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Re: bad downloads during apt-get upgrade



On Mon, 24 Oct 2011 11:44:11 +0000 (UTC), I wrote:
> ... I often get bad downloads when I run apt-get upgrade.
> ...
> dd </var/cache/apt/archives/[package].deb >/dev/null
>   dd: reading `standard input': Input/output error

On Mon, 24 Oct 2011 13:49:24 -0600, Bob Proulx <bob@proulx.com> replied:

> That isn't a good error message.  I think your disk is failing.
> Review your /var/log/syslog and look for error messages there.  I
> expect you will see other errors logged there.

I was afraid of that.  For what it's worth, there is nothing suspicious in
syslog.  Mostly it's just a list of all the e-mails sent and received.  I do
keep this machine very well backed up.

> You didn't say what type of media you are using.  Spinning disk?  SSD?
> Other?

It's an old spinning disk (Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 8 6K040L0 40GB ATA/133
HDD).  The date on it is 10/31/03.  It's sufficient for this machine's
purpose.

> Is your disk S.M.A.R.T. capable?  Install 'smartmontools'.  Then run
> selftests against the disk.  SMART hasn't be a great predictor of
> failure for me but it has been a good confirmation of it.

>  # smartctl -H /dev/sda

SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

>  # smartctl -a /dev/sda

long output, including

Warning: ATA error count 487 inconsistent with error log pointer 5
ATA Error Count: 487 (device log contains only the most recent five errors)
Error 487 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 14910 hours (621 days + 6 hours)
  When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was in an unknown
state.
...
  After command completion occurred, registers were:
  ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
  -- -- -- -- -- -- --
  40 51 01 af 49 c3 e2  Error: UNC 1 sectors at LBA = 0x02c349af = 46352815

  Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
  CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC   Powered_Up_Time  Command/Feature_Name
  -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --  ----------------  --------------------
  c8 00 08 af 49 c3 e2 08  19d+15:22:35.264  READ DMA
  f8 00 00 00 00 00 e0 08  19d+15:22:35.248  READ NATIVE MAX ADDRESS
  ec 00 00 00 00 00 a0 0a  19d+15:22:35.248  IDENTIFY DEVICE
  ef 03 41 00 00 00 a0 0a  19d+15:22:35.232  SET FEATURES [Set transfer mode]
  f8 00 00 00 00 00 e0 08  19d+15:22:35.232  READ NATIVE MAX ADDRESS

>  # smartctl -l selftest /dev/sda

Num  Test_Description    Status                  Remaining  LifeTime(hours) 
LBA_of_first_error
# 1  Short offline       Completed: read failure       60%     15032        
46769249

I'm not sure how to interpret all of that output, but it looks bad.  Thanks
for your help.


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