External usb hdd WD Elements - avoid spindown -- #2

A little update regarding the USB HDD spin-down-problem (discussed here: External usb hdd WD Elements - avoid spindown).
I found a better workaround somewhere (sorry to the original author - i forgot where...).

By default, the APM_level is set to 96(d) (60h) after every reconnect.
When setting this value to 128(d) (80h), the drive spins down after .. approx. 30-45 minutes (i haven't tested this exactly, but it definitely doesn't spin after.. lets say 1h).

The APM_level can be set with hdparm:

# hdparm -B /dev/disk/by-label/WD_500G_NTFS
/dev/disk/by-label/WD_500G_NTFS:
APM_level = 96

# hdparm -B 128 /dev/disk/by-label/WD_500G_NTFS
/dev/disk/by-label/WD_500G_NTFS:
setting Advanced Power Management level to 0x80 (128)
APM_level = 128

Note: The hard disk doesn't remember this setting. Like written before - after every reconnect it has its default setting of 96d.


Update1 / additional information:
The hdparm method works for me on the following Kernel:

$ uname -s -r -v -o
Linux 3.0.0-1-686-pae #1 SMP Sat Aug 27 16:41:03 UTC 2011 GNU/Linux

but on

uname -s -r -v -o
Linux 3.1.0-1-686-pae #1 SMP Mon Nov 14 08:24:20 UTC 2011 GNU/Linux

i get the following error when running hdparm:

# hdparm -B /dev/disk/by-label/WD_500G_NTFS
/dev/sdb:
HDIO_DRIVE_CMD(identify) failed: Invalid argument

edit1: (17.12.2011)
-added information regarding different kernel versions.

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Quick encryption with gpg

Today another kind of bookmark-style post;
Scenario:
You want to protect some file with a password to

• store it on your local computer
• send it to someone else.

You need the same password on both sides (=encryption and decryption).
(If sent to someone else, make sure to transfer the password on another way than the file.. )

• encrypt:
  • % gpg --symetric foo.txt
    results in a file foo.txt.gpg which contains binary data
  • % gpg --symetric --armor foo.txt
    gives foo.txt.asc which contains ascii characters, which makes sense (for small files) when you want to paste it directly into an email
• decrypt:
  • % gpg --output foo.txt --decode foo.txt.gpg
  • % gpg --output foo.txt --decode foo.txt.asc

source: http://advosys.ca/viewpoints/2006/07/pgp-symmetric-encryption/