NAS (any brand) external USB drive bay - issues

[stevech]

NAS (any brand) external USB drive bay - issues.

In my case, Synology DS212.

I just bought a $45 nice steel box 2 drive bay box. Has USB3 connector.
The chip inside is a Prolific USB3 to SATA bridge. It has these switch-selected modes:

• NORMAL - just a USB hub so the host sees 2 drives
• JBOD - host sees one drive (volume?), size is sum of two drives
• RAID0 (striped) - host sees one drive, size is sum of two drives
• RAID1 (mirrored) - host sees one drive, size is smaller of two drives

I have 2 x 2TB, identical drives.

Set for RAID0 (box's role is backup the NAS excluding big image backups of PCs).

Plug the external box into DS212's USB2 port. Comes up as a 3.8TB drive. Perfect.
Move the plug to the USB3 port on the DS212. wait, wait. Nothing recognized.

I thought the bridge chip in the box made it transparent to the host (NAS) as to which of the above four settings was in use. NAS would not be RAID-aware for this box.

I filed a ticket with Synology and explained as above: works on USB2, not on USB3.
Response was a mistaken "Synology DSM (OS) does not support RAID on external drives).
I countered with: Works on USB2. Not USB3. Box makes it transparent to the NAS.

So I use USB2 and it works just fine. At 20Mbytes/sec. Drives are formatted ext4 by NAS OS (DSM), with switches set to RAID0. NAS sees 3.8TB. On USB2 only.

It also doesn't work with a one-drive enclosure, USB3 and some or all USB3 hubs. Drive enclosure works fine USB3 if a hub is not introduced.

Any ideas? I think the USB3 hardware in the circa 2012 NAS is at fault. Probably using 2011 or older USB3 chips. Hardware or Linux USB3 drivers at fault? Both? Any other 4 year old USB3 NAS work correctly with an external USB3 hub?

 

[sfx2000]

It's usbcore, and how the different PHY drivers load up - something tells me that Syno's kernel doesn't have the right modules built...

 

[stevech]

I can't be the first. Esp. with the USB3 hub problem and simple 1 drive USB3.

I am 3 minor-revisions back in the DSM OS 5.2. The big change to DSM6 might change kernels, don't know. But I don't want to go to DSM6 just on a hope for this issue, not that critical.


I have to dumb-down this for tech support.

 

[sfx2000]

Does Synology include the usbutils and pciutils packages? (e.g. lsusb, lspci)...

what happens in dmesg when you plug USB3 devices in?

 

[sfx2000]

and if Synology doesn't include those packages - can still dig things out the hard way

sudo cat /sys/kernel/debug/usb/devices | grep -E "^([TSPD]:.*|)$"

 

[stevech]

and if Synology doesn't include those packages - can still dig things out the hard way

sudo cat /sys/kernel/debug/usb/devices | grep -E "^([TSPD]:.*|)$"

I'll try that...

 

[slidermike]

Steve, what are the results of your efforts; any update?

 

[sfx2000]

Perhaps it's the hub itself - what model is the hub?

also - might hook it up to windows and try plugdebug

http://plugable.com/support/plugdebug

 

[stevech]

Not using a hub.
USB3 2-bay enclosure, 2 drives, configured as JBOD.
Works find on Synology's USB2 port. Shows up as 4TB (3.8TB actually). I formatted as ext4 and used Synology's backup to copy 1.8TB. No issues. On USB2.

Plug into USB3 port, nothing is displayed in the GUI.

Synology tech support says they don't support DAS and this is DAS. Jargon is unclear.
Well, I thought such a SATA bridge based enclosure was transparently presented as if one drive.

I had previously setup this external enclosure as RAID0 and as striped. Both worked OK in windows. Then a changed the switch settings in the enclosure to do the above.

