Re: SCSI/Block boot problems

[Russell King <rmk@arm.linux.org.uk>]

On Sat, Jan 18, 2003 at 04:57:02PM +0000, Russell King wrote:
> 3. SCSI goes completely gaga after a SCSI disk IO error.  I haven't
>    got much to say about this other than to supply the kernel messages
>    (with some extra ones added to try to track down the problem.)
> 
>    At this point, we are trying to read the partition table on the
>    aforementioned empty SCSI removable drive:
> 
> 	 sda:submitting buffer 0 of 1 (cc3fa580) page c026e3c0
> 	submission done
> 	prep_rq_fn: device sda ret = 1

Additional debugging shows that the above is due to a suspected media
change - we are dropping out of 2.5.59 drivers/scsi/sd.c:238
(sd_init_command(), sdp->changed true).

It would appear that when we return to scsi_prep_fn(), we release
any buffers allocated to the command structure (via scsi_release_buffers)
but we don't actually free the SCSI command structure which was allocated
via scsi_allocate_device().

This means that we drop one SCSI command structure on the floor each time
we detect the media has changed in a removable media device, which then
causes us to run out of SCSI command structures, eventually bringing the
device to a complete halt.

Unfortunately, SCSI command structures can come from req->special, and
it is unclear to me at present whether these should be freed as well.
Therefore, someone more knowledgeable of the implementation in this
area needs to review this.

-- 
Russell King (rmk@arm.linux.org.uk)                The developer of ARM Linux
             http://www.arm.linux.org.uk/personal/aboutme.html