Samba & disk sleep mode

[Rumcajs_tr]

Ok, thak you very much for your detailed support and I will report immediately after the hdd box delivery and after test of the HDD. Hope it will help somebody else here on the forums too.

Thank you once again...

[Rumcajs_tr]

OK, so I made some tests, here are the results:

I tested the Toshiba HDD utility with two drives:
- 500GB Western Digital (WD5000KS) and
- 200GB Seagate (ST3200826AS)
Both drives are SATA.

The WD drive supports only the option called "accoustic management" but not the "advanced power mode".
The Seagate drive doesn't support accoustic management and doesn't support advanced power mode.

So this is not a solution for me, probbably due to the fact, that the drives are SATA.

HOWEVER, I made some more research.
I tested the linux command hdparm, which obviously did work via SATA interface but didn't work via USB interface.
Then I installed "sdparm" and "sg_start" utilities (i have UBUNTU distribution based on Debian).
With the following commands, I was able to stop spinning the drive in USB rack !!!

sdparm --command=stop /dev/sdc
or
sg_start --stop /dev/sdc

where /dev/sdc is the physical identification of the drive.

So there is one obvious solution how to solve it - it is possible to run the command periodically in wl500g (eg. each 20 minutes). It should run on any USB drive or any USB enclosure!

The only problem is, that I was not able to test it on my wl500gx since I still have the original FW and I was not able to obtain the sdparm or sg_start packages for wl-500g linux distribution. Can anybody supply or compile these files?
I have tested it on Ubuntu and it works OK. If the read/write operation is in progress, when the drive gets the "spin down" command, there is only a 0,5sec delay, but the copying continues without interruption. I see it definittely as a better solution than running the drive 24/7 nonstop.

PLEASE, IS ANYBODY ABLE TO SUPPLY THE SDPARM OR SG_START PACKAGES FOR WL-500G ???

[oleo]

Provide a URL link to source location and then I will see If package could be included. If no source code is available then only reverse engineering could be done.

[jensm]

Hi,

There are source.rpm files at http://sg.torque.net/sg/sdparm.html though they don't seem to be flat text. Does that get you anywhere?

Thanks,

Jens

[oleo]

sdparm 0.99 package should appear in package feed today.

http://ipkg.nslu2-linux.org/feeds/op...9-1_mipsel.ipk

Report experiences with package!

[jensm]

Hi,

Great - thanks! I'll try to get to test it tonight. What about the other thing - sg_start - is that supposed to be an ipkg package as well or is it included in something already?

Thanks,

Jens

[oleo]

sg_start was not covered by source you gave me.

[Rumcajs_tr]

Hi,

Great - thanks! I'll try to get to test it tonight. What about the other thing - sg_start - is that supposed to be an ipkg package as well or is it included in something already?

Thanks,

Jens

Hi Jens!
You don't have to use sg_start because this does basically the same as sdparm. So just use the command: "sdparm --command=stop /dev/sdc", but replace "/dev/sdc" with the real identification of your USB drive
So basically You should do this:
1) Install sdparm package (above)
2) connect and map external USB drive to your router (dhe drive should start spinning)
3) in the command line, execute "sdparm --command=stop /dev/sdc", but replace "/dev/sdc" with the real identification of your USB drive
4) The drive should stop spinning
5) as soon as you try to access the drive, it should spin up again normally

I tested under ubuntu on both sata and ide drives, it works. Unfortunately, I don't have oleg firmware installed in my router now (will do it soon) so I can't test the same behaviour on wl500g

[Duke]

Just tried this stuff with WL500GDeluxe with 1.9.2.7-7e - seems not working at all

[Tamadite]

The hard disk must be able to support this sort of configuration and/or the ATA-SCSI bridge protocol must be able to transport these commands.

Do not have big expectations when using this command via USB. If Rumcajs_tr got it to work must be because some latest version of the ATA-SCSI bridge protocol in the USB box.

"In summary, sdparm can do very little with USB mass storage devices. Best to start with very low expectations. Features such as locking and password based access control are being discussed for USB so there may be improvements in the future." Source: http://sg.torque.net/sg/sdparm.html

[jensm]

Hi,

Installed sdparm, tried this:

sdparm --command=stop /dev/scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/disc

Which does not produce an error msg. Doesn't seem to work though, disk is still spinning.

The disc is a 60 gig Hitatch/IBM Deathstar in a cheapo usb casing serving mp3s.

Is it a general thing that it doesn't work, am I executing it incorrectly or does it depend on the disc? Note that nothing else is accessing the disc at time of test (twonky, torrent etc).

Thanks,

jens

[jensm]

If it helps: this is what i get on the usb controller bridge thingemading:

[admin@wl500 lun0]$ cat /proc/scsi/usb-storage-0/0
Host scsi0: usb-storage
Vendor: Myson Century, Inc.
Product: USB Mass Storage Device
Serial Number: 100
Protocol: 8070i
Transport: Bulk
GUID: 04cf88180000000000000100
Attached: Yes
[admin@wl500 lun0]$

Also, it does not respond well to things like:

sdparm -lv /dev/sdc

Which returns:

open error: /dev/sdc [read only]: No such file or directory

Thanks,

Jens

[FilimoniC]

nice ! I wanna a cookie !!!

[Rumcajs_tr]

The hard disk must be able to support this sort of configuration and/or the ATA-SCSI bridge protocol must be able to transport these commands.

Do not have big expectations when using this command via USB. If Rumcajs_tr got it to work must be because some latest version of the ATA-SCSI bridge protocol in the USB box.

"In summary, sdparm can do very little with USB mass storage devices. Best to start with very low expectations. Features such as locking and password based access control are being discussed for USB so there may be improvements in the future." Source: http://sg.torque.net/sg/sdparm.html

Hi! I got this option working on Ubuntu. The USB rack is Raidsonic Icybox IB-351StUS-B SATA 3,5" external USB BOX. The drive is 500GB Western Digital (WD5000KS) or 200GB Seagate (ST3200826AS) (work on both).
If you are not sure, whether your usb/drive can support this, you can test it on same linux distribution on your PC.