Re: how to test disk for bad sector

[David]

On Tue, 8 Sep 2020 at 14:27, David Wright  wrote:

> Moral: always see what very large numbers look like in hex.

Great tip, thanks!

Re: how to test disk for bad sector

[David Wright]

On Sun 30 Aug 2020 at 08:02:24 (+1000), David wrote:
> On Sat, 29 Aug 2020 at 19:51, Long Wind  wrote:
> 
> > sudo smartctl -A /dev/sda1
> [...]
> > 188 Command_Timeout 0x0032 100 068 000 Old_age Always - 403733086445
> 
> That result does not look good. It should be a low number.

I wouldn't take that number at face value. First, convert it into hex
and take another look. I've seen several postings on the web with
>>> hex(4295032833)
'0x1 0001 0001' ← I added the spaces
and I have a drive with
188 Command_Timeout -O--CK   100   099   000-12885098499
>>> hex(12885098499)
'0x3 0003 0003'
and another with
188 Command_Timeout -O--CK   100   096   000-137441116198
>>> hex(137441116198)
'0x20 0021 0026'
so the OP should look at
>>> hex(403733086445)
'0x5e 005e 00ed'
and ponder what they could mean.

Moral: always see what very large numbers look like in hex.

Cheers,
David.

Re: passwords + bad memory - Was (Re: how to test disk for bad sector)

[Brian]

On Wed 02 Sep 2020 at 18:31:43 -0500, John Hasler wrote:

> While storage in a file fine for trivial passwords such as those for
> social sites storing important ones on the computer is a bad idea,
> encrypted or not.  So is copying and pasting them.

Storing passords on paper in the clear ok, but encrypted in a file
is not? I do not have any trivial passwords; all are important. Copy
and paste may be dispensed with.

-- 
Brian.

Re: passwords + bad memory - Was (Re: how to test disk for bad sector)

[John Hasler]

While storage in a file fine for trivial passwords such as those for
social sites storing important ones on the computer is a bad idea,
encrypted or not.  So is copying and pasting them.
-- 
John Hasler 
jhas...@newsguy.com
Elmwood, WI USA

Re: passwords + bad memory - Was (Re: how to test disk for bad sector)

[tomas]

On Wed, Sep 02, 2020 at 08:38:41PM +0100, Brian wrote:
> On Wed 02 Sep 2020 at 11:34:27 -0500, John Hasler wrote:
> 
> > tomas writes:
> > > When a passphrase is long (16) I keep a little scrap until it is
> > > memorized.
> > 
> > I just follow Bruce Schneier's advice and write all of my (random)
> > passwords down.  I end up memorizing the ones I use most, though.
> 
> This memorisation of a vast number of passwords is the killer, of
> course, so writing all passwords down is a good idea. Why not record
> them in passwd.text? Then
> 
>   scrypt enc passwords.txt passwords.enc
> 
> For access:
> 
>   scrypt dec passwords.enc
> 
> and copy and paste.
> 
> A password is required for decrypting passwords.enc. *M05o05m19m19a?
> would do nicely. Just a single password to remember. It couldn't get
> simpler.

Basically this is what I said I do: The passwords I use regularly
are in L1 cache (my head), the others in an encrypted text file
(additionally protected by the LUKS encryption around it).

Cheers
-- t


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Re: passwords + bad memory - Was (Re: how to test disk for bad sector)

[Brian]

On Wed 02 Sep 2020 at 11:34:27 -0500, John Hasler wrote:

> tomas writes:
> > When a passphrase is long (16) I keep a little scrap until it is
> > memorized.
> 
> I just follow Bruce Schneier's advice and write all of my (random)
> passwords down.  I end up memorizing the ones I use most, though.

This memorisation of a vast number of passwords is the killer, of
course, so writing all passwords down is a good idea. Why not record
them in passwd.text? Then

  scrypt enc passwords.txt passwords.enc

For access:

  scrypt dec passwords.enc

and copy and paste.

A password is required for decrypting passwords.enc. *M05o05m19m19a?
would do nicely. Just a single password to remember. It couldn't get
simpler.

-- 
Brian.

Re: passwords + bad memory - Was (Re: how to test disk for bad sector)

[John Hasler]

tomas writes:
> When a passphrase is long (16) I keep a little scrap until it is
> memorized.

I just follow Bruce Schneier's advice and write all of my (random)
passwords down.  I end up memorizing the ones I use most, though.
-- 
John Hasler 
jhas...@newsguy.com
Elmwood, WI USA

Re: passwords + bad memory - Was (Re: how to test disk for bad sector)

[tomas]

On Wed, Sep 02, 2020 at 09:20:18AM -0400, rhkra...@gmail.com wrote:
> On Wednesday, September 02, 2020 03:34:30 AM to...@tuxteam.de wrote:
> > The thing is... I didn't know I can easily memorize that until I
> > tried! It's like getting up early without an alarm clock. If you
> > trust yourself, it kind of magically works.
>  
> Until you (and/or your brain reach a certain age, when you start forgetting 
> things you once had memorized.  Make sure you have "hard copy" backups 
> somewhere (could be on paper, electronic, or ).

I'm millionaire (in years, and in binary, FWIW :)

When a passphrase is long (16) I keep a little scrap until it is memorized.
Then it's in. Things happen, but then, I can be run over by a bus, too.

Cheers
 - t


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Re: passwords + bad memory - Was (Re: how to test disk for bad sector)

[rhkramer]

On Wednesday, September 02, 2020 05:16:12 AM Andrei POPESCU wrote:
> On Ma, 01 sep 20, 19:39:53, rhkra...@gmail.com wrote:
> > That can be a good approach, but a modern approach seems to be tending
> > towards multiple whole words, e.g. "book swimming Wednesday conduct"
> > (all together as a password.

> > I've read articles about the approach, but don't remember enough to
> > explain it very well.
> 
> https://xkcd.com/936/

Ahh, yes, thank you -- one of the most memorable (even though I forgot it) and 
easy to understand!!

Re: passwords + bad memory - Was (Re: how to test disk for bad sector)

[rhkramer]

On Wednesday, September 02, 2020 03:34:30 AM to...@tuxteam.de wrote:
> The thing is... I didn't know I can easily memorize that until I
> tried! It's like getting up early without an alarm clock. If you
> trust yourself, it kind of magically works.
 
Until you (and/or your brain reach a certain age, when you start forgetting 
things you once had memorized.  Make sure you have "hard copy" backups 
somewhere (could be on paper, electronic, or ).

> I love tech, I'm a geek. But if the only raison d'être of tech is
> to avoid discovering one's own capabilities, I'd rather pass.
> 
> YMMV, but generally speaking, the quintessence is that yo're capable
> of things you never knew of.

!!

