System Update froze - UbuntuMATE 16-04

Sat Jun 23 11:00:41 UTC 2018

On 23/06/2018, Oliver Grawert <ogra at ubuntu.com> wrote:
> hi,
>
> Am Samstag, den 23.06.2018, 07:22 +0800 schrieb Bret Busby:
>
>> Now, as I previously said, I believe that the previously encountered
>> ongoing external HDD I/O problems, were not caused by a problem with
>> the external HDD, but, rather, with a problem with the file
>> management, where I had had to abort file transfers.
>>
>> So, I believe that an inherent problem exists, with the file
>> management, and, the file transfers.
>
> so lets take a look at your log:
>
> [    3.120705] scsi 3:0:0:0: Direct-Access     HP       External HDD
>
> there we have your HP disk (scsi device 3:0:0:0)... lets filter the log
> for messages from it ...
>
> ogra at acheron:~/temp$ grep "3:0:0:0" syslog
> [    3.120705] scsi 3:0:0:0: Direct-Access     HP       External HDD
> [    3.125644] sd 3:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg6 type 0
> [    3.127076] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] 975400960 512-byte logical blocks:
> [    3.130568] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] Write Protect is off
> [    3.130572] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] Mode Sense: 23 00 10 00
> [    3.133320] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] No Caching mode page found
> [    3.133323] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] Assuming drive cache: write through
> [    5.008964] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] Attached SCSI disk
> [   96.748471] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] tag#0 FAILED Result:
> [   96.748476] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] tag#0 Sense Key : Hardware Error
> [   96.748478] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] tag#0 Add. Sense: No additional sense
> [   96.748482] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] tag#0 CDB: ATA command pass
> [   99.795865] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] tag#0 FAILED Result:
> [   99.795876] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] tag#0 Sense Key : Hardware Error
> [   99.795882] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] tag#0 Add. Sense: No additional sense
> [   99.795890] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] tag#0 CDB: ATA command pass
> [  696.354375] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] tag#0 FAILED Result:
> [  696.354381] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] tag#0 Sense Key : Hardware Error
> [  696.354384] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] tag#0 Add. Sense: No additional sense
> [  696.354387] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] tag#0 CDB: ATA command pass
> [  699.902764] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] tag#0 FAILED Result:
> [  699.902770] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] tag#0 Sense Key : Hardware Error
> [  699.902772] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] tag#0 Add. Sense: No additional sense
> [  699.902776] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] tag#0 CDB: ATA command pass
> [  967.158490] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] tag#0 FAILED Result: hostbyte=DID_OK
> [  967.158500] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] tag#0 Sense Key : Medium Error
> [current]
> [  967.158506] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] tag#0 Add. Sense: Unrecovered read
> error
> [  967.158513] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] tag#0 CDB: Read(10) 28 00 08 5a 76 e8
> [ 1296.182176] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] tag#0 FAILED Result:
> [ 1296.182186] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] tag#0 Sense Key : Hardware Error
> [ 1296.182192] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] tag#0 Add. Sense: No additional sense
> [ 1296.182199] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] tag#0 CDB: ATA command pass
> [ 1299.510509] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] tag#0 FAILED Result:
> [ 1299.510518] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] tag#0 Sense Key : Hardware Error
> [ 1299.510523] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] tag#0 Add. Sense: No additional sense
> [ 1299.510529] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] tag#0 CDB: ATA command pass
> 3:0:0:0: [sdf] tag#0 FAILED Result: hostbyte=DID_OK
> 3:0:0:0: [sdf] tag#0 Sense Key : Medium Error [current]
> 3:0:0:0: [sdf] tag#0 Add. Sense: Unrecovered read error
> 3:0:0:0: [sdf] tag#0 CDB: Read(10) 28 00 08 5a 76 e8 00 00 f0 00
