Persistent error after upgrade: ERROR: unsupported sector size 4096 on /dev/sdb

Bug #1334909 reported by C. Jeffery Small
24
This bug affects 6 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
grub2 (Ubuntu)
Confirmed
Undecided
Unassigned
ubuntu-release-upgrader (Ubuntu)
Confirmed
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

Hardware: Asus U56E
Upgrade from Xubuntu 13.10 64-bit to 14.04 64-bit

# lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 14.04 LTS
Release: 14.04

I just upgraded to 14.04. During the upgrade I received the error: " ERROR: unsupported sector size 4096 on /dev/sdb." multiple times. Here is an excerpt from /var/log/apt/term.log:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Found memtest86+ image: /boot/memtest86+.bin
ERROR: unsupported sector size 4096 on /dev/sdb.
ERROR: unsupported sector size 4096 on /dev/sdb.
ERROR: unsupported sector size 4096 on /dev/sdb.
ERROR: unsupported sector size 4096 on /dev/sdb.
ERROR: unsupported sector size 4096 on /dev/sdb.
ERROR: unsupported sector size 4096 on /dev/sdb.
ERROR: unsupported sector size 4096 on /dev/sdb.
ERROR: unsupported sector size 4096 on /dev/sdb.
grub-probe: error: unknown filesystem
Found Windows Recovery Environment (loader) on /dev/sda1
Found Windows 7 (loader) on /dev/sda2
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

/dev/sdb is an external USB-attached 3TB Seagate Backup Plus disk that has been attached to 13.10 since it was upgrade, and has caused no problems.

The upgrade acted as though there were unrecoverable errors and that the upgrade would be backed out, but it continued and finished the upgrade to 14.04. There were a few minor configuration problems with the upgrade, but it appear to work properly. However, now, every time I reboot, I get a blank screen with the message:

ERROR: unsupported sector size 4096 on /dev/sdb.

Then the system hangs for about 30 seconds or so before continuing with the boot into xfce4. Once up, both the Thunar and Nautilus file managers see the Seagate disk and are able to mount and navigate it without problem.

The Seagate disk is being used as formatted from the factory. gparted-pkexec and gnome-disks diagree on sizes, but show an initial 8.0/8.4Mb unallocated partition followed by /dev/sdb1 with 2.73/3.0Tb NTFS filesystem and then another unallocated 4.46/4.7Mb partition.

From this information and the fact that this message is not logged in any system file, I would assume the the problem is with the grub loader.

While this problem is investigated further, is there any way to stop the boot delay when this message is displayed?

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
Package: ubuntu-release-upgrader-core 1:0.220.2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-29.53-generic 3.13.11.2
Uname: Linux 3.13.0-29-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.2
Architecture: amd64
CrashDB: ubuntu
CurrentDesktop: XFCE
Date: Thu Jun 26 17:17:15 2014
InstallationDate: Installed on 2012-04-17 (800 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot" - Release amd64 (20111012)
PackageArchitecture: all
SourcePackage: ubuntu-release-upgrader
Symptom: release-upgrade
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to trusty on 2014-06-25 (1 days ago)
VarLogDistupgradeTermlog:

Revision history for this message
C. Jeffery Small (loyhz2ay-jeff-h670zbts) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

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

Changed in ubuntu-release-upgrader (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Tom Stiefel (tstiefel69) wrote :

This bug appears since last update after/during installing following packages:

grub-pc (2.02~beta2-9ubuntu1.8) over (2.02~beta2-9ubuntu1.7) ...
grub-pc-bin (2.02~beta2-9ubuntu1.8) over (2.02~beta2-9ubuntu1.7) ...
grub2-common (2.02~beta2-9ubuntu1.8) over (2.02~beta2-9ubuntu1.7) ...
grub-common (2.02~beta2-9ubuntu1.8) over (2.02~beta2-9ubuntu1.7) ...

My system:

# > cat /etc/os-release
NAME="Ubuntu"
VERSION="14.04.4 LTS, Trusty Tahr"
ID=ubuntu
ID_LIKE=debian
PRETTY_NAME="Ubuntu 14.04.4 LTS"
VERSION_ID="14.04"
HOME_URL="http://www.ubuntu.com/"
SUPPORT_URL="http://help.ubuntu.com/"
BUG_REPORT_URL="http://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/"

# > cat /etc/lsb-release
DISTRIB_ID=LinuxMint
DISTRIB_RELEASE=17.3
DISTRIB_CODENAME=rosa
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Linux Mint 17.3 Rosa"

Revision history for this message
Martin Dünkelmann (nc-duenkekl3-deactivatedaccount) wrote :

No Duplicate...

Affects me, too.

While every kernel upgrade, when my external 3TB-Seagate is attached.

Medium /dev/sdb: 2,7 TiB, 3000592982016 Bytes, 732566646 Sektoren
Einheiten: sectors von 1 * 4096 = 4096 Bytes
Sektorengröße (logisch/physisch): 4096 Bytes / 4096 Bytes
I/O Größe (minimal/optimal): 4096 Bytes / 4096 Bytes
Typ der Medienbezeichnung: gpt
Medienkennung: 64B7198B-BCAA-49E3-BF61-7ED09B380A4D

Gerät Start Ende Sektoren Größe Typ
/dev/sdb1 256 332800255 332800000 1,2T Microsoft basic data NTFS
/dev/sdb2 332800256 588800255 256000000 976,6G Microsoft basic data EXT 4
/dev/sdb3 588800256 732566527 143766272 548,4G Microsoft basic data EXT 4

Revision history for this message
Martin Dünkelmann (nc-duenkekl3-deactivatedaccount) wrote :

I'm using Linux Mint 18 and don't know how to edit my own posts.

Revision history for this message
Dimitri John Ledkov (xnox) wrote :

This seems to come from ./grub-core/disk/xen/xendisk.c I think. This seems like a minor point to complain about this loudly to everyone who is using 4k drives.

Changed in grub2 (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Dimitri John Ledkov (xnox) wrote :

errors are printed from invoking grub-probe it seems.

Revision history for this message
Phillip Susi (psusi) wrote :

xendisk.c should be responsible for /dev/xvda, not /dev/sda.

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