Comments on: Debian NSLU2 post-install part 1 http://blog.chewearn.com/2008/08/12/debian-nslu2-post-install-part-1/ The ramblings of a bochap guy Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:44:26 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: zcat http://blog.chewearn.com/2008/08/12/debian-nslu2-post-install-part-1/comment-page-1/#comment-287 zcat Sat, 18 Apr 2009 15:06:49 +0000 http://blog.chewearn.com/?p=100#comment-287 Use port 1 for USB drive with / Use port 2 with self-powered USB hub (now you do not need the ac power adaptor since the NSLU2 gets USB power) Use UUIDs (not dev/sdx) in fstab and menu.lst and will never have a problem getting devices mixed up when puugging in additional drives and re-booting Use port 1 for USB drive with /
Use port 2 with self-powered USB hub (now you do not need the ac power adaptor since the NSLU2 gets USB power)
Use UUIDs (not dev/sdx) in fstab and menu.lst and will never have a problem getting devices mixed up when puugging in additional drives and re-booting

]]> By: chewearn http://blog.chewearn.com/2008/08/12/debian-nslu2-post-install-part-1/comment-page-1/#comment-272 chewearn Sun, 08 Feb 2009 03:15:14 +0000 http://blog.chewearn.com/?p=100#comment-272 hi Andrew, thanks for the reminder. I did have the swap in the thumbdrive. However, I provided a link in "Debian NSLU2 post-install part 2" (see related posts, above) on <a title="How do you set ’swappiness’?" href="http://lwn.net/Articles/83830/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">how to change the "swappiness"</a>; essentially reduce the tendency for memory swapping to occur. hi Andrew, thanks for the reminder.

I did have the swap in the thumbdrive. However, I provided a link in “Debian NSLU2 post-install part 2″ (see related posts, above) on how to change the “swappiness”; essentially reduce the tendency for memory swapping to occur.

]]> By: Andrew http://blog.chewearn.com/2008/08/12/debian-nslu2-post-install-part-1/comment-page-1/#comment-271 Andrew Sat, 07 Feb 2009 16:53:21 +0000 http://blog.chewearn.com/?p=100#comment-271 Do you have your swap running on your pen drive? Probably a bad idea if you do -- You probably know already, but for those reading this page who don't, writes are limited on flash media and will shorten life-span. Admittedly, max number of writes is high, but if you're going to swap all the time, as you're likely to do on a slug, it's not healthy. Just pondering a re-install of my slug to Lenny running on a pen drive. Currently got it going on a 20Gb hard drive but there's no point given that it's only doing DNS, DHCP and acting as an SSH tunnel to get in from work. Do you have your swap running on your pen drive?

Probably a bad idea if you do — You probably know already, but for those reading this page who don’t, writes are limited on flash media and will shorten life-span. Admittedly, max number of writes is high, but if you’re going to swap all the time, as you’re likely to do on a slug, it’s not healthy.

Just pondering a re-install of my slug to Lenny running on a pen drive. Currently got it going on a 20Gb hard drive but there’s no point given that it’s only doing DNS, DHCP and acting as an SSH tunnel to get in from work.

]]> By: chewearn http://blog.chewearn.com/2008/08/12/debian-nslu2-post-install-part-1/comment-page-1/#comment-213 chewearn Sun, 14 Dec 2008 17:46:22 +0000 http://blog.chewearn.com/?p=100#comment-213 hi Darko Again, my apologies since I have never been too concern about disk I/O on the slug, and have not run extensive testing on it. In my own speed test of sequential write to disk (dd command write to a blank disk), USB1 appeared to be faster than USB2. That's as far as I went, and I did not test read speed as well. However, if I am faced with the same doubt, I would let the data disks I/O be as fast as possible. The root partition would only be sparingly used after the device has booted up, so it won't be a bottleneck in overall speed. In other words, do the test with a ext2 or ext3 formatted disks for read and write to compare USB1 and USB2. Even so, I am not sure how representative the results would be in practice. See here for an example of some attempt to benchmark file systems. http://linuxgazette.net/102/piszcz.html http://www.debian-administration.org/articles/388 If I am reading these pages correctly, the answer to which file system is faster is... it depends. ;) hi Darko
Again, my apologies since I have never been too concern about disk I/O on the slug, and have not run extensive testing on it. In my own speed test of sequential write to disk (dd command write to a blank disk), USB1 appeared to be faster than USB2. That’s as far as I went, and I did not test read speed as well.