> 3:0:0:0: [sdf] tag#0 FAILED Result: hostbyte=DID_ERROR
> 3:0:0:0: [sdf] tag#0 Sense Key : Hardware Error [current] [descriptor]
> 3:0:0:0: [sdf] tag#0 Add. Sense: No additional sense information
> 3:0:0:0: [sdf] tag#0 CDB: ATA command pass through(16) 85 06 20 00 00
> 3:0:0:0: [sdf] tag#0 FAILED Result: hostbyte=DID_ERROR
> 3:0:0:0: [sdf] tag#0 Sense Key : Hardware Error [current] [descriptor]
> 3:0:0:0: [sdf] tag#0 Add. Sense: No additional sense information
> 3:0:0:0: [sdf] tag#0 CDB: ATA command pass through(12)/Blank a1 06 20
>
> so your disk is detected 3 seconds after the boot by the kernel and
> fully initialized after 5 seconds ("Attached SCSI disk")...
>
> from then on anyhing in this log related to that disk are errors, so
> lets also filter on the word "error" (and exclude the "errors=" mount
> options the ext4 driver prints for healthy disks when it loads):
>
> ogra at acheron:~/temp$ grep -i "error" syslog |grep -v "errors="
> hostbyte=DID_ERROR driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE
> [   96.748476] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] tag#0 Sense Key : Hardware Error
> hostbyte=DID_ERROR driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE
> [   99.795876] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] tag#0 Sense Key : Hardware Error
> hostbyte=DID_ERROR driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE
> [  696.354381] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] tag#0 Sense Key : Hardware Error
> hostbyte=DID_ERROR driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE
> [  699.902770] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] tag#0 Sense Key : Hardware Error
> [  967.158500] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] tag#0 Sense Key : Medium Error
> [current]
> [  967.158506] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] tag#0 Add. Sense: Unrecovered read
> error
> [  967.158518] blk_update_request: critical medium error, dev sdf,
> hostbyte=DID_ERROR driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE
> [ 1296.182186] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] tag#0 Sense Key : Hardware Error
> hostbyte=DID_ERROR driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE
> [ 1299.510518] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdf] tag#0 Sense Key : Hardware Error
> 3:0:0:0: [sdf] tag#0 Sense Key : Medium Error [current]
> 3:0:0:0: [sdf] tag#0 Add. Sense: Unrecovered read error
> blk_update_request: critical medium error, dev sdf, sector 140146408
> 3:0:0:0: [sdf] tag#0 FAILED Result: hostbyte=DID_ERROR
> 3:0:0:0: [sdf] tag#0 Sense Key : Hardware Error [current] [descriptor]
> 3:0:0:0: [sdf] tag#0 FAILED Result: hostbyte=DID_ERROR
> 3:0:0:0: [sdf] tag#0 Sense Key : Hardware Error [current] [descriptor]
>
> your kernel is obviously trying to access the disk, detects a hardware
> error and starts over, the whole block layer of your kernel will be
> constantly busy with this ... your USB bus might be saturted with
> reqests etc.
>
> can you see how this will affect each and every file opration ?
>
> it is like a network connection on which you download a big file from
> the internet, if you try browsing the web while the download runs and
> keeps your network connection under load, your websites will likely
> load noticeable slower.
>
> the same happens with all your file operations above, your block layer
> is busy so all disk access gets slowed down. there is nothing to blame
> in the software here, everything works as it is supposed to apart from
> your broken USB disk that slows down your whole system by not replying
> properly to requests from the controller and keeping the kernel busy
> with re-tries.
>
> ciao
> 	oli

I note and I emp0hasise that, after the two messages that had appeared
to have vapourised when I tried to post them,I had started to write a
third message, in (al)pine, and, in the course of writing that
message, I had, after wondering what the weird appearance of sdf was,
in the syslog file, ran df -h, found from that, that the device for
the HP) HDD was no longer sdb, but, was then sdf, I altered what I was
writing, and, wrote and posted a message, conceding that the HP HDD
had problems, and that I would need to replace it.

-- 
Bret Busby
Armadale
West Australia
..............

"So once you do know what the question actually is,
 you'll know what the answer means."
- Deep Thought,
 Chapter 28 of Book 1 of
 "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
 A Trilogy In Four Parts",
 written by Douglas Adams,
 published by Pan Books, 1992

....................................................