml:readonly:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.defaults" to a read-only
configuration source at position 2

...

Oct  6 16:52:07 localhost gconfd (username-4241): SIGHUP received,
reloading all databases
Oct  6 16:52:07 localhost gconfd (username-4241): Resolved address
"xml:readonly:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.mandatory" to a read-only
configuration source at position 0
Oct  6 16:52:07 localhost gconfd (username-4241): Resolved address
"xml:readwrite:/home/username/.gconf" to a writable configuration
source at position 1
Oct  6 16:52:07 localhost gconfd (username-4241): Resolved address
"xml:readonly:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.defaults" to a read-only
configuration source at position 2