Firewire interface to external HDD stopped working, Debian testing

john_b · 07-22-2006, 03:35 PM

I recently got an external hard-drive enclosure with disk and got it set up, partitioned, etc. It was working great with both firewire and USB interfaces, but the other day I connect it up and the firewire interface won't work: I get no /dev/sda device found. The USB interface still works perfectly.

My question is: is there a way to tell if there is a problem with the cable or the physical firewire connections, or if perhaps something in the OS broke when I updated with apt-get?

Here are some entries from /var/log/messages. The first block is when it was working, the second is not working :

Code:

Jul 18 20:35:52 localhost kernel: SCSI subsystem initialized
Jul 18 20:35:52 localhost kernel: sbp2: $Rev: 1306 $ Ben Collins <bcollins@debian.org>
Jul 18 20:35:52 localhost kernel: ieee1394: sbp2: Driver forced to serialize I/O (serialize_io=1)
Jul 18 20:35:52 localhost kernel: ieee1394: sbp2: Try serialize_io=0 for better performance
Jul 18 20:35:52 localhost kernel: scsi0 : SCSI emulation for IEEE-1394 SBP-2 Devices
Jul 18 20:35:52 localhost kernel: hdc: TOSHIBA DVD-ROM SD-R2412, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
Jul 18 20:35:52 localhost kernel: ieee1394: sbp2: Logged into SBP-2 device
Jul 18 20:35:52 localhost kernel:   Vendor: ST330083  Model: 1A				Rev:	 
Jul 18 20:35:52 localhost kernel:   Type:   Direct-Access-RBC				  ANSI SCSI revision: 04
Jul 18 20:35:52 localhost kernel: SCSI device sda: 586072368 512-byte hdwr sectors (300069 MB)
Jul 18 20:35:52 localhost kernel: SCSI device sda: 586072368 512-byte hdwr sectors (300069 MB)
Jul 18 20:35:52 localhost kernel:  sda: sda1 sda2
Jul 18 20:35:52 localhost kernel: sd 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi disk sda
Jul 18 20:35:52 localhost kernel: ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15

Jul 21 04:03:06 localhost kernel: SCSI subsystem initialized
Jul 21 04:03:06 localhost kernel: sbp2: $Rev: 1306 $ Ben Collins <bcollins@debian.org>
Jul 21 04:03:06 localhost kernel: ieee1394: sbp2: Driver forced to serialize I/O (serialize_io=1)
Jul 21 04:03:06 localhost kernel: ieee1394: sbp2: Try serialize_io=0 for better performance
Jul 21 04:03:06 localhost kernel: Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
Jul 21 04:03:06 localhost kernel: usbcore: registered new driver usb-storage

Could it have something to do with these lines?:

Jul 21 04:03:06 localhost kernel: Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
Jul 21 04:03:06 localhost kernel: usbcore: registered new driver usb-storage

I also have a dual-boot with FC5 which is a recent install, and I hadn't tested the firewire drive on that one yet.

Thanks for any help

HappyTux · 07-23-2006, 01:34 PM

Well it looks like it gets detected in your output above what does the output of fdisk -l as root show you it should have two partitions sda1 and sda2, which you should be able to mount as mount /dev/sda1 /some/mount/point again as root.

Electro · 07-23-2006, 03:47 PM

Do you have both USB and IEEE-1394 connected to the enclosure? If you do, do not use both at the same time. Also try power on the device before connecting it to the computer. Is the drive powering ok because if it is not, it will not work. Some drives are picky what voltage levels they are getting. The power supply may be going if you hear the hard drive starting up and then stopping. Usually, it takes me a few tries to Linux to register my USB drive.

john_b · 07-23-2006, 08:56 PM

Thanks for the replies. I can use the USB inerface, in which case I see the two /dev/sda paritions, but with the firewire interface, I get nothing (the second block from var/log/messages is from the NOT working time). And I haven't been trying to use both at the same time ;-)

I just tried running the program 'gscanbus' both with and without the firewire drive plugged: when the drive was plugged in and turned on, the program gave a bunch of read-write errors and a segfault. When the firewire cable was disconnected or the drive off, it displayed the information about my computer's firewire interface.

I tried using a different cable, so I know the problem isn't a fault cable.

john_b · 07-24-2006, 08:27 PM

I've tested the firewire interface on another machine and it works just fine, so I guess that means that the problem is either the hardware on m laptop mysteriously broke or the driver controlling the firewire port is busted. Any other ideas?