Comment 22 for bug 11461

Guido Guenther wrote:

>Could you check if not starting smartd but running "smartctl -a /dev/hda"
>shows the same symptoms?
>
>
I just did.

What I did is this. I rebooted the system, put the IDE-channel back in
"enhanced" mode and booted 2.4.27 in single-user mode, so that smartd
didn't start.

Then, on a bash-prompt, I ran smartctl -a /dev/hda.

Immediately, the system becomes non-responsive, but doesn't crash. It
does not react on Ctrl-C. Even worse, I have signs that the kernel
doesn't even get those keys; I'm sharing 1 keyboard/mouse with another
PC via a KVM-switch and when I switch to that other machine, THAT
machine receives the "C"!

As mentioned, it doesn't crash. In fact, it *is* producing the same
output as in "compatible" mode, but it takes a smashing 45 minutes (!!!)
to accomplish that! When smartctl finishes and I get my prompt back,
nothing changed; still the system is very unresponsive but at least the
characters are accepted again. Typing the words "shutdown -r now" takes
another 2-3 minutes to accept, and the actual reboot another 10 minutes.
Then I changed the channel back to "compatible" and now I'm typing this
message on a perfectly working machine running 2.6.8 with smartd.

Strange, heh?

>>So this might be something to add to README.Debian. :-)
>>
>>
>Definitely. Lets try to sort some things out first.
>Thanks a lot for your help Marc!
> -- Guido
>
>
Is there anything else you want me to try? Just let me know...

Marc.