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From: Winston <wbe@UBEBLOCK.psr.com.invalid>
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: errors using new Samsung 870 EVO SSD
Date: Sun, 15 Sep 2024 02:40:44 -0400
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I previously wrote (in part):
> It looks like there's some kind of compatibility or interface problem.

> Aug 21 03:01:24: (ada0:ahcich0:0:0:0): CAM status: Auto-Sense Retrieval Failed
> Aug 21 03:01:24: (ada0:ahcich0:0:0:0): Error 5, Unretryable error
 ...
> Aug 21 03:01:25: (ada0:ahcich0:0:0:0): CAM status: ATA Status Error
 ...
> Aug 21 03:01:26: (ada0:ahcich0:0:0:0): CAM status: Uncorrectable parity/CRC error
> ----------
> Here's smartctl -x output, keeping only what looked "interesting"/relevant:
 ...
> 0x06  0x018  4              64  ---  Number of Interface CRC Errors

Careful reading of the error messages and check of smartctl info
indicated to me some kind of data/interface/compatibility error, not a
read/write problem in the SSD.

Google search turned up various Samsung 860 and 870 EVO articles.

What I've determined:

* It's not a bad data cable:

   Some of the articles suggested the problem might be a bad cable.
   I ordered two new ones (SATA III).
   Result: no improvement.
   That's as I expected, since I was pretty sure my cables were good,
   but it was cheap to try.

* Fix 1:

   Based on the articles I read, this problem with Samsung 870 EVO and
   860 EVO SSDs appears to affect not just FreeBSD, but *BSD and at
   least some Linuxes.

   The solution/workaround (at least for FreeBSD) is to disable command
   queueing ("camcontrol negotiate $theSSD -T disable").

* Fix 2:

   Connect the SSD with a USB-to-SATA adapter cable.
   I found such a cable in stock at Best Buy for $12.
   Perhaps this works because there's no command queueing over USB.

As a side note, instead of turning off tagged queueing, I also tried
reducing the number of tags from 32 to 2.  Didn't help: the errors
continued to happen.

Maybe some day Samsung will come out with new firmware that fixes this
problem.

Is this something I should post to bugzilla (it's not a FreeBSD bug,
though) or to some FreeBSD forum (which one)?  Google no longer gets
USENET, so I don't expect this article would be found by Google search.

HTH,
 -WBE