[Lenovo ThinkPad T420] Ubuntu 13.04 freezes when copying large amount of data from one USB drive to another

[Marty Miller-Crispe]

When copying about 1.5TB of data from one 3TB USB drive to another the system totally freezes requiring a hard reset (power button or sysrq-alt-b

Details:
I have a Lenovo T420 laptop. I am trying to copy data from one USB drive to another but after some time has elapsed (up to 2 hours) the entire system becomes unresponsive. I am usually only running a web browser (happens with both Firefox and Chrome). The mouse cursor is still active for a few minutes but nothing else is responsive. The mouse cursor will then also vanish and trying to change to a terminal (ctrl-alt-F1 for example) is not possible.
The laptop BIOS is up to date.

Things I have done:
- File tranfer was using Nautilius so installed Nemo but same issue.
- I set up a netconsole and monitored remotely. The plug in of the USB drives was detected but nothing else sent to remote console after the hang.
- I can still ping the laptop but cannot ssh into it after the hang
- I can see nothing obvious in syslog or dmesg that gives an indication of what is wrong but I don't really understand most of what is in there anyway.
- I thought initially that it was Firefox so totally removed and just used Chrome. Issue persisted.
- I ran memtest86+ which showed no errors so RAM is not the issue.
- I ran installed cpuburn and ran burnP6. CPU maxed out but no hang. So CPU isnot the issue
- I then thought it may be an issue with my install do i did a fresh install of Ubuntu 13.04, did all updates and tried again. Same result
- I have a HP 6730s laptop so I did a fresh install of 13.04 and tried on it. Same result, hangs after about 20 minuts or so of copying files so the issue is not specific to my Lenovo laptop
- I did the transfer on another laptop I have that is running Windows XP and tranfer is fine. So issue is not with USB drives (unless WIndows masks any issues somehow)

Output of cat /proc/version_signature
Ubuntu 3.8.0-29.42-generic 3.8.13.5

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.04
Package: linux-image-3.8.0-29-generic 3.8.0-29.42
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.8.0-29.42-generic 3.8.13.5
Uname: Linux 3.8.0-29-generic i686
ApportVersion: 2.9.2-0ubuntu8.3
Architecture: i386
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: marty 1931 F.... pulseaudio
Date: Wed Aug 28 10:03:13 2013
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=a8dd9ab0-fa20-4a6c-9c60-a01ac78ba212
InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-08-26 (1 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 13.04 "Raring Ringtail" - Release i386 (20130424)
MachineType: LENOVO 4180AF7
MarkForUpload: True
ProcFB: 0 inteldrmfb
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.8.0-29-generic root=UUID=63915d14-86d4-4029-8f38-f4f84381bba5 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-restricted-modules-3.8.0-29-generic N/A
 linux-backports-modules-3.8.0-29-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.106
SourcePackage: linux
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
WifiSyslog:

dmi.bios.date: 10/06/2011
dmi.bios.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.bios.version: 83ET65WW (1.35 )
dmi.board.asset.tag: Not Available
dmi.board.name: 4180AF7
dmi.board.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.board.version: Not Available
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Information
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.chassis.version: Not Available
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnLENOVO:bvr83ET65WW(1.35):bd10/06/2011:svnLENOVO:pn4180AF7:pvrThinkPadT420:rvnLENOVO:rn4180AF7:rvrNotAvailable:cvnLENOVO:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
dmi.product.name: 4180AF7
dmi.product.version: ThinkPad T420
dmi.sys.vendor: LENOVO

[Brad Figg (brad-figg)]

This change was made by a bot.

[Joseph Salisbury (jsalisbury)]

Would it be possible for you to test the latest upstream kernel? Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Please test the latest v3.11 kernel[0].

If this bug is fixed in the mainline kernel, please add the following tag 'kernel-fixed-upstream'.

If the mainline kernel does not fix this bug, please add the tag: 'kernel-bug-exists-upstream'.

If you are unable to test the mainline kernel, for example it will not boot, please add the tag: 'kernel-unable-to-test-upstream'.
Once testing of the upstream kernel is complete, please mark this bug as "Confirmed".

Thanks in advance.

[0] http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.11-rc7-saucy/

[Marty Miller-Crispe (marty-millercrispe)]

As suggested I upgraded to the latest upstream kernel.
The issue persists but with slight variation.
After about 2 hours of running the copy the gui froze as already described but this time I could crtl-alt-F1 to a terminal which I was not able to do when the freeze happened with the older kernel.
However, once in the terminal I could enter my log in name but the password prompt was never presented. I could press Enter to do a line feed but no password prompt.
I left the machine for about 2 hours and the gui showed some sign of refresh, the mouse cursor came back and could be moved, but clicking did nothing, alt-tab was not working and everyting was still frozen.
So bug still persists.

I ended up copying the files using rsync which worked without a hitch.

Is there anything else I can do to try to debug this issue?

[Marty Miller-Crispe (marty-millercrispe)]

A little more information regarding this.
I forgot to mention in my original report that the drives I was transferring data from are
Toshiba 3TB NTFS formatted copying files to Buffalo 3TB drive NTFS formatted.

I did some more testing. I copied a little over 500Gb of data from a 1TB USB drive (NTFS format) to the Buffalo 3TB drive with no issues. There was no freeze.

I then tried reversing the copy to copy files from the Buffalo 3TB drive to the Toshiba 3TB drive. I experience the system freeze after about 2 hours copying just as I hit F12 to open guake terminal. Again I could get to a terminal using crtl-alt-F*, could enter my login name, but never presented with a password prompt.

So seems the issue is related to large USB drives.

I will try formatting one to ext4 over the next few days to see if the issue is specific to NTFS.

[Marty Miller-Crispe (marty-millercrispe)]

Forgot to mention I connected both of the 3TB drives to a Windows XP box and ran disk check. No errors were found on either.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Marty Miller-Crispe, as per http://download.lenovo.com/express/ddfm.html an update is available for your BIOS (1.46). If you update to this following https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BiosUpdate , does it change anything? If it doesn't, could you please both specify what happened, and provide the output of the following terminal command:
sudo dmidecode -s bios-version && sudo dmidecode -s bios-release-date

Please note your current BIOS is already in the Bug Description, so posting this on the old BIOS would not be helpful.

For more on BIOS updates and linux, please see https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs#Bug_reporting_etiquette .

Thank you for your understanding.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for linux (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]