[kwlug-disc] Constant freezups

Fri Dec 11 11:38:39 EST 2009

I have an ATI//AMD motherboard with the SB600 southbridge and AHCI was
often trouble.  I switched back to ATA mode.

On that same machine, I had a power outage and then I couldn't boot. I
think the drive eventually needed to be replaced.

Did you check the drive for physical problems using smartmontools?

smartctl -t long -d ata /dev/sda

then, after the testing period:

smartctl -l selftest /dev/sda

Also, if you get a chance, you could test the drive with the
manufacturer's test suite.  Use the "long" test.

Is it a multi-user machine?  Does it only freeze when that one user is
logged in, or every half-hour regardless?

Take a look at cron to see if something is running every half hour.
Could it be rarian/scrollkeeper/some other disk scan doing a regular
scan and choking on a bad drive?

Good luck!

On Fri, 2009-12-11 at 10:46 -0500, Keith Clark wrote:
> I am having an issue with a desktop computer running Ubuntu 9.10.  I've
> tried asking this question in the forum and in the mailing list and I
> have yet to get a response so I was hoping that some here locally would
> know!
> 
> I'm sure it is a hardware issue with my hard drive but I've tried
> scanning it and nothing is found to be wrong.
> 
> It all began with a power failure.  After that one user has very
> frequent system freezes.  In fact, exactly every half hour the system
> will freeze for about 3-5 minutes.
> 
> The same messages keep appearing in the system log as follows:
> 
> Dec 11 10:23:32 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6500.453221] ata1.00:
> SB600 AHCI: limiting to 255 sectors per cmd
> Dec 11 10:23:32 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6500.454344] ata1.00:
> SB600 AHCI: limiting to 255 sectors per cmd
> Dec 11 10:23:32 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6500.454348] ata1.00:
> configured for UDMA/133
> Dec 11 10:23:32 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6500.454362] ata1: EH
> complete
> Dec 11 10:23:32 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6503.536428] ata1.00:
> SB600 AHCI: limiting to 255 sectors per cmd
> Dec 11 10:23:32 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6503.537382] ata1.00:
> SB600 AHCI: limiting to 255 sectors per cmd
> Dec 11 10:23:32 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6503.537387] ata1.00:
> configured for UDMA/133
> Dec 11 10:23:32 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6503.537409] ata1: EH
> complete
> Dec 11 10:23:32 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6506.944669] ata1.00:
> SB600 AHCI: limiting to 255 sectors per cmd
> Dec 11 10:23:32 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6506.945608] ata1.00:
> SB600 AHCI: limiting to 255 sectors per cmd
> Dec 11 10:23:32 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6506.945611] ata1.00:
> configured for UDMA/133
> Dec 11 10:23:32 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6506.945629] ata1: EH
> complete
> Dec 11 10:23:32 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6510.194468] ata1.00:
> SB600 AHCI: limiting to 255 sectors per cmd
> Dec 11 10:23:32 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6510.195427] ata1.00:
> SB600 AHCI: limiting to 255 sectors per cmd
> Dec 11 10:23:32 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6510.195431] ata1.00:
> configured for UDMA/133
> Dec 11 10:23:32 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6510.195454] ata1: EH
> complete
> Dec 11 10:23:32 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6513.277728] ata1.00:
> SB600 AHCI: limiting to 255 sectors per cmd
> Dec 11 10:23:32 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6513.278670] ata1.00:
> SB600 AHCI: limiting to 255 sectors per cmd
> Dec 11 10:23:32 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6513.278674] ata1.00:
> configured for UDMA/133
> Dec 11 10:23:32 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6513.278694] ata1: EH
> complete
> Dec 11 10:23:32 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6516.519196] ata1.00:
> SB600 AHCI: limiting to 255 sectors per cmd
> Dec 11 10:23:32 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6516.520165] ata1.00:
> SB600 AHCI: limiting to 255 sectors per cmd
> Dec 11 10:23:32 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6516.520168] ata1.00:
> configured for UDMA/133
> Dec 11 10:23:32 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6516.520192] sd 0:0:0:0:
> [sda] Unhandled sense code
> Dec 11 10:23:32 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6516.520194] sd 0:0:0:0:
> [sda] Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE
> Dec 11 10:23:32 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6516.520197] sd 0:0:0:0:
> [sda] Sense Key : Medium Error [current] [descriptor]