However, if I am faced with the same doubt, I would let the data disks I/O be as fast as possible. The root partition would only be sparingly used after the device has booted up, so it won’t be a bottleneck in overall speed.

In other words, do the test with a ext2 or ext3 formatted disks for read and write to compare USB1 and USB2. Even so, I am not sure how representative the results would be in practice.

See here for an example of some attempt to benchmark file systems.
http://linuxgazette.net/102/piszcz.html
http://www.debian-administration.org/articles/388

If I am reading these pages correctly, the answer to which file system is faster is… it depends. ;)

]]> By: Darko http://blog.chewearn.com/2008/08/12/debian-nslu2-post-install-part-1/comment-page-1/#comment-212 Darko Sun, 14 Dec 2008 16:53:56 +0000 http://blog.chewearn.com/?p=100#comment-212 I'm getting the sence to stay away from ntfs altogether for this device. Perhaps ext2 to avoid the overhead of ext3 ? Again, just trying to max the performance of what I can of this device. So, let me rephrase, assuming you know, ... how would you config this device for max throughput having 1 20gb 2.5" boot drive, 1 usb 2.0 hub and 1 or more external attached to usb hub drives (format ? - ext2, fat32, etc). Only consideration would be the desire to unplug external drives an mass load them once in a while from faster pc (win or linux - linux perhaps via vmware within vista (yeah, I know :( ) I still need windows in many ways. So, 20 gb boot on usb 2? hub on usb 1 ? External drive(s) - ext 2 to hub Is that the best it can get ? Thanks I’m getting the sence to stay away from ntfs altogether for this device. Perhaps ext2 to avoid the overhead of ext3 ? Again, just trying to max the performance of what I can of this device. So, let me rephrase, assuming you know, … how would you config this device for max throughput having 1 20gb 2.5″ boot drive, 1 usb 2.0 hub and 1 or more external attached to usb hub drives (format ? – ext2, fat32, etc). Only consideration would be the desire to unplug external drives an mass load them once in a while from faster pc (win or linux – linux perhaps via vmware within vista (yeah, I know :( ) I still need windows in many ways.

So, 20 gb boot on usb 2?
hub on usb 1 ? External drive(s) – ext 2 to hub

Is that the best it can get ?

Thanks

]]> By: chewearn http://blog.chewearn.com/2008/08/12/debian-nslu2-post-install-part-1/comment-page-1/#comment-211 chewearn Sun, 14 Dec 2008 16:27:41 +0000 http://blog.chewearn.com/?p=100#comment-211 hi Darko Sorry, I don't use NTFS for at least a year now, since I switched completely from Windows to Linux. Can't help you there. hi Darko
Sorry, I don’t use NTFS for at least a year now, since I switched completely from Windows to Linux. Can’t help you there.

]]> By: Darko http://blog.chewearn.com/2008/08/12/debian-nslu2-post-install-part-1/comment-page-1/#comment-210 Darko Sun, 14 Dec 2008 16:01:42 +0000 http://blog.chewearn.com/?p=100#comment-210 So I'm trying to figure out which usb port to use for my boot hd (20gb port 2.5" drive) and the usb 2.0 hub for my media files. Doing dd read/write tests show boot drive on USB Disk 1 are approx 5x faster but the dd tests on attached ntfs-3g mounted 3.5" 300gb drive are approx same with both usb ports... ie 15.6 MB/s on reads but only 1.4 MB/s on write on either USB1 or USB2 ports. I should verify that the hub isn't getting in the way but ntfs-3g does seem to indicate poor write performances..... so, any way to same me some time here ? Should I scrap the ntfs and use ext2 on which usb port ? If you know, please advise. Thanks. So I’m trying to figure out which usb port to use for my boot hd (20gb port 2.5″ drive) and the usb 2.0 hub for my media files. Doing dd read/write tests show boot drive on USB Disk 1 are approx 5x faster but the dd tests on attached ntfs-3g mounted 3.5″ 300gb drive are approx same with both usb ports… ie 15.6 MB/s on reads but only 1.4 MB/s on write on either USB1 or USB2 ports. I should verify that the hub isn’t getting in the way but ntfs-3g does seem to indicate poor write performances….. so, any way to same me some time here ? Should I scrap the ntfs and use ext2 on which usb port ? If you know, please advise. Thanks.

