[smartmontools-support] '#start_smartd=yes' in /etc/default/smartmontools is ignored

[Nick Rose]

Hello,
I use smartctl to manually check external hard drives occasionally. I don't need or want the smartd service to be running at all.
In the file /etc/default/smartmontools it says to start smartd automatically, uncomment the line 'start_smartd=yes'. It is already commented out, which is what I want, so it shouldn't start automatically but it still does.
I'm not sure whether this is a bug, or a quirk of the operating system I'm using (Xubuntu 15.10). I do know that smartd didn't start automatically in Xubuntu 14.04.
Is there a proper way to prevent smartd from starting automatically?
Thank you for your help.

[L.A. Walsh]

Post by Nick Rose
Hello,
I use smartctl to manually check external hard drives occasionally. I
don't need or want the smartd service to be running at all.
In the file /etc/default/smartmontools it says to start smartd
automatically, uncomment the line 'start_smartd=yes'. It is already
commented out, which is what I want, so it shouldn't start
automatically but it still does.

---
Usually, the comments show the "default" action in many config files.
I can't say for certain in this particular case, but you might try
'start_smartd=no' (without quotes and no '#' in front) either
before or after the existing comment line (you should be able
to leave the original line, as it *should* be a comment. :-)

Could be that the default was changed on your distro but the
comment line in your config file wasn't updated... (?) Just
a guess from what you've written. Good luck!

[Christian Franke]

Post by Nick Rose
I use smartctl to manually check external hard drives occasionally. I
don't need or want the smartd service to be running at all.
In the file /etc/default/smartmontools it says to start smartd
automatically, uncomment the line 'start_smartd=yes'. It is already
commented out, which is what I want, so it shouldn't start
automatically but it still does.
I'm not sure whether this is a bug, or a quirk of the operating system
I'm using (Xubuntu 15.10). I do know that smartd didn't start
automatically in Xubuntu 14.04.

Please note that /etc/default/smartmontools and its evaluation in the
/etc/init.d/smartmontools is specific to the Ubuntu (and Debian)
packages. It is not part of upstream smartmontools code.

The settings in this file may no longer be effective for distributions
using systemd.

If this is the case, try this as root:

systemctl disable smartd

If this does not help, report a bug to package maintainers:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/smartmontools

Thanks,
Christian