Any usage gives: mmcblk0: error -110 transferring data

[ecylcje]

Hi,

I'm new to SheevaPlugs and keep coming across this issue. I just received my SheevaPlug yesterday with the NewIT SD card pre-built with debian 6 squeeze. The systems starts up fine and I can login to the system correctly. But whenever I do anything which causes IO load (at least 30 seconds of IO activity will do it), like run apt-get upgrade or adduser chris I get the following:

mmcblk0: error -110 transferring data, sector 6303776, nr 24, card
status 0xc00
end_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 6303776
Buffer I/O error on device mmcblk0p2, logical block 786940
lost page write due to I/O error on mmcblk0p2
end_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 6303784
Buffer I/O error on device mmcblk0p2, logical block 786941
lost page write due to I/O error on mmcblk0p2
end_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 6303792
Buffer I/O error on device mmcblk0p2, logical block 786942
lost page write due to I/O error on mmcblk0p2
mmcblk0: error -110 sending read/write command, response 0xd20, card
status 0x400d00
end_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 3464816
end_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 3464824
end_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 3464832
end_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 3464840
end_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 3464848
end_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 3464856
end_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 3464864
end_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 3464872
end_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 3464880
end_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 3464888
end_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 3464896
end_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 3464904
end_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 3464912
end_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 3464920
end_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 3464928
end_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 3464936
mmcblk0: error -110 sending read/write command, response 0xd20, card
status 0x400d00
end_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 3464944
end_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 3464952
end_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 3464960
end_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 3464968
end_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 3464976
end_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 3464984
end_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 3464992
end_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 3465000
end_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 3465008
end_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 3465016
end_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 3465024
end_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 3465032
end_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 3465040
end_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 3465048
end_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 3465056
end_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 3465064
Aborting journal on device mmcblk0p2.
mmcblk0: error -110 sending read/write command, response 0x400d00, card
status 0x400d00
end_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 3420192
Buffer I/O error on device mmcblk0p2, logical block 426492
lost page write due to I/O error on mmcblk0p2
journal commit I/O error
ext3_abort called.
EXT3-fs error (device mmcblk0p2): ext3_journal_start_sb: Detected
aborted journal
Remounting filesystem read-only
mmcblk0: error -110 sending read/write command, response 0xd00, card
status 0x400d00



This happens everytime and requires a reboot to fix the ReadOnly filesystem mount. Once rebooted the system logs in fine again (after processing the ext3 journal).

Is this a dodgy SD card or is the kernel not tuned correctly for SD cards in debian squeeze?

Any help would be appreciated as the system is less than 24 hours old and cannot survive more than 5 minutes usage.

Thanks,

Chris

[NewIT_Marcus]

Pleas contact jason@newit.co.uk and advise him of the symptoms. Unfortunately we have had a few similar reports recently, as best we can tell, they are bad (or perhaps just unsuitable) cards - although so far as I know they are not a new batch.

[ecylcje]

Hi Marcus,

Thanks for the update. I'll contact Jason shortly.

Just to let you know that I found another SDCard and dd'ed one of your disk-images onto it and then rebooted. I've been able to do apt-get upgrades and everything else without any issues. Also when I tried the 'odd' card via another Linux box I was able to transferred a few hundred MBs back and forward without any issues. I guess you are right that these cards are just unsuitable, but not broken.

Thanks again,

Chris

[NewIT_Marcus]

I guess you are right that these cards are just unsuitable, but not broken.

And that's what's giving us a headache; we do test sample cards before ordering a large batch. In this case we had no hint of any problem until we started receiving occasional mail with similar reports. We had a similar problem with some Integral Ultima cards; our first 2 or 3 batches were fine; batch #4 showed an unexplained slowness; so much so that although usable, they were impractical (40 minutes to decompress a large .tar.gz file instead of 4 minutes - other simple operations didn't seem to have such problems). AFAIK we're still trying to resolve that problem with the supplier.

[NewIT_James]

Hi Chris,

Which Brand and Size SD card did you have the problem with?