Re: how to test disk for bad sector

[Andrei POPESCU]

On Sb, 29 aug 20, 21:03:54, Gene Heskett wrote:
> 
> Uh, I have to ask. Or maybe I came into the middle of what has become a 
> boring thread?
> 
> dd is a whole device writer, but his command line is to an existing 
> partition? His command line should not have had the 1 according to my 
> thinking.  His whole disk might be 320 gigabytes as /dev/sda, but how 
> big is sda1?

'dd' doesn't care if the destination is a whole block device, a 
partition or a regular file, it will write to whatever you ask it to.

Kind regards,
Andrei
-- 
http://wiki.debian.org/FAQsFromDebianUser


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Re: passwords + bad memory - Was (Re: how to test disk for bad sector)

[Andrei POPESCU]

On Ma, 01 sep 20, 19:39:53, rhkra...@gmail.com wrote:
> 
> That can be a good approach, but a modern approach seems to be tending 
> towards 
> multiple whole words, e.g. "book swimming Wednesday conduct" (all together as 
> a password.
> 
> A password like this can be easier for a person to remember (especially if 
> you 
> create a mnemonic to go with it) and be harder for a computer to guess.
> 
> I've read articles about the approach, but don't remember enough to explain 
> it 
> very well.

https://xkcd.com/936/

Kind regards,
Andrei
-- 
http://wiki.debian.org/FAQsFromDebianUser


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Re: passwords + bad memory - Was (Re: how to test disk for bad sector)

[tomas]

On Wed, Sep 02, 2020 at 11:30:44AM +1200, Ben Caradoc-Davies wrote:
> On 02/09/2020 06:42, Mike McClain wrote:
> >On Mon, Aug 31, 2020 at 09:41:06PM +, Long Wind wrote:
> >
> >>my memory is poor, i can't remember many accounts and passwords
> > The more experience you have the harder it is to find the
> >memory you're searching for. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
> Yes, you can't pour a gallon of knowledge into a shot glass without
> spilling a few drops (for those of us old enough to remember Married
> with Children).

And still -- you all know this model is flawed.

After dabbling with mnemonics and things for *years*, I got fed up
with all of that and tried... semi-random passwords. Like those made
up by pwgen.

My hard disk encryption password is 16 characters long, likewise
my backup's encryption (they're different, thanks for asking :)

They look like this:

  tomas@trotzki:~$ pwgen -N 1 -n 16
  ORoonaif5uqueo6o

Less sensitive things, like my login are eight chars.

Of course, that's only good for passwords I use often (the L1 cache,
roughly five entries). For the others, I have an encrypted plain
text file. This last passphrase has to be in cache, like that of
the LUKS disk encryption (ORed with the backup, phew ;-)

The thing is... I didn't know I can easily memorize that until I
tried! It's like getting up early without an alarm clock. If you
trust yourself, it kind of magically works.

I love tech, I'm a geek. But if the only raison d'être of tech is
to avoid discovering one's own capabilities, I'd rather pass.

YMMV, but generally speaking, the quintessence is that yo're capable
of things you never knew of.

Cheers
 - tomás



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Re: passwords + bad memory - Was (Re: how to test disk for bad sector)

[Tom Dial]

On 9/1/20 17:39, rhkra...@gmail.com wrote:
> On Tuesday, September 01, 2020 02:42:50 PM Mike McClain wrote:
>> On Mon, Aug 31, 2020 at 09:41:06PM +, Long Wind wrote:
>> 
>>
>>> my memory is poor, i can't remember many accounts and passwords
>>
>> The more experience you have the harder it is to find the
>> memory you're searching for. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
> 
> +1 ;-)
> 
>> Mnemonics can make passwords relatively easy to remember and can
>> be very secure if chosen carefully.
>> Mom's birthday is 5 May 1919, a secure password is *M05o05m19m19a?
>> I have an AT&T account and an address I haven't lived at in 50 years is
>> 5535 El Campo, Ft. Worth, Texas 75107, so :A5535t75107t;.
>> That should give you the idea, a mix of upper and lower case,
>> numerals and punctuation selected from things no longer current can make
>> good passwords easy to remember.
> 
> That can be a good approach, but a modern approach seems to be tending 
> towards 
> multiple whole words, e.g. "book swimming Wednesday conduct" (all together as 
> a password.
> 
> A password like this can be easier for a person to remember (especially if 
> you 
> create a mnemonic to go with it) and be harder for a computer to guess.

Four randomly chosen words from the Oxford English Dictionary would be
comparable to a 14 character random (or cryptographically secure
pseudorandom) string chosen from upper and lower case letters and digits.

Much is made of the fact that most people can remember a string of words
more effectively than a meaningless string of letters and numbers.
However, that is not at all self-evident if the common recommendation of
unique and unrelated authentication secrets per account is incorporated.
I have, overall, more than a hundred distinct accounts on systems and
with vendors, nearly all of them unique; I find a password manager
(KeepassX) a much easier way to generate and manage the authentication
secrets, and use a pass phrase word combination only to secure the
password database.

Regards,
Tom Dial

> 
> I've read articles about the approach, but don't remember enough to explain 
> it 
> very well.
> 
> 
> 
>> GRC.com has a password checker

Re: passwords + bad memory - Was (Re: how to test disk for bad sector)

[rhkramer]

On Tuesday, September 01, 2020 02:42:50 PM Mike McClain wrote:
> On Mon, Aug 31, 2020 at 09:41:06PM +, Long Wind wrote:
> 
> 
> > my memory is poor, i can't remember many accounts and passwords
> 
> The more experience you have the harder it is to find the
> memory you're searching for. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

+1 ;-)

> Mnemonics can make passwords relatively easy to remember and can
> be very secure if chosen carefully.
> Mom's birthday is 5 May 1919, a secure password is *M05o05m19m19a?
> I have an AT&T account and an address I haven't lived at in 50 years is
> 5535 El Campo, Ft. Worth, Texas 75107, so :A5535t75107t;.
> That should give you the idea, a mix of upper and lower case,
> numerals and punctuation selected from things no longer current can make
> good passwords easy to remember.

That can be a good approach, but a modern approach seems to be tending towards 
multiple whole words, e.g. "book swimming Wednesday conduct" (all together as 
a password.

A password like this can be easier for a person to remember (especially if you 
create a mnemonic to go with it) and be harder for a computer to guess.

I've read articles about the approach, but don't remember enough to explain it 
very well.



> GRC.com has a password checker

Re: passwords + bad memory - Was (Re: how to test disk for bad sector)

[Ben Caradoc-Davies]

On 02/09/2020 06:42, Mike McClain wrote:

On Mon, Aug 31, 2020 at 09:41:06PM +, Long Wind wrote:


my memory is poor, i can't remember many accounts and passwords

 The more experience you have the harder it is to find the
memory you're searching for. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Yes, you can't pour a gallon of knowledge into a shot glass without 
spilling a few drops (for those of us old enough to remember Married 
with Children).


