This morning my ubuntu file system, used as a mysql server, was not logging information from other boxes.

This box has been running without a problem for months, maybe years.

All of a sudden it tells me that the "file system is read only".

Ok, I will post information later from dmesg - anything else someone might want to help with this. I am not a newbie, been using linux/ubuntu - etal for over 10years.

Wonder how many have had this problem. I am almost done with ubuntu, it has disappointed me, and I will be moving to linux mint soon for all my boxes.

Ubuntu, by default, mounts the root file system with the option to remount it ro if a file system failure is detected. (Without the option, a fs failure would crash the system.)

Anyhow, from your description it sounds like you have a crashed or flaky hard drive that you'll need to replace, and recreate from your backup. (And, by the way, if the system was at all critical, why didn't you have it on a RAID system?)