None of my external drives appear after Linux crash.

[Robert Pearson]

First my system became incredibly slow (consistent with the memory leak in Caja). I xKill Caja and then tried to restart it. I then closed every app and tried to do a shutdown. I got a warning that Caja still had processes running preventing shutdown. I chose shut down anyway. I eventually got the progress screen showing that Linux was trying to shut down. After 1 1/2 hours of the progress screen, I manually turned off power. I was able to reboot but all of my external drives are missing. I tried turning off and then back on one drive with no result. When I plug a drive back in I do not feel the vibration caused by the drive spinning up. Nor do I feel the drive do the initial seek. This indicated that Linux is not even attempting to access the drives.

Do I have to reinstall Ubuntu MATE 18.10 (again) in order to use external USB drives?

The attached screen shots shows only partitions on my two internal hard drives. Gparted does not show the disks. Disks from the Control Center shows only internal devices.

Without access to my external drives I am stalled. I can't even do backups.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.10
Package: linux-image-4.18.0-13-generic 4.18.0-13.14
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.18.0-13.14-generic 4.18.17
Uname: Linux 4.18.0-13-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.10-0ubuntu13.1
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC1: robert 2606 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/controlC0: robert 2606 F.... pulseaudio
CurrentDesktop: MATE
Date: Fri Dec 14 22:38:44 2018
InstallationDate: Installed on 2018-11-30 (14 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-MATE 18.10 "Cosmic Cuttlefish" - Release amd64 (20181017.2)
MachineType: System manufacturer System Product Name
ProcFB: 0 radeondrmfb
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.18.0-13-generic root=UUID=9bdf74d9-8608-440e-8020-66b698586d9d ro quiet splash vt.handoff=1
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-restricted-modules-4.18.0-13-generic N/A
 linux-backports-modules-4.18.0-13-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.175.1
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.sku: SKU
dmi.product.version: System Version
dmi.sys.vendor: System manufacturer

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

This change was made by a bot.

[Robert Pearson (rpearsonii)]

I reinstalled Ubuntu MATE 18.10 and updated/upgraded the packages and rebooted. Still none of my external USB 3 drives appear????????????????

What do I do next to try and get a working computer?

[Joseph Salisbury (jsalisbury)]

Would it be possible for you to test the latest upstream kernel? Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Please test the latest v4.20 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/v4.20-rc6

[Robert Pearson (rpearsonii)]

The last time I tried the "upstream kernel" the bug (different bug) was still there. And I had to reinstall Linux afterwards just to get a working system. After having to reinstall Linux six times I'm getting tired of it.

Finding the bug does not help if the crash corrupted the drive superblocks. I need a tool to recover from the damage the crash did to my drives. My data is more important to me than trying to find the memory lead in Caja that caused the crash in the first place. Surely I am not the only one suffering from corruption of external hard drives.

Unfortunately I am on a fixed income and cannot afford the $500+ that a recovery service charges to recover my data (x 7 drives all corrupted by the same crash).

[Robert Pearson (rpearsonii)]

Tracked down problem. Hardware problem with power going to external drives. Fixed power problem and (some) drives mount.

[Po-Hsu Lin (cypressyew)]

As this is a hardware issue, marking this as Invalid.