Gsmartcontrol not able to enable SMART on external drive

[jaymot]

The gsmartcontrol/smartmontools packages detect my external Seagate Backup Plus 4TB drive as "BUP" but can't enable SMART for it. It detects my two internal drives with SMART enabled on them.

I tried updating /var/lib/smartmontools/drivedb/drivedb.h with the latest one from the smartmontools.org website but then none of my drives were recognized at all.

I was able to fix it by doing a complete removal of the two packages in Synaptic; downloading, compiling and installing the latest smartmontools from the snapshot on Github; then reinstalling gsmartcontrol in Synaptic to get the GUI back. Now, instead of detecting my external drive as "BUP" it shows it as "ST4000LM024-2AN17V" and with SMART enabled. The file drivedb.h is now found in /usr/share/smartmontools.

So I guess I'm reporting an issue with the smartmontools package, as I think gsmartcontrol is just a GTK GUI interface for smartmoncontrol so it isn't the problem. The issue is 1) the drives database in the package is out of date, and 2) the drives database can't be updated as per the instructions for doing so on the smartmontools site (by downlading the latest drivedb.h file.) Updating the package to the latest version of smartmontools should fix both issues.

BTW, I've just come to Mint after years of using PCLinuxOS, and its gsmartcontrol had an option for updating the drives database in the Options dropdown list within the GUI, which the one in Mint lacks. I noticed that the version of the gsmartcontrol package in the repository is 0.8.7-1 but the latest version is 1.1.3. on https://gsmartcontrol.sourceforge.io/home/, which does have that menu option (it needs xterm installed to work though.) You might want to upgrade this package as well, to make it easier for users to update their drive database if they find that their new drive isn't supported in the current one.

[catweazel]

The gsmartcontrol/smartmontools packages detect my external Seagate Backup Plus 4TB drive as "BUP" but can't enable SMART for it. It detects my two internal drives with SMART enabled on them.

[...]

So I guess I'm reporting an issue with the smartmontools package

No, you're reporting your misunderstanding. If the external device is a SATA or older PATA device and it has a controller card that performs ATA pass-through then and only then will the SMART data be available over USB. In your case, the external drive doesn't have a controller card that supports ATA pass-through, hence no SMART data. More than likely, your drive is made available via the kernel's SCSI pass-through support but without ATA pass-through you're not going to get SMART data because there is no SCSI/ATA translator available, i.e. your low quality external device is at fault, not smartmontools.

As for the old versions of smartmontools: https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/smartmontools. The newest in the Ubuntu PPA (Xenial for Mint 18.x) is dated 2016-02-06, which is pre 1.0.2. There is no newer version for Ubuntu 16.04 from the smartmontools site either. If you want a more up to date (g)smartmontools then you're going to have to risk using the openSUSE OBS packages for ubuntu. It's your call, but I wouldn't do it. I've seen too many borked systems due to people trying to use OBS packages.

[jaymot]

Which brings up a Mint-newbie question: do Mint devs or volunteers maintain the packages in its repository or do they depend on Ubuntu to do that? Note that I came to Mint after years of using PCLinuxOS, whose lead developer, Texstar, originally forked it from Mandriva so he could be more hands-on about maintaining the packages in the repository than Mandriva devs were. So I come from a background where issues with or suggestions about packages were welcomed and often acted upon. If that's not the case in Mint, my future posts will be along the lines of "Here's how to get X working" rather than "Here's what's wrong with X package". Or perhaps I should report problems in Ubuntu's forum instead of here?

Regarding how my SMART works on my device, I just bought it three weeks ago. I'm pretty sure it's SATA. I have no control over the controller card or firmware that Seagate chose to install in its external housing. I suspect that others may buy the same model of drive and will encounter the same problem I did if they try to enable SMART monitoring and testing on it. We can't tell them all that the reason SMART isn't working on their new drives is due to their misunderstandings.

Another question, no snarkiness intended either: if it's an issue with my hardware, not with smartmontools, why does compiling and installing the latest version of smartmontools fix it for me? (I already mentioned I'd compiled and installed from the latest Github tarball so there's no need for me to add openSUSE OBS packages, whatever they are.) Maybe newer versions support SCSI pass-through and older versions were ATA only? If so that's another reason to upgrade the package, if indeed Mint maintains its own packages separately from Ubuntu.

[phd21]

Hi jaymot,

I just read your post and the good replies to it. Here are my thoughts on this as well.

Previous post:
Is it a good idea to enable S.M.A.R.T. on external HDDs? - Linux Mint Forums
viewtopic.php?f=90&t=265869&hilit=smartctl

Not all drives support SMART.

