How to protect the harddisk through APS

2010-03-11T21:45:12Z

Raider: hdaspd for ubuntu

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This page tells you how to make the [[Active Protection System]] work under Linux to protect your harddrive from damage in case of a notebook drop or other kind of impact while it is running.

Specific instructions for {{Fedora}} can be found [[Installing_Fedora_Core_5_on_a_ThinkPad_X41_Tablet#Harddrive_Active_Protection_System_.28HDAPS.29|here]].

For {{Debian}} (Etch) have a look at [[Installing_Debian_Etch_on_a_ThinkPad_Z60m#Active_Protection_System|this]].

== How APS works in Linux ==
APS in Linux consists of four components on the software side:
* The [[HDAPS]] driver (included in recent kernels). It exports a sysfs interface providing the acceleration values.
* The <tt>hdaps_protect</tt> disk protection kernel patch, which exports a sysfs interface that enables an ide or sata disk to be protected by a userspace process. You should get the patch appropriate to your kernel version from [http://news.gmane.org/group/gmane.linux.drivers.hdaps.devel/last=/force_load=t gmane.linux.drivers.hdaps.devel].
** '''NOTE''': Starting with kernel 2.6.28 a generic disc protection feature is built into the libata driver
* The [http://sourceforge.net/projects/hdaps/ <tt>hdapsd</tt>] disk protection userspace daemon. It monitors the acceleration values through the HDAPS interface and automatically initiates disk protection through the hdaps_protect interface - given that the movement exceeds a user specified threshold.
* Optional: the [http://roy.marples.name/projects/khdaps/wiki <tt>khdapsmonitor KDE System Tray applet</tt>] or the [http://www.dresco.co.uk/hdaps/ <tt>gnome-hdaps-applet</tt>]. These applets provide a visual indication of the disk protection status and also a graphical interface for adjusting configuration options for <tt>hdapsd</tt>.
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==Installation==
As mentioned above, the hdaps kernel driver found in recent kernels is only responsible for reading the accelerometer data and exporting it through the sysfs interface.

In order to use this information to protect the disk, some additional steps are required.

* Download and build the latest hdaps_protect disk protection kernel patches.
* Enable the drivers in the kernel (requires kernel rebuild).
* Download, build and configure the hdapsd userspace daemon.
* Download and build one of the applets to get a real-time representation of the disk protection status.

===Getting the files===
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! Latest Sources
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See [[HDAPS#Disk_head_parking|HDAPS - Disk head parking]]
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! {{Slackware}}
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*<tt>hdapsd</tt> SlackBuild: http://slackbuilds.org/repository/12.2/system/hdapsd/
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! {{Debian}}
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*<tt>hdapsd</tt> package: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/misc/hdapsd
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! {{Fedora}}
| see instructions [[Installing_Fedora_Core_5_on_a_ThinkPad_X41_Tablet#Harddrive_Active_Protection_System_.28HDAPS.29|here]]
*kernel RPM packages including <tt>hdaps_protect</tt>: http://www.dresco.co.uk/hdaps/
*kernel RPM packages including <tt>hdaps_protect</tt> and [[Software Suspend 2]]: http://mhensler.de/swsusp/download/yum/development/fc5/ (build 2084_2 and up)
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! {{Gentoo}}
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*<tt>hdapsd</tt>: [http://sources.gentoo.org/viewcvs.py/gentoo-x86/app-laptop/hdapsd available]
*<tt>khdapsmonitor</tt>: [http://sources.gentoo.org/viewcvs.py/gentoo-x86/app-laptop/khdapsmonitor available]
|}

=== Adding kernel support ===
A kernel patch is required for disk head parking and queue freezing.

==== Manually patching and compiling a kernel ====
As root, do:
:{{cmdroot|cd /usr/src/linux}}
:{{cmdroot|patch -p1 < ~/hdaps_protect.20060409.patch}}
:{{cmdroot|make clean}}
:{{cmdroot|make}}
:{{cmdroot|make modules_install}}

==== Zen-Sources patched kernel ====
Another way to achieve this is using zen-sources kernel.
It has hdaps patches applied. Additional it supports many other IBM futures like tp_smapi and newest thinkpad_acpi.

