How can a disk drive cause Manjaro to freeze

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1

I have got 2 PCs - I call them PCA and PCJ - with the same Manjaro xfce installed, both received the most recent SW update on 2025-12-04. I have also got an external hard disk drive, which caused problems - see

On Dec 3 I solved that problem according to @olli’s advice, i.e. sudo cp /dev/urandom /dev/sda and so on.

After that the external disk behaved correctly. I made a data backup of selected PCA data with the duplicity command. I disconnected the disk and shut the system down. I could also plug the disk into PCJ, look at the data, create a file and a folder, disconnect the drive, shut down PCJ.

On 2025-12-08, I wanted to run an incremental backup (with duplicity) on PCA. I booted PCA, plugged in the disk. The I saw an endless wait of the connection operation. Thunar was unable to connect with the drive. It was also impossible to disconnect the drive. In that state Manjaro refused to shutdown due to an “outstanding operation”; I had to shut down with sysreq-r-e-i-s-u-o
/ [HowTo] reboot / turn off your frozen computer: REISUB/REISUO /

Next I plugged the disk into PCJ. I was able to connect the drive in thunar, look at the data, close the drive, shutdown PCJ.

I plugged the drive into PCA again; no change of behaviour, i.e. disk can be neither connected nor disconnected; operation outstanding, ordinary shutdown refused.

I plugged the drive into PCJ again. Now I se on PCJ the same behaviour as on PCA! It appears as if the disk has transported the Manjaro error from PCA to PCJ.

PCJ is a multiboot system and Ubuntu is one of the bootable systems. So I started Ubuntu. With Ubuntu the disk behaved normally. After disconnecting it I rebooted Manjaro on PCJ and the disk behaved normally with Manjaro.

I booted Manjaro on PCA and plugged in the disk. Manjaro was unable to connect the disk, unable to disconnect, refused to shutdown normally.

Of course I can by a new disk, however,
(1) I do not want to believe that the drive has a defect, because it works with Ubuntu and
(2) the challenge is to explain that strange and undesirable Manjaro behaviour.

2

It might be an idea to run blkid (in Ubuntu, you probably won’t need sudo for this. I don’t on Mint). That way we can see how it’s been formatted.

If it has any ntfs partitions, those could possibly be to blame if corrupted.

3

Like BG405 said, the ntfs module handles certain things badly. (A chkdsk may need to be run from Windows.) Maybe Ubuntu is dealing with this a little more elegantly. Who knows, we don’t have the information.

What’s the layout?

From Your favourite *fdisk utility, or just the drive in question from:

sudo parted -l

What are the logs?

When you plug it in, then unmount cleanly or eject?

You can monitor the logs with:

journalctl -f
# (Use --no-pager for copy/pasting)
1 Like
4

How can a disk drive cause Manjaro to freeze?

If the internal structures of the chosen file system get corrupted - the disk will exhibit similar behaviour to what you describe.

You should ensure the systems cache has been flushed to disk before removing a storage device to avoid corrupting the file system - the sync command does exactly that.

I suggest you check if your system has the package udev-usb-sync installed.

The package serves the function of fine tuning buffers and write cache, to avoid file system corruption on removable devices when cache has not yet been fully synced. See → [INFO] New package - udev-usb-sync for more info.

1 Like
5

That’s… not what @BG405 said, at all…

Though, I agree that NTFS filesystems should be checked from time to time, using chkdsk (the only reliable tool for repairing an NTFS filesystem). Unfortunately, a Windows environment is required.

The following is for anyone interested in a “deep dive” into potential problems faced with NTFS; you may need some time to absorb it:

1 Like
6

You don’t have to “believe” it, but rather verify it:

sudo smartctl --attributes /dev/sdX

The difference will probably be in the timeout for udisks2, i.e. when the service no longer blocks. I believe it’s about 30 seconds on Ubuntu, although the upstream standard is much higher. And because Manjaro follows the upstream here, the HDD is also blocked for longer.