 

[sfx2000]

Not using a hub.
USB3 2-bay enclosure, 2 drives, configured as JBOD.
Works find on Synology's USB2 port. Shows up as 4TB (3.8TB actually). I formatted as ext4 and used Synology's backup to copy 1.8TB. No issues. On USB2.

Plug into USB3 port, nothing is displayed in the GUI.

Synology tech support says they don't support DAS and this is DAS. Jargon is unclear.
Well, I thought such a SATA bridge based enclosure was transparently presented as if one drive.

I had previously setup this external enclosure as RAID0 and as striped. Both worked OK in windows. Then a changed the switch settings in the enclosure to do the above.

Somehow I was reading that a USB3 hub was somehow involved in the setup

It also doesn't work with a one-drive enclosure, USB3 and some or all USB3 hubs. Drive enclosure works fine USB3 if a hub is not introduced.

Any ideas? I think the USB3 hardware in the circa 2012 NAS is at fault. Probably using 2011 or older USB3 chips. Hardware or Linux USB3 drivers at fault? Both? Any other 4 year old USB3 NAS work correctly with an external USB3 hub?

Those enclosures are sometimes kind of odd - when plugged into the USB2 - do the drives show up as separate devices, or as a monolithic converged device?

If I recall correctly - Synology uses Logical Volume Manager (LVM) - so normally to get to a point where the "share" is seen by Samba, it has to go through a few steps...

PV - this initializes the physical drive partitions for the LVM
VG - this is the volume group - e.g. we add the PV's to the VG
LV - this is the logical volumes - what the OS sees, and where the file system lives

Easy way to see if LVM is in use - check df -h, and look for the /dev/mapper/<whatever> - for example on my QNAP is like below (this is how we can tell quickly if LVM is in use) - alternately, you can list the available disks and partitions by checking with fdisk -l

# this is the disk on module that holds QTS
/dev/md9                509.5M    123.9M    385.6M  24% /mnt/HDA_ROOT

# this is the storage array
/dev/mapper/cachedev1     5.4T      1.0T      4.3T  19% /share/CACHEDEV1_DATA

# this is an external USB3 backup disk
/dev/sdf1                 4.5T      1.1T      3.5T  24% /share/external/DEV3303_1

Synology should be similar based on what I've read

When plugging the drive in - before you do it - fire up an ssh or telnet session and tail the log...

tail -f /var/log/messages

and this will capture what it happening with the kernel, and the events when the chassis is plugged in... what you want to look for is lines containing xhci (which is usb3 superspeed)

What my guess is that their LVM config scripts don't know what to do with something coming in from hotplug, but tries to anyways..

hmmm

 

[stevech]

Use of USB3 hubs on the DS212 - A one-drive USB3 enclosure does not work with any of several USB3 hubs, on the DS212. Most but not all USB3 hubs work OK with Windows 7 (I read that Win 10 has new/better USB drivers).

If the 2-drive enclosure, in JBOD mode, is plugged into USB2 of the DS212, it shows up as one 4TB (3.8TB) drive, as it should.
Move plug to USB3 port on DS212, nothing shows up in the DS212.

Under win 7, the 2 drive bay in JBOD mode shows up as being a Prolific USB-SATA bridge. I thought that means that the (Prolific) bridge chip made the 2 JBOD drives appear to be one drive, to the host (NAS or PC), by simply juggling the LBA (disk sector addresses), and responding with a simulated one big drive to the drive geometry inquiry. I may be wrong. But the DS212 with DSM 5.x OS does it correctly for USB2, but not USB3.

I tend to blame the USB3 chipset on the mainboard of the DS212.

