| 2007-11-08 10:46:56 |
Mantas Kriaučiūnas |
description |
To enabled SMART monitoring tool, you need to
* install the package
* run that start-up script on boot
* AND uncomment some lines in /etc/default/smartmontools
The last step is just too much and completely unintuitive (it took me a lot of google to find out and from the forums, I am not the only one). If any, those lines should be uncommented by default. Yet, I would argue about the usefulness of that configuration file at all when one can simply not start the start-up script on boot. |
It's not easy to find how to enable hard disk S.M.A.R.T. monitoring for ordinary computer administrator, especially for home computer user. Almost nobody knows, that he should read /usr/share/doc/smartmontools/README.Debian, where is information, that after installation S.M.A.R.T. monitoring isn't working and file /etc/default/smartmontools should be modified for having working S.M.A.R.T. monitoring...
So, there should be at least debconf question, asked at package's install time - look for example hddtemp package, which does very similar job - monitors hard disks temperature.
I think we simply could look at hddtemp source package's debian folder and steal needed scripts and debconf templates.
It seems most users think, that after installation of smartmontools package S.M.A.R.T. monitoring works on their system, because in smartmontools package's description there are no warning, that monitoring doesn't starts automatically - there is just nice info, that S.M.A.R.T. monitoring should be on any Linux system:
control and monitor storage systems using S.M.A.R.T.
The smartmontools package contains two utility programs (smartctl and smartd) to control and monitor storage systems using the Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology System (S.M.A.R.T.) built into most modern ATA and SCSI hard disks. It should run on any modern Linux system.
Majority of users simply installs smartmontools and don't know, that this isn't enough for enabling S.M.A.R.T. monitoring, additionally they need to:
1. read the documentation in /usr/share/doc/smartmontools/README.Debian
2. uncomment some lines in /etc/default/smartmontools
3. try to start smartd (invoke-rc.d smartd start)
4. read the log files to find if smartd was started
5. edit /etc/smartd.conf if there are any errors in log files.
These steps is just completely unintuitive (it took me a lot of google to find out and from the forums, I am not the only one). Yet, I would argue about the usefulness of /etc/default/smartmontools configuration file at all when one can simply not start the start-up script on boot. |
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