I wanted to use "smartctl" to monitor my drives.

However, when issuing "sudo smartctl -i /dev/sdb", smartctl reports that the "Device does not support SMART".

Both my SATA drives:

WDC WD360GD-00FN (Raptor)
SAMSUNG SP1614C

do support SMART. Running "hdparm -I" for each of those devices indicates that all SMART features are available and enabled.

I did find some info about the "libata" SCSI driver needing to be patched in order for smartctl to work with SATA:

http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/#testinghelp
http://freshmeat.net/projects/hdparm/

but, according to the info in the second link, libata is already patched if "hdparm -I" works.

Any ideas how to get smartctl (SMART monitoring) to work with these drives?

Thank you.

--------------
Additional info:
- SMART is enabled in the BIOS
- SMART works with these drives in Windows XP Pro
- smartctl under Ubuntu DOES work with the PATA drive in the same PC

Edit:
Corrected link to "hdparm" info.

i have a 74 GB raptor and smartctl says:

smartctl version 5.33 [i686-pc-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-4 Bruce Allen
Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/

Device: ATA WDC WD740GD-00FL Version: 27.0

SATA disks accessed via libata are not currently supported by
smartmontools. When libata is given an ATA pass-thru ioctl() then an
additional '-d libata' device type will be added to smartmontools.

from what i see, smartctl does not yet support SATA drives running anything but the libata drivers. I use the SCSI level drivers for my SATA drive. what controller do you have? i have a VIA 8237 onboard southbridge controller.

The message you report is the message I get in my Centos 4.x installation. I suppose I was getting that message because the Centos distro is generally not as cutting edge as others, and likely doesn't have the patched / updated libata driver.

The output I originally posted is what I get in Ubuntu 5.10 (I should have specified). Evidently something is going on here that creates the different error message output (one message suggesting an issue with the libata driver, the other simply saying, erroneously, that the drive doesn't support SMART). I'm just not sure what the differences might mean for those of us trying to get "smartctl" to work with SATA; as the documentation I provided says, it should work with the libata patch.

Update:
--------------------
Well, I was on the right track with libata. Based on your post, I went back and read the first link from my original post, and had I read more carefully the first time, I wouldn't have needed to post my original query. From the link:

I neglected to provide the "-d ata" option in my commands, and therefore was getting the results I posted. If the option is included, "smartctl" works in Ubuntu 5.10, and full output is available.

"Smartctl", however does not work in my Centos 4.x install. That, combined with ioctl() error messages issued from "hdparm" in Centos when run against SATA drives, leads me to conclude that the Centos 4.x kernel I'm running doesn't have the patched libata driver. I'm sure someone with more knowledge knows a command to definitively / accurately determine whether the patch is included, but it escapes me just now.

Conclusion:

- "smartctl" works in Ubuntu 5.10 (patched / up-to-date libata driver)
by using the "-d ata" option;

- "smartctl" doesn't work in OSs with unpatched libata drivers.

Simple enough.

Thanks.