Furthermore, even if Thunar reports that everything has been written, this does not mean that a background copy process is not still running. Depending on the size of your RAM, the write cache can easily be 3.2 GB, which is 20% of 16 GB, for example. If you have a slow USB 2.0 connection, 3.2 GB will still be written after Thunar reports that the write operation is complete. Keep that in mind. It will prevent unmounting and shutdown if data is still being written.

Run a sync command before unmounting or/and install the udev-usb-sync package.

2 Likes
7

Hello @megavolt, I executed the “smartctl” command you proposed, however, the output does not tell me anything. Could you please explain?

$ sudo smartctl --attributes /dev/sda
smartctl 7.4 2023-08-01 r5530 [x86_64-linux-6.8.0-85-generic] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-23, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 10
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x000f   100   253   006    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0003   099   099   000    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   100   100   020    Old_age   Always       -       408
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   100   100   036    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x000f   060   059   030    Pre-fail  Always       -       8591832171
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       83
 10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0013   100   100   034    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   100   100   020    Old_age   Always       -       336
187 Reported_Uncorrect      0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
189 High_Fly_Writes         0x003a   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel 0x0022   068   044   045    Old_age   Always   In_the_past 32 (Min/Max 18/56 #1)
191 G-Sense_Error_Rate      0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       312
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0022   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       1853
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x001a   032   056   000    Old_age   Always       -       32 (0 18 0 0 0)
195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered  0x0012   090   056   000    Old_age   Always       -       64645353
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0010   100   100   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x003e   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x0000   200   200   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate   0x0032   100   253   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
202 Data_Address_Mark_Errs  0x0000   100   253   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0

I note that I recently reformatted the drive. It has got a GPT partition table and one single ext4 partition.

8

You get much more (and useful) information with:

sudo smartctl -x /dev/sda

Looking for SMART passed tests. I see detailed info when drives fail here too.

9

Hello @Molski

~$ sudo parted -l
[sudo] Passwort für jlbunt: 
Modell: ST925082 7AS (scsi)
Festplatte  /dev/sda:  250GB
Sektorgröße (logisch/physisch): 512B/512B
Partitionstabelle: gpt
Disk-Flags: 

Nummer  Anfang  Ende   Größe  Dateisystem  Name           Flags
 1      1049kB  250GB  250GB  ext4         LWDatsich_ext

:

Here is the journalctl when I stop the device in the ffile manager

Dez 15 19:19:00 achat kernel: EXT4-fs (sda1): unmounting filesystem 90ad5f87-92cf-44eb-b889-dfa3130908f9.
Dez 15 19:19:00 achat systemd[1]: media-jlbunt-Datsich_ext.mount: Deactivated successfully.
Dez 15 19:19:00 achat udisksd[988]: Cleaning up mount point /media/jlbunt/Datsich_ext (device 8:1 is not mounted)
Dez 15 19:19:00 achat udisksd[988]: Unmounted /dev/sda1 on behalf of uid 1000
Dez 15 19:19:00 achat udisksd[988]: Successfully sent SCSI command SYNCHRONIZE CACHE to /dev/sda
Dez 15 19:19:01 achat udisksd[988]: Successfully sent SCSI command START STOP UNIT to /dev/sda
Dez 15 19:19:01 achat udisksd[988]: Powered off /dev/sda - successfully wrote to sysfs path /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb1/1-4/remove
Dez 15 19:19:01 achat kernel: usb 1-4: USB disconnect, device number 8

