Re: "smartd dead but subsys locked"

[Rick Stevens <rstevens vitalstream com>]

Gregory E. Garland wrote:
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: redhat-install-list-bounces redhat com [mailto:redhat-install-list->
> > bounces redhat com] On Behalf Of Rick Stevens
> > Sent: Thursday, July 14, 2005 12:56 PM
> > To: Getting started with Red Hat Linux
> > Subject: Re: "smartd dead but subsys locked"
> >
> > Gregory E. Garland wrote:
> >
> > > Hello,
> > >
> > > After putting in a new disk and re-installing RHEL4 ES, I get a "failed"
> > > message when booting and it is attempting to start the smartd service. I
> > > get the message "smartd dead but subsys locked" when checking the 
> > > status in the service configuration tool. Other than the new disk, the
> > > only difference from the previous installation is that there is now an
> > > external drive used to back up the Windows XP installation connecting
> > > through a usb port. Any ideas on what the problem is?
> >
> > Not all drives are SMART-compatible.  Check the ouput from "dmesg" and
> > the contents of "/var/log/messages" to see what's going on.
> >
> > To unlock it, delete the "/var/lock/subsys/smartd" file.  I'd then try
> > to run it in debug mode using "smartd -d" and see what it's doing.  If
> > it runs OK, then use "CTRL-C" to get out of it and run it normally by
> > using the command "smartd".  You can then check your disk by running
> > "smartctl -i /dev/hda".
>
>
> Thanks. The error was "unable to register device /dev/sda on line 3 of
> /etc/smartd.conf", which smartctl says is the external hard drive (and not
> smart-capable). I guess it did not appear before because I added the
> external drive after the original RHEL installation, and the smartd.conf
> file is generated during installation. Commenting out the line in the
> configuration file solves the problem.

Ah, good.  As I said, SMART is nice, but not critical.
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- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens vitalstream com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
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-     Never put off 'til tommorrow what you can forget altogether!   -
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