I use and recommend KeePassXC under Debian and KeePassDroid under 
Android to manage passwords without online services. They use the same 
.kdbx file format.


Kind regards,

--
Ben Caradoc-Davies 
Director
Transient Software Limited 
New Zealand

passwords + bad memory - Was (Re: how to test disk for bad sector)

[Mike McClain]

On Mon, Aug 31, 2020 at 09:41:06PM +, Long Wind wrote:

> my memory is poor, i can't remember many accounts and passwords

The more experience you have the harder it is to find the
memory you're searching for. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Mnemonics can make passwords relatively easy to remember and can
be very secure if chosen carefully.
Mom's birthday is 5 May 1919, a secure password is *M05o05m19m19a?
I have an AT&T account and an address I haven't lived at in 50 years is
5535 El Campo, Ft. Worth, Texas 75107, so :A5535t75107t;.
That should give you the idea, a mix of upper and lower case,
numerals and punctuation selected from things no longer current can make
good passwords easy to remember.
GRC.com has a password checker
HTH,
Mike
--
It seems to me a little shallow that the Creator of the universes
would care whether He was called Yahweh, Allah, Jehovah, The Great
Spirit, Vishnu or any of many other names rather than caring about
how we carry out His commands.  - MM

Re: how to test disk for bad sector

[David]

On Tue, 1 Sep 2020 at 12:15, Patrick Bartek  wrote:
> On Mon, 31 Aug 2020 21:41:06 + (UTC) Long Wind  
> wrote:
> >On Monday, August 31, 2020, 12:24:54 PM EDT, Patrick Bartek 
> >  wrote:

> > My solution to all this has been to delete all my Yahoo accounts and be
> > done with Yahoo.  Currently, I have only one account left which I'll be
> > keeping for a few months until I can switch all the contacts over to
> > the new email account under a different provider.

> > i'm not enthusiastic about new accounts. i have many old mails in
> > yahoo account, i can't just abandon it.

> Those old/saved emails can be copied to the new account.  That's what I
> did when I began deleting my Yahoo accounts.

> > now i manage to post in yahoo, Thanks anyway!

> Whatever works best for you.  But, at least, go into Settings for your
> Yahoo Mail account and turn-on quoting for your replies.  You can also
> create as signature which can be appended to all you emails, too.

Hi Patrick, does Yahoo Mail have the configuration capability to turn off html
and send plain-text only?

Re: how to test disk for bad sector

[Patrick Bartek]

On Mon, 31 Aug 2020 21:41:06 + (UTC)
Long Wind  wrote:

>On Monday, August 31, 2020, 12:24:54 PM EDT, Patrick Bartek 
>  wrote:  
> 
> My solution to all this has been to delete all my Yahoo accounts and be
> done with Yahoo.  Currently, I have only one account left which I'll be
> keeping for a few months until I can switch all the contacts over to
> the new email account under a different provider.
> 
> To our OP in China: check if Zoho Mail is blocked. They have offices in
> China -- www.zoho.com.cn  So, I doubt they are. They have both free and
> for pay accounts. Lots of features, too.
> 
> B
> surely it's not blocked in china because it has business here. but
> email's heyday is over, it's replaced by social media.

Social media is for socializing. In business, email and written/typed
mail are still the preferred way to communicate.

> i'm not enthusiastic about new accounts. i have many old mails in
> yahoo account, i can't just abandon it.  i've just created msn(outlook)

Those old/saved emails can be copied to the new account.  That's what I
did when I began deleting my Yahoo accounts.

> account, i'm not using it. i haven't created Proton mail account
> suggested by Charles. my memory is poor, i can't remember many accounts
> and passwords

I can't remember all my account logins and passwords either.  Too
many.  I write it all down.  And I definitely don't store them on my
computer or cell phone, etc. to automatically log me in  Too easy to
hack.

> now i manage to post in yahoo, Thanks anyway!

Whatever works best for you.  But, at least, go into Settings for your
Yahoo Mail account and turn-on quoting for your replies.  You can also
create as signature which can be appended to all you emails, too.

Happy you got your Linux install problem solved.

B

Re: how to test disk for bad sector

[Long Wind]

   On Monday, August 31, 2020, 12:24:54 PM EDT, Patrick Bartek 
 wrote:  

My solution to all this has been to delete all my Yahoo accounts and be
done with Yahoo.  Currently, I have only one account left which I'll be
keeping for a few months until I can switch all the contacts over to
the new email account under a different provider.

To our OP in China: check if Zoho Mail is blocked. They have offices in
China -- www.zoho.com.cn  So, I doubt they are. They have both free and
for pay accounts. Lots of features, too.

B
surely it's not blocked in china because it has business here. but email's 
heyday is over, it's replaced by social media. i'm not enthusiastic about new 
accounts. i have many old mails in yahoo account, i can't just abandon it.  
i've just created msn(outlook) account, i'm not using it. i haven't created  
Proton mail account suggested by Charles. my memory is poor, i can't remember 
many accounts and passwords

now i manage to post in yahoo, Thanks anyway!

  

Re: how to test disk for bad sector

[Michael Stone]

On Sat, Aug 29, 2020 at 05:46:52AM +, Long Wind wrote:

it's unbelievable that both tests passed
i've installed debian to it some time ago, it failed
today i install fedora from usb stick
while waiting for copying i'm doing something else, not paying attention to pc
screen. suddenly i find that pc is shutdown

the most unreliable component of my pc is hard disk
i've installed linux to other disk of same PC, no problem


This isn't a symptom of a hard drive problem, you're probably wasting 
your time with this entire disk testing effort.

Re: how to test disk for bad sector

[Patrick Bartek]

On Mon, 31 Aug 2020 15:04:46 +0100
Darac Marjal  wrote:

> On 31/08/2020 14:18, Eduardo M KALINOWSKI wrote:
> > On 30/08/2020 19:02, Long Wind wrote:  
> >> On Sunday, August 30, 2020, 10:20:53 AM EDT, Charles Curley
> >>  wrote:  
> >>> Yahoo mail is broken. I encourage Mr. Wind to get another mail reader.  
> >>
> >>
> >> i don't have choice. gmail is blocked in china. i've tried some free
> >> chinese mail provider, they block debian list. (i've sent subscription
> >> request thru their mail service, then nothing happened)  
> > Pretty much all webmail services are bad with regards to proper quoting
> > and interleaved text. Some are worse than others, though.
> >
> > Does Yahoo provide IMAP/SMTP support? Then you can use a real mail
> > client (Thunderbird/KMail/mutt/etc).
> >  
> Yes, it does. Yahoo! are moving over to 2FA authentication everywhere
> (which is obviously not compatible with IMAP/SMTP) so you'll be
> encouraged to create an "Application Specific Password" (that is, a
> long, unique password, which you should use for one instance of one
> application) for tools like Mutt, GetMail etc. I *think* Thunderbird
> supports 2FA, though - use the new account Wizard to assist you.
> 

The switch to the "new" set up is scheduled for 20 October 2020. If you
have a Yahoo Mail account, you should have gotten a notice already
with instruction links for adapting to the new system based on your
OS and email client.  Not needed if you use Yahoo's mail client or Web
access.

