Re: USB drive spins up every hour
Hmm... I guess I'm going to have to test it in a minimal environment where I'm reasonably sure there can't be some clever daemon interfering while trying to do something useful. Did you find the solution? And if yes, what was it? I think the problem was hardware. At least I'm now using another USB-sata adapter and that seems to have solved the problem. Stefan -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/jwv4nrbkfck.fsf-monnier+in...@gnu.org
Re: USB drive spins up every hour
On Wed, Mar 28 2012, Stefan Monnier wrote: Hmm... I guess I'm going to have to test it in a minimal environment where I'm reasonably sure there can't be some clever daemon interfering while trying to do something useful. Hi, Did you find the solution? And if yes, what was it? -- Peter -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/87aa16k2f8@micropit.couberia.bzh
Re: USB drive spins up every hour
On Fri, 23 Mar 2012 11:06:05 -0400, Stefan Monnier wrote: My USB-connected drive spins up every hour (or even half-hour). I had the same problem running CentOS 6 and Xvnc. Xvnc leads to load some Gnome apps and daemons. One of them is the udisks-daemon (/usr/libexec/udisks-daemon under CentOS 6). After I kill this daemon the problem was gone. To avoid of reloading the daemon again I removed the execute permission: chmod -x /usr/libexec/udisks-daemon Maybe you can find this daemon in your OS distribution as well. Good luck :) Regards, Valentin -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/4f8ed0d7.6000...@guggiana.ch
Re: USB drive spins up every hour
My USB-connected drive spins up every hour (or even half-hour). (...) Any idea what it might be and how to find out and fix it? IIRC, this setting can be defined using hdparm (-M flag and also /usr/ share/doc/hdparm/README.acoustic) but as the man page/doc says, the possible options for this value depend on the hard disks model. hdparm only sets the timeout for spin DOWN. My drives spins down just fine, the problem is that it spins *UP* even though I don't use it. I think both settings can be tweaked. man hdparm is long but worth for a slow reading. You're confused. Spin up happens when the drive is accessed and that's all there is to it. Well, that's not always the case. There are external drives which have embeded in their firmware the power saving routines and spin-down/up automatically based on that, regardless the disk is being accessed or not. Regardless of where the code responsible for the spin-up resides, if the drive spins up when the drive is not accessed, it's a bug. Mmm... if you so sure the disk is awaked by an external application, then don't mount it unless you need it, that way the disk can be still powered on but it will inaccessible for the system and programs. Even when not mounted (and with its LVM volumes deactivated) it still spins-up. Stefan -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/jwvk424den3.fsf-monnier+gmane.linux.debian.u...@gnu.org
Re: USB drive spins up every hour
On Mi, 28 mar 12, 09:46:59, Stefan Monnier wrote: Even when not mounted (and with its LVM volumes deactivated) it still spins-up. This sounds like BIOS or drive firmware. Kind regards, Andrei -- Offtopic discussions among Debian users and developers: http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/d-community-offtopic signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Re: USB drive spins up every hour
On Wed, 28 Mar 2012 09:46:59 -0400, Stefan Monnier wrote: My USB-connected drive spins up every hour (or even half-hour). (...) Any idea what it might be and how to find out and fix it? IIRC, this setting can be defined using hdparm (-M flag and also /usr/ share/doc/hdparm/README.acoustic) but as the man page/doc says, the possible options for this value depend on the hard disks model. hdparm only sets the timeout for spin DOWN. My drives spins down just fine, the problem is that it spins *UP* even though I don't use it. I think both settings can be tweaked. man hdparm is long but worth for a slow reading. You're confused. Spin up happens when the drive is accessed and that's all there is to it. Well, that's not always the case. There are external drives which have embeded in their firmware the power saving routines and spin-down/up automatically based on that, regardless the disk is being accessed or not. Regardless of where the code responsible for the spin-up resides, if the drive spins up when the drive is not accessed, it's a bug. I don't think so. The hard disk can have set (by default) embbeded routines that make the disk to be awaked at a regular interval and external disks (those that come with USB enclosures or NAS/SAN appliances) tend to do it to speed up things (e.g., to run scheduled backup tasks). Mmm... if you so sure the disk is awaked by an external application, then don't mount it unless you need it, that way the disk can be still powered on but it will inaccessible for the system and programs. Even when not mounted (and with its LVM volumes deactivated) it still spins-up. Then I would contact the manufacturer. If the disk is not mounted and no external program is accessing to it and still spins-up, it can be something wrong in the firmware. Greetings, -- Camaleón -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/jkva93$hqr$9...@dough.gmane.org
