Recent x86_64 update broke administrator use of smartctl.exe

banshee banshee@abattoir.com
Sat Mar 28 06:14:00 GMT 2015


I have two windows 7 x64 boxes, one running cygwin x86 and the other 
x86_64.  I run smartctl on both boxes.  One can run smartctl as 
administrator or not, but it produces a fuller information set with 
admin rights.  A recent change to the x86_64 cygwin has broken 
administrator use of smartctl as detailed below.  It still runs fine on 
the x86 cygwin.

I'm not certain which version of cygwin broke the functionality, but it 
was working last week.

x86_64 running as NON-ADMIN can run smartctl with non-admin rights:
$ uname -a
CYGWIN_NT-6.1 myhost 1.7.35(0.287/5/3) 2015-03-04 12:09 x86_64 Cygwin
$ /usr/sbin/smartctl.exe -a /dev/sda
smartctl 6.3 2014-07-26 r3976 [x86_64-unknown-cygwin-win7-sp1] 
(cygwin-6.3-1)
Copyright (C) 2002-14, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

Warning: Limited functionality due to missing admin rights
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
... runs ok ...
$ head /dev/sda
head: cannot open ‘/dev/sda’ for reading: Permission denied
$

x86_64 running as ADMIN fails to run smartctl
$ /usr/sbin/smartctl.exe -a /dev/sda
smartctl 6.3 2014-07-26 r3976 [x86_64-unknown-cygwin-win7-sp1] 
(cygwin-6.3-1)
Copyright (C) 2002-14, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

Read Device Identity failed: Input/output error

A mandatory SMART command failed: exiting. To continue, add one or more 
'-T permissive' options.
$ head /dev/sda
(works)
$

x86_32 running as NON-ADMIN runs ok:
$ uname -a
CYGWIN_NT-6.1-WOW myhost2 1.7.35(0.287/5/3) 2015-03-04 12:07 i686 Cygwin
$ /usr/sbin/smartctl.exe -a /dev/sda
smartctl 6.3 2014-07-26 r3976 [i686-pc-cygwin-win7(64)-sp1] (cygwin-6.3-1)
Copyright (C) 2002-14, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

Warning: Limited functionality due to missing admin rights
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
... runs ok as non-admin ...
$

x86_32 running as ADMIN also runs ok:
$ /usr/sbin/smartctl.exe -a /dev/sda
smartctl 6.3 2014-07-26 r3976 [i686-pc-cygwin-win7(64)-sp1] (cygwin-6.3-1)
Copyright (C) 2002-14, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
... runs ok as admin ...
$




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