I myself use Claws Mail as my email client and Yahoo has had a nasty
habit over the past few years of "timing it out" for security reasons as
"too old." "Too old" means about 2 years.  Currently, I'm still using
Stretch and even the Backports version of Claws won't work with Yahoo
Mail. Works with everything else though. Fortunately, I had an install
of Devuan Beowulf (Buster but without systemd) in a VM for testing, and
the version of Claws there works fine.

My solution to all this has been to delete all my Yahoo accounts and be
done with Yahoo.  Currently, I have only one account left which I'll be
keeping for a few months until I can switch all the contacts over to
the new email account under a different provider.

To our OP in China: check if Zoho Mail is blocked. They have offices in
China -- www.zoho.com.cn  So, I doubt they are. They have both free and
for pay accounts. Lots of features, too.

B

Re: how to test disk for bad sector

[Darac Marjal]

On 31/08/2020 14:18, Eduardo M KALINOWSKI wrote:
> On 30/08/2020 19:02, Long Wind wrote:
>> On Sunday, August 30, 2020, 10:20:53 AM EDT, Charles Curley
>>  wrote:
>>> Yahoo mail is broken. I encourage Mr. Wind to get another mail reader.
>>
>>
>> i don't have choice. gmail is blocked in china. i've tried some free
>> chinese mail provider, they block debian list. (i've sent subscription
>> request thru their mail service, then nothing happened)
> Pretty much all webmail services are bad with regards to proper quoting
> and interleaved text. Some are worse than others, though.
>
> Does Yahoo provide IMAP/SMTP support? Then you can use a real mail
> client (Thunderbird/KMail/mutt/etc).
>
Yes, it does. Yahoo! are moving over to 2FA authentication everywhere
(which is obviously not compatible with IMAP/SMTP) so you'll be
encouraged to create an "Application Specific Password" (that is, a
long, unique password, which you should use for one instance of one
application) for tools like Mutt, GetMail etc. I *think* Thunderbird
supports 2FA, though - use the new account Wizard to assist you.



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Re: how to test disk for bad sector

[Eduardo M KALINOWSKI]

On 30/08/2020 19:02, Long Wind wrote:
> On Sunday, August 30, 2020, 10:20:53 AM EDT, Charles Curley
>  wrote:
>> Yahoo mail is broken. I encourage Mr. Wind to get another mail reader.
> 
> 
> 
> i don't have choice. gmail is blocked in china. i've tried some free
> chinese mail provider, they block debian list. (i've sent subscription
> request thru their mail service, then nothing happened)

Pretty much all webmail services are bad with regards to proper quoting
and interleaved text. Some are worse than others, though.

Does Yahoo provide IMAP/SMTP support? Then you can use a real mail
client (Thunderbird/KMail/mutt/etc).


-- 
True leadership is the art of changing a group from what it is to what
it ought to be.
-- Virginia Allan

Eduardo M KALINOWSKI
edua...@kalinowski.com.br

Re: how to test disk for bad sector

[Long Wind]

 

On Sunday, August 30, 2020, 10:06:55 PM EDT, Charles Curley 
 wrote:  
 
Not good.

Proton mail? https://protonmail.com/ Anyone got any other suggestions?


Thank Charles,  Proton mail isn't blocked here now. 

-- 
Does anybody read signatures any more?

https://charlescurley.com
https://charlescurley.com/blog/

  

Re: how to test disk for bad sector

[Charles Curley]

On Sun, 30 Aug 2020 22:02:21 + (UTC)
Long Wind  wrote:

> i don't have choice. gmail is blocked in china. i've tried some free
> chinese mail provider, they block debian list. (i've sent
> subscription request thru their mail service, then nothing happened)

Not good.

Proton mail? https://protonmail.com/ Anyone got any other suggestions?

-- 
Does anybody read signatures any more?

https://charlescurley.com
https://charlescurley.com/blog/

Re: Top-posting (was Re: how to test disk for bad sector)

[Charles Curley]

On Sun, 30 Aug 2020 09:14:16 -0700
Charlie Gibbs  wrote:

> If someone can't be bothered to take the time to write a readable
> message, I can't be bothered to take the time to decipher it.

On the other tentacle, this sort of thing is usually the province of
newbies. I think it would help to refer newbies to some advice. I would
refer them to ESR's How To Ask Questions The Smart Way, but the
catb.org server is not co-operating.

-- 
Does anybody read signatures any more?

https://charlescurley.com
https://charlescurley.com/blog/

Re: how to test disk for bad sector

[Marco Möller]

On 30.08.20 03:03, Gene Heskett wrote:

On Saturday 29 August 2020 20:39:29 Marco Möller wrote:


On 30.08.20 00:01, Long Wind wrote:
(...)


[liveuser@localhost-live  ~]$ sudo
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda1 bs=8M status=progress


(...)


14386462720 bytes (14 GB, 13 GiB) copied, 151.001 s, 95.3 MB/s
dd: error writing '/dev/sda1': No space left on device
1719+0 records in
1718+0 records out
14418915840 bytes (14 GB, 13 GiB) copied, 153.319 s, 94.0 MB/s


Unfortunately, this looks bad for your disk, because you said in
another post that your disk is supposed to provide a storage space of
320 GB. But in this test only 14 GB could be written to it and then it
is claimed to already have been filled completely. So, in context of
another post of yours, where you say that you could install a system
to a new disk mounted to that same computer, you found the problem:
the supposed to be 320 GB hard disk is either broken in a very strange
way, or it is even a fake disk sold to you as a fraud.

Wishing you good luck with your new disk and new installation!
Marco.


Uh, I have to ask. Or maybe I came into the middle of what has become a
boring thread?

dd is a whole device writer, but his command line is to an existing
partition? His command line should not have had the 1 according to my
thinking.  His whole disk might be 320 gigabytes as /dev/sda, but how
big is sda1?

Cheers, Gene Heskett



You are right, Gene!  I did not notice that it was written to partition 
"/dev/sda1", because I didn't expect this test to only be written to a 
partition instead of test writing to the whole disk. I have not noticed 
this detail in the answer when replying to it, shame on me.