-----
Here's log when 2 bay JBOD is turned on while connected to USB2, not USB3.

login as: root
root@192.168.1.254's password:


BusyBox v1.16.1 (2015-10-28 13:19:22 CST) built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.
... omitted irrelevant stuff

May 28 12:02:10 DS212 kernel: [162963.490000] hub 1-1:1.0: port 3, status 0101, change 0001, 12 Mb/s
May 28 12:02:16 DS212 kernel: [162969.010000] sd 3:0:0:0: [sds] Assuming drive cache: write through
May 28 12:02:16 DS212 kernel: [162969.030000] sd 3:0:0:0: [sds] Assuming drive cache: write through
May 28 12:02:16 DS212 kernel: [162969.150000] sd 3:0:0:0: [sds] Assuming drive cache: write through
May 28 12:02:17 DS212 hotplugd: hotplugd.c:1031 failed get usb status from usb config, DEVICE=/proc/bus/usb/001/004, us bid=067b:2775:HD3206PRD000000028 [0x2200 file_get_section_value.c:53]
May 28 12:02:17 DS212 hotplugd: hotplugd.c:1274 ##### ACTION:add
May 28 12:02:17 DS212 hotplugd: DEVNAME:sds
May 28 12:02:17 DS212 hotplugd: DEVICE:/proc/bus/usb/001/004
May 28 12:02:17 DS212 hotplugd: DEVGUID:HD3206PRD0000000280
May 28 12:02:17 DS212 hotplugd: DEVPATH:sds
May 28 12:02:17 DS212 hotplugd: SUBSYSTEM:block
May 28 12:02:17 DS212 hotplugd: PHYSDEVPATH:/devices/platform/orion-ehci.0/usb1/1-1/1-1.3/1-1.3:1.0/host3/target3:0:0/3 :0:0:0
May 28 12:02:17 DS212 hotplugd: hotplugd.c:1440 ==== USB disk [sds] plugged in ====
May 28 12:02:17 DS212 hotplugd: hotplugd.c:1441 goto USB disk, szDeviceName=sds
May 28 12:02:18 DS212 hotplugd: volume_parts_info_get_by_dev.c:95 Dev:sds cannot find PostfixNumber.
May 28 12:02:18 DS212 kernel: [162971.240000] EXT3-fs: sds1: couldn't mount because of unsupported optional features (2 40).
May 28 12:02:21 DS212 synocheckshare: synocheckshare_vol_mount.c:47 Export Share [USB] [/dev/sds1] [/volumeUSB2/usbshar e]

====
And here's the GUI for the USB2 mount.. jpg screen grab
enclosed

=========
Now, eject USB2, and plug into NAS' USB3 socket...
May 28 12:42:48 DS212 hotplugd: PHYSDEVPATH:/devices/platform/orion-ehci.0/usb1/1-1/1-1.3/1-1.3:1.0/host3/target3:0:0/3:0:0:0
May 28 12:42:48 DS212 hotplugd: hotplugd.c:1449 ==== USB disk [sds] plugged out====
May 28 12:42:48 DS212 hotplugd: SYNOReadOneSectorFromDev(57): failed to open device [/dev/sds] (errno = 2)
May 28 12:42:48 DS212 hotplugd: volume_parts_info_get_by_dev.c:95 Dev:sds cannot find PostfixNumber.
May 28 12:42:48 DS212 hotplugd: disk_size_get.c:42 Failed to open /dev/sds, errno=No such file or directory
May 28 12:42:48 DS212 hotplugd: volume_parts_info_get_by_dev.c:301 failed to get disk '/dev/sds' size
May 28 12:42:49 DS212 synonetd: net_route_table_edit.c:58 eth0 ip route del failed, instead of route
May 28 12:42:53 DS212 kernel: [165406.820000] init: smbd main process (8041) killed by TERM signal
May 28 12:43:00 DS212 kernel: [165413.670000] init: nmbd main process (3409) killed by TERM signal

