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Hi all,
I'm new to arch (~3 months) but not entirely new to *nix systems (~5 years). Although this I'm facing a _weird_ issue with my USB external hard-drives. I'm not an expert at all when it comes to USB and that's why I can't possibly diagnose the problem. Anyway, I've seen this problem _only_ with arch, that's why I'm posting here.
My external USB drives keep on failing. One actually broke (<1 year old). I bought a new one, but it nonetheless fails. The problem occurs while transferring data to them, at one point they stop working, and get remounted read-only. This is problematic especially in the case that I was running some bash script to move data to them, as it starts failing. As I said, one HD actually broke down, the other two that are connected keep on getting disconnected. I changed the USB cables, just to be sure.
I'm running the latest synchronized arch (3.2.2-1-ARCH) and as window manager i3. The system is running on a lenovo X201, docked. The USB failures happen both if connected to the USB directly to the laptop or through the docking station.
After the problem occurs (again, drives fail and then get mounted RO, but they are not really accessible) even if I umount, reconnect and mount they are not working. Only a system reboot makes them working again. This makes me believe is something kernel/usb-hub related.
I get errors like this:
(/var/log/errors.log)
Jan 30 09:38:31 localhost kernel: [504914.455094] sd 25:0:0:0: rejecting I/O to offline device
Jan 30 09:38:40 localhost kernel: [504922.941880] EXT4-fs (sdd1): previous I/O error to superblock detected
...
Jan 30 09:39:17 localhost kernel: [504959.892613] hub 1-1:1.0: unable to enumerate USB device on port 2
Jan 30 09:39:17 localhost kernel: [504960.361818] usb 1-1.2: device descriptor read/64, error -32
Jan 30 09:39:18 localhost kernel: [504961.465088] hub 1-1:1.0: unable to enumerate USB device on port 2
Jan 30 09:39:23 localhost kernel: [504966.761408] usb 1-1.2: device descriptor read/all, error -110
Jan 30 09:39:24 localhost kernel: [504967.770835] hub 1-1:1.0: cannot disable port 2 (err = -110)
Jan 30 09:39:25 localhost kernel: [504968.780268] hub 1-1:1.0: cannot reset port 2 (err = -110)
...
Jan 30 09:53:19 localhost kernel: [ 73.287083] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Asking for cache data failed
Jan 30 09:53:19 localhost kernel: [ 73.287089] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write throughI hope you could give me some advices, or direct me to some pages where the issue has been already solved (sorry, I tried searching, but could not find immediately an answer).
Thank you for your time,
Best,
~C
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How do you connect your USB drives? I had got problems with some USB HUB. Another possibility is that the drive is USB powered and there is not enough power in the USB port. I do not think it s a software problem but I can't be sure of course.
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Hi,
Maybe we have been hit by the same cause, still figuring out a proper fix
Check Other Post
Check Other Post 2
@Mod: Maybe merge the post or put the one linked into Kernel & Hardware Section
Last edited by boomshalek (2012-01-30 18:48:51)
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Hi all and thanks for the replies.
@olive
My drives are both usb-powered and mains-powered (both new). Therefore I highly doubt that it is a hardware/cable problem. Also, on other distros (Ubuntu) and on Windows the drives work without problems on the same USB ports. They are not connected through an external USB HUB, though one is connected through the docking station which might work as a HUB. But again, that one is the mains-powered device, therefore I highly doubt it's a power issue.
@boomshalek
Thank you for pointing me to those threads. I will try disabling ehci_hcd. As for putting it before uhci_hcd, I don't see this one loaded (through running mkinitcpio -v), therefore this should not be an issue for me.
I will keep you posted in case ehci_hcd disabled solves the problem.
Best,
~C
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I did some further research.
Disabling ehci_hcd makes so that the drives work over USB 1.1 therefore slowing down all kind of transfer operations. This might not be optimal. Apparently working at lower speeds also prevents the all crashing.
This somehow (reading on the ThinkPad wiki) might be the result of a compromised USB southbridge on the motherboard (http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Problem_with_USB_2.0).
Do you have a laptop or a desktop?
Best,
~C
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This might not be optimal. Apparently working at lower speeds also prevents the all crashing.
I know that tranfer speed is limited to USB1.1 this way. As I said in post #3 "I am still figuring out a proper fix". And that's why I wanted people to follow all 3 threads, in order to find out a better fix ASAP.
But it's a start for now until a better fix/workaround is found.
This [...] might be the result of a compromised USB southbridge on the motherboard. Do you have a laptop or a desktop?
I am on a Desktop. I think this is not related to the Southbridge but to recent system updates (driver [kernel] or boot init [udev] problem) ... see all the topics with people having the same issue that popped out just recently
Last edited by boomshalek (2012-01-31 10:21:05)
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@boomshalek
Hi,
today's updates (udev) made things worse. Now even my mouse and keyboard (connected through a dongle) stop working a few minutes after reboot.
This happens _only_ if I have external HDD attached. Without them the mouse and keyboard work all right.
I'll see if I can find a fix.
Best,
~C
Last edited by marforio (2012-02-01 11:04:30)
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I had problems with external hard disks, too - they were not even discovered when connected to a normal USB port. However, I discovered that the problems went away when I connected the disk to a _powered_ USB hub.
Apparently, the current from a "standard" USB port (on my Asrock H67M) is inadequate.
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