Here is what happens if I plug it in again

Dez 15 19:19:01 achat kernel: usb 1-4: USB disconnect, device number 8
Dez 15 19:19:24 achat kernel: audit: type=1400 audit(1765822764.793:363): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" class="file" profile="snap.firefox.firefox" name="/proc/pressure/memory" pid=4216 comm="MemoryPoller" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=1000 ouid=0
Dez 15 19:19:29 achat kernel: audit: type=1400 audit(1765822769.856:364): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" class="file" profile="snap.firefox.firefox" name="/proc/pressure/memory" pid=4216 comm="MemoryPoller" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=1000 ouid=0
Dez 15 19:19:35 achat kernel: audit: type=1400 audit(1765822775.079:365): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" class="file" profile="snap.firefox.firefox" name="/proc/pressure/memory" pid=4216 comm="MemoryPoller" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=1000 ouid=0
Dez 15 19:19:40 achat kernel: audit: type=1400 audit(1765822780.241:366): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" class="file" profile="snap.firefox.firefox" name="/proc/pressure/memory" pid=4216 comm="MemoryPoller" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=1000 ouid=0
Dez 15 19:19:45 achat kernel: audit: type=1400 audit(1765822785.269:367): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" class="file" profile="snap.firefox.firefox" name="/proc/pressure/memory" pid=4216 comm="MemoryPoller" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=1000 ouid=0
Dez 15 19:19:50 achat kernel: audit: type=1400 audit(1765822790.270:368): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" class="file" profile="snap.firefox.firefox" name="/proc/pressure/memory" pid=4216 comm="MemoryPoller" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=1000 ouid=0
Dez 15 19:19:55 achat kernel: audit: type=1400 audit(1765822795.271:369): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" class="file" profile="snap.firefox.firefox" name="/proc/pressure/memory" pid=4216 comm="MemoryPoller" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=1000 ouid=0
Dez 15 19:20:00 achat kernel: audit: type=1400 audit(1765822800.358:370): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" class="file" profile="snap.firefox.firefox" name="/proc/pressure/memory" pid=4216 comm="MemoryPoller" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=1000 ouid=0
Dez 15 19:20:05 achat kernel: audit: type=1400 audit(1765822805.441:371): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" class="file" profile="snap.firefox.firefox" name="/proc/pressure/memory" pid=4216 comm="MemoryPoller" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=1000 ouid=0
Dez 15 19:20:10 achat kernel: audit: type=1400 audit(1765822810.441:372): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" class="file" profile="snap.firefox.firefox" name="/proc/pressure/memory" pid=4216 comm="MemoryPoller" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=1000 ouid=0
Dez 15 19:20:15 achat kernel: audit: type=1400 audit(1765822815.512:373): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" class="file" profile="snap.firefox.firefox" name="/proc/pressure/memory" pid=4216 comm="MemoryPoller" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=1000 ouid=0
Dez 15 19:20:17 achat systemd[1]: Starting sysstat-collect.service - system activity accounting tool...
Dez 15 19:20:17 achat systemd[1]: sysstat-collect.service: Deactivated successfully.
Dez 15 19:20:17 achat systemd[1]: Finished sysstat-collect.service - system activity accounting tool.
Dez 15 19:20:20 achat kernel: audit: type=1400 audit(1765822820.513:374): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" class="file" profile="snap.firefox.firefox" name="/proc/pressure/memory" pid=4216 comm="MemoryPoller" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=1000 ouid=0
Dez 15 19:20:25 achat kernel: audit: type=1400 audit(1765822825.514:375): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" class="file" profile="snap.firefox.firefox" name="/proc/pressure/memory" pid=4216 comm="MemoryPoller" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=1000 ouid=0
Dez 15 19:20:26 achat wpa_supplicant[1008]: wlp5s0: WPA: Group rekeying completed with 04:b4:fe:0a:32:10 [GTK=CCMP]
Dez 15 19:20:30 achat kernel: audit: type=1400 audit(1765822830.572:376): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" class="file" profile="snap.firefox.firefox" name="/proc/pressure/memory" pid=4216 comm="MemoryPoller" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=1000 ouid=0
