From Newsgroup: comp.sys.raspberry-pi

Hi all. I always seem to get impossible problems....

Take a pi4 and two disks - both sata connected by a sata to usb adapter.
One is a small real disk drive, the other a Kingston SSD. Both have been
in the spares cupboard for a while.

I put an old arm64 version of bookworm onto the spinner. Works fine.

I put the exact same onto the ssd. Won't boot, with messages like
timed out waiting for udev to be empty
or
read error on /dev/sda [details not recorded]

there seems to be no obvious fault with the ssd as such - it was working
as expected when put into storage, and a scan with badblock -w is
currently at 80% with no errors.


I've swapped the pi4 psu for a pi5 psu in case supply current was an
issue. No change.

I've run dd over much of the ssd (under mint) both reading and writing,
but no errors.


Is there anything weird that I might have missed about booting from an
ssd rather than a real disk?


TIA for any thoughts.
--
Mike Scott
Harlow, England

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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.raspberry-pi

On 28/05/2026 16:27, Mike Scott wrote:

there seems to be no obvious fault with the ssd as such - it was working
as expected when put into storage, and a scan with badblock -w is
currently at 80% with no errors.

I should add, the pi4 is running from the spinner, while checking the
ssd. 89% checked, 0 errors as I write.

Also, a second pi4 has the same issue, so it's not a faulty pi4.
--
Mike Scott
Harlow, England
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.sys.raspberry-pi

On 28/05/2026 16:38, Mike Scott wrote:

On 28/05/2026 16:27, Mike Scott wrote:

there seems to be no obvious fault with the ssd as such - it was
working as expected when put into storage, and a scan with badblock -w
is currently at 80% with no errors.

I should add, the pi4 is running from the spinner, while checking the
ssd. 89% checked, 0 errors as I write.

Also, a second pi4 has the same issue, so it's not a faulty pi4.

Some disks with some USB adapters simply do not work

Peal currents may easily exceed USB ability as well

I've got similar issues here but I have not got to the end of that road yet
--
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and
wrong.

H.L.Mencken

--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.sys.raspberry-pi

Mike Scott <usenet.16@scottsonline.org.uk.invalid> writes:

Hi all. I always seem to get impossible problems....

Take a pi4 and two disks - both sata connected by a sata to usb
adapter. One is a small real disk drive, the other a Kingston
SSD. Both have been in the spares cupboard for a while.

I put an old arm64 version of bookworm onto the spinner. Works fine.

I put the exact same onto the ssd. Won't boot, with messages like
timed out waiting for udev to be empty
or
read error on /dev/sda [details not recorded]

Boot the Pi from the spinning disk (or an SD card) and connect the SSD
to the Pi. See if you can access it and if not, have a look at the
kernel log.
--
https://www.greenend.org.uk/rjk/
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.sys.raspberry-pi

On 28/05/2026 17:39, Richard Kettlewell wrote:

Mike Scott <usenet.16@scottsonline.org.uk.invalid> writes:

Hi all. I always seem to get impossible problems....

Take a pi4 and two disks - both sata connected by a sata to usb
adapter. One is a small real disk drive, the other a Kingston
SSD. Both have been in the spares cupboard for a while.

I put an old arm64 version of bookworm onto the spinner. Works fine.

I put the exact same onto the ssd. Won't boot, with messages like
timed out waiting for udev to be empty
or
read error on /dev/sda [details not recorded]

Boot the Pi from the spinning disk (or an SD card) and connect the SSD
to the Pi. See if you can access it and if not, have a look at the
kernel log.

Already did - I ran one full pass with baddisk -w which completed with
zero errors.
--
Mike Scott
Harlow, England
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.sys.raspberry-pi

On 28/05/2026 21:30, Mike Scott wrote:

On 28/05/2026 17:39, Richard Kettlewell wrote:

Mike Scott <usenet.16@scottsonline.org.uk.invalid> writes:

Hi all. I always seem to get impossible problems....

Take a pi4 and two disks - both sata connected by a sata to usb
adapter. One is a small real disk drive, the other a Kingston
SSD. Both have been in the spares cupboard for a while.

I put an old arm64 version of bookworm onto the spinner. Works fine.

I put the exact same onto the ssd. Won't boot, with messages like
timed out waiting for udev to be empty
or
read error on /dev/sda [details not recorded]

Boot the Pi from the spinning disk (or an SD card) and connect the SSD
to the Pi. See if you can access it and if not, have a look at the
kernel log.

