SATA exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x4000000 action 0xe frozen

The message exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x4000000 action 0xe frozen of the Linux kernel indicates a faulty SATA cable. We show in this wiki article an example how to locate and replace an affected cable.

ata6: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x4000000 action 0xe frozen

In the following example system with Supermicro X11DPi-N motherboard, the Linux kernel 4.15 (Ubuntu 18.04) continuously shows the following error message - the log file /var/log/syslog is populated with it:

[...]
Mar 25 10:43:41 pmtest kernel: [76710.309169] ata6: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x4000000 action 0xe frozen
Mar 25 10:43:41 pmtest kernel: [76710.310983] ata6: irq_stat 0x00000040, connection status changed
Mar 25 10:43:41 pmtest kernel: [76710.312818] ata6: SError: { DevExch }
Mar 25 10:43:41 pmtest kernel: [76710.314600] ata6: hard resetting link
Mar 25 10:43:41 pmtest kernel: [76711.027584] ata6: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300)
Mar 25 10:43:41 pmtest kernel: [76711.027594] ata6: EH complete
Mar 25 10:43:42 pmtest kernel: [76711.126018] ata6: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x4000000 action 0xe frozen
Mar 25 10:43:42 pmtest kernel: [76711.127853] ata6: irq_stat 0x00000040, connection status changed
Mar 25 10:43:42 pmtest kernel: [76711.129653] ata6: SError: { DevExch }
Mar 25 10:43:42 pmtest kernel: [76711.131431] ata6: hard resetting link
Mar 25 10:43:42 pmtest kernel: [76711.843604] ata6: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300)
Mar 25 10:43:42 pmtest kernel: [76711.843614] ata6: EH complete
[...]

Problem solution

Supermicro X11DPi-N SATA Ports.

This X11DPi-N motherboard used in this example has the following SATA ports with the C621 (an Intel Lewisburg C620 Chipset):

• S-SATA 0-5 (6 SATA ports).
  • /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:11.5/ata1 to ata6 under Linux

    S-SATA 0-3 = ata1 - ata4

    S-SATA 4 = ata5

    S-SATA 5 = ata6

• I-SATA 0-7 (8 SATA ports)
  • /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:17.0/ata7 to ata14 under Linux

    I-SATA 0-3 = ata7 - ata10

    I-SATA 4-7 = ata11 - ata14

In the concrete example above, the error occurs on port ata6:

• ata6 corresponds to port S-SATA 5 on the mainboard.

In the example a SATA cable was connected to this port S-SATA 5. However, the cable was not connected to any data medium.

After the cable was unplugged, no further error messages occurred. Die zuvor sekündlich neu eingetragen Meldungen in der Logdatei hörten damit auf.

Further information

• Exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x4000000 action 0xe frozen (bugs.launchpad.net) [...] Replacing the SATA cable fixed this issue for me. [...]
• recent problems with ata1 - exception Emask 0x10 (SOLVED) (bbs.archlinux.org) [...] Bad SATA cable. Replaced it and no errors. [...]

Author: Werner Fischer Werner Fischer, working in the Knowledge Transfer team at Thomas-Krenn, completed his studies of Computer and Media Security at FH Hagenberg in Austria. He is a regular speaker at many conferences like LinuxTag, OSMC, OSDC, LinuxCon, and author for various IT magazines. In his spare time he enjoys playing the piano and training for a good result at the annual Linz marathon relay.