LE 11.0.1 RPI4 crashing while copying files to/from USB HDD

    I recently did a clean install of LE11.0.1 onto SD card with RPI4. The RPI4 also has 4TB USB HDD (formatted ext4) for holding media. I had used this hardware happily with LE9 for several years.

    I used to regularly bulk copy files to and from the USB HDD, using either the Kodi File Manager or SMB from other PCs. Rarely had any problems.

    Since installing LE11 though I'm consistently getting crashes soon after initiating file transfers. Crashes so that display freezes, SSH doesn't respond, and have to power cycle to restart. The transfers run for a few minutes and transfer a a few Gbs before crashing.

    First noticed this when I added a second USB HDD (via powered Hub) and tried copying from HDD A to HDD B.

    Then unplugged HDD B (and the Hub) to get back to original hardware setup.

    Tried copying from the HDD A to a PC drive via SMB and same behaviour

    Tried systemctl stop kodi, before initiating copy and same behaviour.

    Crash log posted to http://ix.io/4t7H

    Code
    Apr 23 15:12:13.064341 LEMC kernel: EXT4-fs (sdb1): error count since last fsck: 13
Apr 23 15:12:13.064824 LEMC kernel: EXT4-fs (sdb1): initial error at time 1598463659: ext4_validate_block_bitmap:384
Apr 23 15:12:13.065026 LEMC kernel: EXT4-fs (sdb1): last error at time 1599941347: ext4_free_blocks:4964

    Both drives were fsck'd on boot due to dirty filesystems (not unmounted cleanly before shutdown) but it's impossible to see/say what causes the shutdowns. The ^ above errors suggest the drive has errors after being fsck'd so it might be dying. The largest cause of drive mounting issues and instability on RPi boards is an inadequate power supply. And power characteristics of the board under LE11 may also be different than LE9 due to major software changes and general evolution. If you're adding drives then the board is going to draw more current even if the drives are powered from a separate hub or via their own PSUs.

    Thanks for reviewing.

    The RPi4 has a 3A PSU and the 2 x 2.5" drives are on a powered hub with a 1A PSU.

    On paper I think the power supplies should be adequate, but I think you're saying that whatever PSU setup is used with RPi and USB drives there are likely to be issues under LE11?

    You’d need to post a little more detail on the drives you are using. You don’t have a lot to spare on a 1amp usb powered hub and many of those hubs do not provide the advertised amperage. Try an alternative if you have one.

    I had similar problems a while back and switched from NTFS to ExFAT (Ext4 is not an option for me). I'll probably be shot for suggesting this but I believe that LE isn't properly flushing the disk buffers even when shut down correctly, or mishandling data transfer via SAMBA. In my case the connected disk is a powered 6TB Seagate that ran brilliantly on the RPi3.

    The RPi4 has a 3A PSU (bought with the pi from thehihut) and the Seagate also has a 3A PSU

    On one occasion, after I had copied files to the HDD (formatted to NTFS) I left the RPi4 running overnight came in the next day and it was still running, shut it down properly and when I went to start it up again I had disk corruption.

    Switching to ExFAT stopped that particular problem but I can't use it now because the ExFAT deiver isn't reporting the time in the same way as Windows which rather messes with my backup system.