Disks Unmounting Issues

Baddc053

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To start... This is what I'm running on:
System:
Kernel: 5.15.0-88-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.4.0 Desktop: Cinnamon 5.8.4
tk: GTK 3.24.33 wm: muffin dm: LightDM Distro: Linux Mint 21.2 Victoria base: Ubuntu 22.04 jammy
Machine:
Type: Desktop System: Dell product: OptiPlex 9020 v: 00 serial: <superuser required> Chassis:
type: 15 serial: <superuser required>
Mobo: Dell model: 00V62H v: A01 serial: <superuser required> UEFI: Dell v: A15
date: 11/08/2015
Battery:
Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech ERGO M575 Trackball serial: <filter> charge: 55%
status: Discharging
CPU:
Info: quad core model: Intel Core i5-4590 bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Haswell rev: 3 cache:
L1: 256 KiB L2: 1024 KiB L3: 6 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 798 min/max: 800/3700 cores: 1: 798 2: 798 3: 798 4: 798 bogomips: 26339
Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
Device-1: Intel Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics vendor: Dell
driver: i915 v: kernel ports: active: HDMI-A-2 empty: DP-1, DP-2, HDMI-A-1, VGA-1
bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:0412
Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.4 driver: X: loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa
gpu: i915 display-ID: :0 screens: 1
Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96
Monitor-1: HDMI-2 mapped: HDMI-A-2 model: 100002487 res: 1920x1080 dpi: 92 diag: 611mm (24.1")
OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 4600 (HSW GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 23.0.4-0ubuntu1~22.04.1
direct render: Yes
Audio:
Device-1: Intel Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor HD Audio vendor: Dell
driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:03.0 chip-ID: 8086:0c0c
Device-2: Intel 8 Series/C220 Series High Definition Audio vendor: Dell driver: snd_hda_intel
v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0 chip-ID: 8086:8c20
Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.15.0-88-generic running: yes
Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 15.99.1 running: yes
Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.48 running: yes
Network:
Device-1: Intel Ethernet I217-LM vendor: Dell driver: e1000e v: kernel port: f080
bus-ID: 00:19.0 chip-ID: 8086:153a
IF: eno1 state: down mac: <filter>
Device-2: Belkin F7D1101 v1 Basic Wireless Adapter [Realtek RTL8188SU] type: USB
driver: r8712u bus-ID: 3-11:6 chip-ID: 050d:945a
IF: wlxb4750e6b371c state: up mac: <filter>
RAID:
Hardware-1: Intel SATA Controller [RAID mode] driver: ahci v: 3.0 bus-ID: 00:1f.2
chip-ID: 8086:2822
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 10.17 TiB used: 555.11 GiB (5.3%)
ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Hitachi model: HDS723020BLA642 size: 1.82 TiB speed: 6.0 Gb/s
serial: <filter>
ID-2: /dev/sdb type: USB vendor: Seagate model: BUP Slim size: 1.82 TiB serial: <filter>
ID-3: /dev/sdc type: USB vendor: Toshiba model: DT01ABA200 size: 1.82 TiB serial: <filter>
ID-4: /dev/sdd type: USB vendor: Western Digital model: WD My Passport 0748 size: 931.48 GiB
serial: <filter>
ID-5: /dev/sde type: USB vendor: Generic model: Flash Disk size: 7.5 GiB serial: <filter>
ID-6: /dev/sdf type: USB vendor: Toshiba model: DT01ABA300 size: 2.73 TiB serial: <filter>
ID-7: /dev/sdg type: USB model: USB DISK 3.0 size: 29.3 GiB serial: <filter>
ID-8: /dev/sdh type: USB model: USB DISK 3.0 size: 29.3 GiB serial: <filter>
ID-9: /dev/sdi type: USB model: ASolid USB size: 29.3 GiB serial: <filter>
ID-10: /dev/sdj type: USB model: USB DISK 3.0 size: 29.3 GiB serial: <filter>
ID-11: /dev/sdk type: USB model: N/A size: 976.56 GiB serial: <filter>
Partition:
ID-1: / size: 1.79 TiB used: 38.71 GiB (2.1%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda3
ID-2: /boot/efi size: 512 MiB used: 6.1 MiB (1.2%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sda2
Swap:
ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 2 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 file: /swapfile
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 29.8 C mobo: 27.8 C
Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Repos:
Packages: apt: 2233
No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/brave-browser-release.list
1: deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/brave-browser-archive-keyring.gpg] https: //brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com/ stable main
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list
1: deb http: //packages.linuxmint.com victoria main upstream import backport
2: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy main restricted universe multiverse
3: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates main restricted universe multiverse
4: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-backports main restricted universe multiverse
5: deb http: //security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jammy-security main restricted universe multiverse
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/opera-stable.list
1: deb https: //deb.opera.com/opera-stable/ stable non-free
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/skype-stable.list
1: deb [arch=amd64] https: //repo.skype.com/deb stable main
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vivaldi.list
1: deb [arch=amd64] https: //repo.vivaldi.com/stable/deb/ stable main
Info:
Processes: 330 Uptime: 4d 20h 28m Memory: 23.38 GiB used: 6.06 GiB (25.9%) Init: systemd v: 249
runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 11.4.0 alt: 11/12 Client: Cinnamon v: 5.8.4 inxi: 3.3.13

I believe it's a fairly decent set up. Anyway recently I've had issues with my drives unmounting at will, and it's getting annoying. I'll come home from a dialysis session and everything is unmounted and lose what I had done on web site, or music I've been editing, for that I use Clementine. For the HTML editor I use BlueFish.
The drives mount right back up after going through the process, but what causes them to unmount on their own? I never turn off the computer..only reboot if required by an update. Any thoughts on this?.
 


