Comment 32 for bug 1060268

I've been getting this since 3.8.0.9 on Raring and in my case targets the IDE interface: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family SATA Controller [IDE mode].

I am able to copy a small amount of data over the network but as soon as it has been running for ~30 seconds the syslog gets full with following error messages:

Mar 9 14:56:15 hostname kernel: [60968.260769] EXT4-fs warning (device sdb1): ext4_end_bio:317: I/O error writing to inode 40897497 (offset 99905536 size 524288 starting block 362881223)
Mar 9 14:56:15 hostname kernel: [60968.260780] ata3: EH complete
Mar 9 14:56:24 hostname kernel: [60977.971703] DMA: Out of SW-IOMMU space for 28672 bytes at device 0000:00:1f.2
Mar 9 14:56:24 hostname kernel: [60977.972457] ata3.01: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x0
Mar 9 14:56:24 hostname kernel: [60977.972467] ata3.01: failed command: WRITE DMA EXT
Mar 9 14:56:24 hostname kernel: [60977.972477] ata3.01: cmd 35/00:00:70:8c:09/00:04:ad:00:00/f0 tag 0 dma 524288 out
Mar 9 14:56:24 hostname kernel: [60977.972477] res 50/00:00:ff:6e:4d/00:00:ad:00:00/f0 Emask 0x40 (internal error)
Mar 9 14:56:24 hostname kernel: [60977.972482] ata3.01: status: { DRDY }
Mar 9 14:56:24 hostname kernel: [60978.008539] ata3.00: configured for UDMA/133
Mar 9 14:56:24 hostname kernel: [60978.024411] ata3.01: configured for UDMA/133
Mar 9 14:56:24 hostname kernel: [60978.024430] ata3: EH complete
Mar 9 14:56:24 hostname kernel: [60978.024963] DMA: Out of SW-IOMMU space for 28672 bytes at device 0000:00:1f.2
Mar 9 14:56:24 hostname kernel: [60978.024999] ata3.01: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x0
Mar 9 14:56:24 hostname kernel: [60978.025007] ata3.01: failed command: WRITE DMA EXT
Mar 9 14:56:24 hostname kernel: [60978.025017] ata3.01: cmd 35/00:00:70:8c:09/00:04:ad:00:00/f0 tag 0 dma 524288 out
Mar 9 14:56:24 hostname kernel: [60978.025017] res 50/00:00:af:88:e0/00:00:e8:00:00/f0 Emask 0x40 (internal error)
Mar 9 14:56:24 hostname kernel: [60978.025022] ata3.01: status: { DRDY }
Mar 9 14:56:24 hostname kernel: [60978.048531] ata3.00: configured for UDMA/133
Mar 9 14:56:24 hostname kernel: [60978.064397] ata3.01: configured for UDMA/133
Mar 9 14:56:24 hostname kernel: [60978.064417] ata3: EH complete
Mar 9 14:56:24 hostname kernel: [60978.064954] DMA: Out of SW-IOMMU space for 28672 bytes at device 0000:00:1f.2
Mar 9 14:56:24 hostname kernel: [60978.064988] ata3.01: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x0
Mar 9 14:56:24 hostname kernel: [60978.064994] ata3.01: failed command: WRITE DMA EXT
Mar 9 14:56:24 hostname kernel: [60978.065003] ata3.01: cmd 35/00:00:70:8c:09/00:04:ad:00:00/f0 tag 0 dma 524288 out
Mar 9 14:56:24 hostname kernel: [60978.065003] res 50/00:00:af:88:e0/00:00:e8:00:00/f0 Emask 0x40 (internal error)
Mar 9 14:56:24 hostname kernel: [60978.065008] ata3.01: status: { DRDY }
Mar 9 14:56:24 hostname kernel: [60978.088678] ata3.00: configured for UDMA/133
Mar 9 14:56:24 hostname kernel: [60978.104420] ata3.01: configured for UDMA/133
Mar 9 14:56:24 hostname kernel: [60978.104440] ata3: EH complete
Mar 9 14:56:24 hostname kernel: [60978.104980] DMA: Out of SW-IOMMU space for 28672 bytes at device 0000:00:1f.2
Mar 9 14:56:24 hostname kernel: [60978.105026] ata3.01: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x0
Mar 9 14:56:24 hostname kernel: [60978.105032] ata3.01: failed command: WRITE DMA EXT
Mar 9 14:56:24 hostname kernel: [60978.105042] ata3.01: cmd 35/00:00:70:8c:09/00:04:ad:00:00/f0 tag 0 dma 524288 out
Mar 9 14:56:24 hostname kernel: [60978.105042] res 50/00:00:af:88:e0/00:00:e8:00:00/f0 Emask 0x40 (internal error)
Mar 9 14:56:24 hostname kernel: [60978.105047] ata3.01: status: { DRDY }
Mar 9 14:56:24 hostname kernel: [60978.128720] ata3.00: configured for UDMA/133
Mar 9 14:56:24 hostname kernel: [60978.144398] ata3.01: configured for UDMA/133
