Michael Tokarev wrote:
> We've got a bunch of SATA Seagate Barracuda ES drives,
> namely, ST3250620NS -- "enterprize" class. And now I
> wonder what's wrong with - either those drives, or
> sdparm, or kernel.
>
> In particular, sdparm can't change WCE bit, like this:
>
> # sdparm --clear=WCE -v -v /dev/sda
> mp_settings: page,subpage=0x8,0x0 num=1
> pdt=0 start_byte=0x2 start_bit=2 num_bits=1 val=0 acronym: WCE
> inquiry cdb: 12 00 00 00 24 00
> /dev/sda: ATA ST3250620NS 3.AE
> mode sense (10) cdb: 5a 00 08 00 00 00 00 00 04 00
> mode sense (10) cdb: 5a 00 08 00 00 00 00 00 24 00
> mode select (10) cdb: 55 10 00 00 00 00 00 00 24 00
> mode select (10) parameter block
> 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 08 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 00
> 08 12 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
> 00 00 00 00
> mode select (10): Fixed format, current; Sense key: Illegal Request
> Additional sense: Invalid field in cdb
> Raw sense data (in hex):
> 70 00 05 00 00 00 00 0a 00 00 00 00 24 00 00 00
> 00 00
> change_mode_page: failed setting page: Caching (SBC)
> # _
>
> We also have several "desktop" drives similar to the ones above --
> ST3250620AS. And with those, I can change settings, unlike with
> the NS series:
>
> # sdparm --clear=WCE /dev/sda
> /dev/sda: ATA ST3250620AS J
> # _
>
> What I also observed is that `sdparm -a' output is a bit different
> for the two. For the NS series, it looks like this:
>
> Caching (SBC) mode page:
> WCE 1
> ...
>
> While for the AS series, it is like:
>
> Caching (SBC) mode page:
> WCE 1 [cha: y]
> ...
>
> The difference is that for the AS drives, sdparm displays
> whenever the parameter is changeable, while for the NS
> ("enterprise") disk, it does not.
>
> So I wonder -- is it the drive which is bad, or something's
> wrong with sdparm? To me, it should work the opposite way
> (IF there should be any difference at all) -- i.e., I can
> understand when for a "desktop" (consumer) drive I can't
> change some settings, while for "enterprise" class drive
> I have more control.
>
> Any ideas? Should I RMA those drives and/or replace them
> with the AS ones? :)
Michael,
My information may be out of date, but last time I
looked libata didn't support MODE SELECT which is
the SCSI command to change mode page settings.
[I have sent patches several times to add support
for this in libata but ...]
So, if /dev/sda is connected directly via libata, and
libata hasn't been fixed (as per the SAT standard)
then exactly the error message you have shown above
will be reported by libata. [BTW the error message
is wrong too ... it should be 20h,0h not 24h,0h ...
sent a patch for that too.]
hdparm should do the trick for you. sdparm (or a very
recent version of hdparm) may be needed if the SATA
disk is behind a SAS (USB or 1394) interconnect that
implements a decent SAT layer somewhere.
Doug Gilbert
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