Re: USB drive spins up every hour
The hard disk can have set (by default) embbeded routines that make the disk to be awaked at a regular interval and external disks (those that come with USB enclosures or NAS/SAN appliances) tend to do it to speed up things (e.g., to run scheduled backup tasks). For a NAS, I could agree. But we're talking about a dumb USB-attached disk. Mmm... if you so sure the disk is awaked by an external application, then don't mount it unless you need it, that way the disk can be still powered on but it will inaccessible for the system and programs. Even when not mounted (and with its LVM volumes deactivated) it still spins-up. Then I would contact the manufacturer. If the disk is not mounted and no external program is accessing to it and still spins-up, it can be something wrong in the firmware. Hmm... I guess I'm going to have to test it in a minimal environment where I'm reasonably sure there can't be some clever daemon interfering while trying to do something useful. I'd prefer the annoying daemon scenario since I can fix it without buying a new enclosure [ this one is old enough that the manufacturer won't care about my problems. ] Stefan -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/jwviphoa6ij.fsf-monnier+gmane.linux.debian.u...@gnu.org
Re: USB drive spins up every hour
On Sb, 24 mar 12, 14:03:58, Curt wrote: On 2012-03-24, Stefan Monnier monn...@iro.umontreal.ca wrote: My problem is that apparently some application somehow accesses the drive but not in a way that block_dump catches. It won't spin up if it's not mounted, will it? If it still does then at least Stefan will know it's not some application doing it ;) Kind regards, Andrei -- Offtopic discussions among Debian users and developers: http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/d-community-offtopic signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Re: USB drive spins up every hour
On Fri, 23 Mar 2012 22:15:38 -0400, Stefan Monnier wrote: My USB-connected drive spins up every hour (or even half-hour). (...) Any idea what it might be and how to find out and fix it? IIRC, this setting can be defined using hdparm (-M flag and also /usr/ share/doc/hdparm/README.acoustic) but as the man page/doc says, the possible options for this value depend on the hard disks model. hdparm only sets the timeout for spin DOWN. My drives spins down just fine, the problem is that it spins *UP* even though I don't use it. I think both settings can be tweaked. man hdparm is long but worth for a slow reading. You're confused. Spin up happens when the drive is accessed and that's all there is to it. Well, that's not always the case. There are external drives which have embeded in their firmware the power saving routines and spin-down/up automatically based on that, regardless the disk is being accessed or not. There is no setting for it because there's no reason to spin up the drive if there's no access to it, and there's no way to satisfy an access without spinning the drive, so there's basically no choice of when to spin up, from the drive's point of view (except for accesses to meta-data via things like smartctl and hdparm). My problem is that apparently some application somehow accesses the drive but not in a way that block_dump catches. Mmm... if you so sure the disk is awaked by an external application, then don't mount it unless you need it, that way the disk can be still powered on but it will inaccessible for the system and programs. Stefan already familiar with the hdparm man page, which incidentally also mentions that these operations often don't work for USB-connected drives ;-) This is hit-or-miss, you have to try first :-) Greetings, -- Camaleón -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/jkjtrs$7bd$4...@dough.gmane.org
Re: USB drive spins up every hour
On 2012-03-24, Stefan Monnier monn...@iro.umontreal.ca wrote: My problem is that apparently some application somehow accesses the drive but not in a way that block_dump catches. It won't spin up if it's not mounted, will it? I mean, I believe you mentioned you only use the drive once a day for back-up purposes, so that it could remain unmounted and unspinupable at all other times. --Curt (who knows nothing about hard drives and how they get that way). -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/slrnjmrl3j.1t2.cu...@einstein.electron.org
