Description of problem: eSATA drive doesn't fdisk or mount properly. Data was lost with one mount attempt. The SATA speed may be incorrect. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): uname -a Linux localhost.localdomain 2.6.26.5-28.fc8 #1 SMP Sat Sep 20 09:32:58 EDT 2008 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux $ rpm -q hal hal-0.5.10-4.fc8 Let me know what other components you need version numbers for. The computer is an HP hdx9494 laptop. Intel T8100 processor, 4GB RAM, Intel 965 chipset, 2 SATA drives internally, etc. The external drive is a AZIO USB/eSATA enclosure with a 3.5" 500GB Hitachi SATA hard drive. It is formated as ext3. The drive works properly on an eSATA port in Windows and works fine with Linux via the USB interface. The eSATA interface for both the computer and the drive is listed as 3 Gbps, ie its eSATA2. The drive supports NCQ commands. How reproducible: Every time. I've never been able to get an eSATA drive to fdisk and mount correctly. Steps to Reproduce: I've tested this as a hotplug and having it running at boot. Hotplug1: boot the laptop. Power up the drive. Plug the eSATA cable into the laptop. Hotplug2: boot the laptop. Plug in the eSATA cable into the laptop. Power up the drive. Boot-time: Power up the drive. Plug the eSATA cable into the laptop. Power up the laptop and boot it. Actual results: Neither of the hotplug methods produce any results. No entries in the logfiles. fdisk doesn't show anything. The boot-time method produces the following entry into /var/log/messages: ======================================================== Oct 2 11:10:37 localhost kernel: sdb: sdb1 Oct 2 11:10:37 localhost kernel: sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI disk Oct 2 11:10:37 localhost kernel: ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:20:00.0[A] -> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ 19 Oct 2 11:10:37 localhost kernel: scsi3 : sata_sil24 Oct 2 11:10:37 localhost kernel: ata4: SATA max UDMA/100 host m128@0xe0100000 port 0xe0102000 irq 19 Oct 2 11:10:37 localhost kernel: ata4: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 0) Oct 2 11:10:37 localhost kernel: ata4.00: ATA-8: Hitachi HDP725050GLA360, GM4OA52A, max UDMA/133 Oct 2 11:10:37 localhost kernel: ata4.00: 976773168 sectors, multi 0: LBA48 NCQ (depth 31/32) Oct 2 11:10:37 localhost kernel: ata4.00: configured for UDMA/100 Oct 2 11:10:37 localhost kernel: scsi 3:0:0:0: Direct-Access ATA Hitachi HDP72505 GM4O PQ: 0 ANSI: 5 Oct 2 11:10:37 localhost kernel: sd 3:0:0:0: [sdc] 976773168 512-byte hardware sectors (500108 MB) Oct 2 11:10:37 localhost kernel: sd 3:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off Oct 2 11:10:37 localhost kernel: sd 3:0:0:0: [sdc] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA Oct 2 11:10:37 localhost kernel: sd 3:0:0:0: [sdc] 976773168 512-byte hardware sectors (500108 MB) Oct 2 11:10:37 localhost kernel: sd 3:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off Oct 2 11:10:37 localhost kernel: sd 3:0:0:0: [sdc] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA Oct 2 11:10:37 localhost kernel: sdc: sdc1 Oct 2 11:10:37 localhost kernel: sd 3:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI disk Oct 2 11:10:37 localhost kernel: ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1f.1[A] -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16 Oct 2 11:10:37 localhost kernel: scsi4 : ata_piix Oct 2 11:10:37 localhost kernel: scsi5 : ata_piix Oct 2 11:10:37 localhost kernel: ata5: PATA max UDMA/100 cmd 0x1f0 ctl 0x3f6 bmdma 0x70a0 irq 14 Oct 2 11:10:37 localhost