USB drive errors with kernel version 3.13.0-35 and above

[Gary Dalmadge]

I am seeing various USB drive errors while trying to use the drives.

For instance, I am unable to successfully create a new file system on the drives. One example is parted which returns the following error: Error fsyncing/closing /dev/sdc: Remote I/O error

dmesg shows the following error in this case: end_request: critical target error, dev sdc, sector 0

The errors appear with different brands and types of USB drives. I have tested the drives on other systems and they are okay.

Earlier versions of Ubuntu (prior to 14.04) do not show these errors. I am running the i386 version.

I have tried different versions of the kernel. It seems to have appeared in the 3.13.0-35 kernel. I do not see it while using the 3.13.0-34 kernel, but see it in newer kernels. It is present in both the generic and low latency versions of the kernel.

I have tried the Utopic kernels 3.16.0.37.29 with the same results.

I have also tried the upstream kernels 4.0.3-040003, and 4.1.0-040100rc3 and still see the problem.

I have multiple systems, and am only seeing this on systems with AMD processors and certain nVidia chipsets, for instance GeForce 6100 Northbridge/nForce 410 Southbridge.

Here is the output of lsb_release -rd :
Description: Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS
Release: 14.04

Please let me know if you need additional information. I will be happy to provide any information that you would find helpful.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
Package: linux-image-3.13.0-52-lowlatency 3.13.0-52.86
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-52.86-lowlatency 3.13.11-ckt18
Uname: Linux 3.13.0-52-lowlatency i686
ApportVersion: 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.10
Architecture: i386
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: gary 1804 F.... qasmixer
                      gary 1952 F.... pulseaudio
CurrentDesktop: XFCE
Date: Tue May 19 18:06:54 2015
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=c5872602-e17b-4383-8845-4b83d5332f13
InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-08-12 (645 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-Studio 12.04.2 "Precise Pangolin" - Release i386 (20130213)
IwConfig:
 lo no wireless extensions.

 eth0 no wireless extensions.
Lsusb:
 Bus 001 Device 003: ID 04cc:1521 ST-Ericsson USB 2.0 Hub
 Bus 001 Device 002: ID 04cf:8818 Myson Century, Inc. USB2.0 to ATAPI Bridge Controller
 Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
 Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
ProcFB: 0 nouveaufb
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-52-lowlatency root=UUID=e0b2c957-2687-46ae-ad75-68dd964b02b2 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-restricted-modules-3.13.0-52-lowlatency N/A
 linux-backports-modules-3.13.0-52-lowlatency N/A
 linux-firmware 1.127.11
RfKill:

SourcePackage: linux
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to trusty on 2014-04-30 (384 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 08/11/2006
dmi.bios.vendor: Phoenix Technologies, LTD
dmi.bios.version: 6.00 PG
dmi.board.name: C51MCP51
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnPhoenixTechnologies,LTD:bvr6.00PG:bd08/11/2006:svn:pn:pvr:rvn:rnC51MCP51:rvr:cvn:ct3:cvr:

[Brad Figg (brad-figg)]

This change was made by a bot.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Gary Dalmadge, thank you for reporting this and helping make Ubuntu better. Just to advise, there is a de-emphasis of support for 32-bit operating systems upstream. Hence, is this reproducible in an x64 environment via http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/vivid-desktop-amd64.iso ?

[Gary Dalmadge (gdalmadge)]

Christopher,

I should have mentioned in my original report that I had duplicated the issue in x64 Trusty.

I also tried x64 Vivid via the link that you sent and have again duplicated the issue.

I do not see any difference in behavior in either 64-bit or 32-bit versions.

Again please let me know if I can provide more information.

[Gary Dalmadge (gdalmadge)]

Christopher,

I am able to duplicate the issue with the x64 mainline kernel 4.1-rc4 . I do not see any changes in behavior.

Please let me know if you need more information or if I can try anything else.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Gary Dalmadge, the next step is to fully commit bisect from kernel 3.11 to 3.13 in order to identify the last good kernel commit, followed immediately by the first bad one. This will allow for a more expedited analysis of the root cause of your issue. Could you please do this following https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/KernelBisection ?

Please note, finding adjacent kernel versions is not fully commit bisecting.

Thank you for your understanding.

Helpful bug reporting tips:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs

[Gary Dalmadge (gdalmadge)]

Christopher,

I have completed this as you requested.

Here is the output of the last git bisect command:

git bisect bad
Bisecting: 0 revisions left to test after this (roughly 0 steps)
[d215f919d9f1c348b5df2eb40e867698e8a59e14] scsi: handle flush errors properly

I have also attached the output of the "git bisect log" command.

Please let me know if you need additional information or would like me to run additional tests.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Gary Dalmadge, just to clarify, you tested one commit behind the suspected regression commit and there were no USB drive errors?

[Gary Dalmadge (gdalmadge)]

Christopher,

I'm sorry if I was not clear. I see the errors with this commit:

==========

commit d215f919d9f1c348b5df2eb40e867698e8a59e14 Ubuntu-3.13.0-35.62
Author: James Bottomley <email address hidden>
Date: Thu Jul 3 19:17:34 2014 +0200

    scsi: handle flush errors properly

==========

One commit behind and I do not the see the errors.

I hope that this helps.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Gary Dalmadge, the issue you are reporting is an upstream one. Could you please report this problem to the appropriate mailing list (linux-usb) by following the instructions verbatim at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Upstream/kernel ?

Please provide a direct URL to your e-mail to the mailing list once you have made it so that it may be tracked via http://vger.kernel.org/vger-lists.html . It can take a day for the new e-mail to show up in the respective archive.

Thank you for your understanding.

[Gary Dalmadge (gdalmadge)]

Christopher,

I will do that.

I also wanted to note that I originally reported this as only occurring on certain systems with AMD processors and nVidia chipsets. However, in the meantime this has been duplicated on other hardware configurations as well.

[Gary Dalmadge (gdalmadge)]

Christopher,

Here is the URL to my e-mail.

http://marc.info/?l=linux-usb&m=143257694904313&w=2