Starting smartd.....Failed

satimis · 09-28-2004, 01:41 AM

Hi folks,

What is 'smartd'?

Each time on booting, following warning indicated.
....
Starting smartd [failed]

However there is no noticeable problem in operating FedoraCore2

Please advice how to fix it.

TIA

B.R.
satimis

4hp · 09-28-2004, 08:54 AM

Same error here!

I disabled it from starting in rc5.d

WhatsHisName · 09-28-2004, 10:16 AM

Smartd does hard drive reliability monitoring. Most modern drives can keep track of errors and relay them to the OS. Smartd under FC2 is failing on all of my systems, but I assume that it is caused by FC2 not being able to read the information through the PCI-based hard disk controllers (Promise Ultra100 TX2) installed in the systems.

Since the drives are super reliable Western Digitals, I don’t worry about the smartd failure. I would be more concerned if the drives were Quantums or Maxtors, but that’s just based on my own bad experiences with them.

Arodef · 09-28-2004, 01:37 PM

smartd always fails in the systems I have with S-ATA drives. I disabled that service.

satimis · 09-28-2004, 04:42 PM

Hi 4hp,

Quote:

Same error here!

I disabled it from starting in rc5.d

There are 2 'S40smartd' files

/etc/rc.d/rc5.d/S40smartd
/etc/rc5.d/S40smartd

$ cat /etc/rc.d/rc5.d/S40smartd

Code:

.........
    case "$1" in
        start)
            smartd -p $PID_FILE
            echo -n "smartd "
            ;;
        stop)
            kill `cat $PID_FILE`
            echo -n "smartd "
            ;;
        restart)
            $0 stop
            sleep 1
            $0 start
            ;;
        *)
            echo "Usage: smartd {start|stop|restart}"
            exit 1

Is it changing as "echo "Usage: smartd stop"

TIA

B.R.
satimis

satimis · 09-28-2004, 04:51 PM

Hi folks,

Tks for your advice.

The HD in this PC is connected to ATA-66 Controller. It is Seagate product, IIRC.

# fdisk -l

Code:

Disk /dev/hdg: 10.2 GB, 10245537792 bytes
16 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19852 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 1008 * 512 = 516096 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hdg1   *           1         220      110848+  83  Linux
/dev/hdg2             221       12000     5937120   83  Linux
/dev/hdg3           12001       13100      554400   82  Linux swap
/dev/hdg4           13101       19852     3403008    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hdg5           13101       19852     3402976+  83  Linux

I don't understand why its denotation is /dev/hdg. Please advise.

I checked BIOS but could not discover any page having S.M.A.R.T. item there.

Is there any way to find the brand/maker of a HD without opening the box?

TIA

B.R.
satimis

WhatsHisName · 09-28-2004, 06:29 PM

satimis: Typically, hda/hdb and hdc/hdd are the master/slave drives on the motherboard-based primary and secondary IDE channels, respectively. Likewise, hde/hdf and hdg/hdh typically refer to the master/slave drives on the PCI-based controller card primary and secondary IDE channels, respectively. Your hard drive is probably plugged into the secondary IDE channel on the controller card.

Regarding “electronically” identifying drives, Seagate drives typically are identified by model number, such as ST3120026AS, which is an SATA 80GB drive. The model number may be displayed during the initialization of the controller card at startup or may be readable from the IDE section of the BIOS setup pages. It is usually not in both places. So, in other words, reboot and watch the monitor.

You can look up the drive characteristics using the model number at the Seagate web site.

4hp · 09-29-2004, 03:20 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by satimis
Hi 4hp,

There are 2 'S40smartd' files

/etc/rc.d/rc5.d/S40smartd
/etc/rc5.d/S40smartd

$ cat /etc/rc.d/rc5.d/S40smartd

Code:

......... case "$1" in start) smartd -p $PID_FILE echo -n "smartd " ;; stop) kill `cat $PID_FILE` echo -n "smartd " ;; restart) $0 stop sleep 1 $0 start ;; *) echo "Usage: smartd {start|stop|restart}" exit 1

Is it changing as "echo "Usage: smartd stop"

TIA

B.R.
satimis

Actually, I didn't edit the script itself. I moved the file in /etc/rc.d/rc5.d/S40smartd (which is the same file as: /etc/rc5.d/S40smartd 'cos /etc/rc5.d is a shortcut to /etc/rc.d/rc5.d/ I think) to another folder like UnusedRC5Scripts. Then it won't be loaded at normal startup (runlevel 5 that is).

I'm quite a newbie

linuXBOX · 10-09-2004, 01:35 AM

I had this happen. With the coming of FC2, the cdrom was changed to /dev/hda.
But smartd didn't change its config file (smartd.conf or whatever)
It still tries to scan /dev/hda and the cdrom will not give it hard drive info, if any.
Change the smartd config file to scan the drive(s) that are listed in fdisk -l.
For me I changed /dev/hda to /dev/sda, /dev/sdb, and /dev/sdc as I use scsi.
Afterwards smartd gave me the 3 scsi disks info, huzzah.

satimis · 10-11-2004, 01:33 AM

Hi WhatsHisName,

Tks for your advice.

Quote:

satimis: Typically, hda/hdb and hdc/hdd are the master/slave drives on the motherboard-based primary and secondary IDE channels, respectively. Likewise, hde/hdf and hdg/hdh typically refer to the master/slave drives on the PCI-based controller card primary and secondary IDE channels, respectively. Your hard drive is probably plugged into the secondary IDE channel on the controller card.

After plugging HD to primary IDE channel of the PCI-based controller.

# df -Th

Code:

Filesystem    Type    Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/hde2     ext3    5.6G  3.3G  2.1G  61% /
/dev/hde1     ext3    105M  7.6M   92M   8% /boot
none         tmpfs    189M     0  189M   0% /dev/shm
/dev/hde5     ext3    3.2G  362M  2.7G  12% /home

Quote:

Regarding “electronically” identifying drives, Seagate drives typically are identified by model number, such as ST3120026AS, which is an SATA 80GB drive. The model number may be displayed during the initialization of the controller card at startup or may be readable from the IDE section of the BIOS setup pages. It is usually not in both places. So, in other words, reboot and watch the monitor.

You can look up the drive characteristics using the model number at the Seagate web site.

Noted with thanks. HD idenfication is displayed during booting

Is there any way to display HD identification after booting, i.e. during working? TIA

B.R.
satimis

satimis · 10-11-2004, 01:36 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by 4hp
Actually, I didn't edit the script itself. I moved the file in /etc/rc.d/rc5.d/S40smartd (which is the same file as: /etc/rc5.d/S40smartd 'cos /etc/rc5.d is a shortcut to /etc/rc.d/rc5.d/ I think) to another folder like UnusedRC5Scripts. Then it won't be loaded at normal startup (runlevel 5 that is). I'm quite a newbie

Hi 4hp,

Tks for your advice.

I leave it there. It does not cause any problem.

B.R.
satimis