[Fwd: blk_congestion_wait() with linux-2.5.68]

Hi,
I'm forwarding this question to this list as I have been told there is more expertise here regarding the question. My usual point of contact is the linux-arm-kernel mailing list.

Thanks for your time,

Mat Spencer

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Hi all,
I have been using 2.4.19 successfully for a while now with an PCI IDE disk drive with no problems whatsoever. I recently upgraded to 2.5.68 (so that I could use the most recent ieee1394 drivers) and also to start experimenting with the new version of the kernel and since then I am having problems formatting the hard disk.

When I run mke2fs, it manages to write out the first 12 or 13 blocks successfully, but then the code gets stuck continually calling blk_congestion_wait() from balance_dirty_pages().

This is the only time that I see this problem. If the disk is already formatted, then mounting/reading/writing to the disk happens without any problems at all.

Is anyone out there aware of this problem?
Does anyone know how to fix it?

For your information, I'm using the 2.95.3 toolchain and linux-2.5.68-rmk1-pxa1.

Your time and knowledge is much appreciated.

Regards,

Mat

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Any messages in dmesg? It sounds like io to the drive stops completely, and that is why you see mke2fs being stuck in blk_congestion_wait (mke2fs eats most of the requests, the queue gets marked congested). If io isn't progressing, then the queue won't have the congestion flag cleared again.

You need to give a lot more hardware details, see REPORTING-BUGS

Jens Axboe