Very Computer

Anyone know if there's a simple way to get at the status of
a Maxtor OneTouch button from Linux?
        http://www.maxtor.com/en/products/external/personal_storage_5000/pers...

I'm not sure what I'll do with it, but it might be handy to
have available.  Maybe I'll use it to safely unmount the
drive (right before I disconnect it)?

--kyler

On Mon, 24 Mar 2003 16:23:00 GMT, Kyler Laird staggered into the Black
Sun and said:

Quote:> Anyone know if there's a simple way to get at the status of
> a Maxtor OneTouch button from Linux?
> http://www.maxtor.com/en/products/external/personal_storage_5000/
> personal_storage_5000xt/index.htm

Impossible to tell from the marketing info what the button actually does
or how it's really implemented.  What I'd start out by doing is plugging
the drive in to a USB 2 or Firewire interface, loading the appropriate
modules, then using a USB/Firewire snooping utility (usbsnoop?  I forget
what it's actually called...) to look at the raw data that goes through
the bus when you push the button on the drive.  The drive will of course
work fine with the USB Mass Storage module or the sbp2 + SCSI support.

Quote:> I'm not sure what I'll do with it, but it might be handy to
> have available.  Maybe I'll use it to safely unmount the
> drive (right before I disconnect it)?

Checking the status of the button on the drive might require hacking on
the usb-storage (Firewire, whatever...) kernel module so that it gets
the relevant info from the hardware and puts the status somewhere under
/proc .  This is a pain, and can be difficult to do if you've never
hacked a kernel before.

--
Matt G|There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to see
Brainbench MVP for Linux Admin /
http://www.brainbench.com     /  "He is a rhythmic movement of the
-----------------------------/    penguins, is Tux." --MegaHAL

Quote:>> Anyone know if there's a simple way to get at the status of
>> a Maxtor OneTouch button from Linux?

I've got the drives now.  I'm ready to play.

Quote:>What I'd start out by doing is plugging
>the drive in to a USB 2 or Firewire interface, loading the appropriate
>modules, then using a USB/Firewire snooping utility (usbsnoop?  I forget
>what it's actually called...) to look at the raw data that goes through
>the bus when you push the button on the drive.

Anyone else know of such a utility?  I haven't found one.

Quote:>The drive will of course
>work fine with the USB Mass Storage module or the sbp2 + SCSI support.

Yup, seems fine.

Thank you.

--kyler

On Thu, 27 Mar 2003 15:23:02 GMT, Kyler Laird staggered into the Black
Sun and said:

Excellent!

Quote:>>What I'd start out by doing is plugging the drive in to a USB 2 or
>>Firewire interface, loading the appropriate modules, then using a
>>USB/Firewire snooping utility (usbsnoop?  I forget what it's actually
>>called...) to look at the raw data that goes through the bus when you
>>push the button on the drive.

> Anyone else know of such a utility?  I haven't found one.

Oddly enough, http://www.linux-usb.org/ lists a couple of utilities in
the "Tools" section, USBSnoopy and SnoopyPro, that do what you need that
are for Windows only.  Weird!  I'd guess these are used for sort of
reverse engineering Windows USB drivers for weird devices.  I haven't
seen a similar utility for Firewire yet.

Quote:>>The drive will of course work fine with the USB Mass Storage module or
>>the sbp2 + SCSI support.
> Yup, seems fine.

Good to know.  HTH,

--
Matt G|There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to see
Brainbench MVP for Linux Admin /
http://www.brainbench.com     /  "He is a rhythmic movement of the
-----------------------------/    penguins, is Tux." --MegaHAL

I've got two of the Maxtor 5000XT (250G, 5400rpm, USB2.0/Firewire interface).

They work great using the ieee1394 interface and the sbp2 module.  I'm running
kernel 2.4.18.

Plug in, install the sbp2 module, and suddenly as SCSI drive appears.
I have tortured the drive and SCSI emulation is solid.  Also since
it is a SCSI device there is no fussing with master/slave,
size limitations, and DMA problems like IDE drives.  This is as it should be:
a reliable drive without the IDE headaches.

General comments:
- sustained transfer rate, eg., measured by "bonnie" benchmark,
    20MBytes/sec (at middle of drive)
  This is about 50% the ideal firewire capacity, probably 75% of
  of the drive's raw capacity if I had to guess.

- I have not tried more than one drive on the same firewire
  connection (ie., daisy chain).

As far as "one touch" goes, I don't use it.  I haven't tried to hit that
button.  Maybe it sends something to the firewire.  I don't know.  To do
backups I use "rsync".  This program is like rcp, but only updates files that
changed.  I mirror my entire desktop machine every two weeks or so.  It has
some 400,000 files.  It only takes a few minutes each time.

Another concern I had was media reliability, so every so often I read the
entire filesystem media to make sure it is OK.  If the drive is mounted on
/mnt/hd, I use the command:
  cd /mnt/hd; tar c . > /dev/null
  cd /mnt/hd; tar c . |md5sum
This does nothing more than read the media.  The first line just reads,
while the second line does a checksum (eg., to compare multiple copies)

Anyway, have fun with it.

BTW, These drives are great for backup, but I would not recommend these drives
for continuous use as your main drive.  Why?  Well, I would rather have my
main drive in my desktop case so that it is not succeptable to bumps or other
damage while running.  It is my belief that drives are much more sensitive
to bumps/vibrations while running than while off (when the heads are parked).

  Richard

dunno about firewire, but on usb an entra button, like a camera
snapshot button, often shows up on the usb bus as a separate device.

That'd be nice, but...

        # cat /proc/bus/usb/devices
        T:  Bus=01 Lev=00 Prnt=00 Port=00 Cnt=00 Dev#=  1 Spd=12  MxCh= 2
        B:  Alloc=  0/900 us ( 0%), #Int=  0, #Iso=  0
        D:  Ver= 1.00 Cls=09(hub  ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS= 8 #Cfgs=  1
        P:  Vendor=0000 ProdID=0000 Rev= 0.00
        S:  Product=USB UHCI-alt Root Hub
        S:  SerialNumber=fcc0
        C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=40 MxPwr=  0mA
        I:  If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=09(hub  ) Sub=00 Prot=00 Driver=hub
        E:  Ad=81(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS=   8 Ivl=255ms
        T:  Bus=01 Lev=01 Prnt=01 Port=00 Cnt=01 Dev#=  3 Spd=12  MxCh= 0
        D:  Ver= 2.00 Cls=00(>ifc ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS=64 #Cfgs=  1
        P:  Vendor=0d49 ProdID=5000 Rev= 1.00
        S:  Manufacturer=Maxtor
        S:  Product=5000XT v01.00.00
        S:  SerialNumber=A809TZVE
        C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=c0 MxPwr=  0mA
        I:  If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 3 Cls=08(stor.) Sub=06 Prot=50 Driver=usb-storage
        E:  Ad=02(O) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS=  64 Ivl=0ms
        E:  Ad=88(I) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS=  64 Ivl=0ms
        E:  Ad=81(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS=   2 Ivl=32ms

--kyler