My recommendation was to use the command like this:
  sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/WritingToThisDisk bs=8M status=progress
Long Wind, the test works only if you overwrite the full disk. So, as 
Gene pointed out, after the test which you did by now it cannot be 
concluded what I concluded in my former answer!


We by now only know that writing to the 14 GB of partition "/dev/sda1" 
worked correctly, but we do not know where on the disk this 14 GB are 
actually located and we also still do not know about the rest of the 
disk and if it continues to work fine also for a bigger data load 
occupying the electronics for longer time.


So, if you are interested to still know about your old drive, although 
you said that you already installed successfully to a new drive, then 
you may want to direct the test all the device and not only a partition 
of it.


Best regards,
Marco.

Top-posting (was Re: how to test disk for bad sector)

[Charlie Gibbs]

On Sun, 30 Aug 2020 16:30:01 +0200
Charles Curley  wrote:

> On Sun, 30 Aug 2020 14:02:48 +
> Andy Smith  wrote:
>
>> Between your top posting and the HTML mails, I find it very
>> difficult to read your emails so I mostly haven't bothered.
>
> Hear, hear. My sentiments exactly.
>
> Yahoo mail is broken. I encourage Mr. Wind to get another mail reader.

If someone can't be bothered to take the time to write a readable
message, I can't be bothered to take the time to decipher it.

As for Outlook, I've been told that the correct pronunciation is
"Look out!"

--
/~\  Charlie Gibbs  |  Microsoft is a dictatorship.
\ /|  Apple is a cult.
 X   I'm really at ac.dekanfrus |  Linux is anarchy.
/ \  if you read it the right way.  |  Pick your poison.

Re: how to test disk for bad sector

[Charles Curley]

On Sun, 30 Aug 2020 14:02:48 +
Andy Smith  wrote:

> Between your top posting and the HTML mails, I find it very
> difficult to read your emails so I mostly haven't bothered.

Hear, hear. My sentiments exactly.

Yahoo mail is broken. I encourage Mr. Wind to get another mail reader.

-- 
Does anybody read signatures any more?

https://charlescurley.com
https://charlescurley.com/blog/

Re: how to test disk for bad sector

[Andy Smith]

Hello,

On Sun, Aug 30, 2020 at 12:00:38AM +, Long Wind wrote:
> top-posting is default behavior of yahoo mail. i don't know why
> it's inconvenient for some list users.

I wouldn't normally bother to mention¹ but since you seem to be
pushing back on this…

Between your top posting and the HTML mails, I find it very
difficult to read your emails so I mostly haven't bothered. It would
be nice if you would care about the people who read your emails,
just because it's nice to be nice. But if you don't care about being
nice, maybe you care more about actually getting help than you care
about what the default behaviour of yahoo mail is. Up to you.

Cheers,
Andy

¹ Seems a bit too off-topic, and mostly a waste of time trying to
  change people's minds.

-- 
https://bitfolk.com/ -- No-nonsense VPS hosting

Re: how to test disk for bad sector

[tomas]

On Sat, Aug 29, 2020 at 09:03:54PM -0400, Gene Heskett wrote:

[...]

> dd is a whole device writer, but his command line is to an existing 
> partition?

No. 'dd' doesn't care. How/why should it? It can write to whatever is
supposed to be organized as a sequence of blocks. I.e. a block device
(which may sit on top of a "disk device" or a partition, but also a
regular file on your file system.

If there is one thing UNIX got pretty well compared to its siblings
of the time, then it was interface abstraction (it's got still a ton
of quirks, but you've got to look at the others aroud it to really
appreciate).

Cheers
 - t


signature.asc
Description: Digital signature

Re: how to test disk for bad sector

[Keith Bainbridge]

On 30/8/20 10:39 am, Marco Möller wrote:
[liveuser@localhost-live  ~]$ sudo dd 
if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda1 bs=8M status=progress



Um. my reading of the original question is that he Long tried to 
install onto /dev/sdb. Why are we blanking part of /dev/sda?



Would it be better to unplug /dev/sda for the installation process?

--
Keith Bainbridge

keithrbaugro...@gmail.com
or ke1thozgro...@gmx.com

Re: how to test disk for bad sector

[Gene Heskett]

On Saturday 29 August 2020 22:01:03 Long Wind wrote:

>On Saturday, August 29, 2020, 9:04:17 PM EDT, Gene Heskett
>  wrote:
>
>  Uh, I have to ask. Or maybe I came into the middle of what has become
> a boring thread?
>
> dd is a whole device writer, but his command line is to an existing
> partition? His command line should not have had the 1 according to my
> thinking.  His whole disk might be 320 gigabytes as /dev/sda, but how
> big is sda1?
>
> Cheers, Gene Heskett
please, I know english is not your 1st language, but your email agent is 
also broken because it allowed you to post below my sig separator. So I 
am forced to copy/paste in order to include your question, which was:

You are right. to save time i use sda1, not sda. 
sda1 has about 14GB, sda has 320GB 

i have posted result of badblocks early, it shows
"From block 0 to 14080971"it means how much disk space it is testing?

To whiuch my reply is yes, that figure is in 1024 byte blocks, which 
would be about 14 gigabytes that you zeroed out, needlessly I think.

Sig separators are the double dash under the Che below, followed by a 
space and a newline. The definition is:newline dash dash space newline.  

And is usually mucked up horribly by html mail agents.

Refresh me please on the full name of the real file you were writing to 
this disk when you hit the out of space error.

Cheers, Gene Heskett
-- 
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable.
 - Louis D. Brandeis
Genes Web page 

Re: how to test disk for bad sector

[Gene Heskett]

On Saturday 29 August 2020 20:39:29 Marco Möller wrote:

> On 30.08.20 00:01, Long Wind wrote:
> (...)
>
> > [liveuser@localhost-live  ~]$ sudo
> > dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda1 bs=8M status=progress
>
> (...)
>
> > 14386462720 bytes (14 GB, 13 GiB) copied, 151.001 s, 95.3 MB/s
> > dd: error writing '/dev/sda1': No space left on device
> > 1719+0 records in
> > 1718+0 records out
> > 14418915840 bytes (14 GB, 13 GiB) copied, 153.319 s, 94.0 MB/s
>
> Unfortunately, this looks bad for your disk, because you said in
> another post that your disk is supposed to provide a storage space of
> 320 GB. But in this test only 14 GB could be written to it and then it
> is claimed to already have been filled completely. So, in context of
> another post of yours, where you say that you could install a system
> to a new disk mounted to that same computer, you found the problem:
> the supposed to be 320 GB hard disk is either broken in a very strange
> way, or it is even a fake disk sold to you as a fraud.
>
> Wishing you good luck with your new disk and new installation!
> Marco.