Already did - I ran one full pass with baddisk -w which completed with
zero errors.

Why don't you tray what Richard suggested?
--
Chris
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.raspberry-pi

The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:

On 28/05/2026 16:38, Mike Scott wrote:

On 28/05/2026 16:27, Mike Scott wrote:

there seems to be no obvious fault with the ssd as such - it was
working as expected when put into storage, and a scan with badblock -w
is currently at 80% with no errors.

I should add, the pi4 is running from the spinner, while checking the
ssd. 89% checked, 0 errors as I write.

Also, a second pi4 has the same issue, so it's not a faulty pi4.

Some disks with some USB adapters simply do not work

Two thoughts:

Try a different USB bridge on the SSD.
Some behave better than others.

Maybe try different software on the SSD. I've worked
quite a bit with FreeBSD, It lets the Pi firmware
start u-boot to find the disk. Maybe that'll work
or give some opportunity to tinker with the disk
probe (changing usb_pgood_delay in uboot.env has
been helpful in some cases).

You'd want https://download.freebsd.org/releases/arm64/aarch64/ISO-IMAGES/15.0/FreeBSD-15.0-RELEASE-arm64-aarch64-RPI.img.xz

FreeBSD won't solve the problem, but it might provide some insights.
You might need a serial console to see what's going on.

hth,

bob prohaska
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.raspberry-pi

Mike Scott <usenet.16@scottsonline.org.uk.invalid> writes:

Richard Kettlewell wrote:

Mike Scott <usenet.16@scottsonline.org.uk.invalid> writes:

Hi all. I always seem to get impossible problems....

Take a pi4 and two disks - both sata connected by a sata to usb
adapter. One is a small real disk drive, the other a Kingston
SSD. Both have been in the spares cupboard for a while.

I put an old arm64 version of bookworm onto the spinner. Works fine.

I put the exact same onto the ssd. Won't boot, with messages like
timed out waiting for udev to be empty
or
read error on /dev/sda [details not recorded]

Boot the Pi from the spinning disk (or an SD card) and connect the
SSD to the Pi. See if you can access it and if not, have a look at
the kernel log.

Already did - I ran one full pass with baddisk -w which completed with
zero errors.

Never heard of baddisk, what is that?

Anyway from what you’ve said, Linux on the Pi can’t see the SSD during early boot, but can see it when attached to the Pi later. That’s hard to explain, since it’s the same hardware and the same code looking for it
in each case.

Just to check, did you run your ‘full pass with baddisk’ _on the Pi_, as requested above?
--
https://www.greenend.org.uk/rjk/
--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.sys.raspberry-pi

On 29/05/2026 09:19, Richard Kettlewell wrote:

Mike Scott <usenet.16@scottsonline.org.uk.invalid> writes:

Richard Kettlewell wrote:

Mike Scott <usenet.16@scottsonline.org.uk.invalid> writes:

Hi all. I always seem to get impossible problems....

Take a pi4 and two disks - both sata connected by a sata to usb
adapter. One is a small real disk drive, the other a Kingston
SSD. Both have been in the spares cupboard for a while.

I put an old arm64 version of bookworm onto the spinner. Works fine.

I put the exact same onto the ssd. Won't boot, with messages like
timed out waiting for udev to be empty
or
read error on /dev/sda [details not recorded]

Boot the Pi from the spinning disk (or an SD card) and connect the
SSD to the Pi. See if you can access it and if not, have a look at
the kernel log.

Already did - I ran one full pass with baddisk -w which completed with
zero errors.

Never heard of baddisk, what is that?

My bad - I meant 'badblocks'.

Anyway from what you’ve said, Linux on the Pi can’t see the SSD during early boot, but can see it when attached to the Pi later. That’s hard to explain, since it’s the same hardware and the same code looking for it
in each case.

Just to check, did you run your ‘full pass with baddisk’ _on the Pi_, as requested above?

Yes.

The problem does look as though it was down to a combo of the ssd plus
one particular sata/usb adapter (I have 3). Using dd, I found transfer
rates down to <10MB with the ssd and that particular adapter.

The issue does seem to centre around the combo of ssd, that particular adapter, and the pi4. I get decent transfer rates using my desktop with
all the adapters; just the pi4 has issues with that one, fine with the
other 2.

Anyway, I have a system that has now booted several times without issue,
which is great.

Thanks to all for commenting.



--
Mike Scott
Harlow, England
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