SD card write failed on working SD card

[mikrosk]

Hi,

this is what I get in the log:

Platform: BlueSCSI
FW Version: 2024.12.08-rel Dec  8 2024 22:19:03
Flash chip size: 2048 kB
 
=== SD Card Info ===
SD card detected, FAT32 volume size: 7372 MB
SD Name: SD08G, MID: 0x27, OID: 0x50 0x48
 
=== Global Config ===
Config file bluescsi.ini not found, using defaults
Active configuration:
 
=== Finding images in / ===
== Opening /HD0.hda for ID: 0 LUN: 0
---- WARNING: This image does not appear to be a valid Macintosh Device image. See: https://github.com/BlueSCSI/BlueSCSI-v2/wiki/Disk-Images
---- Image ready

=== ROM Drive ===
Platform supports ROM drive up to 1692 kB
---- ROM drive image not detected
 
=== Configured SCSI Devices ===
* ID: 0, BlockSize: 512, Type: Fixed, Quirks: Apple, Size: 2048000kB
 
Initialization complete!
INFO: Pico Voltage: 3.333V.
SdioCard::writeSectors(0x00007C82,...,6) failed: 5
SD card write failed: 0x00
SdioCard::writeSectors(0x00007C82,...,6) failed: 5
SD card write failed: 0x00

The card is new and when writing in Linux, there are no issues whatsoever. Is there a way to detect why BlueSCSI doesn't like writing to this card that much? Or is it just too slow?

[erichelgeson]

First lets start with formatting the card with a full overwrite with the SD Card Formatter utility - there is a linux version too which I've used. This does a lower level format on the actual SD card cells and alignment, which can fix issues such as this. An 8GB card is probably a bit older and slower, though should still work. If you have a different SD card please also try that.

[mikrosk]

While trying to gather more information I have bumped into another issue: I have formatted the card as you've advised, created bluescsi.ini with just two entries:

[SCSI]
System="Generic"
Debug=1

I got a lot of debug output, with a noticeable slowdown. So I put Debug=0 there and ... no change. Deleted Debug=0 ... no change. Deleted whole bluescsi.ini ... no change. I can't get rid of the debug outputs:

[749618ms] === SD Card Info ===
[749621ms] SD card detected, FAT32 volume size: 7379 MB
[749626ms] SD Name: SD08G, MID: 0x27, OID: 0x50 0x48
[749631ms] DBG SD Date: 3/2024
[749633ms] DBG SD Serial: 0xDA96FAD5
[749637ms]  
[749638ms] === Global Config ===
[749641ms] Config file bluescsi.ini not found, using defaults
[749646ms] Active configuration:
[749649ms] DBG -- SelectionDelay: 255
[749652ms] DBG -- EnableUnitAttention is off
[749656ms] DBG -- EnableSCSI2 is on
[749659ms] DBG -- EnableSelLatch is off
[749663ms] DBG -- MapLunsToIDs is off
[749666ms] DBG -- Parity is enabled
[749669ms] DBG -- ReinsertCDOnInquiry is disabled
[749688ms]  
[749688ms] === Finding images in / ===
[749690ms] == Opening /HD0.hda for ID: 0 LUN: 0
[750334ms] DBG ---- Read prefetch enabled: 8192 bytes
[750336ms] DBG ---- Apple magic not found.
[750340ms] DBG ---- Block size is �, should be 512.
[750344ms] DBG ---- Invalid Macintosh SCSI Driver partition detected.
[750351ms] ---- WARNING: This image does not appear to be a valid Macintosh Device image. See: https://github.com/BlueSCSI/BlueSCSI-v2/wiki/Disk-Images
[750363ms] ---- Image ready
[750366ms] 
[750367ms] === ROM Drive ===
[750369ms] Platform supports ROM drive up to 1692 kB
[750374ms] ---- ROM drive image not detected
[750378ms]  
[750379ms] === Configured SCSI Devices ===
[750383ms] * ID: 0, BlockSize: 512, Type: Fixed, Quirks: Apple, Size: 2048000kB
[763871ms] DBG BUS RESET
[765130ms] DBG ---- SELECTION: 0
[765131ms] DBG ---- COMMAND: Read6
[765133ms] DBG ------ OUT: 0x08 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x01 0x00 
[765138ms] DBG ------ Read 1x512 starting at 0
[765142ms] DBG ---- DATA_IN
[765150ms] DBG ---- Total IN: 512 OUT: 0 CHECKSUM: 40518
[765152ms] DBG ---- STATUS: 0 GOOD
[774047ms] DBG BUS RESET
[774047ms] DBG ---- MESSAGE_IN
[774055ms] DBG -- BUS_FREE
[...]

[erichelgeson]

Please power cycle the bluescsi between each test. Debug is kept on as the reinit() only sets it to true if it's not the default false, a subtle bug. I'll address it next release so card re-insertion fully evaluates the ini.

[mikrosk]

Phew, that helped, thanks.

[mikrosk]

Ok, after several more tests and pretty bad/scary results I have finally ... changed the card for a new 16 GB Transcend one. And everything works as it should.

Out of curiosity I did a few speed tests.

[mikro@pc ~]$ sudo hdparm -Tt /dev/sdc

/dev/sdc:
 Timing cached reads:   51236 MB in  1.99 seconds = 25724.50 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  60 MB in  3.06 seconds =  19.63 MB/sec

and with the new card:

/dev/sdc:
 Timing cached reads:   51850 MB in  1.99 seconds = 26033.68 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  60 MB in  3.02 seconds =  19.89 MB/sec

So nothing significantly different when it comes to reading. I have downloaded KDiskMark then.

Old card:

New card:

So there definitely is some difference when it comes to writing.

[mikrosk]

Ok, I guess there's nothing more to do. I guess some sort of cached writing would be a huge help here but the cost (corrupted data in case of a sudden power off) is the reason why it's not done that way.