Strange ATA messages in log

[Mark Fraser]

I've recently upgraded my last computer from 7.10 - 8.04 and whilst trying to 
fix the wireless issues I came across some errors in /var/log/messages that 
I'm concerned about.

Jun 30 14:17:03 Woody kernel: [10884.081328] sr: Sense Key : Aborted Command 
[current] [descriptor]
Jun 30 14:17:03 Woody kernel: [10884.081331] sr: Add. Sense: No additional 
sense information
Jun 30 14:18:07 Woody kernel: [10916.239095] ata4.01: qc timeout (cmd 0xa0)
Jun 30 14:18:07 Woody kernel: [10916.239117]          cdb 25 00 00 00 00 00 00 
00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
Jun 30 14:18:07 Woody kernel: [10916.239118]          res 
51/20:03:00:08:00/00:00:00:00:00/b0 Emask 0x5 (timeout)
Jun 30 14:18:07 Woody kernel: [10916.239136] ata4: soft resetting link
Jun 30 14:18:08 Woody kernel: [10916.567152] ata4.00: configured for UDMA/33
Jun 30 14:18:08 Woody kernel: [10916.653590] ata4.01: configured for MWDMA1
Jun 30 14:18:08 Woody kernel: [10916.653607] ata4: EH complete
Jun 30 14:19:02 Woody kernel: [10943.656781] ata4.01: qc timeout (cmd 0xa0)
Jun 30 14:19:02 Woody kernel: [10943.656802]          cdb 25 00 00 00 00 00 00 
00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
Jun 30 14:19:02 Woody kernel: [10943.656804]          res 
51/20:03:00:08:00/00:00:00:00:00/b0 Emask 0x5 (timeout)
Jun 30 14:19:02 Woody kernel: [10943.656822] ata4: soft resetting link
Jun 30 14:19:03 Woody kernel: [10943.984465] ata4.00: configured for UDMA/33
Jun 30 14:19:03 Woody kernel: [10944.066891] ata4.01: configured for MWDMA1
Jun 30 14:19:03 Woody kernel: [10944.066908] ata4: EH complete
Jun 30 14:20:02 Woody kernel: [10973.651638] ata4.01: qc timeout (cmd 0xa0)
Jun 30 14:20:02 Woody kernel: [10973.651659]          cdb 25 00 00 00 00 00 00 
00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
Jun 30 14:20:02 Woody kernel: [10973.651660]          res 
51/20:03:00:08:00/00:00:00:00:00/b0 Emask 0x5 (timeout)
Jun 30 14:20:02 Woody kernel: [10973.651678] ata4: soft resetting link
Jun 30 14:20:03 Woody kernel: [10973.979715] ata4.00: configured for UDMA/33
Jun 30 14:20:03 Woody kernel: [10974.065738] ata4.01: configured for MWDMA1
Jun 30 14:20:03 Woody kernel: [10974.065755] ata4: EH complete

Seems to be happening approximately every minute, ata4.00 and ata4.01 are both 
optical drives.

Another thing is that it mounts the various drives differently each time i.e. 
normally I would expect my main hard drive to be sda and the 2nd one /home as 
sdb, but most of the time they are reversed. I've had to change /etc/fstab to 
use the UUIDs instead.
-- 
Registered Linux User #466407 http://counter.li.org