============
NOW plug drive into USB3 socket. Same cable as used with USB2. Cable is a blue USB3 cable.
May 28 12:47:06 DS212 kernel: [165659.170000] hub 1-1:1.0: port 3, status 0100, change 0001, 12 Mb/s
May 28 12:47:43 DS212 kernel: [165696.520000] hub 2-0:1.0: port 2, status 0a03, change 0001, 1.5 Mb/s
May 28 12:48:09 DS212 kernel: [165722.690000] sd 4:0:0:0: [sds] Assuming drive cache: write through
May 28 12:48:15 DS212 kernel: [165728.730000] sd 4:0:0:0: [sds] Assuming drive cache: write through
May 28 12:48:22 DS212 kernel: [165735.430000] sd 4:0:0:0: [sds] Assuming drive cache: write through
May 28 12:48:23 DS212 hotplugd: hotplugd.c:1031 failed get usb status from usb config, DEVICE=/proc/bus/usb/002/002, usbid=067b:2775:HD3206PRD000000028 [0x2000 file_get_section_value.c:57]
May 28 12:48:23 DS212 hotplugd: hotplugd.c:1274 ##### ACTION:add
May 28 12:48:23 DS212 hotplugd: DEVNAME:sds
May 28 12:48:23 DS212 hotplugd: DEVICE:/proc/bus/usb/002/002
May 28 12:48:23 DS212 hotplugd: DEVGUID:HD3206PRD0000000280
May 28 12:48:23 DS212 hotplugd: DEVPATH:sds
May 28 12:48:23 DS212 hotplugd: SUBSYSTEM:block
May 28 12:48:23 DS212 hotplugd: PHYSDEVPATH:/devices/pci0000:01/0000:01:01.0/usb2/2-2/2-2:1.0/host4/target4:0:0/4:0:0:0
May 28 12:48:23 DS212 hotplugd: hotplugd.c:1440 ==== USB disk [sds] plugged in ====
May 28 12:48:23 DS212 hotplugd: hotplugd.c:1441 goto USB disk, szDeviceName=sds
May 28 12:48:23 DS212 hotplugd: volume_parts_info_get_by_dev.c:95 Dev:sds cannot find PostfixNumber.
May 28 12:48:24 DS212 kernel: [165737.060000] EXT3-fs: sds1: couldn't mount because of unsupported optional features (240).
May 28 12:48:27 DS212 synocheckshare: synocheckshare_vol_mount.c:47 Export Share [USB] [/dev/sds1] [/volumeUSB2/usbshare]

====
Then each time US3 was attempted, the NAS reported "couldn't allocate port 2" several times. Then I touched nothing and that became a series of " "couldn't allocate port 4". Nonsense. like 30 seconds between these messages.

I unplugged the USB3 box.
Rebooted NAS.

continues next forum post (10K char limit)

 

[stevech]

continued...

This time, the USB3 port worked and the JBOD box mounted and showed up in the list of external devices. Correct volume size.
I did an Eject, waited. Unplugged USB cable. Drives spin-down.
Plugged in USB3 cable. Drives spin-up, one after another.
Long wait, then the USB3 mount was successful a second time.
==============
Here's the log for the above
... It's as if the NAS OS gets confused about the volume name appearing on USB2 and also on USB3. Or something. I think this is screwups in the Linux kernel and same kernel and USB drivers are probably used by other than Synology.
Not sure.

login as: root
root@192.168.1.254.'s password:


BusyBox v1.16.1 (2015-10-28 13:19:22 CST) built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.

