Re: [PATCH] usb: storage: bound timeout=0 URB waits to 30s

[Greg KH <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>]

On Wed, Oct 14, 2026 at 05:38:56PM +0800, Hongyu Xie wrote:
> usb_stor_msg_common() is the common URB submission/wait helper for
> usb-storage transfers.  Callers that pass a positive timeout get that
> timeout, but the three internal transfer helpers (usb_stor_ctrl_transfer,
> usb_stor_intr_transfer and usb_stor_bulk_transfer_buf) all pass 0,
> which selects MAX_SCHEDULE_TIMEOUT: the control thread waits for the URB
> forever.
> 
> A device that stops responding while such a transfer is pending hangs the
> control thread permanently, and the hang propagates into the SCSI error
> handler:
> 
>     scsi command timeout -> eh_abort_handler -> command_abort()
>       -> usb_stor_stop_transport()  /* URB unlink issued, but the URB of
>                                       a device wedged mid-transition
>                                       never completes */
>       -> wait_for_completion(&us->notify)  /* no timeout */
> 
> The unbounded wait also closes a deadlock cycle observed on arm64 servers
> running 5.4.x, where a Realtek USB WiFi dongle in CD-ROM mode (sr0)
> wedges during usb_modeswitch's re-enumeration transition: the system
> shutdown hook (mdadm --wait-clean --scan, which opens every block device)
> blocks in disk_block_events() holding ev->block_mutex, waiting for the
> disk events work whose TEST UNIT READY timed out into the
> command_abort() wait above.  No timeout anywhere in the cycle means the
> shutdown hangs forever -- hung_task warnings every 120s until power loss,
> two production incidents with identical stacks.
> 
> Bound the fallback wait to 30s, matching the SCSI layer's default command
> timeout for disk and CD-ROM LUs (SD_TIMEOUT / SR_TIMEOUT).  When the bound
> fires, the URB is killed, the transport reports USB_STOR_XFER_ERROR, and
> the command fails through the regular paths: the control thread
> completes, notify is signalled, the abort returns, and the events work
> (and with it the shutdown) can finish.
> 
> For disk and CD-ROM LUs this bound introduces no new policy: a transfer
> that produced no URB completion for 30s has already exhausted the SCSI
> layer's patience, and the error handler trying to abort it cannot make
> progress while the control thread is stuck in the unbounded wait.
> 
> A blanket bound for this helper was suggested before [1] but dropped over
> concern that legitimate SCSI commands (format, tape rewind) can exceed
> 60 seconds.  Those commands are issued to tape LUs whose SCSI timeouts
> are much longer than 30s; usb-storage-attached tapes holding back a CSW
> for more than 30 seconds remain the residual false-positive window of
> this change (modern tape bridges use UAS, which is unaffected).
> 
> The scatter-gather data path (usb_stor_bulk_transfer_sglist(), which
> waits in usb_sg_wait()) is a separate unbounded wait and is not covered
> by this change; a device that stalls mid data phase can still wedge the
> control thread there.
> 
> Validation: on the affected production machine the hang occurred twice
> across ~4800 hibernate cycles with identical stacks; with this bound in
> place, 990+ hibernate cycles completed without a recurrence.
> 
> [1] https://lkml.rescloud.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/2207.0/05816.html

Please only use lore.kernel.org links.

> Fixes: 1da177e4c3f4 ("Linux-2.6.12-rc2")
> Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
> Signed-off-by: Hongyu Xie <xiehongyu1@kylinos.cn>
> ---

No diffstat?  How did you generate this?

> --- a/drivers/usb/storage/transport.c
> +++ b/drivers/usb/storage/transport.c
> @@ -112,6 +112,15 @@
>   * command _must_ pass through this function (or something like it) for the
>   * abort mechanisms to work properly.
>   */
> +
> +/*
> + * Bound for the URB wait when the caller passes timeout == 0: matches the
> + * SCSI layer's default command timeout for disk and CD-ROM LUs (SD_TIMEOUT /
> + * SR_TIMEOUT), so a wedged device surfaces as a regular command failure
> + * instead of hanging the control thread forever.

Please rewrite this from scratch and do not use a LLM for it, as this
doesn't make much sense to me at all.

thanks,

greg k-h