External Hard Drive - Kernel Panic

Ever since I got my pi almost a week ago I've been having issues with it locking up or freezing when accessing my external usb drives. This issue happens with both Debian Squeeze and Arch Linux.

Not sure what is causing it, so I will list what I'm using.

HTC micro usb adaptor rated 5v - 1A

Sandisk class 6 8gb SD card (have tried others also)

Two Western Digital 3.5" external USB 2 drives both are self powered.

Generic keyboard and mouse and also a hub.

The issue seems to happen with the hub, keyboard and mouse of the equation. Especially if I am copying files across the network to my samba share on one of the external drives. My Pi will just freeze up after awhile requiring a full reset. Seems to run fine when usb is not acessed.

I've also attached a screenshot of the latest crash from debian squeeze.

I think its simply that the kernel isnt 100% stable yet. Especially when it comes down to the USB part of things. Not to worry though, it will get sorted by the wonderful kernel devs at some point

I'm having the same issue! Should have looked over the forum a little more carefully before I made my post. Does the kernel panic happen to you when no other peripherals are connected besides the hard drive? I'm just speculating, but maybe it has something to do with collisions on the USB hub.

Yea, it happens with just one usb device connected, that being one of my external drives, when I'm copying large files from my PC to my samba share on the Pi.

Are you all certain that this isn't power related?

I've tried two different power adaptors. Both rated 5V and 1A. I've even disconnected all usb devices besides just one external hard drive which is powered seperately.

Same issues here, even with the hard drive having an external power supply. Has anyone successfully connected a USB hard drive to a Pi?

Yes - I have a Western Digital Passport drive attached through a Belkin powered hub. It works just fine.

Great. I wonder if you've thought of trying to boot with / and swap on the external drive? If it works it should give a pretty huge performance boost. I've managed it with a flashdisk, as per this thread

http://www.raspberrypi.org/for.....ile-system

Cheers

Roger

I'm using an ION external 160GB HD powered via a Belkin USB Plus 4-port hub. All well on that front.

using external 2.5" hdd on active (powered) usb hub. works good so far.

Same issues here, even with the hard drive having an external power supply. Has anyone successfully connected a USB hard drive to a Pi?

No more kernel panics for me ever since I updated the firmware awhile back. Samba and usb have been rock solid.

Yea, it happens with just one usb device connected, that being one of my external drives, when I'm copying large files from my PC to my samba share on the Pi.

This problem has been reported several times. It is caused by a conflict between the USB port and the Ethernet port. If both are in heavy use at the same time, you are likely to get a kernel panic.

There has been at least one attempt to fix this about 2 weeks ago, and I thought it was successful. Please check that you are using the most recent download images.

I am pretty sure this happens to me with large files. I'm booting debian6-19-04-2012 from an 8Gb SD card and have a single USB device connected directly. It's a 3Tb Hitachi hard disk (own power supply).
I upgraded my power supply from a 400mA (yes it still worked) phone charger to a 2.5A switch mode power supply from Maplin - I don't think it's the power supply.
I can't tell if it is a kenel panic bacause I'm running my pi using VNC. I'm using the Pi to network the hard disk, so obviously any major copying invloves network traffic as well. Typical file size is 700Mb.
I do note that the file transfer speed is slower than a PC, would this be due to USB/Network conflicts?

[abishur]

I am pretty sure this happens to me with large files. I'm booting debian6-19-04-2012 from an 8Gb SD card and have a single USB device connected directly. It's a 3Tb Hitachi hard disk (own power supply).
I upgraded my power supply from a 400mA (yes it still worked) phone charger to a 2.5A switch mode power supply from Maplin - I don't think it's the power supply.
I can't tell if it is a kenel panic bacause I'm running my pi using VNC. I'm using the Pi to network the hard disk, so obviously any major copying invloves network traffic as well. Typical file size is 700Mb.
I do note that the file transfer speed is slower than a PC, would this be due to USB/Network conflicts?

You need to update the firmware in the /boot folder. hexx's update tool would be a good way to do that, or you can download the files individually off the raspberrypi github

Thanks abishur,

Found the update tool at https://github.com/Hexxeh/rpi-update. The kernel changed from
'Linux raspberrypi 3.1.9+ #90 Wed Apr 18 18:23:05 BST 2012 armv6l GNU/Linux' (uname -all)
to
'Linux raspberrypi 3.1.9+ #66 Thu May 17 16:56:20 BST 2012 armv6l GNU/Linux'.

I copied five 700Mb files with no issues - seems to have done the trick.

Thanks
Mike

Thanks a lot !
Your answers have helped me, I have changed the power many times unsuccessfully...
The firmware update have resolved my problem (kernel panic after random time).