How to get EXT4 drive to mount reliably?

Hi guys! So I've been having a super frustrating time trying to get my EXT4 drive to even mount. I can plug it into my arch laptop and it is immediately recognized and mountable. I try on libreelec and it takes many restarts and shutdowns and plugs/unplugs of the drive to get it to mount, making for a really annoying experience. I've checked log files and dmesg and every time I plug in nothing shows up in either, until it randomly works in which dmesg will show the mount. I was thinking it was my USB to sata adapter, but I question that given that out of my main arch distribution and an Ubuntu, kubuntu, and another arch, it is instantly recognised in blkid/lsblk/fdisk there

Sorry for the delay I've been pretty busy. It's a Samsung 870qvo 8tb connected with a sata enclosure (https://a.co/d/eGDQTO5).

Htpc is a Nucbox g5.

I'll get the journal logs later and put them here

Quote from chewitt

Is the drive powered from the USB port? or it has its own independent PSU? - and what is the HTPC device?

Share the system log after a successful mounting, e.g. run "journalctl | paste" and share the URL generated.

Dmesg: https://paste.libreelec.tv/ruling-crab.log

Journal: https://paste.libreelec.tv/learning-koala.log

This is after successful mounting. Took about 10 tries this time of plugging in, leaving for 1 min, pulling and retrying. Mounts about 20 seconds after plugin succeeds. Fsck is also clean according to this machine and my arch laptop. Arch system reads in drive about 5-10 seconds and becomes mountable after that

Quote from chewitt

I was originally suspecting a power issue; especially if the drive is being powered from the USB bus, but when power draw is the issue I'd expect to see spurious errors in the log; mount failures or USB errors or .. something to indicate the device probed then trying/failing/trying/failing to mount and then eventually succeeding. Instead the log looks clean, as if the device is probed (once) and then mounts cleanly and correctly (once).

If the device is USB bus powered, is it a 'single' USB cable or a 'dual' (Y) cable that takes power from multiple USB ports. SSD drives might be small but that doesn't necessarily mean they use little/less power - they can be hungry devices.

Just for info, please run "lsusb -tv | paste" and "lsmod | paste" when the drive is connected.

It is a single one, powered usbA or c. 2.5 inch ssd drive. I have success with usb sustained write on usbA for about 500gb (like 4 hour write sustained or something like that) so it is not a power issue, otherwise I would have noticed a failure there. I was also able to mount to another 2 arch systems today when pulling video and same story, mounts within about 10 secs on those. Might be an OS issue, i am not sure? fsck clean and all of that, alwasy take care of the drive.

lsusb (drive plugged in not mounting): https://paste.libreelec.tv/sound-hen.log

lsmod (drive plugged in and not mounting): https://paste.libreelec.tv/giving-redbird.log

lsusb (drive mounted):
CoolPenguin42:~ # lsusb -tv
/: Bus 001.Port 001: Dev 001, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/12p, 480M
ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
|__ Port 003: Dev 002, If 0, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=usbhid, 12M
ID 1997:2433 Shenzhen Riitek Technology Co., Ltd wireless mini keyboard with touchpad
|__ Port 003: Dev 002, If 1, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=usbhid, 12M
ID 1997:2433 Shenzhen Riitek Technology Co., Ltd wireless mini keyboard with touchpad
|__ Port 004: Dev 003, If 0, Class=Wireless, Driver=btusb, 12M
ID 0bda:c821 Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
|__ Port 004: Dev 003, If 1, Class=Wireless, Driver=btusb, 12M
ID 0bda:c821 Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
|__ Port 005: Dev 004, If 0, Class=Mass Storage, Driver=usb-storage, 480M
ID 05e3:0751 Genesys Logic, Inc. microSD Card Reader
|__ Port 006: Dev 005, If 0, Class=Audio, Driver=snd-usb-audio, 12M
ID 0573:1573 Zoran Co. Personal Media Division (Nogatech)
|__ Port 006: Dev 005, If 1, Class=Audio, Driver=snd-usb-audio, 12M
ID 0573:1573 Zoran Co. Personal Media Division (Nogatech)
|__ Port 006: Dev 005, If 2, Class=Audio, Driver=snd-usb-audio, 12M
ID 0573:1573 Zoran Co. Personal Media Division (Nogatech)
|__ Port 006: Dev 005, If 3, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=[none], 12M
ID 0573:1573 Zoran Co. Personal Media Division (Nogatech)
/: Bus 002.Port 001: Dev 001, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/4p, 10000M
ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
|__ Port 002: Dev 002, If 0, Class=Mass Storage, Driver=uas, 5000M
ID 152d:0583 JMicron Technology Corp. / JMicron USA Technology Corp. JMS583Gen 2 to PCIe Gen3x2 Bridge

lsmod (drive mounted):

