Linux - Console Error: "blk_update_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0" (4041456)

After installing the AppAssure / Rapid Recovery Linux agent, you may see the following message in your server console or your kernel logs:

"[708.684636] blk_update_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0"

"[302691.504544] end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0"

This is caused by AppAssure / Rapid Recovery, polling for supported devices to protect in the background and incidentally polls the floppy disk drive. The floppy drive is automatically added in many cases, to virtual machines weather you specify to add it or not.

Since the floppy device is not supported for protection via AppAssure / Rapid Recovery, the device does not properly handle the poll request and throws an error.

Also, it should be noted that this will not affect the integrity of the AppAssure or Rapid Recovery recovery points.

To resolve this issue, if you do not need a floppy disk, you can simply remove the floppy kernel module from loading on startup.

Do one of the following depending on your affected Operating System:

CentOS/RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux)

1. rmmod floppy

2. echo "blacklist floppy" > /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-floppy.conf

3. cp /boot/initramfs-$(uname -r).img /boot/initramfs-$(uname -r).img.backup

4. dracut -f /boot/initramfs-$(uname -r).img

5. Reboot (optional)

Debian/Ubuntu

1. rmmod floppy

2. echo "blacklist floppy" > /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-floppy.conf

3. cp /boot/initrd.img-$(uname -r) /boot/initrd.img-$(uname -r).backup

4. update-initramfs -u

5. Reboot (optional)

SLES (SuSE Linux Enterprise Server)

1. rmmod floppy

2. echo "blacklist floppy" > /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-floppy.conf

3. cp /boot/initrd-$(uname -r) /boot/initrd-$(uname -r).backup

4. mkinitrd

5. Reboot (optional)