File README.SATA of Package smartmontools

README for S.M.A.R.T. on SATA discs

Smartmontools should work correctly with SATA drives under both Linux
2.4 and 2.6 kernels, if you use the standard IDE drivers. If you use
libata drivers, you need new enough kernel. For older versions it
won't work correctly because libata didn't support the needed
ATA-passthrough ioctl() calls. For more read
http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/.

If you select in the BIOS that the SATA controller should operate in
legacy mode, then the IDE driver will grab it for itself and won't let
libata use it.

If, however the IDE driver doesn't support your particular SATA
controller, or the controller doesn't have a legacy interface at all,
then only libata can be used.

As far as we know, the IDE driver only works on Intel, VIA and nVidia
controllers.