System hang running 'smartctl -l xerror'

From: John Harrison
Date: Mon May 20 2013 - 16:08:30 EST


Hello,

I have a very reproducible problem such that running 'smartctl -l xerror,1 /dev/sd#' while other disk activity is occurring will cause a complete system hang. The access light for the disk being queried remains lit (the others are off) and there is no response on the keyboard. No messages are printed to the console. The only thing I can do is power cycle the system.

This is on an Intel Atom D945GCLF2 motherboard with an add in SiI 3124 SATA controller. Both of the motherboard channels and three of the SiI channels have disks attached (one Samsung, four WD). Three of the WD disks are an MD raid set. The system is running Debian 'testing'. It was kernel version 3.2.23 but I have just upgraded to 3.2.41 (the latest Debian kernel source package) and the problem still occurs.

I have searched the mailing list but can't spot anything that looks similar. Note that the system is running fine in other respects. The hang only happens when querying the SMART log during a period of high disk activity.


Thanks,
John.

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