A vague, murky topic of "Buffer I/O error on device sdb6, logicalblock NNNNNNNNN" and a ext4/VFS oops

From: Artem S. Tashkinov
Date: Thu Nov 29 2012 - 14:27:16 EST


Hello,

When I was copying a lot of information (tens of gigabytes) from my primary HDD to a
secondary HDD I got gazillions of errors like these ones:

[19568.964762] EXT4-fs warning (device sdb6): ext4_end_bio:250: I/O error writing to inode 6029369 (offset 8036352 size 524288 starting block 51946549)
[19568.964767] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb]
[19568.964768] Result: hostbyte=0x00 driverbyte=0x08
[19568.964770] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb]
[19568.964771] Sense Key : 0xb [current] [descriptor]
[19568.964774] Descriptor sense data with sense descriptors (in hex):
[19568.964775] 72 0b 00 00 00 00 00 0c 00 0a 80 00 00 00 00 00
[19568.964784] 00 00 00 00
[19568.964788] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb]
[19568.964789] ASC=0x0 ASCQ=0x0
[19568.964791] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] CDB:
[19568.964792] cdb[0]=0x2a: 2a 00 18 c5 25 a8 00 00 70 00
[19568.964804] Buffer I/O error on device sdb6, logical block 13727786
[19568.964806] Buffer I/O error on device sdb6, logical block 13727787
[19568.964808] Buffer I/O error on device sdb6, logical block 13727788
[19568.964810] Buffer I/O error on device sdb6, logical block 13727789
[19568.964812] Buffer I/O error on device sdb6, logical block 13727790

along with:

[19568.964832] EXT4-fs warning (device sdb6): ext4_end_bio:250: I/O error writing to inode 6029369 (offset 8560640 size 57344 starting block 51946677)
[19568.964843] ata3: EH complete
[19624.635176] ata3.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x3fff SErr 0x40000 action 0x6 frozen
[19624.635181] ata3: SError: { CommWake }
[19624.635184] ata3.00: failed command: WRITE FPDMA QUEUED
[19624.635190] ata3.00: cmd 61/00:00:48:ee:cb/04:00:18:00:00/40 tag 0 ncq 524288 out
[19624.635190] res 40/00:01:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/00 Emask 0x4 (timeout)
[19624.635193] ata3.00: status: { DRDY }
[19624.635196] ata3.00: failed command: WRITE FPDMA QUEUED
[19624.635201] ata3.00: cmd 61/08:08:f0:65:bd/00:00:1d:00:00/40 tag 1 ncq 4096 out
[19624.635201] res 40/00:00:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/00 Emask 0x4 (timeout)
[19624.635203] ata3.00: status: { DRDY }
[19624.635206] ata3.00: failed command: WRITE FPDMA QUEUED
[19624.635211] ata3.00: cmd 61/00:10:48:f2:cb/04:00:18:00:00/40 tag 2 ncq 524288 out
[19624.635211] res 40/00:00:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/00 Emask 0x4 (timeout)
[19624.635213] ata3.00: status: { DRDY }
[19624.635215] ata3.00: failed command: WRITE FPDMA QUEUED
[19624.635220] ata3.00: cmd 61/00:18:48:f6:cb/04:00:18:00:00/40 tag 3 ncq 524288 out
[19624.635220] res 40/00:00:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/00 Emask 0x4 (timeout)
[19624.635223] ata3.00: status: { DRDY }
[19624.635225] ata3.00: failed command: WRITE FPDMA QUEUED

along with:

[19624.635320] ata3: hard resetting link
[19624.954880] ata3: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)
[19624.956101] ACPI Error: [DSSP] Namespace lookup failure, AE_NOT_FOUND (20120711/psargs-359)
[19624.956109] ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed [\_SB_.PCI0.SAT0.SPT2._GTF] (Node ef0307b0), AE_NOT_FOUND (20120711/psparse-536)
[19624.958006] ACPI Error: [DSSP] Namespace lookup failure, AE_NOT_FOUND (20120711/psargs-359)
[19624.958011] ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed [\_SB_.PCI0.SAT0.SPT2._GTF] (Node ef0307b0), AE_NOT_FOUND (20120711/psparse-536)
[19624.958366] ata3.00: configured for UDMA/133
[19624.960763] ata3.00: device reported invalid CHS sector 0
[19624.960765] ata3.00: device reported invalid CHS sector 0
[19624.960767] ata3.00: device reported invalid CHS sector 0
[19624.960769] ata3.00: device reported invalid CHS sector 0
[19624.960771] ata3.00: device reported invalid CHS sector 0
[19624.960773] ata3.00: device reported invalid CHS sector 0
[19624.960775] ata3.00: device reported invalid CHS sector 0
[19624.960777] ata3.00: device reported invalid CHS sector 0
[19624.960779] ata3.00: device reported invalid CHS sector 0
[19624.960781] ata3.00: device reported invalid CHS sector 0
[19624.960782] ata3.00: device reported invalid CHS sector 0
[19624.960784] ata3.00: device reported invalid CHS sector 0
[19624.960786] ata3.00: device reported invalid CHS sector 0
[19624.960788] ata3.00: device reported invalid CHS sector 0

and also this:

