[mirror_smartmontools-debian.git] / NEWS

smartmontools NEWS
------------------
$Id: NEWS 2956 2009-10-11 00:21:15Z samm2 $

The most up-to-date version of this file is:
http://smartmontools.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/smartmontools/trunk/smartmontools/NEWS?view=markup

Date <Not released yet, please try current SVN>
Summary: smartmontools release 5.39 (UNSTABLE/EXPERIMENTAL)
-----------------------------------------------------------
- Sourcecode repository moved from CVS to SVN
- Support for USB devices with Cypress, JMicron and Sunplus USB bridges
- USB device type autodetection for some devices on Linux,Windows and FreeBSD
  (http://smartmontools.wiki.sourceforge.net/overview_USB-Support)
- Support for Areca controllers on Linux
- Support for MegaRAID controllers on Linux
- Support for HighPoint RocketRAID controllers on FreeBSD
- Support RAID controllers using /dev/pass devices on FreeBSD
- Support CHECK_POWER_MODE and WRITE_LOG on FreeBSD
- Support for up to 128 devices on 3ware controllers
- smartctl option '-l xerror' to print ATA SMART Extended Comprehensive
  Error Log
- smartctl option '-l xselftest' to print ATA SMART Extended Self-test Log
- smartctl option '-l sataphy' to print SATA Phy Event Counters
- smartctl options '-l gplog,...' and '-l smartlog,...' to print any log page
- smartctl prints SCSI load/unload cycle counts
- Improve display of huge raw values of some SMART attributes
- Option '-d sat+TYPE' to use SAT with controllers which require '-d TYPE'
- Many additions to drive database
- New simplified syntax for drive database
- Option '-B FILE' to read drive database from a file
- Configure option to add drive database file to distribution
- smartd can now handle attributes 197 and 198 with increasing raw values
- smartd logs changes of self-test execution status
- smartd directive '-n powermode,N' to limit the number of skipped checks
- smartd supports scheduled Selective Self-Tests
- Self-tests scheduled during downtime are run after next startup
- Option '-s PREFIX' to store smartd internal state until next startup
- Configure option to enable the above by default
- Change to an object oriented interface to access ATA and SCSI devices
- Linux, Win32 and FreeBSD modules migrated to new interface
- Rework of smartd data structures
- Checkin date and SVN revision and optional BUILD_INFO printed in version info
- Better support for gSmartControl on Windows
- SELinux fixes to 3ware device node creation
- Fix CCISS file descriptor leak on FreeBSD
- Compile fixes for Solaris and FreeBSD
- Use getaddrinfo() instead of gethostbyname() to support IPv6
- C++ Support for QNX Target, already tested for QNX 6.3.2 on x86 and
  armle target
- Additional support for Samsung MLC flash drives
- New device type detection algorithm on FreeBSD, not based on filename
- Support for the adaX (ATA on CAM bus) devices on FreeBSD 8.0 and higher

Date 2008-03-10
Summary: smartmontools release 5.38 (STABLE)
--------------------------------------------
This is a stable release of smartmontools.  In addition to changes
below, it includes:
 - Libata/Marvell driver devices no longer need explicit '-d' switch
 - DEVICESCAN automatically detects libata/marvell driver SATA devices 
 - Fixed auto-offline/autosave support in FreeBSD
 - SAT device type + SCSI generic devices work properly with smartd under Linux
 - Many additions to drive database
 - More portable autogen/autoconf/automake script set
 - Additional Windows IOCTL route to access SMART data
 - Some ATA-8 updates
 - Smoother CCISS compilation support in Linux
 - Dragonfly support
 - Fixed some ATA identity byte swap problems on big endian CPUs
 - Added support for the QNX operating system
 - No-fork option added to smartd
 - Improved device scanning and drive type recognition in Windows
 - 3ware support for controllers with more disks (32 max)
 - Improved Windows installer
 - Improved SMART Attribute list and descriptions
 - Fix to smartctl return codes
 - Fix to scheduled tests on Highpoint RAID controllers
 - New samsung firmware bug workaround option
 - Auto-offline and Auto-save fixed in Linux + libata
 - Solaris: better SCSI support and support for Sun compilers AND gcc
 - Fixed and improvements to CCISS support
 - More options for SCSI temperature monitoring and history
 - Additional command line options for selective self-tests
 - Compilation fixes for various platforms.

See CHANGELOG for more details, or smartmontools SVN for still further
details.

