Re: ATA errors corrupt other I/O & set / readonly

[Felix Miata <mrmazda@earthlink.net>]

On 2012/05/19 17:28 (GMT-0600) Robert Hancock composed:

> On 2012/05/02 Felix Miata wrote:

>>  https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=43128
...
>>  Please, what should I do?

> It's hard to follow the discussion in the openSUSE bug report. I'm not
> sure if there was any dmesg posted from the case where other IO was
> being interfered with by the problems with the external device. In AHCI
> mode that really shouldn't happen, but in IDE mode on Intel controllers
> it may be more possible because of the PATA emulation that's effectively
> being done by the controller.

The "other" I/O being done while I'm attempting to use these is usually 
limited to tty I/O, either bash or MC running in bash running on tty[1-6] in 
runlevel 3 to copy files between one HD and another, usually both source and 
target in individual RX-358 units, often just from the NTFS partition to the 
EXT2 partition in the same RX-358 unit. The STB[1] that I bought the V2 to 
use with only writes to Windows partitions via USB connection, which 
complicates life by forcing me to move files off the NTFS partition to free 
up space.

The V2 also produces trouble in USB mode, and when connected via SATA to 
WinXP, for which the only workaround I know is rebooting until it gets 
recognized. Connected via USB to the STB the NTFS partition would sometimes 
become marked so as to become unavailable to the STB. The only way to 
reenable access to it is to have WinXP run CHKDSK on it, which is how I would 
discover the unreliability of its connectibility to WinXP.

I use these devices with multiple machines, many of which are Dells whose 
BIOS contain the string "AHCI" nowhere in setup. I never set any machine to 
use a legacy mode except temporarily for troubleshooting purposes, but this 
doesn't necessarily mean AHCI is used.

IIRC, I was only ever asked for /var/log/messages, never dmesg. I can never 
remember what distinguishes the content provided by the two.

If you want a dmesg attached to either bug, I need to know when and how you 
want me to try and get it. I say "try" because once corruption begins, 
getting dmesg is unlikely via keyboard on a tty, and potential methods of 
fetching it any other way are not known to me. It might be sitting on tty11 
or elsewhere that I could copy manually from if I knew well enough what to 
copy or omit.

> It's not possible to put in a blacklist entry for a specific SATA
> enclosure because they're essentially a passive device and there's no
> way to identify them through software (unless they have a custom ID
> string like the WD MyBook drives). If it only works properly at 1.5 Gbps
> then a module/boot parameter may be the best solution.

It would be helpful if I knew a blanket cmdline parameter to use to cap 
everything at 1.5 instead of for each machine having to discover all the bus 
particulars and remember which go where on reboot to place them into effect 
only for the port the V2 is or might be connected to. I can't picture myself 
noticing on any of my machines whether I/O was capped at 1.5 or not. The 
maximum number of HDs used at once in any of them would be two in most, and 
three in two machines with RAID1 configured.

A couple of weeks after filing the kernel.org bug I contacted the 
manufacturer again to provide the new information contained in the bugs. 
Again it offered to replace. Only yesterday I finally answered the offer that 
I'd probably prefer to keep it in lieu of wasting more money on shipping only 
to be left with no opportunity for further testing and bug follow-up, and yet 
another replacement no better than the original, or a store credit making me 
shop for something else with equivalent functionality.

If there was a kernel dev interested in pursuing this it might be possible to 
get the manufacturer to provide a V2 device to test with. Considering the 
current delivered price of the V2 is roughly half that of the V1 it appears 
remaining stock is trying to be dumped.

[1] http://www.manhattan-digital.net/rs1933.htm
-- 
"The wise are known for their understanding, and pleasant
words are persuasive." Proverbs 16:21 (New Living Translation)

  Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks!

Felix Miata  ***  http://fm.no-ip.com/