[19624.961128] Buffer I/O error on device sdb6, logical block 13783485
[19624.961132] EXT4-fs warning (device sdb6): ext4_end_bio:250: I/O error writing to inode 6029369 (offset 236183552 size 524288 starting block 52002249)
[19624.961142] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb]
[19624.961144] Result: hostbyte=0x00 driverbyte=0x08
[19624.961146] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb]
[19624.961147] Sense Key : 0xb [current] [descriptor]
[19624.961149] Descriptor sense data with sense descriptors (in hex):
[19624.961151] 72 0b 00 00 00 00 00 0c 00 0a 80 00 00 00 00 00
[19624.961160] 00 00 00 00
[19624.961164] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb]
[19624.961165] ASC=0x0 ASCQ=0x0
[19624.961167] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] CDB:
[19624.961168] cdb[0]=0x2a: 2a 00 1d bd 65 f0 00 00 08 00
[19624.961176] end_request: I/O error, dev sdb, sector 498951664
[19624.961179] Buffer I/O error on device sdb6, logical block 24150067
[19624.961180] lost page write due to I/O error on sdb6
[19624.961189] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb]
[19624.961191] Result: hostbyte=0x00 driverbyte=0x08
[19624.961192] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb]
[19624.961194] Sense Key : 0xb [current] [descriptor]
[19624.961196] Descriptor sense data with sense descriptors (in hex):
[19624.961197] 72 0b 00 00 00 00 00 0c 00 0a 80 00 00 00 00 00
[19624.961206] 00 00 00 00
[19624.961210] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb]
[19624.961212] ASC=0x0 ASCQ=0x0
[19624.961214] sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] CDB:
[19624.961215] cdb[0]=0x2a: 2a 00 18 cb f2 48 00 04 00 00
[19624.961222] end_request: I/O error, dev sdb, sector 416019016
[19624.961256] Buffer I/O error on device sdb6, logical block 13783486

What _exactly_ do these "Buffer I/O error on device sdb6, logical block 13727790" errors mean?
The Internet doesn't offer any relevant information on this topic - only assumption which I don't quite
appreciate.

I suspect my second HDD is failing but I've no idea how and what causes it?

Also, due to this yet unidentified failure, I've discovered a kernel bug (that's on the vanilla kernel 3.6.7):

[19633.288813] ------------[ cut here ]------------
[19633.288824] WARNING: at fs/buffer.c:1106 mark_buffer_dirty+0x64/0x70()
[19633.288826] Hardware name: System Product Name
[19633.288828] Modules linked in:
[19633.288892] Pid: 16654, comm: cp Tainted: P O 3.6.7-ic #3
[19633.288893] Call Trace:
[19633.288899] [] warn_slowpath_common+0x6d/0xa0
[19633.288903] [] ? mark_buffer_dirty+0x64/0x70
[19633.288907] [] ? mark_buffer_dirty+0x64/0x70
[19633.288911] [] warn_slowpath_null+0x1d/0x20
[19633.288914] [] mark_buffer_dirty+0x64/0x70
[19633.288919] [] __ext4_handle_dirty_metadata+0xef/0x100
[19633.288922] [] ? alloc_inode+0x2a/0x80
[19633.288927] [] ext4_new_inode+0x7df/0x1170
[19633.288932] [] ? __d_lookup+0x105/0x190
[19633.288936] [] ext4_create+0x94/0x100
[19633.288939] [] ? ext4_mknod+0x100/0x100
[19633.288943] [] vfs_create+0x7b/0xc0
[19633.288946] [] ? lookup_dcache+0x25/0xb0
[19633.288949] [] do_last.isra.50+0x736/0xad0
[19633.288953] [] ? link_path_walk+0x5a/0x7b0
[19633.288956] [] path_openat+0x95/0x3e0
[19633.288960] [] ? user_path_at_empty+0x4f/0x80
[19633.288964] [] ? copy_to_user+0x2c/0x40
[19633.288967] [] do_filp_open+0x2c/0x80
[19633.288971] [] ? alloc_fd+0xa7/0xf0
[19633.288975] [] do_sys_open+0xe0/0x1c0
[19633.288978] [] sys_open+0x2d/0x40
[19633.288983] [] sysenter_do_call+0x12/0x26
[19633.288985] ---[ end trace 2d9fda7935bc9fda ]---

Last but not least, when the kernel tries to reset the second HDD, all read/write operations
on the first HDD completely stall.

Please, advise.

--

Artem
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