Uh, I have to ask. Or maybe I came into the middle of what has become a 
boring thread?

dd is a whole device writer, but his command line is to an existing 
partition? His command line should not have had the 1 according to my 
thinking.  His whole disk might be 320 gigabytes as /dev/sda, but how 
big is sda1?

Cheers, Gene Heskett
-- 
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable.
 - Louis D. Brandeis
Genes Web page 

Re: how to test disk for bad sector

[Marco Möller]

On 30.08.20 00:01, Long Wind wrote:
(...)
[liveuser@localhost-live  ~]$ sudo dd 
if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda1 bs=8M status=progress

(...)

14386462720 bytes (14 GB, 13 GiB) copied, 151.001 s, 95.3 MB/s
dd: error writing '/dev/sda1': No space left on device
1719+0 records in
1718+0 records out
14418915840 bytes (14 GB, 13 GiB) copied, 153.319 s, 94.0 MB/s


Unfortunately, this looks bad for your disk, because you said in another 
post that your disk is supposed to provide a storage space of 320 GB. 
But in this test only 14 GB could be written to it and then it is 
claimed to already have been filled completely. So, in context of 
another post of yours, where you say that you could install a system to 
a new disk mounted to that same computer, you found the problem: the 
supposed to be 320 GB hard disk is either broken in a very strange way, 
or it is even a fake disk sold to you as a fraud.


Wishing you good luck with your new disk and new installation!
Marco.

Re: how to test disk for bad sector

[David]

On Sun, 30 Aug 2020 at 10:04, Long Wind  wrote:
> On Saturday, August 29, 2020, 7:31:03 PM EDT, David  
> wrote:

>> Many people have requested:
>> CAN YOU PLEASE STOP TOP-POSTING.
>>
>> This means "please stop writing your reply at the top
>> of the message".

[...]

>> Explained here:
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Choosing_the_proper_posting_style
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Trimming_and_reformatting
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#How_much_to_trim

> top-posting is default behavior of yahoo mail.

Same here for gmail. Those defaults are not suitable for a mailing
list, so instead I make an effort and do the polite thing that
everyone else does.

> i don't know why it's inconvenient for some list users.

A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?

> i don't know why it's inconvenient for some list users.

Because it's easier when each message contains all the relevant information.
The writer does the work of editing, so that 100's or more readers don't have
to read the entire back thread to remember the context every time there is a
new message.

> wikipedia.org is blocked in china.

Sorry, I forgot. I pasted below is the text from wikipedia, unfortunately
it is harder to read without the colours and formatting in the original.
I hope it helps you.

 Choosing the proper posting style 

The choice between interleaved, top and bottom posting generally
depends on the forum and on the nature of the message. Some forums
(such as personal e-mail) are quite tolerant, in which case the proper
style is dictated by taste and effectiveness. In any case one should
consider whether the reply will be easily read by the intended
recipient(s). Their e-mail interfaces may have different rules for
handling quoted line markers and long lines, so a reply that looks
readable in one's screen may be jumbled and incorrectly colored on
theirs. Blank lines and judicious trimming of the original text may
help avoid ambiguity.

The interleaved reply style can require more work in terms of labeling
lines, but possibly less work in establishing the context of each
reply line. It also keeps the quotes and their replies close to each
other and in logical reading order, and encourages trimming of the
quoted material to the bare minimum. This style makes it easier for
readers to identify the points of the original message that are being
replied to; in particular, whether the reply misunderstood or ignored
some point of the original text. It also gives the sender freedom to
arrange the quoted parts in any order, and to provide a single comment
to quotations from two or more separate messages, even if these did
not include each other.

Top- and bottom-posting are sometimes compared to traditional written
correspondence in that the response is a single continuous text, and
the whole original is appended only to clarify which letter is being
replied to. Customer service e-mail practices, in particular, often
require that all points be addressed in a clear manner without
quoting, while the original e-mail message may be included as an
attachment. Including the whole original message may be necessary also
when a new correspondent is included in an ongoing discussion.[11][12]
Especially in business correspondence, an entire message thread may
need to be forwarded to a third party for handling or discussion. On
the other hand, in environments where the entire discussion is
accessible to new readers (such as newsgroups or online forums), full
inclusion of previous messages is inappropriate; if quoting is
necessary, the interleaved style is probably best.

If the original message is to be quoted in full, for any reason,
bottom-posting is usually the most appropriate format—because it
preserves the logical order of the replies and is consistent with the
Western reading direction from top to bottom.

It is not uncommon during discussions concerning top-posting vs.
bottom-posting to hear quotes from "Netiquette Guidelines (RFC 1855)".
While many RFCs are vetted and approved though a committee process,
some RFCs, such as RFC 1844, are just "Informational" and in reality,
sometimes just personal opinions. (Additional information on
"Informational" RFCs can be found in RFC 2026, under "4.2.2
Informational" and "4.2.3 Procedures for Experimental and
Informational RFCs".) The nature of RFC 1855 should be considered
while reading the following discussion.

According to RFC 1855, a message can begin with an abbreviated
summary; i.e. a post can begin with a paraphrasing instead of quoting
selectively. Specifically, it says:

If you are sending a reply to a message or a posting be sure you
summarize the original at the top of the message, or include just
enough text of the original to give a context. This will 

Re: how to test disk for bad sector

[Long Wind]

   On Saturday, August 29, 2020, 7:31:03 PM EDT, David  
wrote:  
 
 On Sun, 30 Aug 2020 at 09:08, Long Wind  wrote:

> where does /var/log/installer/syslog reside?
> on the problem disk?

In the filesystem of the new installation.

> but i've just erased with command suggested by Marco:
> sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda1 bs=8M status=progress

It appears that you erased it then.

Many people have requested:
CAN YOU PLEASE STOP TOP-POSTING.

This means "please stop writing your reply at the top
of the message".

On a mailing list, it is polite to trim replies for context,
just keep the essential information like I have done above,
so that it is like a conversation, and reply underneath.
This is named "interleaved style".

Explained here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Choosing_the_proper_posting_style
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Trimming_and_reformatting
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#How_much_to_trim

top-posting is default behavior of yahoo mail. i don't know why it's 
inconvenient for some list users. wikipedia.org is blocked in china. 

i've just installed buster to the problem diski have no problem this timeit's 
still mystery to me why it failed so many times in the past.
Thanks to all that reply and help!


  

Re: how to test disk for bad sector

[David]

On Sun, 30 Aug 2020 at 09:08, Long Wind  wrote:

> where does /var/log/installer/syslog reside?
> on the problem disk?

In the filesystem of the new installation.

> but i've just erased with command suggested by Marco:
> sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda1 bs=8M status=progress

It appears that you erased it then.

Many people have requested:
CAN YOU PLEASE STOP TOP-POSTING.

