SSD "health"on a Linux computer

Discussion in 'all things UNIX' started by bellgamin, Mar 14, 2023.

  1. bellgamin

    bellgamin Registered Member

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    Check this out ==> REFERENCE

    My aging laptop (running Windows) has some tools for checking the "health' of a Hard Drive -- ChkDsk for example.

    My new HP laptop (running Linux) has both a Hard Drive (HD) and an SSD.

    Q1- Does Linux have an app or command for checking the health of an HD?
    Q2- Does Linux have an app or command for checking the health of an SSD?
     
  2. Stupendous Man

    Stupendous Man Registered Member

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    Hi bellgamin,

    There's GSmartControl.
    "GSmartControl is a graphical user interface for smartctl (from smartmontools package), which is a tool for querying and controlling SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) data on modern hard disk and solid-state drives. It allows you to inspect the drive's SMART data to determine its health, as well as run various tests on it."

    I use GSmartControl for my HDDs.
    I haven't upgraded my systems with SSDs, so I haven't tried GSmartControl for SSDs.

    If one likes the command line alternative, smartmontools can be installed to run smartctl.
     
  3. longshots

    longshots Registered Member

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    I just tried it on Linux Mint 21.1 Cinnamon and it does not recognise any of my 3 SSD's - M2 or SATA.
     
  4. bellgamin

    bellgamin Registered Member

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    @Stupendous Man -- Many thanks for calling GSmartControl (GSC) to my attention. GSC is listed by Zorin Linux as "Hard Disk and SSD Health Inspection." Great!

    I just now installed GSC. It reported my Western Digital (WD) Hard Drive as "passed." Also, by right-clicking GSC's display for this drive, I got a menu whereby I could click "Details." Clicking "Details" got me a LOT of information PLUS the ability to have the drive do a self-test.

    GSC reported my SSD as "model unknown" and its status as "SMART not supported." My guess is that GSC has a list of drive model numbers that it is programmed to handle, & my SSD is too new to have made its list. Huh?
     
    Last edited: Mar 14, 2023
  5. Stupendous Man

    Stupendous Man Registered Member

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    In the GSmartControl documentation, under Supported Hardware, only ATA is mentioned, not PCIe.
    If PCIe is not supported, that would make GSmartControl rather outdated. And if, apart prom PCIe, also not all SATA SSD are supported, that makes GSmartControl even less useful.
    So, I hope there is something better for Linux than GSmartControl, for SSD support.
     
  6. bellgamin

    bellgamin Registered Member

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    Zorin's forum recommended Gnome Disks. However, Gnome Disks also reported my SSD as "no-go," for the same exact reasons as did GSmartControl.

    However, your suggestion at least gave me a handle on my computer's Hard Drive (HD). Further -- from a post I read on Zorin's forum -- HDs tend to fail little by little, & provide symptoms of their problems. OTOH, SSDs are more prone to all-at-once "surprise" failures. NO problema! Unless my computer is a magnet for attracting "bad luck," SSD failure is a long way off in the future.

    BTW, the Zorin forum also provided me with THIS link -- a very detailed article on checking drives via terminal commands. I'm not going to try this at my present level of learning Linux, but I do have it on my To-Do list. I provided the link here -- just in case some folks here at Wilders might be interested -- it is a very well written article.
     
  7. roger_m

    roger_m Registered Member

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  8. XIII

    XIII Registered Member

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  9. Stupendous Man

    Stupendous Man Registered Member

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    Thank you very much.
    Yes, I knew of Hard Disk Sentinel, but I wasn't sure it supports PCIe.
    But on the Linux Edition page, I see mentioned "28/2/2021 added support of newer SATA, SAS, NVMe M.2 PCie SSDs".
    Also, the Compatible SSD page shows a few PCIe SSDs. I don't know if any of the other mentioned SSDs are also PCIe.

    Thank you very much.
    Yes, I mentioned smartmontools and smartctl, also the article that bellgamin linked mentions smartctl.
    However, I wasn't sure it supports PCIe.
    The Smartmontools Device Support page links to the NVMe support page, and PCIe support is mentioned there.
     
    Last edited: Mar 15, 2023
  10. Stupendous Man

    Stupendous Man Registered Member

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    I overlooked the fact that apart from the Hard Disk Sentinel Linux Edition console version, there's also a Hard Disk Sentinel Linux GUI (Graphical User Interface) package. Nice!
     
  11. Stupendous Man

    Stupendous Man Registered Member

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    I tried the Hard Disk Sentinel Linux GUI version, and got the same error as was reported in 'Cannot start Hard Disk Sentinel Linux GUI'.
    It looks like it needs to be started from the terminal. That's rather messy, for a GUI version.
    I uninstalled it. If I need the terminal, I can use smartctl.
     
  12. bellgamin

    bellgamin Registered Member

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    Thanks to @roger_m for alerting us to HD Sentinel. Unfortunately (for a Linux newbie like me) the instructions for installing it & getting it up & running are quite lengthy & involve use of the terminal. IMO, Linux will never attain popularity with every day users until its installers, like those used by Windows, do the whole job.

    Unlike other Distros I tried, the Distro I selected (Zorin Pro) does a Windows-like job of installing any of the very long list of apps on its package manager. Zorin just installs and POOF! The app is ready to launch.
     
  13. Stupendous Man

    Stupendous Man Registered Member

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    I don't think the installation instructions as set out on the Hard Disk Sentinel Linux GUI page are required.
    I think it's sufficient to download the hdsentinel_gui64bit.tar.xz package, move it to a directory where you want it, extract it, in the now created HDSentinel_GUI directory extract HDSentinel_GUI.zip, and next in the HDSentinel_GUI directory execute the install.sh file. That can be done in the terminal, but that's not required.