Dez 15 19:20:35 achat kernel: audit: type=1400 audit(1765822835.631:377): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" class="file" profile="snap.firefox.firefox" name="/proc/pressure/memory" pid=4216 comm="MemoryPoller" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=1000 ouid=0
Dez 15 19:20:40 achat kernel: audit: type=1400 audit(1765822840.694:378): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" class="file" profile="snap.firefox.firefox" name="/proc/pressure/memory" pid=4216 comm="MemoryPoller" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=1000 ouid=0
Dez 15 19:20:45 achat kernel: audit: type=1400 audit(1765822845.713:379): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" class="file" profile="snap.firefox.firefox" name="/proc/pressure/memory" pid=4216 comm="MemoryPoller" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=1000 ouid=0
Dez 15 19:20:50 achat kernel: audit: type=1400 audit(1765822850.735:380): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" class="file" profile="snap.firefox.firefox" name="/proc/pressure/memory" pid=4216 comm="MemoryPoller" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=1000 ouid=0
Dez 15 19:20:56 achat kernel: audit: type=1400 audit(1765822856.020:381): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" class="file" profile="snap.firefox.firefox" name="/proc/pressure/memory" pid=4216 comm="MemoryPoller" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=1000 ouid=0
Dez 15 19:21:01 achat kernel: audit: type=1400 audit(1765822861.021:382): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" class="file" profile="snap.firefox.firefox" name="/proc/pressure/memory" pid=4216 comm="MemoryPoller" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=1000 ouid=0
Dez 15 19:21:06 achat kernel: audit: type=1400 audit(1765822866.022:383): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" class="file" profile="snap.firefox.firefox" name="/proc/pressure/memory" pid=4216 comm="MemoryPoller" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=1000 ouid=0
Dez 15 19:21:11 achat kernel: audit: type=1400 audit(1765822871.112:384): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" class="file" profile="snap.firefox.firefox" name="/proc/pressure/memory" pid=4216 comm="MemoryPoller" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=1000 ouid=0
Dez 15 19:21:16 achat kernel: audit: type=1400 audit(1765822876.159:385): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" class="file" profile="snap.firefox.firefox" name="/proc/pressure/memory" pid=4216 comm="MemoryPoller" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=1000 ouid=0
Dez 15 19:21:21 achat kernel: audit: type=1400 audit(1765822881.160:386): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" class="file" profile="snap.firefox.firefox" name="/proc/pressure/memory" pid=4216 comm="MemoryPoller" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=1000 ouid=0
Dez 15 19:21:26 achat kernel: audit: type=1400 audit(1765822886.199:387): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" class="file" profile="snap.firefox.firefox" name="/proc/pressure/memory" pid=4216 comm="MemoryPoller" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=1000 ouid=0
Dez 15 19:21:31 achat kernel: audit: type=1400 audit(1765822891.226:388): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" class="file" profile="snap.firefox.firefox" name="/proc/pressure/memory" pid=4216 comm="MemoryPoller" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=1000 ouid=0
Dez 15 19:21:36 achat kernel: audit: type=1400 audit(1765822896.263:389): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" class="file" profile="snap.firefox.firefox" name="/proc/pressure/memory" pid=4216 comm="MemoryPoller" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=1000 ouid=0
Dez 15 19:21:41 achat kernel: audit: type=1400 audit(1765822901.284:390): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" class="file" profile="snap.firefox.firefox" name="/proc/pressure/memory" pid=4216 comm="MemoryPoller" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=1000 ouid=0
Dez 15 19:21:46 achat kernel: audit: type=1400 audit(1765822906.327:391): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" class="file" profile="snap.firefox.firefox" name="/proc/pressure/memory" pid=4216 comm="MemoryPoller" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=1000 ouid=0
Dez 15 19:21:51 achat kernel: audit: type=1400 audit(1765822911.388:392): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" class="file" profile="snap.firefox.firefox" name="/proc/pressure/memory" pid=4216 comm="MemoryPoller" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=1000 ouid=0