kernel: ata6: PATA max UDMA/100 cmd 0x170 ctl 0x376 bmdma 0x70a8 irq 15 Oct 2 11:10:37 localhost kernel: ata5.00: ATAPI: Optiarc BD ROM BC-5500A, 1.86, max MWDMA2 =========================================================================== If I run hwbrowser and look at it, it shows the drive under sdc with the correct geometry and such, but without a partition, ie no sdc1 or file sizes. So it appears to be recognized by the computer on some level. However, if I mount it with "mount /dev/sdc1 temp" or "mount -text3 /dev/sdc1 temp", the console will hang for a minute or so before returning without any errors. However, the drive is unusable (ls returns an empty directory) and /var/logs/messages shows the following: ========================================================================= Oct 2 11:16:49 localhost kernel: ata4.00: qc timeout (cmd 0xec) Oct 2 11:16:49 localhost kernel: ata4.00: failed to IDENTIFY (I/O error, err_mask=0x4) Oct 2 11:16:49 localhost kernel: ata4.00: revalidation failed (errno=-5) Oct 2 11:16:49 localhost kernel: ata4: failed to recover some devices, retrying in 5 secs Oct 2 11:16:54 localhost kernel: ata4: hard resetting link Oct 2 11:16:56 localhost kernel: ata4: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 0) Oct 2 11:17:26 localhost kernel: ata4.00: qc timeout (cmd 0xec) Oct 2 11:17:26 localhost kernel: ata4.00: failed to IDENTIFY (I/O error, err_mask=0x4) Oct 2 11:17:26 localhost kernel: ata4.00: revalidation failed (errno=-5) Oct 2 11:17:26 localhost kernel: ata4: failed to recover some devices, retrying in 5 secs Oct 2 11:17:31 localhost kernel: ata4: hard resetting link Oct 2 11:17:33 localhost kernel: ata4: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 0) Oct 2 11:18:03 localhost kernel: ata4.00: qc timeout (cmd 0xec) Oct 2 11:18:03 localhost kernel: ata4.00: failed to IDENTIFY (I/O error, err_mask=0x4) Oct 2 11:18:03 localhost kernel: ata4.00: revalidation failed (errno=-5) Oct 2 11:18:03 localhost kernel: ata4.00: disabled Oct 2 11:18:04 localhost kernel: ata4: hard resetting link Oct 2 11:18:06 localhost kernel: ata4: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 0) Oct 2 11:18:06 localhost kernel: ata4: EH complete Oct 2 11:18:06 localhost kernel: sd 3:0:0:0: [sdc] Result: hostbyte=DID_BAD_TARGET driverbyte=DRIVER_OK,SUGGEST_OK Oct 2 11:18:06 localhost kernel: end_request: I/O error, dev sdc, sector 976767935 Oct 2 11:18:06 localhost kernel: Buffer I/O error on device sdc1, logical block 488383936 Oct 2 11:18:06 localhost kernel: Buffer I/O error on device sdc1, logical block 488383937 Oct 2 11:18:06 localhost kernel: Buffer I/O error on device sdc1, logical block 488383938 Oct 2 11:18:06 localhost kernel: Buffer I/O error on device sdc1, logical block 488383939 Oct 2 11:18:06 localhost kernel: sd 3:0:0:0: [sdc] Result: hostbyte=DID_BAD_TARGET driverbyte=DRIVER_OK,SUGGEST_OK Oct 2 11:18:06 localhost kernel: end_request: I/O error, dev sdc, sector 976767935 Oct 2 11:18:06 localhost kernel: Buffer I/O error on device sdc1, logical block 488383936 Oct 2 11:18:06 localhost kernel: sd 3:0:0:0: [sdc] Result: hostbyte=DID_BAD_TARGET driverbyte=DRIVER_OK,SUGGEST_OK Oct 2 11:18:06 localhost kernel: end_request: I/O error, dev sdc, sector 976767937 Oct 2 11:18:06 localhost kernel: Buffer I/O error on device sdc1, logical block 488383937 Oct 2 11:18:06 localhost kernel: Buffer I/O error on device sdc1, logical block 488383938 Oct 2 11:18:06 localhost kernel: Buffer I/O error on device sdc1, logical block 488383939 Oct 2 11:18:06 localhost kernel: sd 3:0:0:0: [sdc] Result: hostbyte=DID_BAD_TARGET