Reference
Troubleshooting
Common issues and their solutions.
Common Issues
Drive is "Frozen" — ATA Secure Erase won't start
Many BIOS implementations "freeze" ATA drives on boot to prevent malware from issuing erase commands. This is the most common issue.
Solution
- Suspend your laptop:
systemctl suspend - Wake it up (press power button or open lid)
- The drive should now be unfrozen — retry the erase
Alternatively, Swipe can attempt this automatically via di_system_unfreeze().
"Permission denied" or "Not running as root"
Direct disk access requires root privileges on Linux.
Solution
sudo swipeThe disclaimer screen checks id -u and will show an error if UID ≠ 0.
No drives detected
If the Discovery tab is empty:
- Verify drives exist in
lsblk - Ensure
libudevis installed:apt install libudev-dev - Check that
libdriveinfo.sois in the correct path (co-located with the swipe binary or in/opt/swipe/lib/) - Verify you have kernel support:
uname -rshould be 4.4+
Wipe speed is extremely slow
Common causes of slow wipe speed:
- USB drives: USB 2.0 limits speed to ~30 MB/s. Use USB 3.0+ ports.
- Random fill: PRNG generation is CPU-intensive. Use Zero Fill for maximum throughput.
- Gutmann 35-pass: Inherently slow due to 35 passes. Consider DoD 3-pass or NIST Clear instead.
- Thermal throttling: Check drive temperature in the Capabilities tab. Drives throttle at ~70°C.
App crashes on launch / GTK errors
Install missing GTK dependencies:
sudo apt install libgtk-3-0 libblkid1 liblzma5On headless servers or minimal installs, GTK may not be present. Swipe requires a graphical desktop environment.
SMART health shows "N/A"
SMART data requires smartmontools:
sudo apt install smartmontools