Getting IO errors while connecting a HDD to a RPi4 when using USB 3.0 but not when using USB 2

Question

for a few weeks now, I have been suffering with the following problem:

I wanted to set up a NAS with a Raspberry Pi 4 and two WD Red, running ubuntu server, since the RPi 4 finally supports USB 3.0. Because the HDDs need more power, I have worked from the beginning with active SATA-USB adapters. However, a disk was always ejected and then remounted. This process was a matter of just one or two seconds and each time, the drive letter changed (sda > sdc ...). Also, each time my software raid was destroyed and the disks had to resynchronize.

While troubleshooting I stumbled across two error messages

• over-current change #34

• uas_eh_abort_handler 0 uas-tag 13 inflight: CMD OUT

The second was UAS causing problems, so I immediately blocked it as follows:

• Create /boot/firmware/cmdline.txt

• Add this line: usb-storage.quirks=174c:55aa:u

• Update initramfs

  Now, the UAS related errors were gone.

For the first error, I needed some time to find out what was wrong. Afterwards it turned out that I needed an active USB hub in addition to my active SATA USB adapters to make this error message go away.

But now I still get a hard drive ejected regularly. I can't reliably reproduce the error though. What I know for sure is this: The error messages are:

usb 2-1.2: reset SuperSpeed Gen 1 USB device number 4 using xhci_hcd
usb 2-1.2: device firmware changed
usb 2-1.2: USB disconnect, device number 4
sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] Synchronizing SCSI cache
blk_update_request: I/O error, dev sdb, sector 114344960 op 0x0:(READ) flags 0x0 phys_seg 4 prio class 0
blk_update_request: I/O error, dev sdb, sector 114345472 op 0x0:(READ) flags 0x0 phys_seg 5 prio class 0
blk_update_request: I/O error, dev sdb, sector 114352128 op 0x0:(READ) flags 0x0 phys_seg 22 prio class 0
sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] Synchronize Cache(10) failed: Result: hostbyte=DID_NO_CONNECT driverbyte=DRIVER_OK
usb 2-1.2: new SuperSpeed Gen 1 USB device number 5 using xhci_hcd
usb 2-1.2: New USB device found, idVendor=174c, idProduct=55aa, bcdDevice= 1.00
New USB device strings: Mfr=2, Product=3, SerialNumber=1
usb 2-1.2: Product: ASM105x
usb 2-1.2: Manufacturer: ASMedia
usb 2-1.2: SerialNumber:      WD-WCC7K0ZET7JE
usb 2-1.2: UAS is blacklisted for this device, using usb-storage instead
usb-storage 2-1.2:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
usb-storage 2-1.2:1.0: Quirks match for vid 174c pid 55aa: c00000
scsi host2: usb-storage 2-1.2:1.0
scsi 2:0:0:0: Direct-Access     ASMedia  ASM105x          0    PQ: 0 ANSI: 6
sd 2:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 0
sd 2:0:0:0: [sdc] 7814037168 512-byte logical blocks: (4.00 TB/3.64 TiB)
sd 2:0:0:0: [sdc] 4096-byte physical blocks
sd 2:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off
sd 2:0:0:0: [sdc] Mode Sense: 43 00 00 00
sd 2:0:0:0: [sdc] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, does not support DPO or FUA
sdc: sdc1
sd 2:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI disk
md: super_written gets error=10
md: super_written gets error=10
md: super_written gets error=10
[...more lines with the same message...]
Aborting journal on device md0-8.
Buffer I/O error on dev md0, logical block 488144896, lost sync page write
JBD2: Error -5 detected when updating journal superblock for md0-8.

Those errors do not occur when I

• plug the active USB 3.0 Hub directly into the USB 2 ports.
• use an active USB2 hub.

From this I conclude that this problem is related to usb 3.0 on the raspberry Pi.

Currently the NAS is running on the USB 2 ports without any other errors. (Already for several days.) But i would rather not run the NAS using USB 2, as I could use USB 3 to take advantage of my gigabit connection.

Does anyone have any idea where those errors are coming from?

EDIT: That's the output of lsblk --fs

$ sudo lsblk --fs
    NAME        FSTYPE            LABEL       UUID                                 FSAVAIL FSUSE% MOUNTPOINT
    loop2       squashfs                                                                 0   100% /snap/snapd/11115
    sda                                                                                           
    └─sda1      linux_raid_member rpi-nas:0   7904b5e5-9f92-9402-2619-eeb41b0c0645                
      └─md0     ext4                          e5c91dcc-661e-4fb5-a431-74eaf4ae80d4    2.9T    16% /mnt/nas
    sdb         linux_raid_member rpi-nas:0   7904b5e5-9f92-9402-2619-eeb41b0c0645                
    └─md0       ext4                          e5c91dcc-661e-4fb5-a431-74eaf4ae80d4    2.9T    16% /mnt/nas
    mmcblk0                                                                                       
    ├─mmcblk0p1 vfat              system-boot 4D3B-86C0                             133.7M    47% /boot/firmware
    └─mmcblk0p2 ext4              writable    79af43d1-801b-4c28-81d5-724c930bcc83   22.5G    18% /

Answer 1

I am experiencing similar problems from time to time. I have a NasPI Gemini for my pi, and I have recently added a secondary SSD to run my own Nextcloud. I see this problem as a power source problem, because it either happens when pi has to write a lot of things to the SSD no.2. due to Nextcloud sync, or when there is a concurrent read/write from the primary SSD too. I already replaced the power source of a 5V/2A to an 5V/3A one and now at least i don't see the "Undervoltage detected" error messages. But I still believe that with a better power source, i might not have these issues.

Now, I have a 12V/5A charger (something like this) and currently waiting for my step-down module (to 5V/5A) to arrive and I will connect the whole system in that way. If it helps, I will let you know guys.