SSD support question

Sat Feb 20 22:30:31 UTC 2021

On Sat, 20 Feb 2021 08:28:38 +0100
Ralf Mardorf via ubuntu-users <ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com> wrote:

> On Fri, 19 Feb 2021 20:30:05 -0800, rikona wrote:
> >I'm considering either a Samsung or Western Digital SSD for an
> >upgrade. Both say they need a Windows-based program to monitor the
> >disc or upgrade its firmware, and apparently don't offer any Linux
> >software. Is there a way to monitor or upgrade these discs on a
> >Ubuntu box? If not, would I be able to move the disk to my Windows
> >box and do these operations there? What is the best way to deal with
> >this?  
> 
> Hi,
> 
> if you have good luck, then the drives are in the Linux smart
> database, so you at least could use smartctl to get useful
> information, but I wouldn't bet on that. I'm only using
> OCZ/Toshiba/Kioxia SSDs. The Kioxia SSD utility for
> OCZ/Toshiba/Kioxia is available as Linux software by a Linux live
> DVD. IIRC it's on Fedora. It's easy to copy the SSD utility to a
> Linux install. It at least works copied to Arch Linux [1].
> 
> >Also, if I format the SSDs in, say, EXT3/4, will that make the disk
> >totally unusable when attached to a Windows computer, such that the
> >Windows SSD program would not be able to do anything with the SSD?  

Thanks for the reply! Both Samsung and Western Digital SSDs are in the
Linux smart database, but the very latest models don't seem to be there
yet - may have to wait for an update. I checked out the
OCZ/Toshiba/Kioxia SSDs, but I wanted to get a larger version than
they seem to make now. 

I did see a few suggestions for doing updates, and all suggested using
Windows to do it. So, it might be that an EXT3 formatted SSD can be
updated on Windows, although that was not specifically stated. I did
find, from a number of years ago, a procedure to update SSDs using only
Linux, but it was quite complex, and included a note that even a small
error in doing this procedure would convert your SSD into a brick.
Didn't sound good at all. I also saw a comment that SSD updates are not
done frequently, so the Windows method may not be that bad. Several
comments noted that updates, done when there was some kind of problem,
didn't fix the problem - it was always something else. So maybe I could
go quite a while without having to do an update. I'm currently favoring
the WD Red - good performance and a significantly larger endurance.

If other folks have a different favorite SSD, please let me know why you
like it... 

> I'm just guessing, but I suspect that it doesn't matter. Getting valid
> SMART data should work for the disks, since the data isn't for a
> particular partition. Updating the firmware should work, too.
> 
> >If they can't be upgraded, would it be reasonable to just live with
> >the SSD not being upgraded for the life of the disk?  
> 
> There's always a reason for an update. If you have good luck, non of
> those reasons do matter for your SSD usage, if you have bad luck, all
> updates are important for your SSD usage. IOW no, under some
> circumstances it could be mandatory to update the firmware, you can
> not ignore firmware updates. OTOH I never noticed any difference after
> updating the firmware of my SSDs.
> 
> Regards,
> Ralf
> 
> [1]
> [rocketmouse at archlinux ~]$
> ldd /usr/local/bin/kioxia_ssd_utility/SSDUtility linux-vdso.so.1
> (0x00007ffded795000) /usr/lib/libgtk3-nocsd.so.0 (0x00007fb5d38d3000)
> 	libxcb-glx.so.0 => /usr/lib/libxcb-glx.so.0
> (0x00007fb5d3873000) libX11-xcb.so.1 => /usr/lib/libX11-xcb.so.1
> (0x00007fb5d386e000) libX11.so.6 => /usr/lib/libX11.so.6
> (0x00007fb5d372d000) libxcb.so.1 => /usr/lib/libxcb.so.1
> (0x00007fb5d3703000) libdl.so.2 => /usr/lib/libdl.so.2
> (0x00007fb5d36fc000) libGL.so.1 => /usr/lib/libGL.so.1
> (0x00007fb5d3674000) libpthread.so.0 => /usr/lib/libpthread.so.0
> (0x00007fb5d3653000) libstdc++.so.6 => /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6
> (0x00007fb5d3476000) libm.so.6 => /usr/lib/libm.so.6
> (0x00007fb5d3331000) libgcc_s.so.1 => /usr/lib/libgcc_s.so.1
> (0x00007fb5d3317000) libc.so.6 => /usr/lib/libc.so.6
> (0x00007fb5d314a000) /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2
> => /usr/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00007fb5d6883000) libXau.so.6
> => /usr/lib/libXau.so.6 (0x00007fb5d3143000) libXdmcp.so.6
> => /usr/lib/libXdmcp.so.6 (0x00007fb5d313b000) libGLdispatch.so.0
> => /usr/lib/libGLdispatch.so.0 (0x00007fb5d3084000) libGLX.so.0
> => /usr/lib/libGLX.so.0 (0x00007fb5d3051000) [rocketmouse at archlinux
> ~]$ objdump -p /usr/local/bin/kioxia_ssd_utility/SSDUtility | grep
> NEEDED NEEDED               libxcb-glx.so.0 NEEDED
> libX11-xcb.so.1 NEEDED               libX11.so.6
>   NEEDED               libxcb.so.1
>   NEEDED               libdl.so.2
>   NEEDED               libGL.so.1
>   NEEDED               libpthread.so.0
>   NEEDED               libstdc++.so.6
>   NEEDED               libm.so.6
>   NEEDED               libgcc_s.so.1
>   NEEDED               libc.so.6
>   NEEDED               ld-linux-x86-64.so.2
> [rocketmouse at archlinux ~]$
> sudo /usr/local/bin/kioxia_ssd_utility/SSDUtility [sudo] password for
> rocketmouse: QFontDatabase: Cannot find font
> directory /home/ukt-build/QtStatic/lib/fonts. Note that Qt no longer
> ships fonts. Deploy some (from http://dejavu-fonts.org for example)
> or switch to fontconfig. libpng warning: iCCP: known incorrect sRGB
> profile libpng warning: iCCP: known incorrect sRGB profile libpng
> warning: iCCP: known incorrect sRGB profile libpng warning: iCCP:
> known incorrect sRGB profile libpng warning: iCCP: known incorrect
> sRGB profile libpng warning: iCCP: known incorrect sRGB profile
> libpng warning: iCCP: known incorrect sRGB profile
> libpng warning: iCCP: known incorrect sRGB profile
> libpng warning: iCCP: known incorrect sRGB profile
> libpng warning: iCCP: known incorrect sRGB profile
> libpng warning: iCCP: known incorrect sRGB profile
> libpng warning: iCCP: known incorrect sRGB profile
> libpng warning: iCCP: known incorrect sRGB profile
> libpng warning: iCCP: known incorrect sRGB profile
> libpng warning: iCCP: known incorrect sRGB profile
> libpng warning: iCCP: known incorrect sRGB profile
> [rocketmouse at archlinux ~]$
> 
> Related to a possible non default loader
> "lsof -P -T -p $(pidof SSDUtility)" returns exit status 1 and no
> output at all.
> 