DS212> tail -f /var/log/messages
May 28 13:10:39 DS212 hotplugd: hotplugd.c:1440 ==== USB disk [sds] plugged in ====
May 28 13:10:39 DS212 hotplugd: hotplugd.c:1441 goto USB disk, szDeviceName=sds
May 28 13:10:39 DS212 hotplugd: volume_parts_info_get_by_dev.c:95 Dev:sds cannot find PostfixNumber.
May 28 13:10:39 DS212 kernel: [ 387.780000] EXT3-fs: sds1: couldn't mount because of unsupported optional features (240).
May 28 13:10:40 DS212 synonetd: net_route_table_edit.c:58 eth0 ip route del failed, instead of route
May 28 13:10:43 DS212 synocheckshare: synocheckshare_vol_mount.c:47 Export Share [USB] [/dev/sds1] [/volumeUSB2/usbshare]
May 28 13:10:44 DS212 kernel: [ 392.560000] init: smbd main process (7677) killed by TERM signal
May 28 13:10:51 DS212 kernel: [ 400.000000] init: nmbd main process (10573) killed by TERM signal
May 28 13:10:57 DS212 synocheckshare: servicecfg_internal_lib.c:355 skip reload stopping/stopped job [smbd][0xD300 servicectl_j ob_reload.c:42]
May 28 13:10:57 DS212 synocheckshare: share_external_vol_export.c:600 SLIBServiceTypeReload(FILE_PROTOCOL) failed
May 28 13:16:08 DS212 synonetd: net_route_table_edit.c:58 eth0 ip route del failed, instead of route
May 28 13:16:10 DS212 synocheckshare: synocheckshare_vol_unmount.c:147 Unmount Share [USB] [/dev/sds1] [/volumeUSB2/usbshare]
May 28 13:16:12 DS212 kernel: [ 721.000000] init: smbd main process (11069) killed by TERM signal
May 28 13:16:21 DS212 kernel: [ 729.310000] init: nmbd main process (13137) killed by TERM signal
May 28 13:16:30 DS212 entry.cgi_SYNO.Core.ExternalDevice.Storage.USB[1].eject[12569]: servicecfg_internal_lib.c:355 skip reload stopping/stopped job [avahi][0xD300 servicectl_job_reload.c:42]
May 28 13:16:30 DS212 entry.cgi_SYNO.Core.ExternalDevice.Storage.USB[1].eject[12569]: servicecfg_internal_lib.c:355 skip reload stopping/stopped job [smbd-avahi][0xD300 servicectl_job_reload.c:42]
May 28 13:16:32 DS212 kernel: [ 740.770000] init: smbd main process (13659) killed by HUP signal
May 28 13:16:32 DS212 kernel: [ 740.770000] init: smbd main process ended, respawning
May 28 13:16:32 DS212 entry.cgi_SYNO.Core.ExternalDevice.Storage.USB[1].eject[12569]: usb_set_disk_standby.c:65 [sds] doesn't support sleep ioctl
May 28 13:16:32 DS212 entry.cgi_SYNO.Core.ExternalDevice.Storage.USB[1].eject[12569]: usbbkp_hot_pull_out.c:86 Fail to set standby for usb device [sds], or it doesn't support sleep.
May 28 13:16:35 DS212 hotplugd: hotplugd.c:1031 failed get usb status from usb config, DEVICE=/proc/bus/usb/002/002, usbid=067b:2775:HD3206PRD000000028 [0x2000 file_get_section_value.c:57]
May 28 13:16:35 DS212 hotplugd: hotplugd.c:1274 ##### ACTION:remove
May 28 13:16:35 DS212 hotplugd: DEVNAME:sds
May 28 13:16:35 DS212 hotplugd: DEVICE:/proc/bus/usb/002/002
May 28 13:16:35 DS212 hotplugd: DEVGUID:HD3206PRD0000000280
May 28 13:16:35 DS212 hotplugd: DEVPATH:sds
May 28 13:16:35 DS212 hotplugd: SUBSYSTEM:block
May 28 13:16:35 DS212 hotplugd: PHYSDEVPATH:/devices/pci0000:01/0000:01:01.0/usb2/2-2/2-2:1.0/host3/target3:0:0/3:0:0:0
