Re: Device timeout reading fsbn ...

["Thomas Mueller" <mueller6725%twc.com@localhost>]

from Manuel Bouyer:

> On Thu, Dec 19, 2019 at 04:44:16AM +0000, Thomas Mueller wrote:
> > from Michael van Elst:
 
> > > mueller6725%twc.com@localhost ("Thomas Mueller") writes:
         
> > > >Do you know when (what version) NCQ was introduced to NetBSD?  Was it before or after 7.99.1?
 
> > > It's only in HEAD and will be in netbsd-9.
         
> > I assume it will be in NetBSD-current (9.99.x) and NetBSD 10 as well?

> Of course

That's what I assumed.  It looks like there is no future for NetBSD on this hard drive.

Thanks for your response.

That is presumably part of the reason Western Digital discontinued Green hard drives: not NetBSD specifically, but general technical problems.

> [...]
> > This sysctl seemed to have no effect, I still get the same trouble though it may take a few days following reboot and fsck_ffs to show up.
 
> > Now the question is whether there is any point going further in NetBSD, like 9.99.26 and later, on this hard drive.  That is the point of this late followup post.
 
> > I could still try with FreeBSD, Linux and/or Haiku.
 
> > I have the other hard drive (Hitachi 4 TB refurbished special) in a hard-drive (SATA) dock that is part of the computer case.
 
> > I could even install NetBSD on a USB 3.0 external hard drive (Seagate Expansion), would that work?

> Yes it should. I guess the BIOS can boot from USB devices ?

It depends on which computer and which USB port. 

In some cases, a USB 3.0 stick will be bootable, but not a USB 3.0 hard drive in the same port, due to idiosyncrasies of the motherboard.
 
> > I already have NetBSD installed there (8.99.51 amd64 and i386) and could update there but would have to rebuild packages almost from square one, and not mount anything on that WD Green hard drive when NetBSD is running.
 
> > I could even (is it safe from NetBSD?) put /home partition on ext2fs to be accessible from NetBSD, FreeBSD, Linux, and even Haiku.

> As long as it's plain ext2, not ext3 or newer.

ext3 and ext4 tend to be not supported outside Linux.  I believe ext3 is good read-only, but writing to an ext3 partition can mess the journal.

So I use plain ext2 when compatibility with BSD and Haiku is desired.

I believe I should be able to update NetBSD on the Hitachi 4 TB hard drive but will want to avoid mounting anything on the troubled WD Green hard drive when running NetBSD from the Hitachi hard drive.

Tom