This means "please stop writing your reply at the top
of the message".

On a mailing list, it is polite to trim replies for context,
just keep the essential information like I have done above,
so that it is like a conversation, and reply underneath.
This is named "interleaved style".

Explained here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Choosing_the_proper_posting_style
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Trimming_and_reformatting
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#How_much_to_trim

Re: how to test disk for bad sector

[David]

On Sat, 29 Aug 2020 at 19:51, Long Wind  wrote:

> sudo smartctl -A /dev/sda1
[...]
> 188 Command_Timeout 0x0032 100 068 000 Old_age Always - 403733086445

That result does not look good. It should be a low number.

Re: how to test disk for bad sector

[David]

On Sat, 29 Aug 2020 at 15:48, Long Wind  wrote:

> it's unbelievable that both tests passed
> i've installed debian to it some time ago, it failed
> today i install fedora from usb stick
> while waiting for copying i'm doing something else, not paying attention to 
> pc screen. suddenly i find that pc is shutdown

Check /var/log/installer/syslog

Re: how to test disk for bad sector

[Patrick Bartek]

On Sat, 29 Aug 2020 05:46:52 + (UTC)
Long Wind  wrote:

>  === START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
> SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
> Num  Test_Description    Status  Remaining  LifeTime(hours)  
> LBA_of_first_error
> # 1  Extended offline    Completed without error   00%  3891 -
> # 2  Short offline   Completed without error   00%  3890 -
> it's unbelievable that both tests passedi've installed debian to it some time 
> ago, it
> failedtoday i install fedora from usb stick
> while waiting for copying i'm doing something else, not paying attention to 
> pc screen.
> suddenly i find that pc is shutdown
> the most unreliable component of my pc is hard diski've installed linux to 
> other disk of
> same PC, no problem

Based on your numerous checks of the hard disk, and it passing
everything, everytime, the disk is viable.  Your problem is elsewhere.

Run a checksum on the original downloaded installation file, if your
still have it. Checksum the media you installed it to.

Are you installing UEFI or MBR boot option?  Does your hardware support
UEFI?  Depending on how old the system is, it may not.   Are you
installing along with other OSes on the system intending to multiboot
them?  Is Windows installed on the system?

Also, please, please, please don't top post.  It makes it hard to follow
who's replying to whom about what.

B


> On Saturday, August 29, 2020, 11:35:55 AM GMT+8, Patrick Bartek 
>  wrote:  
>  
>  On Sat, 29 Aug 2020 02:59:53 + (UTC)
> Long Wind  wrote:
> 
> > installation of linux to sdb1 failsi believe hard disk has bad sectori use 
> > e2fsck with -c, i.e. read-only testit doesn't  report any error  
> 
> How does install fail?  Which version of Debian did you try to install?
> Did you read Installation Manual first?  You said install was to sdb1.
> Did you want a single partition install?
> 
> B
>   

Re: how to test disk for bad sector

[Marco Möller]

On 29.08.20 14:20, Long Wind wrote:

it pass write test!  i really don't know where installation go wrong.


After the disk itself seems to not cause the problem, at least not 
because of bad blocks, confirm that the data highways on your 
motherboard and any involved data caches are all still operating fine.


(1) Read at highest possible speed from the device from which during 
installation is read from by directing the read data to the device 
"/dev/zero" ("/dev/zero" is a device which is not doing anything with 
received input, all received data is immediately after reception simply 
ignored = forgotten = thrown away):

  sudo dd if=/dev/DeviceReadingFrom of=/dev/zero bs=8M status=progress

(2) Write at highest possible speed a huge amount of data to the disk in 
order to check if the path to the disk also works free of errors under 
high load, and likewise also check that the cache inside the disk still 
performs free of error, by writing data received from the device 
"/dev/zero" (you will destroy all data on the disk, this begins at the 
beginning of the disk and will thus first erase a present partition 
table; the disk will after this test have to be partitioned and 
filesystems have to be newly created; no old data can be expected to be 
recoverable from the disk) (in this case, from the device "/dev/zero" 
there will be received values "0" as long as requested and thus the 
disks becomes overwritten with zeros):

  sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/WritingToThisDisk bs=8M status=progress
If you do not cancel this process by STRG+C before, then it will end 
with an error message when the disk is full and you can see from the 
last reported status how much data has been written to the disk.


(3) Do the same as above but involving the full data highway from your 
device you are reading from to the device you are writing to:
  sudo dd if=/dev/DeviceReadingFrom of=/dev/WritingToThisDisk bs=8M 
status=progress


If all these tests run through without errors (with test (2) running 
until the disk is full), then I would say that it is safe to assume that 
it is not a hardware problem of disks, disk controllers or motherboard. 
My only left assumptions would then be, that maybe in the BIOS some 
security feature is activated which interferes with the installation 
process, or some other peace of hardware lets the system crash when 
becoming addressed during the installation process, like some 
incompatible graphics board or some other incompatible peripheral 
component.


Good Luck!
Marco

Re: how to test disk for bad sector

[Marco Möller]

On 29.08.20 10:18, Alexander V. Makartsev wrote:

On 29.08.2020 07:59, Long Wind wrote:

installation of linux to sdb1 fails
i believe hard disk has bad sector
If hard drive has bad sectors or recently encountered them, information 
about this should be noted to hard drive's SMART table.
Alternatively, you can use "badblocks" program from "e2fsprogs" package 
to scan hard drive for bad blocks.
I'd perform tests on wiped clean hard drive with non-destructive read 
test first, followed by write test.
Testing media for bad blocks could be time consuming if hard drive is 
multiple terabytes in size.