NewIT Technical

[2nice]

Hi.
I just got a sheevaplug - with multiboot and debian squeeze on a trancend 4gb sd card from you guys - and also here there seems to be some problems.

At first sheevaplug refused to boot on the sd card, then I restored the sd card with a squeezeserver image - since I'm going to use my sheeva for that purpose. But the installer didn't work - when it is finished I get strange errors such as Input/Output error when I type fx top to see if the squeezeserver is running. I also got a segmentation error at some stage.

I think the sd card is faulty for for some reason. My other sheevaplug had another card (integral ultima) and here everything is running fine.

I actually managed to get the sqeezeserver up and running - but I notice that the "command response" time is slower than for the first sheevaplug. I still get segmentation faults and need restart the plug by pulling the cord, since reboot command just results in "input / output  error" after some time.

/Bo

[NewIT_Marcus]

I think the sd card is faulty for for some reason. My other sheevaplug had another card (integral ultima) and here everything is running fine.

Plausible explanation. Please contact jason@newit.co.uk to arrange for replacement.

[lotus49]

I'm having exactly the same problems.

In my case, I installed Debian (squeeze) myself using Martin Michlmayr's installer on an A-Data Class 6 16GB SDHC card.  Otherwise, my symptoms are pretty much identical to those reported by ecylcje.

I'm not sure I have another SD card big enough but I'll have a look and see if I can find one and try it but there does appear to be more than faulty cards at play here as this card has otherwise passed all the tests I have thrown at it.

[NewIT_Marcus]

It's not necessarily about "faulty" cards, so much as "suitable" cards. Some brands definitely work better than others.

[lotus49]

It's not necessarily about "faulty" cards, so much as "suitable" cards. Some brands definitely work better than others.

That appears to be true but based on my limited experimentation, it appears to be the slow ones that work.  I bought another card, this time an HP branded 2GB SD card.  I followed exactly the same steps and it works fine.

Unfortunately, the card is very slow indeed whereas the card that didn't work is reasonably quick.  I suspect that this is not a coincidence.

[Deri]

Similar problem here (Transcend Ultimate Class 10 SDHC 4gb on eSata Sheeva). Using kernel 'debian 2.6.32.7 #5 PREEMPT Wed Feb 10 21:09:39 GMT 2010 armv5tel'. Can anyone confirm better behaviour with newer/older version?

[Octav]

Hi,

I have the same problem, also with the same hardware as Deri's : Transcend Ultimate Class 10 SDHC 4gb on eSata Sheeva.
All the hardware is brand new. I received my SD card and install Debian squeeze yesterday, I didn't test something else before. The setup has fine proceeded.

Is it certain that it is a problem with this specific type of sd-card, or may I have done some configuration mistake? If it is the card, can you give me any sd-card reference (rather a 4Gb one) which is known to work with a e-sata Sheeva?

Thanks,

Octav

[NewIT_Marcus]

Is it certain that it is a problem with this specific type of sd-card, or may I have done some configuration mistake? If it is the card, can you give me any sd-card reference (rather a 4Gb one) which is known to work with a e-sata Sheeva?

I don't recall why we switched from the Integral Ultimas, possibly it was nothing more sinister than availability, but we sold a few hundred Integral Ultima cards without any problem. Then we switched to the Transcend, and initially they were fine too. I don't know why it is that there is such variability in cards that are nominally identical.

Maybe it is time to switch to SLC cards, which up until now we've treated as a "premium" card.

[Octav]

Thank you for the answer.

I've had an other idea : may it be the file system which is inadequate with an e-sata sheeva (or a standard sheeva) and some type of card?
I've installed Debian on a ext4 fs, i'll try with a ne install on a ext2 fs this evening. What was your setting Deri?

[Octav]

All in all, I think that it may be a too high temperature which discontinues a normal sd-card writing.
The first day, when it happened, I had installed Debian before, so the devicemay have been pretty hot.
Since, it has happened only once (an hour ago) when the plug was working for about 3 hours (I was trying to properly set some software). I will wait a few days to see what happens.