Re: ata command timeout

[Mark Lord <lkml@rtr.ca>]

Tejun Heo wrote:
> auxsvr@gmail.com wrote:
..
>>                                                ata1: command timeout
>> Feb 19 20:39:31 linux kernel: ata1: no sense translation for status: 0x40
>> Feb 19 20:39:31 linux kernel: ata1: translated ATA stat/err 0x40/00 to SCSI 
>> SK/ASC/ASCQ 0xb/00/00
>> Feb 19 20:39:31 linux kernel: ata1: status=0x40 { DriveReady }
>> Feb 19 20:39:31 linux kernel: sd 0:0:0:0: SCSI error: return code = 0x08000002
>> Feb 19 20:39:31 linux kernel: sda: Current: sense key: Aborted Command
>> Feb 19 20:39:31 linux kernel:     Additional sense: No additional sense 
>> information
>> Feb 19 20:39:31 linux kernel: end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 89553479
>>
>> without any other ill-effects that I know of(I did smart tests on the drive; 
>> all passed successfully).
>> I have read that hddtemp may be the cause of this (I am running version 0.3) 
>> so is there any reason
>> to worry and prepare for a HDD replacement?
> 
> Not really.  If the problem occurs very infrequently, you don't need to
> worry about it too much.  Command timeouts do occur on otherwise healthy
> systems from time to time.

I don't believe that.  Command timeouts never happen on healthy systems,
unless we have a driver bug.  Okay, so I can imagine a pathological case
of a full queue (NCQ) with all 32 commands taking longer than usual due
to ECC retries in the firmware..

But in real life, on a desktop, timeouts never happen as a normal event.

I wonder what's *really* wrong here?

Cheers