i use e2fsck with -c, i.e. read-only test
it doesn't  report any error





I support this recommendation to use badblocks.
If you first would need to rescue data from the disk, although your 
question sounds like there is no data worth to rescue from the disk 
anymore, then use ddrescue from package gddrescue first.
Then, using badblocks, I recommend to run it in write mode with option 
"-n" for the following reason: if I am correctly informed, then disks 
with S.M.A.R.T have usually a reservoir of memory blocks to which the 
firmware of the disk itself, without the operating system seeing this, 
redirects by the disk itself already detected bad blocks. The statistics 
about these permanent redirection events is found in the S.M.A.R.T. log 
of the disk, which you can access by the smartctl program. But the 
internal mechanism of the disk's S.M.A.R.T. will only detect bad blocks 
upon the intent to write to blocks. Simply intending to read from bad 
blocks will not trigger S.M.A.R.T. to recognize blocks as bad blocks and 
they would thus not become visible in the S.M.A.R.T. report. If you 
later would write to the disk (i.e. during your OS installation you are 
mentioning as the cause to have encountered a problem with your 
hardware) then either S.M.A.R.T. will invisibly protect you by applying 
its internal redirection mechanism to reservoir blocks, or, if no more 
reservoir blocks are available, leave the operating system with the 
problem. This is what might happen in your situation right now. So, the 
operating system now needs to maintain its own list of bad blocks, which 
is thus the list of bad blocks no more cared for by S.M.A.R.T. . Again, 
simply reading from the disk might not be enough to properly detect 
these still present bad blocks. Therefore I recommend to let the 
operating system search for them by running badblocks with option "-n" 
(or "-w", please consult the man pages what better fits your needs) in 
write mode! Actually, I would recommend to repeat such run several 
times, in order to monitor if the amount of bad blocks is at least 
constant or if it is increasing. In the latter case you should replace 
the disk by a new one for sure. In the former case, if badblocks command 
finds already bad blocks which couldn't be cared for by S.M.A.R.T., I 
would also seriously consider to replace the disk for a new one now, if 
the financial situation allows for it. But if a replacement is wished to 
be avoided now for financial reasons, then at least continue to monitor 
the situation very frequently and of course at any time have a proper 
backup of your data on a still good medium. Given the requirement to 
frequently monitor a disk which can not buffer problems for you 
automatically by its S.M.A.R.T., and considering the time effort this 
repeatedly involves, you will have to balance this costs of time and 
missing trust in the present medium against the costs for a new disk.


If the disk comes out to not be the cause for your trouble encountered 
with your system, then you could check if all components on the 
motherboard involved in moving data around are still fine:
- write a heavy amount of data to the disk: with command dd copy a huge 
amount of data from an externally to USB connected drive to the drive 
which you at the moment suspect to trouble; maybe the motherboard fails 
from time to time to still handle such job free of errors; so, the disk 
might be still be fine and could be reused elsewhere, but the data 
highway on your motherboard started to fail; for this check I would not 
simply use if=/dev/zero, but really reading data from another drive, in 
order to ensure that on the motherboard the respective data highway has 
to be used as during your OS installation or during future data copy 
procedures;
- check your RAM with memtest86+, you will have to search for a Life 
pen-drive offering this command in its grub boot menu; I am not 
perfectly sure right now, but would expect the Knoppix Linux 
distribution to offer this;

- check your CPU with stress-ng

Good luck!
Marco

Re: how to test disk for bad sector

[Kenneth Parker]

On Sat, Aug 29, 2020, 7:11 AM Long Wind  wrote:

> Thank Alexander! i'll test it with write test.
>
>
>
> On Saturday, August 29, 2020, 4:18:31 AM EDT, Alexander V. Makartsev <
> avbe...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> On 29.08.2020 07:59, Long Wind wrote:
>
> installation of linux to sdb1 fails
> i believe hard disk has bad sector
> If hard drive has bad sectors or recently encountered them, information
> about this should be noted to hard drive's SMART table.
> Alternatively, you can use "badblocks" program from "e2fsprogs" package to
> scan hard drive for bad blocks.
> I'd perform tests on wiped clean hard drive with non-destructive read test
> first, followed by write test.
> Testing media for bad blocks could be time consuming if hard drive is
> multiple terabytes in size.
>
>
> i use e2fsck with -c, i.e. read-only test
> it doesn't  report [useful data]
>
> I encountered a different situation, that *might* apply.  I had, what I
can only describe as,  *SUCH*  a defective USB Stick that, instead of
declaring any errors, many I/O Requests would "Time Out" and then *succeed*
without an Error Message.

This turned into a "Cluster-*$@#", because it wasn't Debian I was
Installing, but Mint 20, whose Email List Support lacked basic
Troubleshooting Skills, on the day that I submitted my "Distress Call".  (A
combination of only Install from a Live DVD with Ubiquity, coupled with an
Irrelevant Python Error Message that comes out, periodically, even in the
best of circumstances didn't help either).

So have you tested the Hardware in question on "Neutral Tasks"?

Thank you!  (And I *still* think Mint should offer an Expert, Text Install
option like Debian!)

Kenneth Parker

>

Re: how to test disk for bad sector

[Alexander V. Makartsev]

On 29.08.2020 07:59, Long Wind wrote:
> installation of linux to sdb1 fails
> i believe hard disk has bad sector
If hard drive has bad sectors or recently encountered them, information
about this should be noted to hard drive's SMART table.
Alternatively, you can use "badblocks" program from "e2fsprogs" package
to scan hard drive for bad blocks.
I'd perform tests on wiped clean hard drive with non-destructive read
test first, followed by write test.
Testing media for bad blocks could be time consuming if hard drive is
multiple terabytes in size.

> i use e2fsck with -c, i.e. read-only test
> it doesn't  report any error
>


-- 
With kindest regards, Alexander.

⢀⣴⠾⠻⢶⣦⠀ 
⣾⠁⢠⠒⠀⣿⡁ Debian - The universal operating system
⢿⡄⠘⠷⠚⠋⠀ https://www.debian.org
⠈⠳⣄ 

Re: how to test disk for bad sector

[David]

On Sat, 29 Aug 2020 at 15:48, Long Wind  wrote:
>
> === START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
> SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
> Num  Test_DescriptionStatus  Remaining  LifeTime(hours)  
> LBA_of_first_error
> # 1  Extended offlineCompleted without error   00%  3891 -
> # 2  Short offline   Completed without error   00%  3890 -
>
> it's unbelievable that both tests passed
> i've installed debian to it some time ago, it failed
> today i install fedora from usb stick
> while waiting for copying i'm doing something else, not paying attention to 
> pc screen. suddenly i find that pc is shutdown
>
> the most unreliable component of my pc is hard disk

If both e2fsck and SMART report no errors, then it
appears that your disk is good.

If you post the complete output of
# smartctl -A /dev/

then we can see the whole story.

> i've installed linux to other disk of same PC, no problem

If there is more than one disk, are you sure that
you are testing the correct device? (sda,sdb,...) ?

You can check the /dev/disk/by-* directories to confirm which device
is used. Or the output of blkid or lsblk commands.

Re: how to test disk for bad sector

[David]

On Sat, 29 Aug 2020 at 13:00, Long Wind  wrote:

Subject: how to test disk for bad sector

> i believe hard disk has bad sector

# smartctl -t short /dev/
# smartctl -t long /dev/
# smartctl -l selftest /dev/

Documentation:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/SMART
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T.

Re: how to test disk for bad sector

[Patrick Bartek]

On Sat, 29 Aug 2020 02:59:53 + (UTC)
Long Wind  wrote:

> installation of linux to sdb1 failsi believe hard disk has bad sectori use 
> e2fsck with -c, i.e. read-only testit doesn't  report any error

How does install fail?  Which version of Debian did you try to install?
Did you read Installation Manual first?  You said install was to sdb1.
Did you want a single partition install?

B