The first screenshot shows my settings in Power management
2023-11-09_15-02.png


The following two screenshots show settings in Screensaver

2023-11-09_15-02_1.png

2023-11-09_15-03.png


I do not think bluefish would affect the drive's mounting.

Check these first.

Is it only the main drive which Linux Mint 21.2 is installed on, that fails?....or are there external drives in the mix as well?

The mount options for my external (Found in Disks) looks like this.
Monut options are found via the little gear wheels immediately below the drive pic on the left hand side...
1699503498142.png



2023-11-09_15-15.png


That particular drive is a true external, it resides on the desk beside the tower.
Be careful in the mount options...dont go click crazy.
 
The first screenshot shows my settings in Power management
View attachment 17238

The following two screenshots show settings in Screensaver

View attachment 17239
View attachment 17240

I do not think bluefish would affect the drive's mounting.

Check these first.

Is it only the main drive which Linux Mint 21.2 is installed on, that fails?....or are there external drives in the mix as well?

The mount options for my external (Found in Disks) looks like this.
Monut options are found via the little gear wheels immediately below the drive pic on the left hand side...View attachment 17242


View attachment 17241

That particular drive is a true external, it resides on the desk beside the tower.
Be careful in the mount options...dont go click crazy.
It's ALL drives, whether it is the internal hard drive, external SSD drives, or USB sticks, it has no preference, they are all unmounted.
No big issues getting them back, just right click and mount.
It's only been doing it for 3 weeks, so that made me think it was maybe from an update. I do backups regularly, but wouldn't know how far to go back...or if drives were mounted or unmounted at that time.
Other than that little glitch, Linux works flawlessly, I've switched all 5 computers over, and glad I did.
I have a 76 year old sister that is in her Windows comfort zone (a contradiction of terms there) who refuses to even try my computers with Linux.

I'll try looking at the settings from your screen shots tomorrow, I have my sessions on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. 4 hours of sitting on my butt.


Thank You
 
The first thing that comes to mind is that so many drives will need a large power supply. For what looks like over 11TB over 11 drives, what power wattage is the power supply on the machine?

Less than 1000 watt PSU may not be advisable. Power blips can do odd things.

Are the power management settings set to do anything at all when the system is idle?

Are there any idle timeout settings? The one visible in Condobloke's post #2 shows:
"Suspend when inactive". It needs to be set to never to avoid unmounting.

It may be useful to fsck all the partitions to exclude errors on the filesystem from being implicated.
It may also be useful to check the health of the hard drives with the smartctl command from the smartmontools package.

Are there any "timeout=#" options in the /etc/fstab file? The timeout option can alter mounts to unmount after a period of time, though the default is to never unmount. Just some thoughts.
 
Last edited:
I’ve never known any disks to randomly unmount. Not unless it’s some kind of power saving feature or something?! I usually disable all power saving features and things like hibernation on my computers.

Whenever I’m not using my PC/laptop, I always save my work and shut it down. I don’t leave it on and unattended for any length of time.

Usually if there is a serious disk error, or if the power is interrupted (a surge, or a brief sudden drop in voltage), then sometimes disks will be unmounted and then remounted in read only mode. And if that happens and it’s NOT caused by a power related problem, it’s usually an indicator of a failing drive.

I’d echo @osprey ’s advice and fsck your partitions to check the file-systems are all intact and check the SMART information on each drive via smartctl.

Double checking fstab for timeouts is also a good shout!
 
The first thing that comes to mind is that so many drives will need a large power supply. For what looks like over 11TB over 11 drives, what power wattage is the power supply on the machine?

Less than 1000 watt PSU may not be advisable. Power blips can do odd things.

Are the power management settings set to do anything at all when the system is idle?

Are there any idle timeout settings? The one visible in condobloke's post #2 shows:
"Suspend when inactive". It needs to be set to never to avoid unmounting.

It may be useful to fsck all the partitions to exclude errors on the filesystem from being implicated.
It may also be useful to check the health of the hard drives with the smartctl command from the smartmontools package.

Are there any "timeout=#" options in the /etc/fstab file? The timeout option can alter mounts to unmount after a period of time, though the default is to never unmount. Just some thoughts.
I did just now switch to the never state for inactivity. And you may very well be on to something with the power supply. 5 of the 11 are actual hard drives with one of them being the internal that came with the PC, the others are USB Sticks.
 
I’ve never known any disks to randomly unmount. Not unless it’s some kind of power saving feature or something?! I usually disable all power saving features and things like hibernation on my computers.

Whenever I’m not using my PC/laptop, I always save my work and shut it down. I don’t leave it on and unattended for any length of time.

Usually if there is a serious disk error, or if the power is interrupted (a surge, or a brief sudden drop in voltage), then sometimes disks will be unmounted and then remounted in read only mode. And if that happens and it’s NOT caused by a power related problem, it’s usually an indicator of a failing drive.

I’d echo @osprey ’s advice and fsck your partitions to check the file-systems are all intact and check the SMART information on each drive via smartctl.

Double checking fstab for timeouts is also a good shout!
This only started within the last month, other than that I've had no issues with Linux ever, it's an amazing system. I'll check everything when I get back from dialysis if they don't mess with me to bad. When they do I get so light headed I wouldn't remember my name..Then dialysis sucks.
 
This only started within the last month, other than that I've had no issues with Linux ever, it's an amazing system. I'll check everything when I get back from dialysis if they don't mess with me to bad. When they do I get so light headed I wouldn't remember my name..Then dialysis sucks.
Got back from dialysis and it's same stuff different day. I'll check Amazon and see if they have a better power supply, only thing that may put a wrench in the the machinery is that the computer is one notch up from small format...may not fit. If not I'll deal with the unmounting issue
 

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