FreeBSD 7.0 hangs with USB disk drive.

[map7]

I'm running FreeBSD 7.0-p3 and I've got a 1TB Seagate SATA drive in a Laser USB caddy, formatted as FAT32 in two partitions 499GB and the rest on the second.

When I connect the drive up and start to mount the first partition it freezes my machine after a few seconds. Unplugging the drive doesn't change anything.

I have tried different USB ports, I'm currently testing this using the USB ports on the motherboard itself. I'm using an ASUS A8V Deluxe.

[Weaseal]

So the error occurs only after mounting, not after plugging it in? Does it happen if you plug it in without mounting? Can you switch to the first terminal (Alt-F1 or Ctrl-Alt-F1 if you are in X) and see what sort of output you get? Can you post the last few lines of 'dmesg' after the device is plugged in?

[map7]

It doesn't happen everytime, but it is when I mount the drive. Sometimes whilst it's mounting the hang will occur other times it could be running for a few hours and hang. I've been using this machine and have had it running 100 days without a problem until I start using USB media. I had this same problem on other FreeBSD machines.

The problem does not happen if I just plugin the drive and leave it there unmounted.

Here is what I get in my dmesg when I connect the drive, pretty standard output:

da0 at umass-sim0 bus 0 target 0 lun 0
da0: <ST310003 40AS > Fixed Direct Access SCSI-2 device
da0: 40.000MB/s transfers
da0: 953869MB (1953525168 512 byte sectors: 255H 63S/T 121601C)

I tried a few times under the first terminal, but could not make it fail.

Also if I mount a USB drive, then remove it without umounting (which I know is wrong), this hangs the computer under FreeBSD but this doesn't happen on Debian is there a reason for this?

It seems the only stability problems I have with FreeBSD all come down to the USB devices on my machines.

[graudeejs]

My bet is that, it's because you have HUGE Fat32 disks.
I'm using msdosfs on flashstick for long time, and no problem...

[lvlamb]

Many Linuces now kind of auto-mount drives/slices they discover. Feature or annoyance?
Thes slices are dynamically mounted as /media/disk, media/disk-1, media/disk-2, ...
These mount points are transient: contrary to mount points you define in the /etc/fstab (you needed to mkdir for), at another reboot those transient mount points will reflect the hardware as existing at that time.
My observation, I don't know the name of the mechanism.
Tip: label your slices.

FAT-32 large drives.
Not all fdisks are created equal , *BSD fdisk's can describe very large disks.
Some DOSes still have a 82/137 GB limit.

Terabytes external USB drives.
Usually are sold as Windows compatible. They even include backup software and other goodies. (and a driver !!!)
Repartitioning such drives is a bad idea.

Own made USB/eSATA externals.
As said, use a *BSD fdisk to be certain.
Or, since you use FAT-32, first partition and format the drive with your Windows OS and test it a while under Windows. Then only try it with other OSes.

[map7]

Is there a way to setup FreeBSD so that 'mount points are transient' like linux. I find the the USB stack under debian based systems much more stable.

For instance if you mount a USB under FreeBSD and remove it without unmounting, then reinsert the USB flash drive, FreeBSD hangs. If I do the same under debian it's fine. I really like FreeBSD for it's package system, security and stability, but it is annoying if you forget to unmount and it hangs your machine. I know that you should always unmount but if you don't it shouldn't crash the system, is there anyway to fix this?

[mousesack]

Originally Posted by map7

Is there a way to setup FreeBSD so that 'mount points are transient' like linux. I find the the USB stack under debian based systems much more stable.

I don't recall debian coming configured with HALd for usb etc. Could anyone enlighten me?

[ninjatux]

Originally Posted by map7

Is there a way to setup FreeBSD so that 'mount points are transient' like linux. I find the the USB stack under debian based systems much more stable.

For instance if you mount a USB under FreeBSD and remove it without unmounting, then reinsert the USB flash drive, FreeBSD hangs. If I do the same under debian it's fine. I really like FreeBSD for it's package system, security and stability, but it is annoying if you forget to unmount and it hangs your machine. I know that you should always unmount but if you don't it shouldn't crash the system, is there anyway to fix this?

You are encountering weird issues. I've removed drives unsafely only to replug them seconds later on my FreeBSD box, with no issues at all.