Posts by LybsterKodi

I can now confirm the problem was the cable - new Cat6 cable and no packet loss.

"1) Update the RPi4 bootloader (there where quit a few things USB related in the changelogs)"

LibreElec tells me bootloader & t'other one (can't remember the name) are both up to date and I believe it

"2) Disable Wifi and Bluetooth if you are not using them"

Does never enabling them count <G> - never enable Bluetooth and always disable WiFi

"3) If the Seagate is FAT32 or NTFS that might cause the corruption because those filesystem aren't playing nice with Linux.You might consider switching to EXT4 (at least to test if corruption occur with that too)."

I've posted separately about this. Ext4 isn't really a possibility - simply from a viewpoint of backing up and copying / moving files using Windows (I'll see what the speed is like over the network now with the Cat6 cable). I've been running NTFS since 2018 on the Pi3s and that Seagate is OK. My current theory is the first time I had a duff socket in the extension lead which meant LibreElec/Pi4 tried to power the 6TB HDD, ignored the SSD with LibreElec on it and went to try and reformat the HDD but couldn't power it. The second time is baffling me but might have been flipping the power switches in the wrong order.

Pretty much all the stuff I can find on the web says use ExFat not NTFS for USB drives but no evidence to support the opinion.

Thanks - to answer your comments / questions

"Windows does not hibernate external drives."

True, however, Seagate provide a utility so you can tell the HDD to go to sleep after inactivity - I've set it to 15 minutes so having left it to copy 4TB overnight it was sleeping when I came back, turned the PC off and disconnected.

"Unplugging the drive during write operations."

Windows always tell it to eject or close PC down. RPi4 power off machine, but it shouldn't really be writing to the disk anyway - just reading videos.

"Insufficient power for write operations."

I'm pretty sure this was the first cause - power block with duff socket.That was fixed but I suppose its possible that the Pi was overloaded, couldn't read the OS from SSD and tried to create a new install on the HDD.

"Vibration"

Being a brit a tumbler is a glass (one of those things you drink out of) so might have trouble balancing the HDD on it

"Disk failure"

I'm about 23% through a full scann (HDDScan) right now - no bad sectors yet.

"Does it corrupt after being remove from Windows, from libreelec,

or during operation on one of the systems?"

Good question - I only found it (both times) when I plugged back into my Windows PC - massive index corruption both times.

"How does corruption show up in the kernel log? (dmesg)"

No idea - the SSD where I presume it would be stored has been flashed several times since it happened.

"PS: Why does the forum censor the word "

Wish I knew - it also censors f00d

My PS: any views on ExFAT vs NTFS?

I'm hopefully onto my last problem area. The 6TB I'll be using on the RPi4 has been corrupted twice and I'm trying to find out why. I found this (https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linu…ved-4175536517/) thread which indicates that when Linux mounts a hibernated disk this can cause corruption. I've set my disk to go to sleep after 15 minutes inactivity so its entirely possible that it was that state when I took it off the Windows PC and connected onto the Pi.

What does anyone here think? Likely or not?

The 6TB disk is formatted to NTFS, moving to Ext4 is not a viable proposition, but I could move to ExFAT if people think that would be more stable.

"Well,i never thought about old cables."

Neither did I to my shame. Its a Seagate powered backup hub - 6TB HDD. LibreElec will live on a 128GB SSD.

I did run across something which said that the Pi can only deliver 1.2A over all the USB ports, no idea how accurate that is but since the Seagate comes with two USB ports I'll be popping the keyboard dongle and the Haupage in there.

I won't know for sure until I receive a cable from Amazon but I think I've sussed it. I deserve to be shot at dawn for such a stupid mistake. Most of my equipment is mature so Cat5 cable is fine but with the RPi4 and the powerline adapter both being gigabit there was data loss. Today I bunged a 5 port 10/100 hub in between the powerline adapter and the Pi4 and things work properly.

Hopefully the only problem I have left to solve is why its trashing the hard drive.

Quote from Pretoriano

Well,another thing i would try is updating the RPi4 bootloader to the latest version (if it's not already the latest one) and test again .

Good guess - did it ages ago. Fortunately I had the sense to "dismantle" my RPi3s carefully so I'm now back to a running system.

I'll mark this thread as resolved and maybe try again in a few months, or when the price of a Pi comes down.

Thanks for trying to sort me out.

I'm using SSD as well and I know its speed is good since I tested it just after its arrival.

Thanks to your suggesting a different OS I'm coming to the conclusion that its the RPi4. On wireless (once I connected to my private network rather than the public bit I share) pings were 0% lost. Went back to wired and it loaded amazon.co.uk but then speedtest.net disconnected. Transfering multi GB files over wireless is a bit of a none starter - it can be done but....