driverbyte=DRIVER_OK,SUGGEST_OK Oct 2 11:18:06 localhost kernel: end_request: I/O error, dev sdc, sector 63 Oct 2 11:18:06 localhost kernel: Buffer I/O error on device sdc1, logical block 0 Oct 2 11:18:06 localhost kernel: sd 3:0:0:0: [sdc] Result: hostbyte=DID_BAD_TARGET driverbyte=DRIVER_OK,SUGGEST_OK Oct 2 11:18:06 localhost kernel: end_request: I/O error, dev sdc, sector 65 Oct 2 11:18:06 localhost kernel: Buffer I/O error on device sdc1, logical block 1 Oct 2 11:18:06 localhost kernel: sd 3:0:0:0: [sdc] Result: hostbyte=DID_BAD_TARGET driverbyte=DRIVER_OK,SUGGEST_OK Oct 2 11:18:06 localhost kernel: end_request: I/O error, dev sdc, sector 63 Oct 2 11:18:06 localhost kernel: sd 3:0:0:0: [sdc] Result: hostbyte=DID_BAD_TARGET driverbyte=DRIVER_OK,SUGGEST_OK Oct 2 11:18:06 localhost kernel: end_request: I/O error, dev sdc, sector 65 Oct 2 11:18:06 localhost kernel: sd 3:0:0:0: [sdc] Result: hostbyte=DID_BAD_TARGET driverbyte=DRIVER_OK,SUGGEST_OK Oct 2 11:18:06 localhost kernel: end_request: I/O error, dev sdc, sector 65 Oct 2 11:18:06 localhost kernel: hfs: unable to find HFS+ superblock Oct 2 11:23:03 localhost kernel: sd 3:0:0:0: [sdc] Result: hostbyte=DID_BAD_TARGET driverbyte=DRIVER_OK,SUGGEST_OK Oct 2 11:23:03 localhost kernel: end_request: I/O error, dev sdc, sector 65 Oct 2 11:23:03 localhost kernel: EXT3-fs: unable to read superblock ================================================================== One thing that sticks out for me in all this is the SATA data rate. Both the computer and the drive are supposed to be 3.0Gb/s devices. Yet the driver wants to connect at 1.5 Gbps. The Serial ATA Controller is listed as ahci in hwbrowser. # /sbin/lsmod | grep sat sata_sil24 16069 0 libata 131937 3 ata_piix,sata_sil24,ahci Expected results: fdisk should show a single partition for /dev/sdc1, ~500GB. mount should be able to mount /dev/sdc1. Additional info: Let me know what else you need to see. Thanks for listening.
The external controller is sata_sil24, which may not be reliable in 2.6.26. Alan may know more.
sata_sil24 is pretty solid. There are some hardware compat issues with certain board/bios combinations but those are older ones mostly and the bioses got fixed too However start by reading http://www.sata-io.org/esata.asp If you have some other combination of internal sata cabling with an external plug then I wouldn't be suprised if it failed. eSATA is not SATA with an external plug it is electrically different, a detail some cheap equipment tries to ignore with predictable results. Alan
Thanks, guys. I'm installing F8 as a dual boot on another laptop with eSATA next week. I'll then check if the eSATA drive works with Vista and/or F8 on that machine and report back. LG
I just tested the external drive on Vista by installing the ext2 kernel driver downloaded from here: http://www.fs-driver.org/index.html The drive works well with both USB and with eSATA under Vista. I have no reason to believe that there is anything wrong with the external drive.
Thats useful to know as obviously if the hardware is working same machine/sata cable/drive in Vista it rules out of a lot of hardware questions.
Could someone have a look at this ? I need to transfer a whole bunch of information to my external drive. Thanks
I have looked at it. I can't draw any useful conclusions from it or duplicate it, so I have no plan to do any further work on it until/unless patterns emerge from other similar reporta that make it debuggable.
Is there a way for me to generate more debugging output that might help you troubleshoot it ? Thanks
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