Hello,
I have downloaded the first 10 Debian Etch CDs and out of 10 ISOs, 2 or 3 had an md5sum problem. While the good md5 returns a proper checksum value, the bad ones return an Input/Output error. The problem is that when this error occurs, the link between the system and HDD is lost and no further commands are accepted as they need to be picked up from the HDD. The system blanks out and I have to force shutdown and reboot it. Yesterday I kept the Lenny live CD for download and its md5sum gave the same problem today morning.
I had mentioned this problem earlier too and the HDD was suspected. However for the good ISO checksums there is no problem whatsoever. Why can't the system decently tell me that the checksum is bad, why does it have to break all connections and crash?
On Monday 01 Sep 2008, Rony wrote:
I had mentioned this problem earlier too and the HDD was suspected. However for the good ISO checksums there is no problem whatsoever. Why can't the system decently tell me that the checksum is bad, why does it have to break all connections and crash?
Either your hard disk or the controller is *bad*. Members had told you then and we are telling you again :)
When the hard disk stops responding at the hardware level there is not much that the OS can do.
I suggest that you do some tests to determine which is the problem, replace the offending hardware and the above problem will go away.
Arun Khan wrote:
On Monday 01 Sep 2008, Rony wrote:
I had mentioned this problem earlier too and the HDD was suspected. However for the good ISO checksums there is no problem whatsoever. Why can't the system decently tell me that the checksum is bad, why does it have to break all connections and crash?
Either your hard disk or the controller is *bad*. Members had told you then and we are telling you again :)
When the hard disk stops responding at the hardware level there is not much that the OS can do.
I suggest that you do some tests to determine which is the problem, replace the offending hardware and the above problem will go away.
I have added a spare disk and will store all ISOs there. Otherwise my system is 'touchwood' running smoothly.
On Monday 01 Sep 2008 23:16, Rony wrote:
I have added a spare disk and will store all ISOs there. Otherwise my system is 'touchwood' running smoothly.
Most of the time a bad sector is an indicator of doomsday. Better backup all important stuff. I have a SATA disk whose var partition has developed bad sectors. I have rejigged fstab to point to a new var and things are fine. But I must move all the important stuff to avoid grief.
On Tuesday 02 Sep 2008, jtd wrote:
On Monday 01 Sep 2008 23:16, Rony wrote:
I have added a spare disk and will store all ISOs there. Otherwise my system is 'touchwood' running smoothly.
Most of the time a bad sector is an indicator of doomsday. Better backup all important stuff.
Agree 100%. In my experience disks with such symptoms die soon. Keeping important files on such devices is like playing Russian Roulette.
I have tried low level format and skip badblocks options during file system creation - all short term.
-- Arun Khan
jtd wrote:
On Monday 01 Sep 2008 23:16, Rony wrote:
I have added a spare disk and will store all ISOs there. Otherwise my system is 'touchwood' running smoothly.
Most of the time a bad sector is an indicator of doomsday. Better backup all important stuff. I have a SATA disk whose var partition has developed bad sectors. I have rejigged fstab to point to a new var and things are fine. But I must move all the important stuff to avoid grief.
The data was backed up up the last time itself, when Arun suspected the disk. I think I should move the email store to the new drive.
Is there any software that will do a surface scan and mark bad sectors as unusable?
Rony wrote:
Is there any software that will do a surface scan and mark bad sectors as unusable?
Found this usefull link through google.
http://mypage.uniserve.ca/~thelinuxguy/doc/hdtest.html
Rony,
On Tue, Sep 2, 2008 at 11:58 PM, Rony gnulinuxist@gmail.com wrote:
Is there any software that will do a surface scan and mark bad sectors as unusable?
man badblocks
-- Regards,
Rony.
HTH With regards,
Dinesh Shah (દિનેશ શાહ/दिनेश शाह) wrote:
Rony,
On Tue, Sep 2, 2008 at 11:58 PM, Rony gnulinuxist@gmail.com wrote:
Is there any software that will do a surface scan and mark bad sectors as unusable?
man badblocks
Badblocks works well for blank partitions. Using e2fsck with the badblocks option was suggested by the site for ext2 and ext3 partitions. I used the read as well as non-destructive read-write option with e2fsck and found a group of bad blocks on my disk.
On Monday 01 Sep 2008 10:22, Rony wrote:
Hello,
I have downloaded the first 10 Debian Etch CDs and out of 10 ISOs, 2 or 3 had an md5sum problem. While the good md5 returns a proper checksum value, the bad ones return an Input/Output error.
You are checking the iso or a burned cd?.
The problem is that when this error occurs, the link between the system and HDD is lost and no further commands are accepted as they need to be picked up from the HDD.
Your Hdd IS BAD.
The system blanks out and I have to force shutdown and reboot it. Yesterday I kept the Lenny live CD for download and its md5sum gave the same problem today morning.
I had mentioned this problem earlier too and the HDD was suspected. However for the good ISO checksums there is no problem whatsoever.
Why can't the system decently tell me that the checksum is bad, why does it have to break all connections and crash?
Because the drive is bad. If you tail the logs you will see this error ad-nausem. However the system does recover - after a couple of hours. This is true afaik only if your bad partition is not needed by the OS. Must mail the disk io guys about some sane timeout.
jtd wrote:
On Monday 01 Sep 2008 10:22, Rony wrote:
Hello,
I have downloaded the first 10 Debian Etch CDs and out of 10 ISOs, 2 or 3 had an md5sum problem. While the good md5 returns a proper checksum value, the bad ones return an Input/Output error.
You are checking the iso or a burned cd?.
Downloaded ISO.
The problem is that when this error occurs, the link between the system and HDD is lost and no further commands are accepted as they need to be picked up from the HDD.
Your Hdd IS BAD.
Hmm.
The system blanks out and I have to force shutdown and reboot it. Yesterday I kept the Lenny live CD for download and its md5sum gave the same problem today morning.
I had mentioned this problem earlier too and the HDD was suspected. However for the good ISO checksums there is no problem whatsoever.
Why can't the system decently tell me that the checksum is bad, why does it have to break all connections and crash?
Because the drive is bad. If you tail the logs you will see this error ad-nausem. However the system does recover - after a couple of hours. This is true afaik only if your bad partition is not needed by the OS. Must mail the disk io guys about some sane timeout.
I am getting a clearer picture now. It is not the downloaded ISO that is corrupted, it is the bad surface of the disk in a particular area, that is corrupting the ISO file stored there and md5sum is just a co-incidence that puts a strain on the disk and puts it to test. Since everything else is working fine, I have now added a spare disk to store ISOs.
-
Arun Khan -
Dinesh Shah (દિન ેશ શાહ/द िनेश शाह) -
jtd -
Rony