> Dec 11 10:23:32 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6516.520201] Descriptor
> sense data with sense descriptors (in hex):
> Dec 11 10:23:32 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6516.520202]         72
> 03 11 04 00 00 00 0c 00 0a 80 00 00 00 00 00 
> Dec 11 10:23:32 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6516.520209]         1b
> 8b 23 22 
> Dec 11 10:23:32 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6516.520212] sd 0:0:0:0:
> [sda] Add. Sense: Unrecovered read error - auto reallocate failed
> Dec 11 10:23:32 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6516.520232] ata1: EH
> complete
> Dec 11 10:23:35 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6520.402370] ata1.00:
> SB600 AHCI: limiting to 255 sectors per cmd
> Dec 11 10:23:35 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6520.403308] ata1.00:
> SB600 AHCI: limiting to 255 sectors per cmd
> Dec 11 10:23:35 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6520.403312] ata1.00:
> configured for UDMA/133
> Dec 11 10:23:35 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6520.403328] ata1: EH
> complete
> Dec 11 10:23:39 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6523.810616] ata1.00:
> SB600 AHCI: limiting to 255 sectors per cmd
> Dec 11 10:23:39 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6523.811856] ata1.00:
> SB600 AHCI: limiting to 255 sectors per cmd
> Dec 11 10:23:39 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6523.811860] ata1.00:
> configured for UDMA/133
> Dec 11 10:23:39 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6523.811874] ata1: EH
> complete
> Dec 11 10:23:42 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6526.893816] ata1.00:
> SB600 AHCI: limiting to 255 sectors per cmd
> Dec 11 10:23:42 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6526.894755] ata1.00:
> SB600 AHCI: limiting to 255 sectors per cmd
> Dec 11 10:23:42 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6526.894759] ata1.00:
> configured for UDMA/133
> Dec 11 10:23:42 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6526.894778] ata1: EH
> complete
> Dec 11 10:23:45 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6529.977101] ata1.00:
> SB600 AHCI: limiting to 255 sectors per cmd
> Dec 11 10:23:45 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6529.978090] ata1.00:
> SB600 AHCI: limiting to 255 sectors per cmd
> Dec 11 10:23:45 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6529.978096] ata1.00:
> configured for UDMA/133
> Dec 11 10:23:45 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6529.978122] ata1: EH
> complete
> Dec 11 10:23:48 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6533.218629] ata1.00:
> SB600 AHCI: limiting to 255 sectors per cmd
> Dec 11 10:23:48 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6533.219620] ata1.00:
> SB600 AHCI: limiting to 255 sectors per cmd
> Dec 11 10:23:48 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6533.219626] ata1.00:
> configured for UDMA/133
> Dec 11 10:23:48 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6533.219653] ata1: EH
> complete
> Dec 11 10:23:51 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6536.469355] ata1.00:
> SB600 AHCI: limiting to 255 sectors per cmd
> Dec 11 10:23:51 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6536.470330] ata1.00:
> SB600 AHCI: limiting to 255 sectors per cmd
> Dec 11 10:23:51 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6536.470337] ata1.00:
> configured for UDMA/133
> Dec 11 10:23:51 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6536.470373] sd 0:0:0:0:
> [sda] Unhandled sense code
> Dec 11 10:23:51 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6536.470378] sd 0:0:0:0:
> [sda] Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE
> Dec 11 10:23:51 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6536.470385] sd 0:0:0:0:
> [sda] Sense Key : Medium Error [current] [descriptor]
> Dec 11 10:23:51 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6536.470394] Descriptor
> sense data with sense descriptors (in hex):
> Dec 11 10:23:51 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6536.470399]         72
> 03 11 04 00 00 00 0c 00 0a 80 00 00 00 00 00 
> Dec 11 10:23:51 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6536.470416]         1b
> 8b 23 22 
> Dec 11 10:23:51 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6536.470423] sd 0:0:0:0:
> [sda] Add. Sense: Unrecovered read error - auto reallocate failed
> Dec 11 10:23:51 bookworm-acerdesktop kernel: [ 6536.470460] ata1: EH
> complete
> 
> This is a production machine and has become almost unusable.  Any help
> would be appreciated.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Keith
> 
> 
> 
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