I've been trying since last October to get this off the ground. First waiting for LibreElec to implement features I needed now this. I think I'll resurrect my Pi3Bs - just watch them decide not to work now.

So far its a bit inconclusive - its loaded my two goto websites (amazon.co.uk & bbc.co.uk) Raspberry Pi OS seems deadly slow but that may just be because I'm not used to it.

Had a bit of a problem to start with since it hooked onto wifi rather than using ethernet.

Pinging from my Windows PC is either 0% or 25%, mainly 25%

The one thing I haven't been able to test is power since I have only the one USB-C power supply (3A) and I've had to move the USB keyboard dongle to a hub.

Pretoriano I can understand why you and chewitt have recommended that, and I possibly haven't been clear enough yet. The connection via the powerline adapter to the router is sound. a) its the same one as used with the RPi3 which did not have a problem and b) plugging a PC rather than the RPi4 in to the adapter achieved very acceptable results and c) another device in the second socket of the adapter pings correctly.

I'm failing to understand what moving the Pi and TV (otherwise I have no idea what's going on) or, going out and finding a long enough ethernet cable, so I can plug directly into the router will achieve.

The only thing I'm not sure about currently is whether its the RPi4 hardware or LibreElec or Kodi so I'll try putting Raspberry OS on and see what that does. I'll report back later on.

Bit more info

1) my 6TB drive has been corrupted again

2) full reinstall of nightly 14/08/2022

3) the powerline adapter is a double, one socket goes to the Pi and the other to the TV. Simple ping to the RPi4 (after reinstall of LibreElec) results in 25% - 68% lost packets, to the TV 0% loss

4) the RPi4 now seems reluctant to connect to the internet (can't download addon) so even if I could produce logs showing the problem I can't send them.

Having changed everything apart from the RPi4 itself I have no idea what else to try, and I don't feel like spending any more trying to get things working.

Unless anyone has a suggestion I think the RPi4 can be put into a dark cupboard and I'll recommission my RPi3s.

I know that the rated speed will not be reached but unfortunately I do not intend to rearrange my home to suite a RPi4 even if it stood a chance of improving things.

Since my last post I have tested all the various bits and plugging a laptop in rather than the RPi4 I can get roughly 20 times the speed. Jut trying to ping the Pi now results in half the packets being lost. I cannot access it either via my Windows PC or my Linux Mint PC. I'll try a fresh install.

I tried it with a net result that I can't connect via Filezilla and ping fails 2 out of three attempts.

The only test I could think of on the RPi4 was to download a skin and that worked so I do have internet connection.

I'm also getting this "remote communications server failed to start" when I turn off and back on.

Looking up that phrase now on the forum.

Doesn't seem to be much about it. Certainly no fixes. Coud TVHeadend cause this?

Thanks, I'll try testing that cable between two good points (Windows PC -> Windows PC) I'll also have a go at switching the powerline adapter to a different socket.

The ethernet on my RPi4 seems slow compared to the old RPi3.

Copying three backup files (c1GB) 0from the Pi over to my Windows PC took c50 minutes. This is using Filezilla over wired ethernet from the Pi to a gigabit powerline LAN adapter to Billion router to gigabit powerline LAN adapter to Windows PC. Copying around 8GB of video files from another Windows PC on the same LAN takes around 10 minutes.

I would expect some difference since I was using Filezilla for the Pi to PC and a simple copy for the PC to PC but nothing like this.

Any suggestions?

I've come to a conclusion that its hardware not software, at least at this point in time, I may change my mind if reality intrudes.

I'd bought a Seagate 6TB backup hub which has two usb ports on it so I moved the keyboard wifi dongle to one of those and it works. I don't know if the Pi was underpowering it or blocking the signal or what but I'm happy with the solution.

I finally plucked up the courage to switch to the RPi4. I swapped the iPazzPort mini USB keyboard from the RPi3 to the RPi4. I need to leave c 3 seconds between keypresses or nothing happens which was not how it worked on the RPi3. Is this a consequence of running a nightly or something else?

Thanks to everyone. I did buy a new disk but that's mainly to make the switch from RPi3 to RPi4 less traumatic and to give me an easier backup disk later on.

Quote from JoeAverage

pulling the drives out of their housings and temp. putting them into your PC and using TeraCopy (with verify [for a copying during night [*]] !) wasn't doable ?

Not really since a) I don't have a desktop (3 laptops) and b) I'd need to wreck at least one case (not sure about the others but can't see any screws)

Quote from tokul

you probably supplied insufficient power to the drive.

That's a distinct possibility. I've never seen so much damage done from that before.