CoolPenguin42:~ # lsmod
Module Size Used by
bnep 24576 2
rtw88_8821ce 12288 0
rtw88_pci 28672 1 rtw88_8821ce
rtw88_8821c 86016 1 rtw88_8821ce
rtw88_core 180224 2 rtw88_pci,rtw88_8821c
mac80211 970752 2 rtw88_pci,rtw88_core
libarc4 12288 1 mac80211
wl 6385664 0
btusb 69632 0
btmtk 12288 1 btusb
btrtl 24576 1 btusb
btbcm 20480 1 btusb
btintel 45056 1 btusb
bluetooth 770048 29 btrtl,btmtk,btintel,btbcm,bnep,btusb
cfg80211 974848 3 wl,rtw88_core,mac80211
snd_hda_codec_hdmi 77824 1
snd_hda_intel 49152 1
snd_usb_audio 323584 0
ecdh_generic 12288 2 bluetooth
snd_intel_dspcfg 20480 1 snd_hda_intel
intel_rapl_msr 16384 0
snd_usbmidi_lib 40960 1 snd_usb_audio
ecc 32768 1 ecdh_generic
snd_hda_codec 147456 2 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_intel
intel_rapl_common 32768 1 intel_rapl_msr
snd_rawmidi 40960 1 snd_usbmidi_lib
rfkill 32768 5 bluetooth,cfg80211
snd_hwdep 12288 2 snd_usb_audio,snd_hda_codec
idma64 16384 0
x86_pkg_temp_thermal 16384 0
intel_powerclamp 20480 0
snd_hda_core 94208 3 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec
mc 57344 1 snd_usb_audio
pkcs8_key_parser 12288 0
fuse 155648 1
nfnetlink 16384 1
dmi_sysfs 20480 0


Sorry for the full pastes in here it would not let me make two paste files for the same command lol

Quote from chewitt

Code

echo 'options usb-storage quirks=152d:0583:u' > /storage/.config/modprobe.d/usb-storage.conf
reboot

There are quite a few reports of "device won't mount" on a range of distros for the "JMS583Gen 2 to PCIe Gen3x2 Bridge" adapter so run that ^ over SSH and see if it mounts correctly now?

Unfortunately does not work. Running that with the drive plugged in (but wouldn't mount) did nothing. Plugging in and out again like 5 times got it to mount, ran command, after reboot it did mount on boot. However upon shutting down and powering back up, no dice. Back to not mounting or anything again.

Quote from F1Fanb0y

What usb versions are the hdd and port on the pc? My dashcam will not have a stable connection to any of my usb3 ports on my laptop, the only way I can connect it is via a cheap usb2 hub.

Both USB 3. Drive works with either USB 3 or USB C, both will mount perfectly on arch and my box only has USB 3 for libreelec, where it is super inconsistent

Quote from chewitt

Code

echo 'options usb-storage quirks=152d:0583:u' > /storage/.config/modprobe.d/usb-storage.conf
reboot

There are quite a few reports of "device won't mount" on a range of distros for the "JMS583Gen 2 to PCIe Gen3x2 Bridge" adapter so run that ^ over SSH and see if it mounts correctly now?

Hey so I tried doing this again and it *kinda* works. It refuses to mount at boot like 75% of the time, sometimes it does now. When it doesn't mount at boot it now needs like 1 or 2 replugs + 2 minutes wait to get it to automatically mount. Which is still not optimal but I guess it works somewhat better than before. Is there anything else to do? Maybe I buy an adapter that is not jmicron

Quote from chewitt

There's enough reports on that adapter for me to think it has firmware problems, so probably not a terrible idea.

Ok any idea which ones on Amazon are non jmicron? I might grab a few and test and then update the post on what happens

Quote from chewitt

Sorry, no clue. I've long used a NAS in the network to avoid USB drives so can't speak from any experience.

SUCCESS! Did the USB trick thing on a new USB to sata from ugreen (https://a.co/d/9pvAb6M). Full shutdown and booted back like 10 times in a row now and it mounts automatically each time about 10-20 seconds after loading into Kodi 😎