Mint developers maintain their software, and other people and organizations maintain other software. There are over 50,000 software packages available in the mint and Ubuntu repositories (Software Manager or Synaptic Package Manager (SPM)).

I just installed the newer "gsmartcontrol" application without compiling it from the OpenSUSE site, click Ubuntu "grab binaries" and pick the correct version for your system (Ubuntu 16.04 = Linux Mint 18.x, or Ubuntu 14.04 = Linux Mint 17.x) and 64-bit or 32-bit, save the deb file and double-click it to install it (or install their repository).

Install package gsmartcontrol
https://software.opensuse.org/download. ... artcontrol

FYI: OpenSUSE has graciously and generously provided all software developers a wonderful free system called "OBS" to provide developers a place to supply updates and installation packages for their software for various operating systems, not just for OpenSUSE. Thank you OpenSUSE!

"gsmartcontrol" is a desktop GUI "front-end" to the smartmontools package which may also have updates available. I am using ver 6.6 which I may have compiled to install this newer version. I think version 6.4 is already in the Mint 18.x repos, not sure if vers. 6.6 would make a difference for your drive, but you can try it.

Code: Select all

smartctl -h

smartctl 6.6 2017-11-05 r4594

Download and installation – smartmontools
https://www.smartmontools.org/wiki/Download

* Updating the drive database might help.
The drive database file drivedb.h can be updated separately using instructions from the previous post link at the top.

Hope this helps ...

gsmartcontrol_new.jpg

[catweazel]

Which brings up a Mint-newbie question: do Mint devs or volunteers maintain the packages in its repository or do they depend on Ubuntu to do that?

Mostly ubuntu but Mint devs block some ubuntu apps in favour of their own builds. I think it's a bit sad that Minters have to put up with such old versions, to be honest. However what keeps me here is the community, not the need for newer software editions, even if I do run an OS other than Mint

Another question, no snarkiness intended either: if it's an issue with my hardware, not with smartmontools, why does compiling and installing the latest version of smartmontools fix it for me? (I already mentioned I'd compiled and installed from the latest Github tarball so there's no need for me to add openSUSE OBS packages, whatever they are.) Maybe newer versions support SCSI pass-through and older versions were ATA only? If so that's another reason to upgrade the package, if indeed Mint maintains its own packages separately from Ubuntu.

I didn't see where you wrote about the github tarball so I went back and re-read your OP. Where you state:

I was able to fix it by doing a complete removal of the two packages in Synaptic; downloading, compiling and installing the latest smartmontools from the snapshot on Github; then reinstalling gsmartcontrol in Synaptic to get the GUI back. Now, instead of detecting my external drive as "BUP" it shows it as "ST4000LM024-2AN17V" and with SMART enabled. The file drivedb.h is now found in /usr/share/smartmontools.

It isn't clear from that. Nevertheless your second question about pass-through almost answers itself. The newer version probably implements both SCSI and ATA pass-through for your controller, hence the reason it now works.

My apologies for casting aspersions on the ancestry of your controller card

[jaymot]

My external drive accepts your apology, catweasel.

BTW my drive is on the list of supported devices on the smartmontools support wiki: https://www.smartmontools.org/wiki/Supp ... SB-Devices
Mine's the Seagate Backup Plus 4TB model.

In any event, it's working with the newer smartmontools app installed and the drivedb.h file updated to the latest, which is all i care about. (I'd like to also use the latest gsmartcontrol GUI that has built-in ability to load the latest drives db on the fly, but it's giving me dependency issues when I try to install its .deb file for Ubuntu 16.04 and I'm tired of fighting them, so I'm just using the version in the repo.) This time (I had to reinstall Mint last night to fix an installation PEBKAC issue, so I've been reinstalling all of my apps) I installed it using the appropriate .deb file for its prepackaged binary instead of compiling it from the latest Github snapshot: this one should be more stable and less buggy.

I agree with what you said about the older versions of apps in the repository. I suppose that's because those versions have been proven to work in Mint and, at least at the time they were added, supported 99% of people's needs and hardware. Problem is, newer hardware is being released every day and even though the app developers are usually updating to support the newer stuff, the versions in the repo aren't getting those newer updated versions. Case in point: this very app from the repo not recognizing that my drive is SMART-capable (which I knew it was because I had it working in gsmartcontrol in PCLinuxOS just a couple of weeks ago) and that updating the drivesdb.h file to the latest version broke smartmontools entirely so it no longer even recognized any of my drives including the ones that worked before the db update.

Anyway, cheers!