On 07/27/2011 12:54 PM, Phong Nguyen wrote:
> The smartmontools project maintains a database of drives (mostly for SMART reporting purposes); you might ask them if they'd extend their database to handle this information.
>
> On 27 Jul 2011, at 1225, Yasha Karant wrote:
>
>> I have found that modern CUPS printer support configuration tools under EL have a fairly complete data base of the drivers/parameters needed for vendor specific printers.
>> To some extent, this seems to include even reverse engineered data for printers for which the vendor will not provide any detailed public specifications and only provides proprietary "drivers" to the monopoly (and sometimes, Apple).
>>
>> Given various comments and suggestions that have appeared concerning the proper Linux formatting/partitioning and use of some current SATA hard drives that no longer present the 512 byte standard to the operating system, could SL (or RH or something equivalent to the CUPS team or ...) provide a data base for drives similar to the CUPS one for printers? For example, during the initial installation of either a new drive or a new major release of the OS (e.g., going from EL 5 to EL 6), the drive partitioning/formatting utility would recognize the drive(s) in use and automatically set either acceptable or "optimal" parameters.
>>
>> If such a data base exists, relevant URLs and/or RPMs would be appreciated.
>>
>> Yasha Karant

Here is the Smartmontools entry relevant to the drive with which I am 
having issues:

URL: 
http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/smartmontools/browser/trunk/smartmontools/drivedb.h#L1715

1715	  { "Western Digital Caviar Green (Adv. Format)",
1716	    "WDC WD(((64|75|80)00AA|(10|15|20)EA|(25|30)EZ)R|20EAC)S-.*",
1717	    "", "", ""
1718	  },

19	/*
20	 * Structure used to store drive database entries:
21	 *
22	 * struct drive_settings {
23	 *   const char * modelfamily;
24	 *   const char * modelregexp;
25	 *   const char * firmwareregexp;
26	 *   const char * warningmsg;
27	 *   const char * presets;
28	 * };
29	 *
30	 * The elements are used in the following ways:
31	 *
32	 *  modelfamily     Informal string about the model family/series of a
33	 *                  device. Set to "" if no info (apart from device id)
34	 *                  known.  The entry is ignored if this string 
starts with
35	 *                  a dollar sign.  Must not start with "USB:", see 
below.
36	 *  modelregexp     POSIX extended regular expression to match the 
model of
37	 *                  a device.  This should never be "".
38	 *  firmwareregexp  POSIX extended regular expression to match a 
devices's
39	 *                  firmware.  This is optional and should be "" if 
it is not
40	 *                  to be used.  If it is nonempty then it will be 
used to
41	 *                  narrow the set of devices matched by modelregexp.
42	 *  warningmsg      A message that may be displayed for matching 
drives.  For
43	 *                  example, to inform the user that they may need to 
apply a
44	 *                  firmware patch.
45	 *  presets         String with vendor-specific attribute ('-v') and 
firmware
46	 *                  bug fix ('-F') options.  Same syntax as in 
smartctl command
47	 *                  line.  The user's own settings override these.
48	 *
49	 * The regular expressions for drive model and firmware must match 
the full
50	 * string.  The effect of "^FULLSTRING$" is identical to "FULLSTRING".
51	 * The form ".*SUBSTRING.*" can be used if substring match is desired.
52	 *
53	 * The table will be searched from the start to end or until the 
first match,
54	 * so the order in the table is important for distinct entries that 
could match
55	 * the same drive.
56	 *

End source code.

It appears that there are no entries for drive formatting parameters. 
However, I will follow-up on your suggestion to the Smartmontools 
developers.

Yasha Karant