HP P500 portable SSD not being correctly handled (0x090c:0x1000)

[durval]

This is a "portable external" SSD (meaning, connected via USB.

With no -d XXX or with -d auto, smartctl -a shows:

/dev/da17: Unknown USB bridge [0x090c:0x1000 (0x1100)]

Experimenting with the various -d options, only -d scsi results in something:

========================================================[

smartctl 7.1 2019-12-30 r5022 [FreeBSD 11.2-STABLE amd64] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-19, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Vendor:               HP
Product:              HP P500
Revision:             1100
Compliance:           SPC-4
User Capacity:        124,471,177,728 bytes [124 GB]
Logical block size:   512 bytes
scsiModePageOffset: response length too short, resp_len=4 offset=4 bd_len=0
Logical Unit id:      0xXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Device type:          disk
scsiModePageOffset: response length too short, resp_len=4 offset=4 bd_len=0
Local Time is:        Thu May 13 07:38:37 2021 -03
SMART support is:     Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is:     Disabled
Temperature Warning:  Disabled or Not Supported

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART Health Status: OK
Current Drive Temperature:     0 C
Drive Trip Temperature:        0 C

Error Counter logging not supported

scsiModePageOffset: response length too short, resp_len=4 offset=4 bd_len=0

========================================================]
smartctl -d scsi -x results are the same.

Please let me know if you need anything else.

[Christian Franke]

If none of the -d TYPE options mentioned on the USB wiki page work, this can only be fixed if documentation about possible vendor-specific pass-through functionality is available.

Does this device use NVMe instead of SATA internally ?

0x090c is the USB Vendor ID from Silicon Motion (​http://www.linux-usb.org/usb.ids).

[durval]

HP's datasheet for the P500 SSD drives

[durval]

If none of the -d TYPE options mentioned on the USB wiki page work

None of them worked. The only one that didn't return a short one-line error message was -d scsi`.

this can only be fixed if documentation about possible vendor-specific pass-through functionality is available.

I located HP's datasheet on the SSD drive, but it doesn't seem to include any such information:
​https://ssdhp.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/HP-P500-Datasheet-V4.pdf
(I've attached a copy to this ticket, for archiving/convenience purposes)

Does this device use NVMe instead of SATA internally ?

Good question! Is there a way to find out using smartctl?

0x090c is the USB Vendor ID from Silicon Motion

Thanks for the pointer. I should have thought about searching for the USB IDs... Just did it and found some interesting information:

• #1422: another ticket here, refering to the same issue but with another 'portable SSD' drive, with the same USB VID/PID.

• I was able to find Siliconmotion's support website, but their "Contact Support" form is returning a SQLQuery error page :-/ ​https://www.siliconmotion.com/support/contact

• Anyway, I blind-emailed (ie, "support@…") a request for documentation; at least it hasn't bounced yet (meaning, it probably arrived at some mailbox there).

• I was able to find, among the available PDFs in their website's download section, a "Product Brief" for what I think is probably the chip involved: ​https://www.siliconmotion.com/download/p/a/SM3282_PB_EN_201910.pdf (copy attached to this ticket).

Is there anything else I can do to help?

[durval]

Product Brief for Silicon Motion SM3282 USB SSD controller

[Christian Franke]

This is a direct USB(SCSI) -> Flash controller not using a detour via a SATA or NVMe. So it might not provide any (S)ATA- or NVMe-like diagnostic info. It should provide SCSI/SAS diagnostic but the -d scsi output shows that this is not the case.

Thanks for contacting Silicon Motion. Unfortunately this kind of information usually requires to sign a NDA. This is obviously impossible if the resulting source code will be public.

Leaving ticket open as undecided.

[durval]

Thanks for your prompt response, and of course for the great piece of software that is smartmontools.

I will let you know if I hear back from Silicon Motion. If I manage to get the docs and have to sign an NDA, perhaps we can work it out by your not signing it, and I reading it and understanding it and explaining to you only what you need, with the exchange fully documented and in the open here (like Phoenix did with re: the IBM PC BIOS so long ago). This way the NDA is obeyed and we manage to get smartmontools to support one more device.