Date 2006-12-20
Summary: smartmontools release 5.37 (UNSTABLE/EXPERIMENTAL)
-----------------------------------------------------------
This is an unstable/experimental release of smartmontools.
It includes:

- Many additions to the table of known drives
- SAT (SCSI/ATA Translation) support
- SCSI background scan results log
- smartd -W directive for temperature tracking and warning
- smartctl -n option to check power state
- improved smartd power state logging
- CCISS support under Linux
- HighPoint RocketRAID support under Linux
- 3ware RAID support under Windows
- SPT interface for SCSI devices under Windows
- ATA selective self test under Windows XP/2003
- NSIS installer support for Windows version
- Started move from C to C++
- Various other improvements


Date 2006-04-12
Summary: smartmontools release 5.36 (STABLE)
-----------------------------------------------------------
This is a stable smartmontools release.  The 5.34 version
described just below was never officially released because
Bruce Allen decided to wait until Linux support for
accessing SATA devices through libata was in the official
kernel.org sources.  Changes include:

- Win 2000/XP:ability to cancel drive self-tests
- Additions to the table of known drives
- FreeBSD support for 3ware char device interface and
  multiple 3ware cards
- Various cygwin improvements for running as service
- Works 'out of the box' with Linux SATA libata
- smartd option added to list test schedules
- smartctl option added to list part of drive database
- various improvements for SCSI disks and logs


Date 2005-04-19
Summary: smartmontools release 5.34 (STABLE)
-----------------------------------------------------------
This is a stable smartmontools release.  It includes:
- OS/2 and eComStation support
All Platforms:
 - Printing of drive family info
 - SCSI disks: output size of grown defect list
 - Added info about drive family to 'smartctl -i' output.
 - Added option ',q' for smartd '-n' directive to suppress
   'skipping checks' message which may spin up laptop disk.
 - Added message if smartd '-n' check power mode spins up disk.
Cygwin and Windows:
 - Added info about Windows version and service pack to banner line.
 - Added support for smartd '-n' directive for Win2000/XP.
 - Added support for READ_LOG for WinNT4 also.
 - Fixed bug that prevents display of empty logs on Win2000/XP
 - Fixed use of cached smart enabled state in 'smartctl -i' output. 
Windows:
 - Fixed bug that prevents running smartd as service on WinNT4.


Date 2004-9-5
Summary: smartmontools release 5.33 (UNSTABLE/EXPERIMENTAL)
-----------------------------------------------------------
This is an unstable/experimental release of smartmontools.  It includes
 - support for Darwin/Mac OSX
 - support for OpenBSD
 - support for 3ware ATA RAID controllers under FreeBSD
 - support for 3ware 9500 series SATA RAID controllers under
   Linux.  Use /dev/twa[0-15] devices to access these.
 - support for 3ware character device interfaces /dev/twe[0-15]
   under Linux.  This allows (for example) Selective Self-tests.
 - support for Marvell chip-set based SATA controllers under Linux.
 - smartd mail now works also under Windows (using "Blat" mailer).
 - smartd can now be run as a Windows service.
Please report sucess/failure with these items to the
smartmontools-support mailing list.


Date 2004-7-5
Summary: smartmontools release 5.32 (STABLE)
-----------------------------------------------------------
This is an stable release of smartmontools.
Note added 2004/7/7: users building a Solaris/Intel version of the code should 
modify the 'configure' file, changing "pc-*-solaris*" on line 106
to read "*-pc-solaris*".  Reference:
http://smartmontools.cvs.sourceforge.net/smartmontools/sm5/configure.in?r1=1.83&r2=1.84


Date: 2004-5-4
Summary: smartmontools release 5.31 (UNSTABLE/EXPERIMENTAL)
-----------------------------------------------------------
This is an unstable/experimental release of smartmontools.  It includes
several new features:
- Windows smartd daemon
- smartd now monitors current and pending sector counts
- Support for ATA-7 selective self-test features (Linux/NetBSD only)
  Please report sucess/failure with this option to the smartmontools-support
  mailing list.