May 28 13:16:35 DS212 hotplugd: hotplugd.c:1449 ==== USB disk [sds] plugged out====
May 28 13:16:36 DS212 hotplugd: SYNOReadOneSectorFromDev(57): failed to open device [/dev/sds] (errno = 2)
May 28 13:16:36 DS212 hotplugd: volume_parts_info_get_by_dev.c:95 Dev:sds cannot find PostfixNumber.
May 28 13:16:36 DS212 hotplugd: disk_size_get.c:42 Failed to open /dev/sds, errno=No such file or directory
May 28 13:16:36 DS212 hotplugd: volume_parts_info_get_by_dev.c:301 failed to get disk '/dev/sds' size
May 28 13:16:37 DS212 synonetd: net_route_table_edit.c:58 eth0 ip route del failed, instead of route
May 28 13:16:40 DS212 kernel: [ 748.690000] init: smbd main process (14051) killed by TERM signal
May 28 13:16:47 DS212 kernel: [ 755.360000] init: nmbd main process (14384) killed by TERM signal
May 28 13:17:06 DS212 kernel: [ 774.750000] hub 2-0:1.0: port 2, status 02c0, change 0001, 1.5 Mb/s
May 28 13:17:50 DS212 kernel: [ 818.770000] hub 2-0:1.0: port 2, status 0a03, change 0001, 1.5 Mb/s
May 28 13:18:16 DS212 kernel: [ 844.940000] sd 4:0:0:0: [sds] Assuming drive cache: write through
May 28 13:18:22 DS212 kernel: [ 850.980000] sd 4:0:0:0: [sds] Assuming drive cache: write through
May 28 13:18:29 DS212 kernel: [ 857.700000] sd 4:0:0:0: [sds] Assuming drive cache: write through
May 28 13:18:31 DS212 hotplugd: hotplugd.c:1031 failed get usb status from usb config, DEVICE=/proc/bus/usb/002/003, usbid=067b:2775:HD3206PRD000000028 [0x2000 file_get_section_value.c:57]
May 28 13:18:31 DS212 hotplugd: hotplugd.c:1274 ##### ACTION:add
May 28 13:18:31 DS212 hotplugd: DEVNAME:sds
May 28 13:18:31 DS212 hotplugd: DEVICE:/proc/bus/usb/002/003
May 28 13:18:31 DS212 hotplugd: DEVGUID:HD3206PRD0000000280
May 28 13:18:31 DS212 hotplugd: DEVPATH:sds
May 28 13:18:31 DS212 hotplugd: SUBSYSTEM:block
May 28 13:18:31 DS212 hotplugd: PHYSDEVPATH:/devices/pci0000:01/0000:01:01.0/usb2/2-2/2-2:1.0/host4/target4:0:0/4:0:0:0
May 28 13:18:31 DS212 hotplugd: hotplugd.c:1440 ==== USB disk [sds] plugged in ====
May 28 13:18:31 DS212 hotplugd: hotplugd.c:1441 goto USB disk, szDeviceName=sds
May 28 13:18:31 DS212 hotplugd: volume_parts_info_get_by_dev.c:95 Dev:sds cannot find PostfixNumber.
May 28 13:18:31 DS212 kernel: [ 859.340000] EXT3-fs: sds1: couldn't mount because of unsupported optional features (240).
May 28 13:18:33 DS212 synonetd: net_route_table_edit.c:58 eth0 ip route del failed, instead of route
May 28 13:18:36 DS212 synocheckshare: synocheckshare_vol_mount.c:47 Export Share [USB] [/dev/sds1] [/volumeUSB2/usbshare]
May 28 13:18:37 DS212 kernel: [ 865.460000] init: smbd main process (14822) killed by TERM signal
May 28 13:18:44 DS212 kernel: [ 872.690000] init: nmbd main process (16183) killed by TERM signal
May 28 13:18:50 DS212 synocheckshare: servicecfg_internal_lib.c:355 skip reload stopping/stopped job [smbd][0xD300 servicectl_job_reload.c:42]
May 28 13:18:50 DS212 synocheckshare: share_external_vol_export.c:600 SLIBServiceTypeReload(FILE_PROTOCOL) failed

