GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 591112
Ubuntu 9.04 on bootable USB device(UZC 32G flash/Plextor 160G) destroys device
Last modified: 2009-11-07 22:28:08 UTC
Steps to reproduce: 1. Install Ubuntu 9.04 (EXT3) on USB flash drive or USB hard disk 2. Use on Dell D520 laptop during 1-hour train travels a few times 3. First, resources will become unavailable 4. Reboot may succeed at first, but resources will become unavailable again. 5. After too many reboots device will finally become unusable/destroyed Stack trace: Don't have that, but I uploaded \var\log from USB hard disk on launchpad for research by experts: http://launchpadlibrarian.net/29187703/logs%209.04.tar.gz Other information: The flash drive (UCZ tech 32GB) was rebooted several times on Dell D520 and was completely destroyed, so no data available. The hard drive (plextor 160GB) was only rebooted once on the Dell D520, and could not be rebooted on any other system. However, I was able to mount it from another Ubuntu laptop (Dell D600, older model), it was very unstable but I managed to retrieve \var\log and upload that to launchpad. After a while, the hard disk could be booted on the Dell D600 again. First time very slow, next time a bit less slow etc. At the moment, the hard disk seems to be completely unharmed. I do not boot it on the Dell D520 laptop (risk for destruction), but on laptops Dell D600 (oldie) and HP Compaq 6830s (newie), and on desktop Dell GX620 it works like a charm.
The \var\log directory that was captured just after the USB hard disk became unbootable and unstable when mounted on the Dell D600 is 1,5 M. It can not be uploaded, but here is the URL to launchpad: http://launchpadlibrarian.net/29187703/logs%209.04.tar.gz I added this bug-report to launchpad: https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/68824, and was advised to forward it directly to bugzilla.gnome.org by Pedro Villavicentio.
I have found a working work-around. After reverting the ext3 file system to ext2 around midnight from 9 to 10th of August, I have intensively booted the usb external hard disk on the Dell D520, and have not experienced any problems. To aid further in analyzing the destructive behaviour of the combination Dell D520, Ubuntu 9.04, USB external harddrive Plextor PX-PH160US/flash drive UCZ Technology ATV 32G flash drive, and the EXT3 boot file system, and find the root cause and ideally fixing a possible bug, I uploaded a recent version of the /var/log directory to the launchpad entry: http://launchpadlibrarian.net/30338275/log_090814.gz. Hope this helps!
NEVER, install a normal system in a flash usb device. USB flash devies have a limited number of writes per cell, the difference between ext2 and ext3 is the journaling. With ext3 the journaling takes more writes but with ext2 you will also destroy the device. The only thing to install in a usb device is a livecd like system, which only reads and never writes in the device. The usb hard drive is different but I have no idea why this happened to it.
As for the flash device: you're absolutely right they're not to be used as normal system device. As for the hard disk, It turns out to be a perfect solution for having a easy to carry Ubuntu system with you that will work on any system it is attached to. Therefore it is useful to find out why an ext3 fs destroys the device and ext2 does not. I have tried my best to submit information that helps in this respect. I do not know what more I can do.
I would suggest you to report it in the kernel bugzilla as seems yo be a driver issue.
No idea why this was filed here. Not even a GNOME issue. Closing.