Date: 2004-3-6
Summary: smartmontools release 5.30 (STABLE)
--------------------------------------------
This is a stable release of smartmontools: the first stable release
since 5.26.
- KNOWN BUG (identified/fixed by CF): smartd will segv and crash if
  the configuration file /etc/smartd.conf contains NO valid entries.
  This bug was introduced in version 1.259 of smartd.c by BA and
  is present in smartmontools releases 5.27-5.30 inclusive. This can
  be fixed by editing line 3165 of smartd.c, and changing:
  "else if (cfgentries[0]) {"
  to read:
  "else if (cfgentries && cfgentries[0]) {"


Date: 2004-2-24
Summary: smartmontools release 5.29 (Experimental, not STABLE)
--------------------------------------------------------------
This is another experimental release, to replace the 5.27 release that
had a damaged configure script.  The next stable release will be 5.30
- This release has SCSI support for NetBSD


Date: 2004-2-12 
Summary: smartmontools release 5.27 (Experimental, not STABLE)
--------------------------------------------------------------
- WARNING: this release has a broken --prefix=/a/path option to the
  configure script.  The consequence is that smartd will not look for the
  configuration file (smartd.conf) at the desired location.
- NetBSD support added
- A new Directive (-s) for smartd.conf now enables flexible automatic
  scheduled self-testing for both ATA and SCSI devices.
- Solaris now has ATA device support (SPARC only)
- A new Directive (-n) for smartd.conf to avoid spinning up disks
- Errors when smartd sends mail are now logged to SYSLOG
- Solaris smartd mail now works correctly (uses mailx not mail)


Date: 2003-11-29
Summary: smartmontools release 5.26
-----------------------------------
This is a stable smartmontools release.  The only known problem is
that under Solaris, the email features of smartd do not work 'out of
the box'.  Three workarounds are:
  [1] use '-M exec mailx' in /etc/smartd.conf
  [2] in the start script for smartd, put /usr/ucb into PATH before
      /bin
  [3] upgrade to release 5.27 or later, or the latest CVS snapshot


Date: 2003-11-19
Summary: smartmontools release 5.25
-----------------------------------
This release should not hang when accessing USB devices. It provides
smartd SCSI self-test log monitoring for self-test errors, and a
larger table of known ATA drives.  DEVICESCAN should work correctly
even on file systems containing XFS or JFS partitions, and on machines
that use devfs, even without traditional links.

From this time on, even numbered releases will be 'stable' ones and
odd numbered releases (like 5.25) will be unstable/testing/development
releases.


Date: 2003-10-30
Summary: smartmontools release 5.23
-----------------------------------
This release has one known problem: DEVICESCAN device scanning does
not work correctly if the disk with the /dev directory also has XFS
or JFS file systems on it.


Date: 2003-10-28
Summary: smartmontools release 5.22
-----------------------------------
Replaces flawed 5.21 release: the -T verypermissive option had to be
entered as -T verpermissive. First experimental solaris support (SCSI
only).  This release had a serious flaw: smartd left open file descriptors
for devices that it couldn't monitor.


Date: 2003-10-14
Summary: smartmontools release 5.21
-----------------------------------
Preliminary support for FreeBSD added to smartmontools.  For FreeBSD,
ATA support requires a 5.1-CURRENT kernel while SCSI support should
work across multiple versions (any that support CAM).


Date: 2003-10-04
Summary: smartmontools release 5.20
-----------------------------------
Replaces flawed 5.19 release (which had a zero-length man page
smartd.conf.5).


Date: 2003-10-03
Summary: smartmontools release 5.19
-----------------------------------
This is the first release of smartmontools based on autoconf/automake.
For this reason, it is a very experimental release.  Please let us
know in particular about documenation errors/omissions, missing or
unneccesary files, and similar oversights.  The major changes are:
 [1]  installation scripts based on autoconfig/automake
 [2] ./configure [options] lets you set arbitrary paths
 [3] supports FHS with ./configure --prefix=/usr/local
 [4] correct paths are inserted into all man pages, binaries, etc.
 [5] tarballs and RPMs are now GPG-signed


Date: 2003-10-02 11:35
Summary: smartd SEGV
--------------------
Some versions of smartd, including smartmontools release 5.1-18, will
SEGV if the combination of Directives in /etc/smartd.conf contains
-l error
AND/OR
-l selftest
without any Attribute monitoring Directives.  This is fixed in 5.19
and above.

A good workaround is to add:
-o on
OR
-o off
to enable or disable automatic offline data collection.


Date: 2002-11-17 07:41
Summary: testunitready bug in smartd
------------------------------------
A bug in smartd prevented functioning on scsi devices.
The bug in question only affects smartd users with scsi devices.
To see if your version of smartd has the testunitready() bug, do
smartd -V
If the version of the module smartd.c in a line like:
Module: smartd.c revision: 1.66 date: 2002/11/17
has a revision greater than or equal to 1.30, and less than or
equal to 1.64, then your version of the code has this problem.

This problem affected releases starting with RELEASE_5_0_16 up to and
including RELEASE_5_0_43.