Drive not appear in /dev

mkp · 11-24-2016, 07:34 AM

Hi,

I have a problem with one new hdd attached to Gentoo box. It's connected to Adaptec 1220sa with another drive. Both are new and 2tb size but only one is visible. Both are shown in kernel logs, one is /dev/sdd, other is /dev/sde but when try fdisk /dev/sde i've got error "Unable to open /dev/sde". If i check /proc/partitions it's there.

Code:

test linux-3.6 # cat /proc/partitions
major minor  #blocks  name

   8        0  234431064 sda
   8        1     112640 sda1
   8        2   40163328 sda2
   8        3  194153472 sda3
   8       16 1953514584 sdb
   8       32 1953514584 sdc
   8       48 1953514584 sdd
   8       64 1953514584 sde
  11        0    1048575 sr0
   9        0 1953514496 md0

How to find what i miss?

Thanks.

hazel · 11-24-2016, 08:19 AM

Is this drive formatted as GPT? If so, fdisk won't work on it. You will need either gdisk or parted/gparted.

mkp · 11-24-2016, 08:27 AM

Hi,

No, it's a new drive from store.

smallpond · 11-24-2016, 08:56 AM

Check the system log for sde to see if it is the drive or some artifact of the RAID controller you are using. In general you will get better performance and reliability from software RAID than from fake RAID.

mkp · 11-24-2016, 09:04 AM

Hi,

Yes, in the log /dev/sde appear. And yes, i'll make soft raid if i find drive in /dev.

Thanks.

Emerson · 11-24-2016, 09:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hazel

Is this drive formatted as GPT? If so, fdisk won't work on it. You will need either gdisk or parted/gparted.

Gentoo fdisk works with GPT, has been working for a few years now.

Emerson · 11-24-2016, 11:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mkp

Hi,

Yes, in the log /dev/sde appear. And yes, i'll make soft raid if i find drive in /dev.

Thanks.

I think that controller may be a POS. Have you tried disconnecting the working drive and see if the other drive is picked up by controller? I had once one of those two-port controllers and it could not handle 2 drives at the same time, although was supposed to be "RAID".

frankbell · 11-24-2016, 07:11 PM

If it's a new drive from the store, there's a good chance it's formatted NTFS. Do you have NTFS-3G installed?

I doubt that explains why fdisk doesn't see it, so this is purely a shot in the dark.

seasons · 11-25-2016, 05:16 PM

Does SMART tool see the disk? (You need to have smartmontools installed and have root permissions.)

Code:

smartctl -a -q noserial /dev/sde

mkp · 11-26-2016, 01:06 AM

Hi,

Emerson, i tried change or disconnect drives but without success.
Seasons, your code return:

Code:

Smartctl open device: /dev/sde failed: No such device

The drive is visible only in logs and if i run lshw:

Code:

*-disk UNCLAIMED
       description: ATA Disk
       product: WDC WD20EFRX-68E
       vendor: Western Digital
       physical id: 0.0.0
       bus info: scsi@5:0.0.0
       version: 82.0
       serial: WD-WCC4M2JL0FCJ
       configuration: ansiversion=5

Before that Adaptec, i tried asm1061 controler .. the result was the same. The problem is that i have only 4 sata ports on motherboard and 5 drives. Is there something in the kernel config which i miss? It's not possible to have limitation of connected drives.

seasons · 11-26-2016, 04:55 AM

If possible, I would suggest using a jumper on the drive(s) to force SATA 3.0Gbps since the Adaptec 1220sa does not support SATA 6.0Gpbs.
Theoretically, the drive should detect that the controller does not support SATA 6.0Gbps and automatically fall back to 3.0Gbps, but that doesn't always work in practice.

mkp · 11-28-2016, 02:23 AM

Hi,

Seasons, but there is 2 drives and one of them is visible, other isn't. If i rotate sata cable, the result is the same.

Thanks.

seasons · 11-28-2016, 07:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mkp

If i rotate sata cable, the result is the same.

That's not what I suggested. Jumper pins 5 and 6 on the drives to force SATA 3.0Gbps mode
http://support.wdc.com/knowledgebase...atadesktopjump

mkp · 11-29-2016, 01:23 AM

Hi,

seasons, i have full backup on that server. Today i tested it in VM machine. I'm add 5 virtual drives and surprise ... gentoo box see only 4 drives exactly as real server. Why my gentoo see only 4 drives? It was old installation with kernel 2.4.20 which i replace with 3.6. What i miss? How i see, the problem is not in an adaptec.

Thanks.

p.p. It was so simple.

Code:

cd /dev , MAKEDEV sdX

That's all. Now i see all my drives and made soft raid1.

Jjanel · 11-29-2016, 04:50 AM

>[totally NOT any hardware issue; 2.4/3.6 kernel didn't matter] But same .iso [?]
Maybe there's something [badly customized] in udev. Need to dig up more 'clues'!
"When the 'impossible' appears to be happening, it probably isn't [happening]!"
Any clues in any logs? Sanity check (post): ls -l /dev/sd?
How about trying a new 'pure' gentoo vm: http://www.osboxes.org/gentoo ?
Best wishes... we'll swat this bug if it's the last thing we do