Updated SmartMonTools/GSmartControl for newer Pups
Posted: Tue 23 Oct 2018, 23:55
Evening, boys & girls.
Now then:-
I've been using GSmartControl to keep an eye on the health of my hard drives, etc, ever since I started with Puppy a few years ago. The old 0.8.5 version, dating all the way back to Lucid's hey-day, has been floating around the Forum for years.....pretty much working on any Pup you can think of. It has, however, 2 big disadvantages:-
1) It won't read external USB hard drives/SSDs, even if they have S.M.A.R.T data available.
2) It doesn't give correct data for SSDs anyway; according to GSmtCtl, most SSDs have a 'failing', old-age 'attribute'.....and should be replaced immediately!!!
I can't be the only one with these external USB hard drives, etc, who wants to keep an eye on what they're doing.....so I decided to do summat about it.
--------------------------------------------------------------
I've been having a 'nose around' today, to see what's happening with the combo of GSmartControl and smartmontools (which provides the 'back-end' to all of this, and does the 'heavy-lifting' for the front-end GUI.)
According to this forum thread from dslreports.com, until very recently the only way to get this info from an external USB hard drive was to physically remove the drive from its enclosure, and then connect it directly to your mobo with an eSATA adapter cable. (External SATA hard drives in an enclosure, connected with a permanent eSATA cable, never had this problem. It's caused by the SATA-to-USB adapter that most of these portable/aftermarket desktop drives use.)
Lotsa messing around.....for relatively little return, in 'real' terms. I certainly wouldn't want to do this on a regular basis; the enclosure for my Seagate 3 TB desktop drive would give up the ghost before long.....
Seems the latest version of smartmontools, the 'back-end' stuff, released around a year ago, has addressed this problem, and can now 'talk' directly to a USB-to-SATA interface. So, I visited SmartMonTools website, downloaded the source code for v6.6, and have spent this afternoon and evening compiling, and devising workarounds.
This version of smartmontools even includes support for the very new NVMe solid-state drives. Accordingly, I've compiled it with the '--with-nvme-devicescan' option.....so if you have one of these supposedly hyper-fast devices, you'll also benefit from this update.
I've concentrated on the recent 32-bit Pups today, and have workarounds in place for Tahr 6.06, Xenialpup, and peebee's Upup Bionic. So, here's what you do:-
---------------------------------------
Tahr 6.0.6
For Tahrpup, I've compiled the v6.6 binaries, and assembled them, together with gsmartcontrol-0.8.7 from the Debian 'Jessie' repo. You can download the resulting .pet for this from here.
---------------------------------------
Xenialpup
Again, I've compiled the v6.6 binaries. For Xenialpup, do the following:-
IMPORTANT: Update the PPM first.
1) Install smartmontools from the PPM. You need to do this in order to get all the .conf files and stuff in place; it won't work properly otherwise.
2) Install gsmartcontrol from the PPM.
3) Download, and install this .pet from my G-Drive. It overwrites the smartctl and smartd binaries in /usr/sbin with the newest version, 6.6.
You may need to re-boot for this to take effect.
You can now read S.M.A.R.T data directly from any external USB drive. This even works for USB flash drives, although of necessity you only get basic info from these.....they simply don't provide detailed information. It's good enough to see if they have a clean 'bill of health', though.
-----------------------------------------
Upup Bionic
And again; the v6.6 binaries were compiled first. For Bionic, the 'workaround' was a wee bit more complicated, and necessitated 'borrowing' some bits'n'bobs from Xenialpup; not the first time I've had to do this! The problem stems from the fact that you cannot start the gsmartcontrol binary directly, like you can the others. It appears to have been compiled in such a way as to require starting, from a 'normal user', with sudo 'root' permissions and inputting a password in the process. Starting it directly as /root merely brings up a window telling you off for not having 'sudo' installed..!
We do not want frickin' SUDO in Puppy, do we, boys and girls??
No, indeedy!
So; here's what ya do:-
IMPORTANT: Update the PPM first.
1) Install 'smartmontools' from the PPM. Again, this is needed to get all the config files'n'stuff in place.
2) Install 'gsmartcontrol' from the PPM. We won't be using the binary itself, but there's other stuff you have to have along with it.
3) Download, and install this .pet. What this does is three-fold:-
a) It places the Xenialpup gsmartcontrol binary in /usr/bin. Bionic, through the PPM, places that binary in /usr/sbin, and the only thing you'll find in /usr/bin is the afore-mentioned script that wants you to call the binary with sudo permissions.
b) Again, it overwrites the smartctl and smartd binaries in /usr/sbin with the latest version, v6.6.
c) Finally, it overwrites the gsmartcontrol.desktop file in /usr/share/applications with a modified one that calls the Xenialpup binary in /usr/bin instead.
And that....should be that. All 'good to go'! (Again, a re-boot may be required at this point.)
************************
GSmartControl reading the 'S.M.A.R.T-enabled' status of my external 3TB USB drive in Upup Bionic:-
----------------------------------------------
I hope to be sorting out the binaries & other stuff for Xenialpup64 and Bionicpup64 over the next couple of days, so.....watch this space.