Mar 9 14:56:24 hostname kernel: [60978.144417] ata3: EH complete
Mar 9 14:56:24 hostname kernel: [60978.144953] DMA: Out of SW-IOMMU space for 28672 bytes at device 0000:00:1f.2
Mar 9 14:56:24 hostname kernel: [60978.144988] ata3.01: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x0
Mar 9 14:56:24 hostname kernel: [60978.144996] ata3.01: failed command: WRITE DMA EXT
Mar 9 14:56:24 hostname kernel: [60978.145006] ata3.01: cmd 35/00:00:70:8c:09/00:04:ad:00:00/f0 tag 0 dma 524288 out
Mar 9 14:56:24 hostname kernel: [60978.145006] res 50/00:00:af:88:e0/00:00:e8:00:00/f0 Emask 0x40 (internal error)
Mar 9 14:56:24 hostname kernel: [60978.145011] ata3.01: status: { DRDY }
Mar 9 14:56:24 hostname kernel: [60978.168831] ata3.00: configured for UDMA/133
Mar 9 14:56:24 hostname kernel: [60978.184390] ata3.01: configured for UDMA/133
Mar 9 14:56:24 hostname kernel: [60978.184409] ata3: EH complete
Mar 9 14:56:24 hostname kernel: [60978.184945] DMA: Out of SW-IOMMU space for 28672 bytes at device 0000:00:1f.2
Mar 9 14:56:24 hostname kernel: [60978.184980] ata3.01: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x0
Mar 9 14:56:24 hostname kernel: [60978.184987] ata3.01: failed command: WRITE DMA EXT
Mar 9 14:56:24 hostname kernel: [60978.184997] ata3.01: cmd 35/00:00:70:8c:09/00:04:ad:00:00/f0 tag 0 dma 524288 out
Mar 9 14:56:24 hostname kernel: [60978.184997] res 50/00:00:af:88:e0/00:00:e8:00:00/f0 Emask 0x40 (internal error)
Mar 9 14:56:24 hostname kernel: [60978.185003] ata3.01: status: { DRDY }
Mar 9 14:56:25 hostname kernel: [60978.208475] ata3.00: configured for UDMA/133
Mar 9 14:56:25 hostname kernel: [60978.216593] ata3.01: configured for UDMA/133
Mar 9 14:56:25 hostname kernel: [60978.216622] sd 2:0:1:0: [sdb]
Mar 9 14:56:25 hostname kernel: [60978.216626] Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE
Mar 9 14:56:25 hostname kernel: [60978.216630] sd 2:0:1:0: [sdb]
Mar 9 14:56:25 hostname kernel: [60978.216633] Sense Key : Aborted Command [current] [descriptor]
Mar 9 14:56:25 hostname kernel: [60978.216639] Descriptor sense data with sense descriptors (in hex):
Mar 9 14:56:25 hostname kernel: [60978.216642] 72 0b 00 00 00 00 00 0c 00 0a 80 00 00 00 00 00
Mar 9 14:56:25 hostname kernel: [60978.216658] e8 e0 88 af
Mar 9 14:56:25 hostname kernel: [60978.216665] sd 2:0:1:0: [sdb]
Mar 9 14:56:25 hostname kernel: [60978.216668] Add. Sense: No additional sense information
Mar 9 14:56:25 hostname kernel: [60978.216673] sd 2:0:1:0: [sdb] CDB:
Mar 9 14:56:25 hostname kernel: [60978.216675] Write(10): 2a 00 ad 09 8c 70 00 04 00 00
Mar 9 14:56:25 hostname kernel: [60978.216690] end_request: I/O error, dev sdb, sector 2903084144
Mar 9 14:56:25 hostname kernel: [60978.216699] Buffer I/O error on device sdb1, logical block 362885262
Mar 9 14:56:25 hostname kernel: [60978.216708] Buffer I/O error on device sdb1, logical block 362885263
Mar 9 14:56:25 hostname kernel: [60978.216712] Buffer I/O error on device sdb1, logical block 362885264
Mar 9 14:56:25 hostname kernel: [60978.216716] Buffer I/O error on device sdb1, logical block 362885265
Mar 9 14:56:25 hostname kernel: [60978.216719] Buffer I/O error on device sdb1, logical block 362885266

This affects all drives, which eventually go into read-only mode. Normally I am unable to save any work, or successfully shutdown or restart my machine requiring a hard reboot. In one instance, the desktop icons started to fallback to the gnome icons, I could not type any commands, as it looked like no input was being sent to X but the mouse can be moved and clicking on a menu entry would yield it unresponsive.

I have tested my drives with fsck -c to ensure that there any bad blocks. I have also run a Short Drive Self & Short Generic Test using SeaTools for all drives, and additionally a long generic on my root partition with no errors.

And my drives have gone in to read-only mode as I type this. I will continue with comment after a reboot.