APM settings are not persistent after a reboot

[the-unconventional]

In order to keep my data storage disks from slowly committing suicide by unloading their heads, I have to disable APM for both of them. Usually I would be able to do so by putting 'hdparm -B255 -S0 /dev/sdx*' in /etc/rc.local.

Since Ubuntu 12.10, Palimpsest has a built-in function to modify APM settings if required. Sadly, after a reboot, these settings aren't kept. Even though the Palimpsest interface still claims APM is set to 255, running sudo hdparm -I /dev/sdx* will show the default value of 128 again. The desired behaviour is hdparm showing 'APM = off', and, more importantly, the disks not breaking themselves.

The only way to keep my disks from dying is by adding

/dev/sdx* {
 apm = 255
 spindown_time = 0
}

to /etc/hdparm.conf, as everything in /etc/rc.local seems to be ignored as well. The problem is no different for my SSD, but it doesn't make a difference for that one, obviously. Disabling and re-enabling the APM settings from Palimpsest does seem to work though, but it's impossible to do/remember that after every bootup. And forgetting to do so would most likely lead to premature disk failure.

* 'sdx' is 'sdb' and 'sdc' in my case

ProblemType: Bug
ApportVersion: 2.5.3-0ubuntu1
Architecture: amd64
Date: Sat Sep 29 15:28:24 2012
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.10
Package: gnome-disk-utility 3.6.0-0ubuntu1
PackageArchitecture: amd64
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.5.0-16.24-generic 3.5.4
SourcePackage: gnome-disk-utility
Tags: quantal
Uname: Linux 3.5.0-16-generic x86_64
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[David Segura M (davidseg)]

The same thing happens here, under Xubuntu Precise, no matter how I do it after restart i does not remember the APM settings wether is under rc.local or /etc/hdparm.conf , the kernel is linux 3.2.0-32-generic.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Michele Giacomoli (michele-giacomoli)]

Same in Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

[Rocko (rockorequin)]

Just FYI, udisks2 handles drives (at least in 14.04+) and you can configure things like APM level for individual disks by putting an entry into /etc/udisks2 with a filename that matches the drive id and serial number (which you can read from gnome-disks/palimpsest), eg with the contents:

[ATA]
StandbyTimeout=60

Do "man 8 udisks" for more info about the format of the file.