does not collect SMART data on live system

Binary package hint: gnome-disk-utility

When the GNOME "disk utility" is opened from System -> Administration -> Disk Utility on a Lenovo / IBM T60p, the SMART status of the main internal hard drive is displayed as "not supported". This hard drive is recognized by the program as a SATA drive, as is using the correct kernel driver (ahci).

Using the smartmontools package, however it is possible to recover SMART status on the same drive:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo smartctl --all /dev/sda > smart.data
(see attached file for output)

This issue has been replicated on multiple T60p machines (model 2007-CTO).

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: gnome-disk-utility 2.30.1-1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-21.32-generic 2.6.32.11+drm33.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-21-generic i686
Architecture: i386
Date: Thu May 13 17:35:13 2010
LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release i386 (20100429)
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: gnome-disk-utility

Hmm, data from ubuntu-bug was not attached?

In short:
Desktop PC
/dev/sdb (Maxtor PATA 160 GB)
disk utility says SMART not enabled.
smartctl shows SMART data

After many minutes, disk utility suddenly detects SMART capabilities.

Ubuntu desktop i386 10.04 Live CD

Say if any more info is required.

This bug is more widespread than just the T60p. Many computers on which I check the SMART status require that I use Ubuntu 9.10 instead of 10.04. ** This is a severe regression **

No one from the Ubuntu dev community seems to care, though...

Based on the behavior I am observing (gnome-disk-utility, skdump, and other utilities that depend on libatasmart do not work, while smartmontools does), I have added libatasmart as an affected product. I was able to find a bug in the freedesktop bugzilla involving similar behavior in libatasmart; that bug's reporter is also using Ubuntu 10.04.

ubuntu 10.10 dekstop i386 (LiveCD)

gnome-disk-utility 2.30.1-2

Still the same. It says Smart status: Not Supported

Now for my two drives (one SATA, other PATA).

Ask for any details

Can you please send the output of

  udisks --show-info /dev/sda

in particular the SMART bits? If that says "unknown", can you please try

  udisks --ata-smart-refresh

then wait some seconds, and use --show-info again?

If it still says "unknown", but has smart data, please do

  sudo skdump --save=/tmp/smart.blob /dev/sda

and attach /tmp/smart.blob here.

Thanks!

"udisks --ata-smart-refresh /dev/sdx" immediately got the data on a test system here using the Maverick livecd. So although it's a bit more awkward, it's possible to get smart info from the Lucid/Maverick livecds using that command. However it would be nice to have the data immediately displayed without having to go to the command line first.

But without --ata-smart-refresh udisks --show-info never showed the data? The usual mode is that SMART data is retrieved from the disk one minute after starting the desktop. Did you perhaps only try right after booting and didn't wait for a minute?

I have just tested this. I booted a Maverick livecd and waited more than a minute. "Not Supported". Perhaps the smart-refresh command isn't being run on the livecd?

Indeed I get this as well. When I manually start udisks-daemon, it does launch the SMART data collection after about half a minute, but it doesn't after a normal boot of the live system.

I didn't manage to reproduce this in any way on a running live system, like stopping udisks-daemon and gdm, and starting them again, so I uploaded a temporary change to allow me to debug this better:

udisks (1.0.2-1ubuntu1) natty; urgency=low

  * Add 12_log_startup.patch: Redirect daemon stdout/err to
    /var/log/udisks.log, to debug the SMART detection failure that happens
    while booting the live system (but not anywhere else, nor after restarting
    udisks-daemon). (See LP #580112)

 -- Martin Pitt <email address hidden> Fri, 07 Jan 2011 14:08:42 +0100

Now I need to wait for the next daily live CD to build, then I can continue to investigate this.

Martin, if this helps, the last time this worked as it was intended was Karmic. So something in the Lucid cycle is what broke this function. And I don't know about the other folks who have posted bugs about this, but it has never affected an installed system for me, only the livecds.

Sorry, it took a while to find some time to get back to this. /var/log/udisks.log on a live system boot shows something interesting:

**** INITIAL ATA SMART POLL for /dev/sda

(udisks-daemon:2964): udisks-daemon-WARNING: **: Daemon is inhibited

When booting the live CD, udisks indeed gets inhibited while the ubiquity greeter runs (which allows you to choose the language and select install/live desktop).

So this explains why udisks is inhibited 30 seconds after it start up; SMART data collection is not reattempted in this case.

http://git.debian.org/?p=pkg-utopia/udisks.git;a=commitdiff;h=576e6a582522b4076d3b73c026e531d581d121df

This bug was fixed in the package udisks - 1.0.2-3+ubuntu1

---------------
udisks (1.0.2-3+ubuntu1) natty; urgency=low

  Upload current packaging git head to Natty.

  * 02-defer_smart_probing.patch: Try SMART probing again repeatedly while the
    daemon is inhibited. (LP: #580112)
  * Add 00git-udf-permissions.patch: Ignore broken directory permissions on
    UDF when they are on readonly CD media. (LP: #635499)
  * debian/control: Improve package description. Thanks Justin B Rye!
    (Closes: #614146)
  * debian/control: Explain in the package description why udisks
    recommends/suggests file system creation/admin tools. (Closes: #595114)
 -- Martin Pitt <email address hidden> Mon, 28 Feb 2011 13:18:20 +0100