Apparently the kernel now supports the libata passthrough ioctl, but... # smartctl -a /dev/sda smartctl version 5.33 [powerpc-redhat-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-4 Bruce Allen Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/ Device: ATA ST3160023AS Version: 3.05 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.
Apparently '-d ata' ought to work, although it doesn't work for all commands for me... [root@net3-169 ~]# smartctl -d ata --offlineauto=on /dev/sda smartctl version 5.33 [powerpc-redhat-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-4 Bruce Allen Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/ === START OF ENABLE/DISABLE COMMANDS SECTION === Error SMART Enable Automatic Offline failed: Input/output error Smartctl: SMART Enable Automatic Offline Failed. ata1: PIO error ata1: status=0x50 { DriveReady SeekComplete } [root@net3-169 ~]# smartctl -d ata -a /dev/sda smartctl version 5.33 [powerpc-redhat-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-4 Bruce Allen Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/ === START OF INFORMATION SECTION === Device Model: ST3160023AS Serial Number: 3JS3CMQ8 Firmware Version: 3.05 User Capacity: 160,041,885,696 bytes Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show] ATA Version is: 6 ATA Standard is: ATA/ATAPI-6 T13 1410D revision 2 Local Time is: Sun Dec 18 16:41:54 2005 GMT SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability. SMART support is: Enabled
I've tested enabling/disabling automatic offline tests on similar Seagate drive and it gives the same results. However note that on the smartctl -a output the automatic offline status reflects the actual state, so the enable succeeds and the error happens afterwards. It could be either incomplete support of this command in the kernel or even the drive might not support it properly.
Adding "-d ata" works just fine on all drives I've tested. This sounds like a drive-specific problem...
A new kernel update has been released (Version: 2.6.18-1.2200.fc5) based upon a new upstream kernel release. Please retest against this new kernel, as a large number of patches go into each upstream release, possibly including changes that may address this problem. This bug has been placed in NEEDINFO state. Due to the large volume of inactive bugs in bugzilla, if this bug is still in this state in two weeks time, it will be closed. Should this bug still be relevant after this period, the reporter can reopen the bug at any time. Any other users on the Cc: list of this bug can request that the bug be reopened by adding a comment to the bug. In the last few updates, some users upgrading from FC4->FC5 have reported that installing a kernel update has left their systems unbootable. If you have been affected by this problem please check you only have one version of device-mapper & lvm2 installed. See bug 207474 for further details. If this bug is a problem preventing you from installing the release this version is filed against, please see bug 169613. If this bug has been fixed, but you are now experiencing a different problem, please file a separate bug for the new problem. Thank you.
This bug has been mass-closed along with all other bugs that have been in NEEDINFO state for several months. Due to the large volume of inactive bugs in bugzilla, this is the only method we have of cleaning out stale bug reports where the reporter has disappeared. If you can reproduce this bug after installing all the current updates, please reopen this bug. If you are not the reporter, you can add a comment requesting it be reopened, and someone will get to it asap. Thank you.