mkdosfs hangs while scanning for bad blocks

[whollygoat]

Anybody know what's going on or can help debug
this at least?

Running squeeze I am having trouble reformatting a

  * 64MB memory stick and a
  * 160GB 2.5" HD in a USB linked
    external enclosure

using "mkdosfs -c /dev/sd{ag}1".

In both cases the process hung while checking for
bad blocks.  ps shows the process to be in
uninteruptible sleep.  man ps says that it is
probably related to IO.

I eventually got the memory stick to finish but
the external HD still hangs (at the same block
count, at least, on 3 of the tries).

kill -KILL doesn't unjam the process.  Only unplugging
the drive seems to free things up.  If you plugg
it back in right away, it will start counting
off blocks as it checks again and finishes.  But, the
filesystem mounts as ext3 because...

"mke2fs -c -j /dev/sda1" will work just fine on this drive.

Thanks,

will
--
 
  whollygoat@...

--
http://www.fastmail.fm - IMAP accessible web-mail


--
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-REQUEST@...
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@...

[John Allen-2]

whollygoat@... wrote:

> Anybody know what's going on or can help debug
> this at least?
>
> Running squeeze I am having trouble reformatting a
>
>   * 64MB memory stick and a
>   * 160GB 2.5" HD in a USB linked
>     external enclosure
>
> using "mkdosfs -c /dev/sd{ag}1".
>
>  

I can report the same happens on Lenny with the latest amd64 kernel.

> In both cases the process hung while checking for
> bad blocks.  ps shows the process to be in
> uninteruptible sleep.  man ps says that it is
> probably related to IO.
>
> I eventually got the memory stick to finish but
> the external HD still hangs (at the same block
> count, at least, on 3 of the tries).
>
> kill -KILL doesn't unjam the process.  Only unplugging
> the drive seems to free things up.  If you plugg
> it back in right away, it will start counting
> off blocks as it checks again and finishes.  But, the
> filesystem mounts as ext3 because...
>
> "mke2fs -c -j /dev/sda1" will work just fine on this drive.
>
> Thanks,
>
> will
>  

--
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-REQUEST@...
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@...

[whollygoat]

On Sun, 08 Nov 2009 09:46 +0000, "John Allen" <john.allen@...>
wrote:

> whollygoat@... wrote:
> > Anybody know what's going on or can help debug
> > this at least?
> >
> > Running squeeze I am having trouble reformatting a
> >
> >   * 64MB memory stick and a
> >   * 160GB 2.5" HD in a USB linked
> >     external enclosure
> >
> > using "mkdosfs -c /dev/sd{ag}1".
> >
> >  
> I can report the same happens on Lenny with the latest amd64 kernel.

What kind of medium did you try to format,
and how big is it?

I tried this with a live grml cd and it choked there
as well.  No luck getting the drive recognized under
dos.  Think I will try making a couple of smaller
partitions and see if that works any better.

Thanks for you comment

will

--
 
  whollygoat@...

--
http://www.fastmail.fm - Send your email first class


--
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-REQUEST@...
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@...

[John Allen-2]

whollygoat@... wrote:

> On Sun, 08 Nov 2009 09:46 +0000, "John Allen" <john.allen@...>
> wrote:
>  
>> whollygoat@... wrote:
>>    
>>> Anybody know what's going on or can help debug
>>> this at least?
>>>
>>> Running squeeze I am having trouble reformatting a
>>>
>>>   * 64MB memory stick and a
>>>   * 160GB 2.5" HD in a USB linked
>>>     external enclosure
>>>
>>> using "mkdosfs -c /dev/sd{ag}1".
>>>
>>>  
>>>      
>> I can report the same happens on Lenny with the latest amd64 kernel.
>>    
>
> What kind of medium did you try to format,
> and how big is it?
>
>  

2G SD card, it had been reporting read errors in my camera, so I thought
I'd reformat with -c :(

> I tried this with a live grml cd and it choked there
> as well.  No luck getting the drive recognized under
> dos.  Think I will try making a couple of smaller
> partitions and see if that works any better.
>
> Thanks for you comment
>
> will
>
>  

--
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-REQUEST@...
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@...

[whollygoat]

On Sat, 07 Nov 2009 17:43 -0800, whollygoat@... wrote:

> Anybody know what's going on or can help debug
> this at least?
>
> Running squeeze I am having trouble reformatting a
>
>   * 64MB memory stick and a
>   * 160GB 2.5" HD in a USB linked
>     external enclosure
>
> using "mkdosfs -c /dev/sd{ag}1".
>

See http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=556141
--
 
  whollygoat@...

--
http://www.fastmail.fm - Faster than the air-speed velocity of an
                          unladen european swallow


--
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-REQUEST@...
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@...