Dez 15 19:21:56 achat kernel: audit: type=1400 audit(1765822916.389:393): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" class="file" profile="snap.firefox.firefox" name="/proc/pressure/memory" pid=4216 comm="MemoryPoller" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=1000 ouid=0
Dez 15 19:22:01 achat kernel: audit: type=1400 audit(1765822921.524:394): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" class="file" profile="snap.firefox.firefox" name="/proc/pressure/memory" pid=4216 comm="MemoryPoller" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=1000 ouid=0
Dez 15 19:22:18 achat kernel: audit: type=1400 audit(1765822938.572:395): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" class="file" profile="snap.firefox.firefox" name="/proc/pressure/memory" pid=4216 comm="MemoryPoller" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=1000 ouid=0
Dez 15 19:22:22 achat kernel: usb 1-4: new high-speed USB device number 9 using xhci_hcd
Dez 15 19:22:22 achat kernel: usb 1-4: New USB device found, idVendor=152d, idProduct=2329, bcdDevice= 1.00
Dez 15 19:22:22 achat kernel: usb 1-4: New USB device strings: Mfr=10, Product=11, SerialNumber=5
Dez 15 19:22:22 achat kernel: usb 1-4: Product: MEDION Drive-n-go
Dez 15 19:22:22 achat kernel: usb 1-4: Manufacturer: MEDION
Dez 15 19:22:22 achat kernel: usb 1-4: SerialNumber: 563FFFFFFFFF
Dez 15 19:22:22 achat kernel: usb-storage 1-4:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
Dez 15 19:22:22 achat kernel: usb-storage 1-4:1.0: Quirks match for vid 152d pid 2329: 8020
Dez 15 19:22:22 achat kernel: scsi host0: usb-storage 1-4:1.0
Dez 15 19:22:22 achat mtp-probe[5704]: checking bus 1, device 9: "/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb1/1-4"
Dez 15 19:22:22 achat mtp-probe[5704]: bus: 1, device: 9 was not an MTP device
Dez 15 19:22:23 achat mtp-probe[5715]: checking bus 1, device 9: "/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb1/1-4"
Dez 15 19:22:23 achat mtp-probe[5715]: bus: 1, device: 9 was not an MTP device
Dez 15 19:22:23 achat kernel: audit: type=1400 audit(1765822943.573:396): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" class="file" profile="snap.firefox.firefox" name="/proc/pressure/memory" pid=4216 comm="MemoryPoller" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=1000 ouid=0
Dez 15 19:22:23 achat kernel: scsi 0:0:0:0: Direct-Access     ST925082 7AS                   PQ: 0 ANSI: 2 CCS
Dez 15 19:22:24 achat kernel: sd 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 0
Dez 15 19:22:24 achat kernel: sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 488397168 512-byte logical blocks: (250 GB/233 GiB)
Dez 15 19:22:24 achat kernel: sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
Dez 15 19:22:24 achat kernel: sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 34 00 00 00
Dez 15 19:22:24 achat kernel: sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: disabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
Dez 15 19:22:24 achat kernel:  sda: sda1
Dez 15 19:22:24 achat kernel: sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI disk
Dez 15 19:22:24 achat udisksd[988]: Error performing initial housekeeping for drive /org/freedesktop/UDisks2/drives/ST9250827AS_5RG63XJV: Error updating SMART data: sk_disk_smart_read_data: Operation not supported (udisks-error-quark, 0)
Dez 15 19:22:24 achat kernel: EXT4-fs (sda1): mounted filesystem 90ad5f87-92cf-44eb-b889-dfa3130908f9 r/w with ordered data mode. Quota mode: none.
Dez 15 19:22:24 achat udisksd[988]: Mounted /dev/sda1 at /media/jlbunt/Datsich_ext on behalf of uid 1000
Dez 15 19:23:11 achat kernel: audit: type=1400 audit(1765822991.873:397): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" class="file" profile="snap.firefox.firefox" name="/proc/pressure/memory" pid=4216 comm="MemoryPoller" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=1000 ouid=0
Dez 15 19:23:23 achat kernel: audit: type=1400 audit(1765823003.827:398): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" class="file" profile="snap.firefox.firefox" name="/proc/pressure/memory" pid=4216 comm="MemoryPoller" requested_mask="r" denied_mask="r" fsuid=1000 ouid=0
Dez 15 19:23:28 achat kernel: audit: type=1400 audit(1765823008.828:399): apparmor="DENIED" operation="open" class="file" profile="snap.firefox.firefox" name="/proc/pressure/memory" pid=4216 comm="MemoryPoller" requested_mask="r" dmyenied_mask="r" fsuid=1000 ouid=0