 

[sfx2000]

Think I know what is going on here - can you provide the output of fdisk -l (that's a lower case L) - this will list the disks and the partitions...

example command line - fdisk -l /dev/sds (I'm assuming /dev/sds as that's what the log is showing as the physical device) - this is a read-only command, and doesn't change anything on the drive...

should look something similar to below

Disk /dev/sdf: 5000.9 GB, 5000981073920 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 76000 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 4096 = 65802240 bytes

  Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdf1               1       76001   588795092   83  Linux

I would ask for a df -T but BusyBox doesn't have that option ( the -T switch indicates the FS Type of the mounted drive)

Do you have access to a full linux machine that isn't running BusyBox?

Thanks!

 

[sfx2000]

And when in the shell - do a uname -a so we can get arch and kernel version...

 

[stevech]

More...
Currently I'm running first-ever backup via the USB3 port to the 2-bay drive. Don't know how to get Linux to tell me if that port is running at USB3 speeds though.

I did fdisk for both /dev/sds1 and /dev/sds, below

DS212> fdisk -l /dev/sds1
fdisk: device has more than 2^32 sectors, can't use all of them

Disk /dev/sds1: 2199.0 GB, 2199023255040 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 267349 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Disk /dev/sds1 doesn't contain a valid partition table
DS212> fdisk -l /dev/sds
fdisk: device has more than 2^32 sectors, can't use all of them

Disk /dev/sds: 2199.0 GB, 2199023255040 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 267349 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sds1 1 267350 2147483647+ ee EFI GPT
DS212> uname
Linux
DS212> uname -a
Linux DS212 2.6.32.12 #5644 Wed Oct 28 12:36:45 CST 2015 armv5tel GNU/Linux synology_88f6282_212
DS212>

 

[sfx2000]

and just to give a hint on where we're headed with this... I'm assuming this is a PL2775 chip - it has it's own little RTOS inside the firmware - unfortunately, my vendor account has expired with them, so I can't grab the firmware/release notes..

Note that we have the PHY, and then we have the USB2 Device Controller or the USB3 device controller, which is generally a chip select based on detection from the PHY.

Clever little chip... the outcome here is likely reach out to the vendor of the jbod box for an update on the firmware.

 

[sfx2000]

Currently I'm running first-ever backup via the USB3 port to the 2-bay drive. Don't know how to get Linux to tell me if that port is running at USB3 speeds though.

Hopefully that's a new backup, and not an update to an existing one - there's multiple issues going on here with how the device is presented to the kernel in USB3 (and even USB2 for that matter).

1) It's an EXT4 FS, that the hotplug and the kernel mounts as EXT3, and the geometry is off - and that's caused in some part to the info passed by the USB3 drive controller vs. what is being passed by the USB2 drive controller - in the JBOD box, not in the DS212

2) hotplugd is complaining as it has to allocate memory for the new device detected, but is sometimes getting bad data back from PL2775 firmware when USB3 controller is being used - e.g. the chipselect I mentioned above.

3) You mentioned that switching mode on the box does change problem indications, which again, goes back to firmware in the box, not in the DS212.

4) I'll have to check my old Marvell notes - but if I recall Orion does ehci native on the chip, but needs an external usb3 phy controller for xhci, and typically that's pushed over either pci or serdes depending on vendor config - I don't have enough info on the specifics of the ds212 to comment more here

 

[sfx2000]

you just caught me at a good time since i'm digging into another kernel issue, and this was, erm, interesting...

unfortunately i don't have a toolchain handy for armv5 - otherwise I'd put together a little package - usbutils, which syno is lacking in there build apparently - usbutils would give much more info about the usb situation..

 

[sfx2000]

And if you formatted the drive on the syno, curious why it created the ext4 volume on /dev/sds1 when it's trying to mount it as ext3 via hotplug - in both usb2 and usb3 phy's...

 

[sfx2000]

Don't ask me how I know this stuff - it's been a long time since I've been deep into drivers, lol - last couple of years has been data center work - but surprisingly it scales, lol...