Re: USB drive spins up every hour
On Fri, 23 Mar 2012 11:06:05 -0400, Stefan Monnier wrote: My USB-connected drive spins up every hour (or even half-hour). This is a serious problem since it's a 3.5 drive, it's almost always idle (I only use it once a day for backups) and it's not in a place where I can easily plug it in and out. Googling, I found a very similar looking problem that occurred a few years ago in libatasmart and which caused DeviceKit to spin up the drives every hour or so. But I have no DeviceKit here (running Debian testing). Using /proc/sys/vm/block_dump tells me that there is no disk activity that justifies spinning up. I have smartmontools installed, but ps auxw|grep smart confirms smartd is not running. There is no `cron' activity around the time the disk spins up either, not anything disk-related in the logs. Any idea what it might be and how to find out and fix it? IIRC, this setting can be defined using hdparm (-M flag and also /usr/ share/doc/hdparm/README.acoustic) but as the man page/doc says, the possible options for this value depend on the hard disks model. Greetings, -- Camaleón -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/jki70n$ld4$9...@dough.gmane.org
Re: USB drive spins up every hour
My USB-connected drive spins up every hour (or even half-hour). This is a serious problem since it's a 3.5 drive, it's almost always idle (I only use it once a day for backups) and it's not in a place where I can easily plug it in and out. Googling, I found a very similar looking problem that occurred a few years ago in libatasmart and which caused DeviceKit to spin up the drives every hour or so. But I have no DeviceKit here (running Debian testing). Using /proc/sys/vm/block_dump tells me that there is no disk activity that justifies spinning up. I have smartmontools installed, but ps auxw|grep smart confirms smartd is not running. There is no `cron' activity around the time the disk spins up either, not anything disk-related in the logs. Any idea what it might be and how to find out and fix it? IIRC, this setting can be defined using hdparm (-M flag and also /usr/ share/doc/hdparm/README.acoustic) but as the man page/doc says, the possible options for this value depend on the hard disks model. hdparm only sets the timeout for spin DOWN. My drives spins down just fine, the problem is that it spins *UP* even though I don't use it. Stefan -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/jwv7gybky6v.fsf-monnier+gmane.linux.debian.u...@gnu.org
Re: USB drive spins up every hour
On Fri, 23 Mar 2012 13:47:36 -0400, Stefan Monnier wrote: My USB-connected drive spins up every hour (or even half-hour). (...) Any idea what it might be and how to find out and fix it? IIRC, this setting can be defined using hdparm (-M flag and also /usr/ share/doc/hdparm/README.acoustic) but as the man page/doc says, the possible options for this value depend on the hard disks model. hdparm only sets the timeout for spin DOWN. My drives spins down just fine, the problem is that it spins *UP* even though I don't use it. I think both settings can be tweaked. man hdparm is long but worth for a slow reading. Greetings, -- Camaleón -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/jkidhr$ld4$1...@dough.gmane.org
Re: USB drive spins up every hour
My USB-connected drive spins up every hour (or even half-hour). (...) Any idea what it might be and how to find out and fix it? IIRC, this setting can be defined using hdparm (-M flag and also /usr/ share/doc/hdparm/README.acoustic) but as the man page/doc says, the possible options for this value depend on the hard disks model. hdparm only sets the timeout for spin DOWN. My drives spins down just fine, the problem is that it spins *UP* even though I don't use it. I think both settings can be tweaked. man hdparm is long but worth for a slow reading. You're confused. Spin up happens when the drive is accessed and that's all there is to it. There is no setting for it because there's no reason to spin up the drive if there's no access to it, and there's no way to satisfy an access without spinning the drive, so there's basically no choice of when to spin up, from the drive's point of view (except for accesses to meta-data via things like smartctl and hdparm). My problem is that apparently some application somehow accesses the drive but not in a way that block_dump catches. Stefan already familiar with the hdparm man page, which incidentally also mentions that these operations often don't work for USB-connected drives ;-) -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/jwv398ykau7.fsf-monnier+gmane.linux.debian.u...@gnu.org
