RT-AC68 - USB EXT3 boot loop possible resolution

[ezflrouting]

I've posted a few messages recently regarding having boot loop issues with various USB 2.0 and 3.0 drives formatted into EXT3 format as well as, separately, the USB drive disconnecting with EXT4. Regarding the disconnections, the drives' sleep timers were disabled through the HD manufacturer's utilities, where applicable, and the Merlin build firmware settings showed 0 for sleep mode, with USB Interference disabled.

I think I may be on the right track as to the sources of the issues.

After trying a Seagate USB 2.0 1TB drive, WD My Passport USB 3.0 1TB drive, and a WD 2.0 400GB drive and formatted into EXT3 formats, the router would go into a rebooting frenzy until the drive is disconnected.

EXT3 and EXT4 formats were done using MiniTool Home Partition Wizard. NTFS formatted using Windows 7 (this file system worked fine but I had permission issues that I could not overcome). I had success with MiniTool using EXT3 on TomatoUSB with my RT-N16 before.

These behaviors happened on both AsusWRT latest firmware as well as Merlins latest standard release as well as the Alpha4 build. I tried to use the latest beta but my router suffers from the periodic reboots as others as experienced.

I ended up downloading GPARTED and ran it from bootable CD. I formatted one of the drives to EXT3. Voila. The drive did not cause the router to bootcycle. I copied a handful of files to the drive. It's been over 2 days without any disconnects (usually the disconnects with EXT4 occurred every 8 hours).

I'm using EXT2FSD to copy files to/from Windows to the drive. With EXT4 formatted using MiniTool, I know that EXT2FSD is not officially supported but could still write to the file system. Perhaps something got mixed up there...?

I'm going to introduce/format another drive, connect it to the USB 3.0 port, copy over my media library, and then have the media server re-enabled. More variables into the mix, but I'm hoping that the kernels used in MiniTool versus GPARTED are different and was the source of the compatibility issue with the RT-AC68.

Will post updates within the next week to still if the hypothesis is accurate.

I hope this may help someone...

 

[ezflrouting]

Updates to those interested in this chain...

Scenario #1:
With all of my file libraries, DLNA and iTunes servers enabled, the drive still disconnected from the router.

Scenario #2:
I repartitioned/formatted the drive to EXT3 again using GPARTED via bootable CD. This time, I did not connect it to my PC, nor did I copy any files to the drive via EXT2FSD on Win7. Both DLNA and iTunes servers were disabled/OFF. Finally, I only created a couple of directories (no files) through ASUS Merlin 3.0.0.4.374.40_alpha4.

The outcome... Well, after 1.5 days, the hard drive still disconnected. So, I'm ruling out media servers, content (and quantity) regarding capacities, EXT2FSD and its drivers.

System log:
Mar 12 07:28:12 kernel: usb 1-1: USB disconnect, address 2
Mar 12 07:28:14 kernel: JBD2: I/O error detected when updating journal superblock for sda1-8.
Mar 12 07:28:14 hotplug[1845]: USB partition unmounted from /tmp/mnt/WD_1TB
Mar 12 07:28:14 rc_service: hotplug 1845:notify_rc restart_nasapps
Mar 12 07:28:14 rc_service: hotplug 1846:notify_rc restart_nasapps
Mar 12 07:28:14 rc_service: waitting "restart_nasapps" via ...

Scenario #3:
I did a little bit more research on the My Passport USB 3.0 1TB portable drive, and some people have had disconnect issues using the stock USB A male to Micro B Male cable. I went ahead and ordered the C2G 54176 1 meter cable from Amazon for about $7.00. I swapped out the cables, rebooted the router to restart the system log timer, and we'll see what happens.

If the drive doesn't disconnect by Sunday or Monday, I'll copy over the 500GB and reset the timer and cross my fingers.

Running out of options...

Stay tuned.

 

[ezflrouting]

More updates regarding the USB disconnects on my RT-AC68R.

1.) After replacing the USB 3.0 cable with a thicker C2G cable, no files on the WD My Passport 1TB USB 3.0 drive, other than just two directories created by AsusWRT Merlin alpha build, media and iTunes servers disabled on the router and USB 3.0 Interference disabled, the drive still disconnected after 1 day.

Mar 15 06:30:24 kernel: JBD2: I/O error detected when updating journal superblock for sda1-8.
Mar 15 06:30:24 hotplug[8248]: USB partition unmounted from /tmp/mnt/WD_1TB
Mar 15 06:30:24 rc_service: hotplug 8248:notify_rc restart_nasapps
Mar 15 06:30:24 rc_service: waitting "restart_nasapps" via ...

2.) I disconnected the drive from the router's USB 3.0 port, and I have since reconnected it to the USB 2.0 port. After 2.5 days, still connected...

So, if the drive remains stable/connected after a couple more days, my next step is to try the drive back on the USB 3.0 port but with USB Interference ENABLED. This feature has been disabled since day 1 due to everyone talking about the decrease in performance throughput.

One of these days, I'll just buy a true NAS drive enclosure, but until then...

I'll provide some updates over the course of the week.

 

[ezflrouting]

Over 6 days with the WD My Passport 1TB USB 3.0 drive plugged into the USB 2.0 port with EXT3.

Tonight, I ended up "Enabling" USB 3.0 Interference in settings, unmounted the drive, reconnected it to the USB 3.0 port, and rebooted the router.

If it doesn't disconnect over the course of several days, I'll copy my media content back to the drive and watch it again.

 

[ezflrouting]

After the 6 day uptime, I intentionally unmounted the HD and copied my media collection to the drive, still with all media servers set to "OFF".

After 4 days uptime, I ran chmod 777 -R on the drive through AsusWRT Merlin to fix a few write permission errors. Assuming I'm still up and running with no issues in a few days (purely to rule out a simple chmod command being an issue), I'll then re-enable the media servers and re-start the counters as the final item on my checklist.

 

[ezflrouting]

This should be the final post regarding my two RT-AC68 issues -- 1.) EXT3/EXT4 bootloop and 2.) USB drive disconnect.

First, the EXT3/EXT4 bootloop issue came from formatting various USB drives using MiniTool Home Partition Wizard (whether EXT3 or EXT4). Connecting the drive to either the USB 2 or USB 3 ports did not resolve the issue. The problems ceased after I formatted the drive(s) using a bootable CD (ISO) version of GParted. As I commented earlier, I did not have this bootloop behavior using TomatoUSB on my RT-N16, formatting the drive using MiniTool.

Second, my USB 3.0 drive was still randomly disconnecting after changing drive firmware sleep settings, AsusWRT Merlin sleep settings, changing out USB cables, etc. Finally, after changing the Reducing USB 3.0 Interference setting found in Wireless->Professional back to "Enable" fixed my disconnect issues. I had immediately changed this option to "Disable" moments after unpacking the router because of the comments of increased USB throughput.

My media library was put back on the drive, both servers were switched back to "ON", the built-in server scanned my library without issue, I was able to watch a movie from the server, and the drive has been up for over 3 days.

I have closure.... finally.

 

[vapochilled]

Hi mate,

Do you think our problem is related to this?

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?p=113583#post113583