Sometimes it's the simple things...

Quite often you run into new problems that don't have an immediate and clear solution. Generally these errors appear as cryptic lines in dmesg, who's subsequent googling reveals little to no detail of the true issue. This time, it was some lines concerning my hard drives (which always raise concern). It can be frustrating solving problems that seemingly no one else has encountered, but it's part of every IT person's job. Perhaps I should make this a weekly column...

Lately, my personal file server (which operates in the comfort of my closet) started showing errors in dmesg. Since this single machine and a collection of DVDs hold my entire digital existence, I naturally started to worry. Ignoring problems like this always leads to deep, deep regrets (and long nights recovering data) down the line.

The error message was as follows:

[33261.848883] md: data-check of RAID array md0
[33261.848898] md: minimum _guaranteed_  speed: 1000 KB/sec/disk.
[33261.848910] md: using maximum available idle IO bandwidth (but not more than 200000 KB/sec) for data-check.
[33261.848925] md: using 128k window, over a total of 488383936 blocks.
[37464.080646] ata2.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x0
[37464.080663] ata2.00: BMDMA stat 0x24
[37464.080689] ata2.00: cmd 25/00:00:3f:fb:ca/00:04:19:00:00/e0 tag 0 cdb 0x0 data 524288 in
[37464.080697]          res 51/40:00:7c:fe:ca/40:00:19:00:00/e0 Emask 0x9 (media error)
[37464.095750] ata2.00: configured for UDMA/133
[37464.095775] ata2: EH complete
[37464.760580] ata2.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x0
[37464.760596] ata2.00: BMDMA stat 0x24
[37464.760622] ata2.00: cmd 25/00:00:3f:fb:ca/00:04:19:00:00/e0 tag 0 cdb 0x0 data 524288 in
[37464.760630]          res 51/40:00:7c:fe:ca/40:00:19:00:00/e0 Emask 0x9 (media error)
[37464.776199] ata2.00: configured for UDMA/133
[37464.776231] ata2: EH complete
[37464.929888] sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] 976773168 512-byte hardware sectors (500108 MB)
[37464.959936] sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
[37464.959952] sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
[37464.980280] sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
[37465.019611] sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] 976773168 512-byte hardware sectors (500108 MB)
[37465.021709] sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
[37465.021724] sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
[37465.075118] sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn'
t support DPO or FUA

I get scared when I see "media error" in my dmesg output. But googling for media error is going to be a lesson in futility; so instead I go with "bmdma", of which I had never heard until now. After reading about bmdma and it's apparent...irrelevance...I locked on to "bmdma stat 0x24" which yielded a bundle of information.

The end result was this page on the ubuntu forums which, after diligent troubleshooting efforts on their part, forum members determined the problem was SATA cables.

SATA cables and I go back. Way back. In fact, we've spent probably $500 dollar on cables in the last three years, replacing faulty and failing cables (although the errors there were more obvious). So I wasn't too surprised when the resolution to this problem was miraculously simple - a quick replacement cable for /dev/sdb, and bam - no more exceptions!

aerhat

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design

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Same problem here

Yes, you rock!

Had the same problem, never thought it would be a darn cable. I feel like going to my computer shop and buying 4 new ones. Just to get rid of the problem...

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