External USB DISK: Failure to assign device

telemeister · 11-22-2009, 10:10 PM

I have two identical brand new external SATA drives:
(Western Digital Scorpio 500G SATA 2.5" notebook HD)
mounted in Coolermaster enclosure, providing USB connection
to computer.

When plugged into 2 different computers (Slackware 12.2, 13 respectively)
the device is 'seen' but no device is assigned and the device is 'offlined'
after about 20 seconds.

Here is the tail of /var/log/messages:

Code:

Nov 23 13:46:32 geezer kernel: usb 1-4.2: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 6
Nov 23 13:46:32 geezer kernel: usb 1-4.2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Nov 23 13:46:32 geezer kernel: scsi4 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
Nov 23 13:46:43 geezer kernel: usb 1-4.2: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 6
Nov 23 13:47:20 geezer last message repeated 4 times
Nov 23 13:47:20 geezer kernel: scsi 4:0:0:0: scsi: Device offlined - not ready after error recovery

There have been a couple of similar queries posted in the past:
e.g.
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/portable-usb-enclosure-not-recognized-680939/"]http://URL="http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/portable-usb-enclosure-not-recognized-680939/"]http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/portable-usb-enclosure-not-recognized-680939/[/URL][/URL]

But no definitive solutions:

As these are brand new and identical I think we can rule out hardware malfunction.

Greatly appreciate any pointers as to how to chase this.

Steve

aus9 · 11-23-2009, 02:23 AM

hi

were these partitioned and formatted under windows?

run gparted or "fdisk -l" or qtparted.

If they are new....they may not have been partitioned and formatted....so its impossilbe for linux to mount=read such hardware.

Once they are partitioned and formatted...your log should show them....just like an usb stick...eg

Code:

Nov 23 16:21:48 siduxbox kernel: usb 1-8: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
Nov 23 16:21:48 siduxbox kernel: usb 1-8: New USB device found, idVendor=0204, idProduct=6025
Nov 23 16:21:48 siduxbox kernel: usb 1-8: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
Nov 23 16:21:48 siduxbox kernel: usb 1-8: Product: Flash Disk
Nov 23 16:21:48 siduxbox kernel: usb 1-8: Manufacturer: CBM
Nov 23 16:21:48 siduxbox kernel: usb 1-8: SerialNumber: 000000123456
Nov 23 16:21:48 siduxbox kernel: usb 1-8: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Nov 23 16:21:48 siduxbox kernel: Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
Nov 23 16:21:48 siduxbox kernel: scsi4 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
Nov 23 16:21:48 siduxbox kernel: usb-storage: device found at 2
Nov 23 16:21:48 siduxbox kernel: usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
Nov 23 16:21:48 siduxbox kernel: usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
Nov 23 16:21:48 siduxbox kernel: USB Mass Storage support registered.
Nov 23 16:21:53 siduxbox kernel: usb-storage: device scan complete
Nov 23 16:21:53 siduxbox kernel: scsi 4:0:0:0: Direct-Access     CBM      Flash Disk       5.00 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2
Nov 23 16:21:53 siduxbox kernel: sd 4:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
Nov 23 16:21:53 siduxbox kernel: sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] 2047488 512-byte logical blocks: (1.04 GB/999 MiB)
Nov 23 16:21:53 siduxbox kernel: sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
Nov 23 16:21:53 siduxbox kernel: sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 0b 00 00 08
Nov 23 16:21:53 siduxbox kernel: sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
Nov 23 16:21:53 siduxbox kernel: sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
Nov 23 16:21:53 siduxbox kernel: sdb: sdb1
Nov 23 16:21:53 siduxbox kernel: sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
Nov 23 16:21:53 siduxbox kernel: sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk
Nov 23 16:21:56 siduxbox kernel: kjournald starting.  Commit interval 5 seconds
Nov 23 16:21:56 siduxbox kernel: EXT3 FS on sdb1, internal journal
Nov 23 16:21:56 siduxbox kernel: EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with writeback data mode.
Nov 23 16:21:56 siduxbox hald: mounted /dev/sdb1 on behalf of uid 1000

uppman · 11-23-2009, 05:32 AM

Might be a problem with the drive using to much power.
You could try with a powered USB-hub, use a USB-cable with extra power connector or just try a different USB-port!

telemeister · 11-23-2009, 05:49 AM

Thanks very much for those suggestions guys:

AUS9: The drives were originally unformatted. Since my original post I have formatted one of the drives (FAT32) in windows.
It is still not visible in linux - the /var/log/messages shows the same result as posted above. i.e. the disk is detected
but no actual device is reported.

UPPMAN: The drive came with a 'double USB' cable. I have tried it on several machines using one/both cables connected.
Same result.

GENERAL: Have tried on a couple of SUSE boxes as well as Slackware. Same result.

uppman · 11-23-2009, 07:14 AM

Have you enabled ACPI in the BIOS?

allend · 11-23-2009, 07:28 AM

Any chance that these disks are formatted using GPT?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GUID_Partition_Table

This would allow them to be formatted with Windows, but not readable with Slackware as it does not have support for GPT.

telemeister · 11-27-2009, 02:14 AM

Thanks for all those suggestions guys.

It turns out (I think) to be some sort of problem in the coolermaster enclosures.

When I put the Western Digital disk in a generic SATA > USB adapter everything behaves as normal.

Hence I suspect the coolermaster may have been designed/tested against
XP but may not be strictly adhering to standards (It exhibits problems on Vista and on MAC-OS as well as LInux).

For now, all I can do is advise against using this particular enclosure
(Coolermaster RX251 2.5" SATA to USB) if you are a linux user.

PS IF anyone has good recommendation for 2.5" SATA / USB enclosure I would appreciate your advice.

Thanks again for all suggestions.

aus9 · 11-27-2009, 04:30 AM

hi

can you connect these sata disks to motherboard without slowing down to usb?

maybe a pciexpress sata card?