Ytdyklly

I had the same problem. In my case, S.M.A.R.T had been working properly on the device for years while using Ubuntu 12.04, and then under Ubuntu 14.04 it happened exactly what you tell in the question.

The problem is related to a new kernel module that was introduced in Linux Kernel 3.15 called uas (USB Attached SCSI) (see release announcement).

That module is now the responsible of managing USB Mass Storage Devices. There is a thread where people complain that uas in kernel 3.15 is causing their USB devices to fail. Another one says that it might be the cause of S.M.A.R.T problems.

Fortunately, those problems seem to be gone at kernel 3.19 (which I am using), as my device is being detected correctly. Only the S.M.A.R.T problem remains.

To fix it, you need to disable the use of uas module for the given device.

Disable uas without rebooting

First, unplug all USB devices that might be using it. Then, remove the uas and usb-storage modules:

sudo modprobe -r uas

sudo modprobe -r usb-storage

Then, load usb-storage module with a parameter that tells it to not use uas for a given device:

sudo modprobe usb-storage quirks=VendorId:ProductId:u

VendorId and ProductId must be replaced by your device vendor and product id, which can be obtained with lsusb command (they are the characters after ID).

For example, I have the following device:

Bus 002 Device 011: ID 0bc2:3320 Seagate RSS LLC SRD00F2 [Expansion Desktop Drive]

So my vendor id is 0bc2, and my product id is 3320. My command is:

sudo modprobe usb-storage quirks=0bc2:3320:u

The last u tells usb-storage to ignore uas for the device (see source).

At this point, you can insert the USB device, and it will know not to use uas, making S.M.A.R.T work properly. You will see lines like these in dmesg when inserting the USB device:

usb 2-2: UAS is blacklisted for this device, using usb-storage instead

usb-storage 2-2:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected

usb-storage 2-2:1.0: Quirks match for vid 0bc2 pid 3320: 800000

scsi host12: usb-storage 2-2:1.0

Make the change permanent

The previous quirk will only last until you reboot the system. To make it persistent, you need to follow the steps described here, which I copy below:

First, create a file named ignore_uas.conf in the /etc/modprobe.d/ directory with the following content:

options usb-storage quirks=VendorId:ProductId:u

As before, substitute VendorId and ProductId by your device vendor and product id obtained from lsusb.

Next, regenerate your inital ramdisk:

mkinitcpio -p linux

Finally, reboot your computer.

External drives (via USB, I assume) are tricky with SMART. Some don't work at all. The smartmontools people posted a list of hard drives with command-line switches to add to smartctl (see fifth column).

For Seagate Expansion drives in particular, it looks like you need either -d sat or -d sat,12. Try the following:

sudo smartctl -d sat --all /dev/sdb

sudo smartctl -d sat,12 --all /dev/sdb

If one of those works, it tells you which -d switch to add to your smartctl commands.

check the table with supported USB Devices ...

the switch -d sat indicates, that it's supposed to be a drive with SATA port.

there are specific switches for certain USB bridges - lsusb might show the concrete name. if the bridge controller might have a bad implementation - just try to connect it native through SATA instead of USB.

SCSI and ATA (according to the shell output) are probably not what you are looking for :)

Just an update I am adding on to Alvaro's answer

Just tested this in Ubuntu 18.04 for an external Seagate drive that I have where I could not get smartctl to read the drive at all. It did require a reboot because I did not want to get behind my system and mess with the USB connections.

First ran lsusb and got all my info for the drive:

terrance@terrance-ubuntu:~$ lsusb

Bus 006 Device 002: ID 0bc2:a0a4 Seagate RSS LLC Backup Plus Desktop Drive

Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub

Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

Bus 004 Device 002: ID 1532:0118 Razer USA, Ltd 

Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

Bus 003 Device 003: ID 046d:c215 Logitech, Inc. Extreme 3D Pro

Bus 003 Device 002: ID 1532:005b Razer USA, Ltd 

Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

As you can see my drive has the name Seagate in it, so all I had to do is to run the following line to add the info to the /etc/modprode.d/ignore_uas.conf file:

echo options usb-storage quirks=$(lsusb | awk '/Seagate/ {print $6}'):u | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/ignore_uas.conf

Just remember to replace Seagate with the name of your drive. Now when I look at /etc/modprode.d/ignore_uas.conf I see it as:

~$ cat /etc/modprobe.d/ignore_uas.conf 

options usb-storage quirks=0bc2:a0a4:u

Then just run the update-initramfs for the changes to become permanent:

sudo update-initramfs -u

Then reboot your system. Now the smartctl is able to read my external drive.