Does that give a clue to the cause or solution of problem?

10

hello @linux-aarhus, today I installed udev-usb-sync.

11

maybe that helps - somehow

a simple
sync
and waiting for the prompt to come back
should suffice - no?

The write to the USB storage takes as long as it takes … no?

2 Likes
12

The only value that could cause me concern would be this one:

So basically, 100 would be optimal, but it has already dropped to 59-60. Dropping below 30 would be disastrous. This value is an internal measurement adjusted by the manufacturer. The raw data does not reveal anything at first. It only becomes problematic if:

… would drop. Then there would indeed be a hardware problem. But it doesn’t. So everything is fine so far.

1 Like
13

I tried to put only a minimal amount of data, i.e. I created an ampty folder. Result: endless wait. If I try to “safely” remove the drive, I see messages that the system is waiting to complete an operation. The sync command does not alter anything.

I observe the endless waiting only after I installed the udev-usb-sync package according to @megavolt 's advice. Should I uninstall the package?

Moreover I observe that Manjaro writes data to ordinary USB (FAT) stick with usual speed. No wait!

14

I don’t know.
I guess it wouldn’t hurt to try with and without it to literally experience the difference
as the purpose of that package is (from what I gathered) that it does make a difference. :man_shrugging:

15

Maybe true, but it won’t affect how long it takes to actually write that data in its entirety, so that it’s safe to remove the device.

16

I think udev-usb-sync may be adding complexity to something that is already not working properly.

This is all I do, but I guess I am used to it.

Without that package? sync is an endless wait?

That is odd that there is no error at all. Minus the udisks SMART read error, which should be nothing.

I can’t compare xfce logs. But..

I get:

Dec 15 20:27:51 mbox kernel: sd 10:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI removable disk

(“removable”, could that be anything?)

17

Never pull the removable disk before it is safe - the udev-usb-sync package is designed to ensure kernel only buffers what can actually be offloaded using the device’s transfer rate as explained by @megavolt

If you are not using the package - with large amount of data - you need the sync command or use the file managers eject function - in any case you will need to wait for the device to disappear from the file manager before you remove the connection.

You can get much more info by reading the topic linked and the references to topics which sparked the initial ideas and the development process that followed.

The sync command does not alter anything - it is a command that instructs the kernel to flush queues to disk.

The package’s only purpose is to fine tune how the system handles data streams for removable devices by adapting the cache size to match the device’s reported transfer rate.

In reality the rules make the system adapt to how fast the target USB can receive the data - this makes the visual indicators follow the actual transfer rate for the USB - instead of following how fast the system can cache the data.

That is the purpose of the package - to adjust how much data is cached before flushing to a removable device - the end result is that when the copy/move process is finished - so is the write - you can almost instantly remove the device.

Before you conclude you don’t have use for the udev-usb-sync package - I suggest you recreate the file system on the damaged disk and retest the processes.

Be sure you do not damage the file system on the disk by removing it too early

If you use the Manjaro specific package udev-usb-sync then ejecting the device from the file manager should result in an almost instant removal.

If you do not use the mentioned package - then wait until the file manager removes the device completely - otherwise you will damage the file system on the removable disk.

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