Could you please test if you get the same error with smartctl (from the smartmontools package)?
No, smartmontoolls fails gracefully:
nartsiss:~# smartctl -a /dev/sda smartctl version 5.32 Copyright (C) 2002-4 Bruce Allen Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/
Device: ICSI CF Card Version: 2.7C scsiModePageOffset: response length too short, resp_len=12 offset=12 bd_len=8
Terminate command early due to bad response to IEC mode page
A mandatory SMART command failed: exiting. To continue, add one or more '-T permissive' options.
-- Meelis Roos ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
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