Ubuntu MATE crashes when too many external USB drives are mounted.

[Robert Pearson]

I had the following drives mounted:
/media/robert/Shared - a second partition of the first internal hard drive with an NTFS
/media/robert/4TB LaCie - an external USB 3 drive with an NTFS
/media/robert/4TB G-Drive - an external USB 3 drive with an NTFS
/media/robert/4TB Seagate 1 - an external USB 3 drive with an NTFS file system
/media/robert/4TB Seagate 2 - an external USB 3 drive with an NTFS file system
/media/robert/4TB Seagate 3 - an external USB 3 drive with an HFS+ file system
/media/robert/4TB Seagate 5 - an external USB 3 drive with an NTFS file system
/media/robert/5TB Seagate 1 - an external USB 3 drive with an ext4 file system

Detected but not mounted were:
Win10 - a partition on my second hard drive with an NTFS file system
U MATE 14 - a partition on my second hard drive with an ext4 file system
Windows10 - a partition on my second hard drive with an NTFS file system
701 GB Volume - a partition on my second hard drive with an ext4 file system
83 GB Volume - a partition on my second hard drive with an ext4 file system

Also attached but not detected is a 6TB Seagate USB 3 drive.

The HFS+ files system was using hfs package.

I was copying files from a directory in 4TB Seagate 3 to 4TB Seagate 1 using the Terminal cp -anR command. Once all the files had been copied I intended to reformat the drive with a NTFS file system.

I was using VueScan and it began misbehaving after I had deleted and renamed some directories with CAJA. I exited VueScan and tried to restart it. The initial splash screen displayed, then the program hang. I tried it again. Same results.

I aborted the terminal copy and did a system shutdown. I saw the Ubuntu shutdown screen. I waited, and waited. I went to bed. After 8 hours the shutdown screen was still being displayed. I had to turn the power off. Then I disconnected most of the external drives. I turned power back on and rebooted.

The 6TB drive did appear and was mounted. I had to disconnect-reconnect the 4TB Seagate 3 (HFS+ file system) a number of times and reboot before it would mount.

VueScan started properly and works fine. It had been working properly before - the error was that Caja would not show the newly scanned files that VueScan produced. After restarting Ubuntu they showed up proving that VueScan was not at fault.

Caja is complaining when I try to delete files - see attachment,

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.04
Package: linux-image-4.15.0-38-generic 4.15.0-38.41
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.15.0-38.41-generic 4.15.18
Uname: Linux 4.15.0-38-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.4
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC1: robert 2122 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/controlC0: robert 2122 F.... pulseaudio
CurrentDesktop: MATE
Date: Thu Nov 1 22:20:39 2018
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=aa95f07d-f769-44ca-8b33-0c5b3c78bdeb
InstallationDate: Installed on 2018-10-25 (8 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-MATE 18.04 LTS "Bionic Beaver" - Release amd64 (20180426)
MachineType: System manufacturer System Product Name
ProcFB: 0 radeondrmfb
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.15.0-38-generic root=UUID=26dc3ca5-f3ae-47eb-92b6-4f02ed5ba4f0 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=1
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-restricted-modules-4.15.0-38-generic N/A
 linux-backports-modules-4.15.0-38-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.173.1
RfKill:
 0: phy0: Wireless LAN
  Soft blocked: no
  Hard blocked: no
SourcePackage: linux
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 04/01/2014
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: 1301
dmi.board.asset.tag: To be filled by O.E.M.
dmi.board.name: A88XM-A
dmi.board.vendor: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
dmi.board.version: Rev X.0x
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: Asset-1234567890
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: Chassis Manufacture
dmi.chassis.version: Chassis Version
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvr1301:bd04/01/2014:svnSystemmanufacturer:pnSystemProductName:pvrSystemVersion:rvnASUSTeKCOMPUTERINC.:rnA88XM-A:rvrRevX.0x:cvnChassisManufacture:ct3:cvrChassisVersion:
dmi.product.family: To be filled by O.E.M.
dmi.product.name: System Product Name
dmi.product.version: System Version
dmi.sys.vendor: System manufacturer

[Ubuntu Kernel Bot (ubuntu-kernel-bot)]

This change was made by a bot.

[Joseph Salisbury (jsalisbury)]

Did this issue start happening after an update/upgrade? Was there a prior kernel version where you were not having this particular problem?

Would it be possible for you to test the latest upstream kernel? Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Please test the latest v4.19 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'.

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/v4.19

[Robert Pearson (rpearsonii)]

Dear Joseph,
Unfortunately I am a Linux newbie. This means that I do not even know what
you mean by "upstream kernel". I do know that when I tried Ubuntu MATE
18.10 that after three days of error messaged I went back to 18.04. I am
still trying to recover data from the initial 18.04 total meltdown (I was
not even able to boot). After installing different versions of Ubuntu three
times in one week, I am leery of trying some method I do not know to try an
"upstream kernel".

I only send in the bug reports to help the developers fix their bugs - as
opposed to John Dominique Wernier's technique of not including the bugs in
first place.

I do know that Ubuntu MATE Artful Ardvark and Bionic Beaver both had this
problem. Maybe its like the Unix limitation of only allowing 125 file
handles or yacc only allowing 425 productions - the program limiting the
size of a resource because he does not keep up with the size of modern
computers. (i.e. Word6 limited to files smaller than 50MB in machines with
1GB RAM.)

I also know that 18.04 is extremely sluggish with a 6TB external drive
mounted (fortunately I did not buy the 8TB drive).

If there is something I can try without having to completely re-install my
OS and all applications, please let me know. I want to help.

Robert Pearson

On Fri, Nov 2, 2018 at 9:15 AM Joseph Salisbury <
<email address hidden>> wrote:

> Did this issue start happening after an update/upgrade? Was there a
> prior kernel version where you were not having this particular problem?
>
> Would it be possible for you to test the latest upstream kernel? Refer
> to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Please test the latest
> v4.19 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'.
>
> 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/v4.19
>
> ** Changed in: linux (Ubuntu)
> Importance: Undecided => Medium
>
> ** Changed in: linux (Ubuntu)
> Status: Confirmed => Incomplete
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1801232
>
> Title:
> Ubuntu MATE crashes when too many external USB drives are mounted.
>
> Status in linux package in Ubuntu:
> Incomplete
>
> Bug description:
> I had the following drives mounted:
> /media/robert/Shared - a second partition of the first internal hard
> drive with an NTFS
> /media/robert/4TB LaCie - an external USB 3 drive with an NTFS
> /media/robert/4TB G-Drive - an external USB 3 drive with an NTFS
> /media/robert/4TB Seagate 1 - an external USB 3 drive with an NTFS file
> system
> /media/robert/4TB Seagate 2 - an external USB 3 drive with an NTFS file
> system
> /media/robert/4TB Seagate 3 - an external USB 3 drive with an HFS+ file
> system
> /media/robert/4TB Seagate 5 - an external USB 3 drive with an NTFS file
> system
> /media/robert/5TB Seagate 1 - an external USB 3 drive with an ext4 fil...

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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