Load_Cycle_Count and ATA APM

[Vince Hoffman]

Kostik Belousov wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 05, 2008 at 01:07:49PM +0000, Vince Hoffman wrote:
>> Kostik Belousov wrote:
>>> I noted that when idle, my laptop HDD increases the Load_Cycle_Count
>>> (193) approx. each ten seconds, as reported by smartctl. Have recently
>>> read about the Ubuntu and APM mode for hard drives, I searched for the
>>> tool to tune APM (that has functionality similar to linux' hdparm -B).
>>>
>>> It seems that FreeBSD does not have a tool ? Am I wrong ? In case I did
>>> not make a mistake, below is the patch that allows to manage APM state
>>> of the hard drive using atacontrol.
>>>
>> /usr/ports/sysutils/ataidle  exists and is usable, (I use it on my
>> laptop.) However it seems it could be a sensible thing to have in
>> atacontrol.
> I never looked into it, and I have heard that it has an architectural
> problems. BTW intent of my patch is to have the ability to turn APM off.
> Can ataidle do this ?
> 
The manpage says it can with -P 0
it seems to work for me but the author does say about apm and aam
support that:
"These  features are experimental, and should only be used after verify-
       ing that the drive works when sent those commands."

ymmv I guess.

Vince

>> Vince
>>
>>> Any comments or objections against committing this ?
>>> http://people.freebsd.org/~kib/misc/ata_setcap.1.patch