hdparm on USB drive , SG_IO error after update 17.10 to 18.04

[Nigel Rowe]

After updating from lubuntu 17.10 to 18.04 the command

sudo hdparm -y /dev/sdd

which used to used to work on my external USB HDD to put it into standby, now reports

sudo hdparm -y /dev/sdd

/dev/sdd:
 issuing standby command
SG_IO: bad/missing sense data, sb[]: 70 00 05 00 00 00 00 0a 00 00 00 00 24 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

and the drive does not go into standby.

ENVIRONMENT

$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
Release: 18.04

$ apt-cache policy hdparm
hdparm:
  Installed: 9.54+ds-1
  Candidate: 9.54+ds-1
  Version table:
 *** 9.54+ds-1 500
        500 http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

$ grep sdd /var/log/syslog
Jul 15 16:25:13 nkr kernel: [ 3.215443] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdd] 5860533167 512-byte logical blocks: (3.00 TB/2.73 TiB)
Jul 15 16:25:13 nkr kernel: [ 3.215445] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdd] 4096-byte physical blocks
Jul 15 16:25:13 nkr kernel: [ 3.215606] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdd] Write Protect is off
Jul 15 16:25:13 nkr kernel: [ 3.215608] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdd] Mode Sense: 53 00 00 08
Jul 15 16:25:13 nkr kernel: [ 3.215918] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdd] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
Jul 15 16:25:13 nkr kernel: [ 9.406645] sdd: sdd1
Jul 15 16:25:13 nkr kernel: [ 9.408080] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdd] Attached SCSI disk
Jul 15 16:25:13 nkr kernel: [ 44.123041] EXT4-fs (sdd1): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. Opts: (null)

and a great many
Jul 15 11:12:47 nkr ureadahead[302]: ureadahead:sdd: Ignored relative path
Jul 15 11:12:47 nkr ureadahead[302]: ureadahead:sdd1: Ignored relative path

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.