$ sudo smartctl -a /dev/sdf

smartctl 6.6 2016-05-31 r4324 [x86_64-linux-4.15.0-43-generic] (local build)

Copyright (C) 2002-16, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org



=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===

Model Family:     Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 (AF)

Device Model:     ST3000DM001-1E6166

Serial Number:    W1F3DNG2

LU WWN Device Id: 5 000c50 06a323610

Firmware Version: SC47

User Capacity:    3,000,592,982,016 bytes [3.00 TB]

Sector Sizes:     512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical

Rotation Rate:    7200 rpm

Form Factor:      3.5 inches

Device is:        In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]

ATA Version is:   ATA8-ACS T13/1699-D revision 4

SATA Version is:  SATA 3.0, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 3.0 Gb/s)

Local Time is:    Fri Jan 11 23:07:43 2019 MST

SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.

SMART support is: Enabled



=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===

SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

See vendor-specific Attribute list for marginal Attributes.



General SMART Values:

Offline data collection status:  (0x00) Offline data collection activity

                    was never started.

                    Auto Offline Data Collection: Disabled.

Self-test execution status:      (   0) The previous self-test routine completed

                    without error or no self-test has ever 

                    been run.

Total time to complete Offline 

data collection:        (  592) seconds.

Offline data collection

capabilities:            (0x73) SMART execute Offline immediate.

                    Auto Offline data collection on/off support.

                    Suspend Offline collection upon new

                    command.

                    No Offline surface scan supported.

                    Self-test supported.

                    Conveyance Self-test supported.

                    Selective Self-test supported.

SMART capabilities:            (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering

                    power-saving mode.

                    Supports SMART auto save timer.

Error logging capability:        (0x01) Error logging supported.

                    General Purpose Logging supported.

Short self-test routine 

recommended polling time:    (   1) minutes.

Extended self-test routine

recommended polling time:    ( 336) minutes.

Conveyance self-test routine

recommended polling time:    (   2) minutes.

SCT capabilities:          (0x3081) SCT Status supported.



SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 10

Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:

ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE

  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x000f   108   099   006    Pre-fail  Always       -       19766104

  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0003   094   091   000    Pre-fail  Always       -       0

  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   097   097   020    Old_age   Always       -       3944

  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   100   100   010    Pre-fail  Always       -       0

  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x000f   052   048   030    Pre-fail  Always       -       231936780154

  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   058   058   000    Old_age   Always       -       36793

 10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0013   100   100   097    Pre-fail  Always       -       0

 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   097   097   020    Old_age   Always       -       3942

183 Runtime_Bad_Block       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0

184 End-to-End_Error        0x0032   100   100   099    Old_age   Always       -       0

187 Reported_Uncorrect      0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0

188 Command_Timeout         0x0032   100   092   000    Old_age   Always       -       894 897 1362

189 High_Fly_Writes         0x003a   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0

190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel 0x0022   056   039   045    Old_age   Always   In_the_past 44 (Min/Max 44/44 #237)

191 G-Sense_Error_Rate      0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0

192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   099   099   000    Old_age   Always       -       3909

193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   020   020   000    Old_age   Always       -       161838

194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   044   061   000    Old_age   Always       -       44 (0 13 0 0 0)

197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0012   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0

198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0010   100   100   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0

199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x003e   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0

240 Head_Flying_Hours       0x0000   100   253   000    Old_age   Offline      -       8558h+07m+38.053s

241 Total_LBAs_Written      0x0000   100   253   000    Old_age   Offline      -       14574986552

242 Total_LBAs_Read         0x0000   100   253   000    Old_age   Offline      -       18776308038



SMART Error Log Version: 1

No Errors Logged



SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1

No self-tests have been logged.  [To run self-tests, use: smartctl -t]



SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1

 SPAN  MIN_LBA  MAX_LBA  CURRENT_TEST_STATUS

    1        0        0  Not_testing

    2        0        0  Not_testing

    3        0        0  Not_testing

    4        0        0  Not_testing

    5        0        0  Not_testing

Selective self-test flags (0x0):

  After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.

If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.

Hope this helps!