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Hi,

I've just installed Debian Testing AMD64 on a board with NVidia Chipset
(ASrock ALiveNF7G-HDready).

# uname -a
Linux 2.6.22-3-amd64 #1 SMP Tue Feb 12 09:22:35 UTC 2008 x86_64 GNU/Linux

I've set the Interface type to AHCI in BIOS setup.

Now I was trying to use hdparm to configure the harddisk spindown timer.

# hdparm -S 60 /dev/sd[bcd]

/dev/sdb:
setting standby to 60 (5 minutes)

/dev/sdc:
setting standby to 60 (5 minutes)

/dev/sdd:
setting standby to 60 (5 minutes)

But even if the harddisk aren't used (no partition mounted), none of the
disks spin down. Not after minutes, not after hours, never. I've tried a lot
of different -S values.

The harddisks are all the same, here the output of hdparm -I:

# hdparm -I /dev/sdb

/dev/sdb:

ATA device, with non-removable media
Model Number: WDC WD5000AAKS-00YGA0
Serial Number: WD-WCAS84101188
Firmware Revision: 12.01C02
Transport: Serial, SATA 1.0a, SATA II Extensions, SATA Rev
2.5
Standards:
Supported: 8 7 6 5
Likely used: 8
Configuration:
Logical max current
cylinders 16383 16383
heads 16 16
sectors/track 63 63
--
CHS current addressable sectors: 16514064
LBA user addressable sectors: 268435455
LBA48 user addressable sectors: 976773168
device size with M = 1024*1024: 476940 MBytes
device size with M = 1000*1000: 500107 MBytes (500 GB)
Capabilities:
LBA, IORDY(can be disabled)
Queue depth: 32
Standby timer values: spec'd by Standard, with device specific
minimum
R/W multiple sector transfer: Max = 16 Current = 16
Recommended acoustic management value: 128, current value: 254
DMA: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2 udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 udma5 *udma6
Cycle time: min=120ns recommended=120ns
PIO: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
Cycle time: no flow control=120ns IORDY flow control=120ns
Commands/features:
Enabled Supported:
* SMART feature set
Security Mode feature set
* Power Management feature set
* Write cache
* Look-ahead
* Host Protected Area feature set
* WRITE_BUFFER command
* READ_BUFFER command
* NOP cmd
* DOWNLOAD_MICROCODE
Power-Up In Standby feature set
* SET_FEATURES required to spinup after power up
SET_MAX security extension
* Automatic Acoustic Management feature set
* 48-bit Address feature set
* Device Configuration Overlay feature set
* Mandatory FLUSH_CACHE
* FLUSH_CACHE_EXT
* SMART error logging
* SMART self-test
* General Purpose Logging feature set
* 64-bit World wide name
* Segmented DOWNLOAD_MICROCODE
* SATA-I signaling speed (1.5Gb/s)
* SATA-II signaling speed (3.0Gb/s)
* Native Command Queueing (NCQ)
* Host-initiated interface power management
* Phy event counters
DMA Setup Auto-Activate optimization
* Software settings preservation
* SMART Command Transport (SCT) feature set
* SCT Long Sector Access (AC1)
* SCT LBA Segment Access (AC2)
* SCT Error Recovery Control (AC3)
* SCT Features Control (AC4)
* SCT Data Tables (AC5)
unknown 206[12] (vendor specific)
unknown 206[13] (vendor specific)
Security:
Master password revision code = 65534
supported
not enabled
not locked
frozen
not expired: security count
supported: enhanced erase
134min for SECURITY ERASE UNIT. 134min for ENHANCED SECURITY ERASE
UNIT.
Logical Unit WWN Device Identifier: 50014ee2ab88dbad
NAA : 5
IEEE OUI : 14ee
Unique ID : 2ab88dbad
Checksum: correct

hdparm -Y /dev/sd[bcd] lets them spin down at once, and they stay in sleep
mode until I access the harddisk the next time, e.g. mount a partition.

Any idea why automatic spindown doesn't work at all, but manual spindown
does?

Regards,
Jens