Mike.
Now then:-
I've been using GSmartControl to keep an eye on the health of my hard drives, etc, ever since I started with Puppy a few years ago. The old 0.8.5 version, dating all the way back to Lucid's hey-day, has been floating around the Forum for years.....pretty much working on any Pup you can think of. It has, however, 2 big disadvantages:-
1) It won't read external USB hard drives/SSDs, even if they have S.M.A.R.T data available.
2) It doesn't give correct data for SSDs anyway; according to GSmtCtl, most SSDs have a 'failing', old-age 'attribute'.....and should be replaced immediately!!!
I can't be the only one with these external USB hard drives, etc, who wants to keep an eye on what they're doing.....so I decided to do summat about it.
--------------------------------------------------------------
I've been having a 'nose around' today, to see what's happening with the combo of GSmartControl and smartmontools (which provides the 'back-end' to all of this, and does the 'heavy-lifting' for the front-end GUI.)
According to this forum thread from dslreports.com, until very recently the only way to get this info from an external USB hard drive was to physically remove the drive from its enclosure, and then connect it directly to your mobo with an eSATA adapter cable. (External SATA hard drives in an enclosure, connected with a permanent eSATA cable, never had this problem. It's caused by the SATA-to-USB adapter that most of these portable/aftermarket desktop drives use.)
Lotsa messing around.....for relatively little return, in 'real' terms. I certainly wouldn't want to do this on a regular basis; the enclosure for my Seagate 3 TB desktop drive would give up the ghost before long.....
Seems the latest version of smartmontools, the 'back-end' stuff, released around a year ago, has addressed this problem, and can now 'talk' directly to a USB-to-SATA interface. So, I visited SmartMonTools website, downloaded the source code for v6.6, and have spent this afternoon and evening compiling, and devising workarounds.
This version of smartmontools even includes support for the very new NVMe solid-state drives. Accordingly, I've compiled it with the '--with-nvme-devicescan' option.....so if you have one of these supposedly hyper-fast devices, you'll also benefit from this update.
I've concentrated on the recent 32-bit Pups today, and have workarounds in place for Tahr 6.06, Xenialpup, and peebee's Upup Bionic. So, here's what you do:-
---------------------------------------
Tahr 6.0.6
For Tahrpup, I've compiled the v6.6 binaries, and assembled them, together with gsmartcontrol-0.8.7 from the Debian 'Jessie' repo. You can download the resulting .pet for this from here.
---------------------------------------
Xenialpup
Again, I've compiled the v6.6 binaries. For Xenialpup, do the following:-
IMPORTANT: Update the PPM first.
1) Install smartmontools from the PPM. You need to do this in order to get all the .conf files and stuff in place; it won't work properly otherwise.
2) Install gsmartcontrol from the PPM.
3) Download, and install this .pet from my G-Drive. It overwrites the smartctl and smartd binaries in /usr/sbin with the newest version, 6.6.
You may need to re-boot for this to take effect.
You can now read S.M.A.R.T data directly from any external USB drive. This even works for USB flash drives, although of necessity you only get basic info from these.....they simply don't provide detailed information. It's good enough to see if they have a clean 'bill of health', though.
-----------------------------------------
Upup Bionic
And again; the v6.6 binaries were compiled first. For Bionic, the 'workaround' was a wee bit more complicated, and necessitated 'borrowing' some bits'n'bobs from Xenialpup; not the first time I've had to do this! The problem stems from the fact that you cannot start the gsmartcontrol binary directly, like you can the others. It appears to have been compiled in such a way as to require starting, from a 'normal user', with sudo 'root' permissions and inputting a password in the process. Starting it directly as /root merely brings up a window telling you off for not having 'sudo' installed..!
We do not want frickin' SUDO in Puppy, do we, boys and girls??
No, indeedy!
So; here's what ya do:-
IMPORTANT: Update the PPM first.
1) Install 'smartmontools' from the PPM. Again, this is needed to get all the config files'n'stuff in place.
2) Install 'gsmartcontrol' from the PPM. We won't be using the binary itself, but there's other stuff you have to have along with it.
3) Download, and install this .pet. What this does is three-fold:-
a) It places the Xenialpup gsmartcontrol binary in /usr/bin. Bionic, through the PPM, places that binary in /usr/sbin, and the only thing you'll find in /usr/bin is the afore-mentioned script that wants you to call the binary with sudo permissions.
b) Again, it overwrites the smartctl and smartd binaries in /usr/sbin with the latest version, v6.6.
c) Finally, it overwrites the gsmartcontrol.desktop file in /usr/share/applications with a modified one that calls the Xenialpup binary in /usr/bin instead.
And that....should be that. All 'good to go'! (Again, a re-boot may be required at this point.)
************************
GSmartControl reading the 'S.M.A.R.T-enabled' status of my external 3TB USB drive in Upup Bionic:-
----------------------------------------------
I hope to be sorting out the binaries & other stuff for Xenialpup64 and Bionicpup64 over the next couple of days, so.....watch this space.
Mike.