mediasmartserverd

Linux daemon that controls the drive bay status LEDs on HP MediaSmart Server EX48X and compatible hardware (Acer H340/H341/H342, Acer Altos easyStore M2, Lenovo IdeaCentre D400). Monitors disk presence and activity via udev/sysfs, provides update notifications via LED colors, and supports light show animations.

Also supports an Arduino-based USB serial LED driver for custom hardware builds where the original motherboard chipset is no longer available.

USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Credits

Originally created by Chris Byrne and Brian Teague. Arduino USB serial driver and continued development by Alejandro Mora.

This is an altered version of the original software. See LICENSE for terms (zlib license).

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Installation

Debian / Ubuntu (apt)

curl -fsSL https://amd989.github.io/mediasmartserverd/setup.sh | sudo bash
sudo apt install mediasmartserver

Or manually:

curl -fsSL https://amd989.github.io/mediasmartserverd/gpg.key | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/mediasmartserverd.gpg
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/mediasmartserverd.gpg] https://amd989.github.io/mediasmartserverd stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mediasmartserverd.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install mediasmartserver

Rocky Linux / RHEL / Fedora (dnf)

curl -fsSL https://amd989.github.io/mediasmartserverd/setup-rpm.sh | sudo bash
sudo dnf install mediasmartserver

Or manually:

sudo rpm --import https://amd989.github.io/mediasmartserverd/gpg.key
sudo tee /etc/yum.repos.d/mediasmartserverd.repo <<EOF
[mediasmartserverd]
name=mediasmartserverd
baseurl=https://amd989.github.io/mediasmartserverd/rpm/
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=https://amd989.github.io/mediasmartserverd/gpg.key
EOF
sudo dnf install mediasmartserver

From Source

See Building below.

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Usage

mediasmartserverd [-D] [-v] [-V] [--brightness <level>]

Option	Description
-D, --daemon	Run in the background as a daemon
-a, --activity	Use bay lights as disk activity indicators
-u, --update-monitor	Use system LED as update notification light
--brightness <level>	Set LED brightness (0=off to 10=full)
--light-show=N	Run LED animation pattern N
-v, --verbose	Verbose output (use twice for more)
--debug	Print debug messages
-V, --version	Print version number
-A, --arduino	Use Arduino USB serial LED driver
-P, --serial-port=DEV	Serial port for Arduino (default: /dev/ttyACM0)
-M, --bay-map=H,H,...	Map SCSI host numbers to LED bays (see below)

# run as a daemon with disk activity monitoring
sudo ./mediasmartserverd -D --activity

# run with Arduino LED driver
sudo ./mediasmartserverd --arduino --activity

# Arduino on a specific serial port
sudo ./mediasmartserverd --arduino --serial-port=/dev/ttyACM1 --activity

# test LEDs with light show
sudo ./mediasmartserverd --light-show=1

# set brightness
sudo ./mediasmartserverd --brightness=5

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Building

Requires: g++, libudev-dev, make

make

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Bay Mapping

On the original HP hardware, SCSI host numbers map directly to physical bay positions (host 0 = bottom bay, host 3 = top bay). On different hardware with a different SATA controller, these numbers may not match the physical bays.

Use --bay-map to specify which SCSI host numbers correspond to which LED bays. The argument is a comma-separated list of SCSI host numbers, in bay order (bay 0 first, bay 3 last):

# First, discover your SCSI host numbers:
sudo ./mediasmartserverd --arduino --activity --verbose --debug
# Look for lines like "scsi_host: 2 led: 2"

# Then set the mapping: hosts 2,3,4,5 → bays 0,1,2,3
sudo ./mediasmartserverd --arduino --activity --bay-map=2,3,4,5

The mapping is stable across reboots as long as the SATA controller and port assignments don't change. Set it permanently in the systemd service file:

ExecStart=/usr/sbin/mediasmartserverd --arduino --activity --bay-map=2,3,4,5

When --bay-map is not specified, the original behavior is preserved (SCSI host index is used directly as the LED bay index).

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Arduino LED Driver

For hardware where the original motherboard (SCH5127 + ICH9 chipset) is no longer available, the LED daughter board can be wired to a microcontroller and controlled over USB serial. Two firmware variants are provided:

The daughter board has 4 dual-color (blue/red) LEDs with inline resistors — each LED wire connects directly to a microcontroller GPIO pin.

Supported Boards

Board	Firmware	Voltage	PWM Brightness	Notes
Arduino Pro Micro	arduino/mediasmartserver_leds/	5V	System LED only	ATmega32U4, native USB
Raspberry Pi Pico	arduino/mediasmartserver_leds_pico/	3.3V	All LEDs	RP2040, all GPIOs have PWM

Both use the same serial protocol — the daemon doesn't need any changes between boards. See each board's README.md for pin mapping, wiring, and flash instructions.

Setup

1. Flash the firmware for your board (see links above)
2. Wire the LED daughter board to the GPIO pins
3. Connect the board to your server via USB
4. Run the daemon with --arduino:

./mediasmartserverd --arduino --activity --verbose

The driver communicates over USB serial at 115200 baud using a simple ASCII protocol. Both boards show up as /dev/ttyACM* on Linux.

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Original Hardware

On the EX485, LED brightness, fan control, and voltage sensors are connected to an SMSC SCH5127-NW chip (Super I/O with Temperature Sensing, Auto Fan Control and Glue Logic). The actual LEDs are controlled via General Purpose I/O on the Intel ICH9 (I/O Controller Hub 9).

LEDs are numbered from BOTTOM (1) to TOP (4) to match the SCSI bay assignments.

Supported Hardware

Hardware	LED Driver	Chipset
HP MediaSmart Server EX48X	LedHpEx48X	SCH5127 + ICH9
Acer Aspire easyStore H340	LedAcerH340	SCH5127 + ICH7
Acer Aspire easyStore H341/H342	LedAcerH341	SCH5127 + ICH9
Acer Altos easyStore M2	LedAcerAltosM2	SCH5127 + ICH7
Lenovo IdeaCentre D400	LedAcerH340	SCH5127 + ICH7
Arduino Pro Micro (custom)	LedArduino	USB serial
Raspberry Pi Pico (custom)	LedArduino	USB serial

The chipset-based drivers are auto-detected via DMI vendor/product strings. The USB serial driver is selected explicitly with --arduino.