Ubuntu 18.04 problem with large (> 5TB) drives

"After 3 weeks no response to bug report"
If you are referring to Bug #1802821 - this bug is waiting for a response from your side.

This question was expired because it remained in the 'Open' state without activity for the last 15 days.

So if you ignore a bug for 15 days you can just wish it away?

Ubuntu lacks ubuntu (and support).

This is not the bug tracker. If you have already created a bug report, there is no need to create also a question document.

As far as I can see, the bug is in the status "incomplete", i.e. waiting for input from your side.

And - by the way - tags are set in the bug document by clicking on the yellow pencil icon at the end of the original bug description.

The reason I asked this question is that the bug report got no response at
all after 30 days of waiting. I do not expect them to fix the bug in that
time, but they at least need to acknowledge that there is a problem.
Someone else needs to get a hold of a external USB 3 drive and confirm that
Linux is continental drift slow compared to a 5TB drive.

On Thu, Dec 13, 2018 at 4:13 PM Manfred Hampl <
<email address hidden>> wrote:

> Your question #676403 on Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/676403
>
> Status: Open => Answered
>
> Manfred Hampl proposed the following answer:
> This is not the bug tracker. If you have already created a bug report,
> there is no need to create also a question document.
>
> As far as I can see, the bug is in the status "incomplete", i.e. waiting
> for input from your side.
>
> And - by the way - tags are set in the bug document by clicking on the
> yellow pencil icon at the end of the original bug description.
>
> --
> If this answers your question, please go to the following page to let us
> know that it is solved:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/676403/+confirm?answer_id=4
>
> If you still need help, you can reply to this email or go to the
> following page to enter your feedback:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/676403
>
> You received this question notification because you asked the question.
>

If I look at the history of the bug document, then it seems to me that you have not correctly understood the status values of your bug.

You created the bug on Nov. 12, and four days later you were asked to provide more information (e.g. testing a different kernel version).
Even today you haven't reported what you have done (or could not do) in the expected way.
So please do not blame Ubuntu support if the developers are still waiting for you.

I did report what I had done. Apparently the report never got routed to the proper people even though I could see my report (apparently they could not). I had tried the upstream kernel and the bug was still there. I then had to reinstall Ubuntu so I tried Ubuntu MATE 18.10. The bug was still there. With no response from Ubuntu for 30 days I tried one last thing before returning the drive. I reformatted it as ext4 file system instead of an NTFS file system. The result is that I was able to copy 2.2TB from an NTFS 4TB drive to the 8TB ext4 drive in less than a day as opposed to the 30 days + required for the NTFS file system. Apparently the bug is in the NTFS support part of the distro, not the kernel. Since the Windows 10 installer refuses to reinstall Windows 10 in the partition prepared for it on my new internal hard drive, I do not see Windows in my future. (Why pay $200 for an OS that refuses to be installed?) I only have one Windows only program and there are posts that others have been able to run earlier versions under Wine. Abbyy refuses to support any attempt to rune Abbyy Fine Reader 14 on Wine.

The short version is that the bug is in the NTFS support of the Ubuntu distro, not in the Ubuntu kernel. Reformatting from NTFS to ext4 allows me to use an external 8TB Seagate drive. The only catch is that no PC running Windows can access the data.

And why didn't my responses reach the right people in over 30 days?

It is no use starting to rant in this question question document, if you want actions on your bug report.

In your bug report one of the developers asked almost a month ago:
Once testing of the upstream kernel is complete, please mark this bug as "Confirmed".

Have you done this?

Thanks Manfred Hampl, that solved my question.

No that did not even address the bug in the Ubuntu 18.10 distro. It is just
a workaround! not a solution. Bugs should at least be investigated!

On Fri, Dec 14, 2018 at 10:33 PM Robert Pearson <
<email address hidden>> wrote:

> Your question #676403 on Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/676403
>
> Status: Answered => Solved
>
> You confirmed that the question is solved:
> Thanks Manfred Hampl, that solved my question.
>
> --
> You received this question notification because you asked the question.
>

I do not know what I have to write that you understand that the bug currently is in "suspended" mode until you set the status back to "confirmed".

"Bugs should at least be investigated":
Yes, that is what the developers did.
They asked you to do some test, and now they wait until the status is set back to "confirmed" as a sign that you have completed the actions they wanted you to do.
The developers are not re-reading the contents of the bug every day, but they wait for the status change.

I have isolated the bug to the NTFS support in the distro. I never received the developers request so I could not respond. There is a break in communication.

Again. I NEVER GOT THE REQUEST FOR ANY TEST.

Please see https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1802821/comments/3

Did this issue start happening after an update/upgrade? Was there a prior kernel version where you were not having this particular problem?

Would it be possible for you to test the latest upstream kernel? Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Please test the latest v4.20 kernel[0].

If this bug is fixed in the mainline kernel, please add the following tag 'kernel-fixed-upstream'.

If the mainline kernel does not fix this bug, please add the tag: 'kernel-bug-exists-upstream'.

Once testing of the upstream kernel is complete, please mark this bug as "Confirmed".

Thanks in advance.

[0] http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.20-rc2

I did all that and posted that the bug had NOT been fixed. My report apparently got lost. The bug is still there and I will not flag it as complete until someone else acknowledges that there is a problem. Anyone can confirm it just by connecting a 6-16TB external USB 3 drive with an NTFS file system. Then try to copy files onto the disk. Easily confirmed (probably not easy to fix). My best guess is that the coders of the NTFS support in the distro chose an algorithm that does not scale well for larger drives. Once I reformatted my drive as ext4 the speed greatly increased. I could copy (with Terminal cp command) what took 2 days with a 5TB NTFS to the ext4 file system in less than 3 hours. The extimated time with a 6TB NTFS was over a month.

I just want someone to acknowledge that there is a problem! Or at least get some acknowledgement from the developers.

According to https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1802821/+activity you have never set the status back to "Confirmed". The developers are still waiting that you do this.

… and there is neither the tag 'kernel-fixed-upstream' nor 'kernel-bug-exists-upstream' set on the bug report.

Again I ask, how do I set the status to "Confirmed"?

All I see are buttons labeled "This Solved My Problem". The problem has NOT been solved. Again I ask, how do I set the status to "Confirmed"?

Why "Again I ask …" - where did you already ask this question?

Answer: Open your bug report page in a browser and click on the yellow pencil icon besides its current status. In the pop-up select the correct status.

And tags are set by clicking on the yellow pencil icon at the end of the bug text, where it currently says
"Tags: bionic amd64 apport-bug (pencil) (question mark)"

Manfred Hampl,

Thank you. Went to page and changed status to confirmed and the tags to cosmic AMD-64 NTFS since I have narrowed the bug to the NTFS support in Ubuntu. Reformatting the drives from NTFS to ext4 worked around the problem at the cost of making the drives unreadable in Windows 10. But since the installer refuses to install Windows 10 on a hard drive with a GUID Partition Table. Apparently the installer program is more than 15 years out of date (the industry - except Microsoft - adopted the UEFI specification which includes the GUID Partition Table in 2003).

Being a Linux newbie I appreciate the how to do something instead of telling me what to do (assuming I know the how.) I was also confusd between question #676403 and bug #1802821. The reason I asked the question was because I got no response to the bug. And I only spent time making the bug report is that I want to help the developers make Ubuntu a better product.

NOTE! The question has been answered but the problem has NOT been solved. I sent a request to lauchpad itself to request a new status "not fixed but workaround exists". The response I received was insulting to the community.