acpi bug

qanopus · 10-30-2007, 05:40 PM

Hi,

I recently stumbled across this bug description. The bug is about apci settings in ubuntu leading to way to many load cycles, prematurely killing laptop hard drives.
I'm using Fedora 7 on an Dell Inspiron E1505, but I decided to check if I was in trouble anyway and this is what I found.
I have this laptop for about a year now, and looking up the # load cycles up to now:

Code:

    
[root@localhost /home/sohail]# smartctl -d ata -a /dev/sda|grep Load_Cycle_Count
225 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0012   062   062   000    Old_age   Always       -       387919

As we can see, the load cycle in about a year is 387919. Seeing that a disk can handle 600000 before failure, this is not good! The cycle count increases every 1/2 a minute or so, which is way to much.
So it seems the bug has effected fedora as well.
The thing is, although a remedy had been suggested on the web page linked to above, they assume your working on ubuntu. I have tried doing

Code:

hdparm -B 255 /dev/sda

but that didn't fix the problem.
If anyone could help me out here, I would appreciate it very much.

vivedekananda · 11-01-2007, 05:53 AM

Similar situation here. I installed Kubuntu 7.10 on new Dell Inspiron 1501.
yesterday I tried the fix:

Quote:

hdparm -B 255 /dev/sda

It didn't work for me.

I browsed a bit more on the web (mainly on ubuntuforums.org), I post possible solutions below. I will need to test them out when back from work,
and I'll report if they worked.

Some people recommend the following:

Code:

hdparm -B 254 /dev/sda

or

Code:

hdparm -B 200 /dev/sda

It might be usefull to try to combine the above "hdparm -B" with

Code:

hdparm -S 0 /dev/sda

Also make sure you have "laptop_mode" disabled.

Finally, you might try set your hdd power management settings in BIOS (it isn't possible on my laptop model).

Good luck, I will post my results later.

qanopus · 11-01-2007, 04:54 PM

Yes indeed,

Code:

hdparm -B 254 -S 60 /dev/sda

seems to do the trick. I put this in the /etc/rc.d/init.d/acpid script, but I don't know how nice that solution is. Anyone have a better idea?

vivedekananda · 11-02-2007, 02:21 AM

OK, tried things out. "hdparm -B 254" works on my machine, 255 actually sets the value to 128:

Code:

$ hdparm -B255 /dev/sda
/dev/sda:
 setting Advanced Power Management level to disabled
$
$hdparm -I /dev/sda | grep power
        Advanced power management level: unknown setting (0x0080)
           *    Host-initiated interface power management
                Device-initiated interface power management

This s the only fix I know of. I am going to contact Dell and ask them
to provide a solution for this, since it seems to be a bios/hardware/firmware related issue. Windows probably override the bios settings.

lomnhom · 11-14-2007, 10:57 PM

$ hdparm -B255 /dev/sda

I thnk this one only temporally disable the Advanced Power Management. How to disable this permanently ?

netsurf · 04-19-2008, 05:44 AM

issue is still present in fedora 8 need a permanent fix....

algogeek · 04-19-2008, 09:41 PM

Hi, I've been trying to get fedora up and running on my system, and I came across this topic - and it scared me. Of all things I want, I sincerely cannot afford a HD crash.
Does it apply to all hardware or just yours? Kindly reply.

algogeek · 04-21-2008, 09:39 AM

Can anyone reply atleast?

vivedekananda · 04-22-2008, 03:18 AM

to check if you are affected run:

Quote:

smartctl -d ata -a /dev/sda |grep Load_Cycle_Count

replace "/dev/sda" with your disk if needed

you should get out put like this:

Quote:

193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 21000000

If the number at the end of the line rises every few second then you are affected.

I recommend you search eg www.ubuntuforums.org for the latest information about the bug, seems the issue is still not resolved in ubuntu, dont know about fedora.

algogeek · 04-23-2008, 10:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vivedekananda

to check if you are affected run:

replace "/dev/sda" with your disk if needed

you should get out put like this:

If the number at the end of the line rises every few second then you are affected.

I recommend you search eg www.ubuntuforums.org for the latest information about the bug, seems the issue is still not resolved in ubuntu, dont know about fedora.

Ok, so I was affected. I did hdparm -B255 /dev/sda and now the problem seems to be resolved. I even added that into my /etc/rc.d/acpid script and its working well.

One question though - will it affect my power management settings? For example, will the drive keep running on susped as well? I'm running F 8. Is this bug present in slackware and all linux distros?