    After installation, running the installed Hard Disk Sentinel Linux GUI, that's another matter, as I reported in my previous post. It looks like it needs to be started from the terminal. I don't like that for a GUI version, so I uninstalled it.

    Sadly, that still leaves us without a GUI application for modern (PCIe, NVMe) SSD.

    Isn't that the same for many distros?
    I think it's so for Ubuntu and Mint, and it's the same for Kubuntu.
    Of all the applications that I use on Kubuntu, I think only Ink, a command line tool for checking the printer ink level, needs to be installed from the terminal, and also the Dutch spelling checker for LibreOffice, hunspell-nl, needs to be installed in the terminal. And to be completely fair, on Kubuntu, libdvd, to play CSS encrypted DVD needs to be installed in the terminal.
     
  14. bellgamin

    bellgamin Registered Member

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    @Stupendous Man asked, "Isn't that the same for many distros?" My answer: Not for the Distros that I tried. When asked to install an app, many of those Distros did so by streaming a long and detailed list, on-screen, of each and every action needed to do the install. Then they popped an alert asking me if it was okay.

    It's like asking someone the time of day, & they respond by showing you how to make a wristwatch.:rolleyes:
     
  15. Stupendous Man

    Stupendous Man Registered Member

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    @bellgamin,
    That sounds like fun, if one really loves to build wristwatches.
    But not so much fun if one is new to Linux. It doesn't even sound like fun if one isn't new to Linux.
    I had no idea you had such bad luck with finding the right distro.
    Regarding finding a GUI application for modern (PCIe, NVMe) SSD, I hope that gets better over time. For now, perhaps the demand for such an application is too low.
     
  16. Mrkvonic

    Mrkvonic Linux Systems Expert

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    Try running with sudo - otherwise, you won't get any devices in the list.
    Mrk
     
  17. Stupendous Man

    Stupendous Man Registered Member

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    I assumed longshots referred to GSmartControl.
    Doesn't GSmartControl always ask for authentication? It does on Kubuntu.

    In the GSmartControl documentation, under Supported Hardware, only ATA is mentioned, not PCIe.
    But that doesn't explain why even longshots SATA drives were not detected.
    As I said before, if PCIe is not supported, that would make GSmartControl rather outdated. But if, apart prom PCIe, also not all SATA SSD are supported, that would make GSmartControl even less useful.
     
  18. xxJackxx

    xxJackxx Registered Member

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    That was a good one. :D I'm probably going to steal it at some point. :isay:
    Welcome to the wonderful world of Linux. Stuff like this is why many give up on it.
     
  19. reasonablePrivacy

    reasonablePrivacy Registered Member

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    So it is doing things automatically. It just shows logs in the process. It allows verification.
    Frankly if someone is using stable, reliable distro and not messed up repositories it is quite safe to accept it blindly most of the time (excluding major version upgrades etc)

    On the other hand many users coming from Windows and macOS behave like: I am used to use smartwatch, but I bought this old school watch this time then proceed to complain about the need to manually hand wind a watch, manually changing time two times in a year etc
     
    Last edited: Mar 29, 2023
  20. fblais

    fblais Registered Member

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    Made me smile, but also sad that Linux can still be viewed as old-school, outdated and/or geek stuff.
    That’s often what I hear when I tell people I use (mainly) Linux at home.
     
  21. bellgamin

    bellgamin Registered Member

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    I agree 250.31%!!!

    I do not find Linux to be at all old-school. The Distro I use (Zorin Pro) is quite as polished & state-of-the-art as is Windows -- of course, some folks might miss dealing with all those Windows security patches and M$ telemetry, but not me.
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    BTW, @reasonablePrivacy -- my watch doesn't need me to change time twice yearly. Here the sun has so much aloha that Daylight Saving Time is unnecessary. E komo mai............... :p
     
  22. fblais

    fblais Registered Member

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  23. longshots

    longshots Registered Member

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    It's very easy to understand why those comments are made.
    I dumped MS many years ago, but, here we are.
    And what are we discussing?
    SSD "health"on a Linux computer

    And what are we looking for? An app with a workable GUI that provides us with that information.
    Not which app is the best, but ANY workable GUI app that works with Linux.

    You will have noticed the bold GUI.
    The scarcity of Linux apps with a GUI is of the many reasons Linux will never break through the MS ceiling.
     
  24. fblais

    fblais Registered Member

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    Indeed.
    But look how many developers/companies are writing windows apps in comparison to Linux.
    I don't know if the situation is better in the Red Hat branch.
     
  25. bellgamin

    bellgamin Registered Member

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    Too true, sad to say.

    IMO, the main problem is lack of a profit motive due to an apparent large number of Linux users who expect all Linux apps to be free. I suppose we think that charging money for an app is somehow unfair to us folks who have to work for a living. Problem is -- software developers have to work for a living, too. They also have mortgages, families to provide for, and lots of other living expenses... just like the rest of us.

    I suppose we expect that a skilled app developer, after he has worked all day to earn a living, will then spend much of his personal time in developing free apps. Never mind spending time with the family, washing the car, mowing the lawn, keeping the house repaired, or relaxing a while. No sir -- get busy and write us a free imaging app that's 100% as good as Macruim Reflect-- shouldn't take more than a few days, right? So get busy!
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Fact is, it takes hundreds or even thousands of manhours to develop & de-bug a complex, top-level, secure app, put it through its alpha & beta tests, advertise the app, and provide customer support. So why should we expect that there will be a lot of FREE top-grade apps for Linux? Frankly, I am amazed at how many free. secure, top-grade Linux apps there actually are.
     
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