Download page for this kind of kernel is http://zen-sources.org/

After downloading a kernel image unpack it to ''/usr/src/linux'' with
:{{cmdroot|tar jxf zen-sources-2.6-version-zen0.tar.bz2 }}

Installation is similar to previous one.

As root, do:
:{{cmdroot|make oldconfig}}
:{{cmdroot|make clean}}
:{{cmdroot|make}}
:{{cmdroot|make modules_install}}

'''make oldconfig''' command will ask you for some information. It's required to tap '''m''' or '''y''' on "HDAPS" functionality, and on some other things connected with Thinkpad.

=== Installing hdapsd ===
==== Manual compilation from source ====
{{NOTE|1=There has been a new release of hdapsd which doesn't use sysfs anymore and therefore reduces timer interrupts. You need tp_smapi 0.32 for this. See also: http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.drivers.hdaps.devel/1040 .}}
* Download the <tt>hdapsd</tt> sources (see above)
* Compile using {{cmdroot|gcc -o hdapsd hdapsd-*.c}}
* Run {{cmdroot|./hdapsd -d sda -s 12 -a}} (replace <tt>sda</tt> with your hard disk device; run {{cmdroot|./hdapsd}} without arguments for help)

==== Gentoo ====
{{NOTE|1=hdapsd was added to the official portage tree on the 26th June 2006. However the version in portage is to be considered outdated. (20060409)}}
{{Gentoo}} users can try the ebuild attached to [http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=166166 gentoo bug 166166].
*Add hdapsd support in your kernel: device drivers -> hardware monitoring -> ... (you need it as a module if you want to use tp_smapi and hdaps, see [[Tp_smapi]])
*Download the ebuild, use same ebuild date as the kernel-patch.
*Make known the portage an extern ebuild path and add the following line to {{path|/etc/make.conf}}:
PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage/" (or any other location)
*Create directory {{path|/usr/local/portage}} and {{path|/usr/local/portage/app-laptop/}}
*Copy the downloaded ebuild to {{path|/usr/local/portage/app-laptop}} ({{path|/usr/local/portage/app-laptop/hdapsd}} should now exists)
*Make portage known the new ebuild and creat digist with:
:{{cmdroot|ebuild /usr/local/portage/app-laptop/hdapsd/hdapsd-20060326.ebuild digest}}
*Optional: Copy source file to portage distfiles (if no internet connection is available):
:{{cmdroot|cp hdapsd-20060326.c /usr/portage/distfiles}}
*Accept the x86 keyword for this package: {{cmdroot|echo "app-laptop/hdapsd ~x86" >> /etc/portage/package.keywords}}
*Install hdapsd with: {{cmdroot|emerge hdapsd}}.
*Edit {{path|/etc/conf.d/hdapsd}} (change your harddrive if neccessary: mine is sda, and change the value from 5, 5 is to sensitive, 12 is a good value in my opinion).
*start deamon with: {{cmdroot|/etc/init.d/hdapsd start}}
*Optional: add to default runlevel: {{cmdroot|rc-update add hdapsd default, rc-update add hdapsd battery}}
Write an eMail to abartel[Ã¤d]htwm.de, if you want to get my hdapsd-20060326.ebuild and please upload it.

==== Ubuntu ====
hdapsd is available via synaptic for Hardy Heron (9.04) and newer versions.

=== Building an applet ===
====hdaps-gl====
*Make sure you have installed hdaps [and loaded] and ?opengl?
*Download [https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=138242 hdaps-gl-0.0.5] from the web.
*Extract files to {{path|/opt/hdaps-gl}}.
*{{cmdroot|make}}
*Start the applet: {{cmdroot|./hdaps-gl}}

==Troubleshooting==
See the [[Problem with APS harddisk parking]] page for troubleshooting APS issues.
{{NOTE|1=If you use [[tp_smapi]], remember to include the option <tt>HDAPS=1</tt> when [[Tp_smapi#Installation|installing tp_smapi]]. Also, you might need to build the hdaps driver as module.}}

==Further Information==
*Additonal information and support is available through the [[Mailinglists#HDAPS Developers Mailinglist|hdaps-devel]] mailinglist and its archive.

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How to protect the harddisk through APS