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hfs+ file systems fail reading / writing large files

Asked by Richard J Uschold

In the last quarter of 2020, I submitted this (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1891768) and two other bugs to bugs.launchpad.net/. This one has expired. The other two are unassigned. Another forum suggested I should have started here. Apparently, I missed or incorrectly followed some steps. Please help me do it correctly, this time. Thanks in advance.

In May 2020, when I updated from Ubuntu Mate 18.10 to Ubuntu 20.04, I noticed that reading/writing hfs+ formatted USB drives failed for large files. Files about 500MB always fail. I've also noticed failures for files down to about 100MB.

I suspected my several year old USB flash drives. The new USB flash drives failed the same. The flash drives work just fine when formatted with ext4. For the rest of 2020, I had to boot Ubuntu Mate 18.10 to write hfs+ drives.

Due to this bug and other bugs introduced via updates in 2020, and Ubuntu's failure to repair them, in January 2021, I installed MX Linux. For that saga see: Looking for a Linux with no serious bugs https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?p=1965027#p1965027.

Simple test case:
1) Mount an hfs+ formatted drive (or format a drive to hfs+)
2) Write a file about 500MB to the hfs+ partition
3) Unmount the hfs+ partition (otherwise you just read the cache)
4) Mount the hfs+ partition
5) Diff the original file and the copy on the hfs+ partition.

I've tested these kernels:

hfs+ works on these kernels:
vmlinuz-4.9.240-antix.1-amd64-smp - MX Linux 19.3
vmlinuz-4.18.0-25-generic - Ubuntu Mate 18.10

hfs+ FAILS on these kernels:
vmlinuz-4.19.0-14-amd64 - MX Linux 19.3
vmlinuz-5.4.0-65-generic - Linux Mint 20.1
vmlinuz-5.4.0-47-generic - Ubuntu 20.04
vmlinuz-5.8.0-41-generic - Ubuntu 20.04
vmlinuz-5.11.0-051100-generic - Linux Mint 20.1

Ubuntu 20.04 fails on two different computers:
Lenovo FLEX 3-1480 and Acer E15 laptop.
Ubuntu Mate 18.10 works on both machines.

I searched https://bugs.launchpad.net for "hfs" and Expired tag (my bug is expired) There were 280 hits. No others remotely like mine.

NEW ADDITION-------------

Thank you to Robert Crook who confirmed that he has this same problem.

This question expired after 15 days with no assistance.

Perhaps this is not the correct forum for this type of problem.

Does anyone have a suggestion as to where I might find assistance with this problem?

Thanks

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Revision history for this message
Robert Crook (robertcrook) said : 		#1

I am facing the same problems.

Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) said : 		#2

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

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Richard J Uschold (gilliganu1) said : 		#3

A recent update to Ubuntu 20.04.1 installed kernel 5.8.0-44-generic. This bug is FIXED in this kernel!

Revision history for this message
Richard J Uschold (gilliganu1) said : 		#4

Several other kernels now WORK!

vmlinuz-5.8.0-48-generic Ubuntu 20.04.1 (presumably also: -45-, -46- and -47-, though I didn't test these)
vmlinuz-5.11.8-051108-generic - Ubuntu 20.04.1

NOTE: vmlinuz-5.11.7-051107-generic had failed earlier.

I checked the change log for 5.11 at https://kernelnewbies.org/Linux_5.11
The string "hfs" does NOT appear anywhere in the change log!

Obviously, what ever bug was fixed affected something else, in addition to hfs. Is there any way to find out what this bug was?

More importantly, is there any way to estimate when this bug fix will propagate to other supported kernels (such as 4.19.0-16-amd64 used by MX Linux 19.3 and me)?

Thanks

Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) said : 		#5

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