Bug 400242 - Unmountable corrupted external disk displays "malformed URL" error message instead of something useful
Summary: Unmountable corrupted external disk displays "malformed URL" error message in...
Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME
Alias: None
Product: frameworks-solid
Classification: Frameworks and Libraries
Component: general (other bugs)
Version First Reported In: unspecified
Platform: Kubuntu Linux
: NOR grave
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Lukáš Tinkl
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2018-10-24 13:53 UTC by Stefan Zurucker
Modified: 2023-01-01 05:20 UTC (History)
3 users (show)

See Also:
Latest Commit:
Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:


Attachments
KSystemLog's output when trying to access an external harddrive (1.03 KB, text/plain)
2018-10-24 13:53 UTC, Stefan Zurucker
Details

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Description Stefan Zurucker 2018-10-24 13:53:49 UTC
Created attachment 115876 [details]
KSystemLog's output when trying to access an external harddrive

SUMMARY
Trying to mount removable device (such as USB flash drives formatted with FAT32 or an external harddrive with NTFS) results in an error message saying "Malformed URL", see screenhot here: https://postimg.cc/VSFG7h01 

I am unable to mount or access those drives, be it via Dolphin or utilities such as KDE Partition Manager or Gnome-Disks, respectively.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Insert a removable usb device, e.g. harddrive or usb flash drives.
2. Try opening it via the "Removable drives" widget in the panel or via Dolphin's sidebar.


OBSERVED RESULT
An error message (see above) appears. Removing and reinserting the device is uneffective, the error persits even after rebooting the system.

EXPECTED RESULT
Drives should mount and be accessible to Dolphin and other utilities.

SOFTWARE VERSIONS
This happens on a PC running Kubuntu 18.04 64bit with the Backports-PPA enabled
KDE Plasma Version: 5.12.7
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.47.0
Qt Version: Qt 5.9.5

as well as on a different PC running KDE Neon 18.04 64bit User Edition
KDE Plasma Version: 5.14.1
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.51.0
Qt Version: Qt 5.11.2

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
All these devices mount fine and are accessable on a third machine running Windows 8. Though I haven't performed a disk check yet I do not think this is caused by faulty hardware, as this would mean half a dozen USBs and my external drive have gone bad at the very same time.

I have tried several times to reproduce this behaviour, with mixed results. It does occur every time with the external harddrive, but not with the USBs - here it's rather erratic, with sticks I was unable to access before mounting fine the next day (so mostly after a shutdown or reboot of the system).

I have attached the (what I believe to be relevant) output from KSystemlog when trying to access my Seagate external harddrive on Kubuntu 18.04:

---
Apologies, if this bug report is actually not related to Plasma and rather a udisk issue or something along those lines. The fact that this occurs on different Plasma versions would suggest as much, but I'm just a DAU and not knowledgeable in these things.
Comment 1 Nate Graham 2018-10-24 14:20:08 UTC
The error message isn't great, that's for sure.

But the log output seems to indicate that there may be a hardware issue:

> 14:37	udisksd	Failed to mount '/dev/sdb1': Input/output error
> 14:37	udisksd	NTFS is either inconsistent, or there is a hardware fault, or it's a
> 14:37	udisksd	SoftRAID/FakeRAID hardware. In the first case run chkdsk /f on Windows
> 14:37	udisksd	then reboot into Windows twice. The usage of the /f parameter is very
> 14:37	udisksd	important! If the device is a SoftRAID/FakeRAID then first activate
> 14:37	udisksd	it and mount a different device under the /dev/mapper/ directory, (e.g.
> 14:37	udisksd	/dev/mapper/nvidia_eahaabcc1). Please see the 'dmraid' documentation
> 14:37	udisksd	for more details.

Can you go do what it asks and try once more to mount it on your Plasma machine?
Comment 2 Stefan Zurucker 2018-10-24 16:29:31 UTC
Hello, Nate! Thanks for taking the time to reply. I always enjoy reading your summaries on the newest KDE developments! :)

As recommended, I have run "chkdsk /f" on three culprits (my external hard drive as well as two flash drives). The flash drives came back with no errors, the external hard drive however refused to even run the disk check - it returned its status as "raw", not NTFS.

As far as I can tell, this indeed means that the drive is dying. Since the flash drives seem to be fine and I am unable to reliably reproduce the error with them, I think this issue should be closed.

I guess I jumped the gun on this, so I apologize again for the unnecessary attention! :/ I simply didn't expect the drive to suddenly break down like this.
Comment 3 Nate Graham 2018-10-24 18:40:18 UTC
No worries! We can keep this open to track the better handling of this condition.
Comment 4 Justin Zobel 2022-12-02 01:22:40 UTC
Thank you for reporting this issue in KDE software. As it has been a while since this issue was reported, can we please ask you to see if you can reproduce the issue with a recent software version?

If you can reproduce the issue, please change the status to "REPORTED" when replying. Thank you!
Comment 5 Stefan Zurucker 2022-12-02 05:56:32 UTC
Ever since I've reported this issue, I haven't encountered it again on any Plasma version - from my point of view this bug report can be closed, therefore I'm marking it as "fixed"!

Thanks for your time, everyone!
Comment 6 Bug Janitor Service 2022-12-17 05:13:56 UTC
Dear Bug Submitter,

This bug has been in NEEDSINFO status with no change for at least
15 days. Please provide the requested information as soon as
possible and set the bug status as REPORTED. Due to regular bug
tracker maintenance, if the bug is still in NEEDSINFO status with
no change in 30 days the bug will be closed as RESOLVED > WORKSFORME
due to lack of needed information.

For more information about our bug triaging procedures please read the
wiki located here:
https://community.kde.org/Guidelines_and_HOWTOs/Bug_triaging

If you have already provided the requested information, please
mark the bug as REPORTED so that the KDE team knows that the bug is
ready to be confirmed.

Thank you for helping us make KDE software even better for everyone!
Comment 7 Bug Janitor Service 2023-01-01 05:20:33 UTC
This bug has been in NEEDSINFO status with no change for at least
30 days. The bug is now closed as RESOLVED > WORKSFORME
due to lack of needed information.

For more information about our bug triaging procedures please read the
wiki located here:
https://community.kde.org/Guidelines_and_HOWTOs/Bug_triaging

Thank you for helping us make KDE software even better for everyone!