bug in ubuntu "kill" hardrive

[Derek Broughton]

David Vincent wrote:

> manuel mizael gonzalez pereira wrote:
>> is true that there is a bug that makes that the hard disk  get killed?
> 
> i wrote:
>> you're probably referring to this bug:
>>
>> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/acpi-support/+bug/59695
> 
> to which manuel mizael gonzales pereria wrote:
>  > So, is true that bug, no? well it seems that ubuntu haas a weak point
> 
> to which i replied:
> manuel, please don't top post.
> 
> you did actually read the bug report right?  did you see this line:
> 
> "This problem has been confirmed in Ubuntu as well as in other
> distributions."
> 
> ...which is a clear giveaway that this problem is not Ubuntu-specific.
> right at the top of the page they also list Mandriva, Fedora and Debian.
> 
> if you read that page you also saw there is a very easy workaround to
> the problem.  annoying?  yes.  weak point?  not really.  not to a
> competent user.

That workaround is not _simple_.  It's a pain in the butt, for potentially
little gain.  It takes far more than a "competent" user to know whether it
is safer to disable the head retraction or to put up with some increased
heat in the drive. While it should have been obvious that it isn't
Ubuntu-specific, I'd be surprised if there are very many people who've read
the entire bug report.  It goes on and on and on, and the Ubuntu devs don't
seem to care much and _nobody_ knows how serious it really is.
-- 
derek