]]> By: Darko http://blog.chewearn.com/2008/08/12/debian-nslu2-post-install-part-1/comment-page-1/#comment-208 Darko Sun, 14 Dec 2008 02:07:30 +0000 http://blog.chewearn.com/?p=100#comment-208 Thanks again for the prompt responses... see here as well... http://jbcobb.net/?p=43 good blog. .. and yes, it is still somewhat as a toy :) so I'm more in it for the education. eeePC's are still more expensive toys for me at the moment but am keeping an eye on them. So just did a reboot with my main / in usb1 and attached a powered usb hub into usb2 and noticed it providing power to my nslu2 so quickly unpowered the hub. Then powered on the nslu2...heard the beeps :) saw all usb ports lit up... Did the UUID method. All looks well. Seem to be able to interchange between usb1 and usb2. Am now using ntfs-3g to attach ntfs drives. Need to figure out security and userid mappings, etc.. Thanks again for the prompt responses…
see here as well…
http://jbcobb.net/?p=43
good blog.

.. and yes, it is still somewhat as a toy :) so I’m more in it for the education. eeePC’s are still more expensive toys for me at the moment but am keeping an eye on them.

So just did a reboot with my main / in usb1 and attached a powered usb hub into usb2 and noticed it providing power to my nslu2 so quickly unpowered the hub. Then powered on the nslu2…heard the beeps :) saw all usb ports lit up…

Did the UUID method. All looks well. Seem to be able to interchange between usb1 and usb2. Am now using ntfs-3g to attach ntfs drives. Need to figure out security and userid mappings, etc..

]]> By: chewearn http://blog.chewearn.com/2008/08/12/debian-nslu2-post-install-part-1/comment-page-1/#comment-209 chewearn Sat, 13 Dec 2008 20:13:21 +0000 http://blog.chewearn.com/?p=100#comment-209 hi Darko Yes, it should be “plug ‘n play”. If you are worried about reinstall issue, do what I did: keep a disk dump of the entire root partition. You can do this in a PC using “dd” command. If you refer to my earlier post on this category, I made the hardware hack to use the additional internal USB3 port. This would be the best solution for you requirement, since you get two higher speed ports (USB1 and USB3). Though, I’m not sure whether you are confident in modifying the hardware. Personally, I am using the slug as more of a “toy”, to play around a Debian system; I have yet to find a real use for it (unless you counted when I originally bought and used it for: as a home file server using the original Linksys firmware). I am not really familiar with alternative device. But if you are really looking a workable low power alternative, a cheap netbook (e.g. eeePC) could easily fill that role. Perhaps, install Ubuntu on it; it’s a lot easier to work with. I have not personally tried the UUID method. Looking at the howto you linked, it appeared to be non-trivial. Writing to the flash is always risky, but the risk would be minimised if you backup the flash, and perform a verification of the backup before proceeding. hi Darko
Yes, it should be “plug ‘n play”. If you are worried about reinstall issue, do what I did: keep a disk dump of the entire root partition. You can do this in a PC using “dd” command.

If you refer to my earlier post on this category, I made the hardware hack to use the additional internal USB3 port. This would be the best solution for you requirement, since you get two higher speed ports (USB1 and USB3). Though, I’m not sure whether you are confident in modifying the hardware.

Personally, I am using the slug as more of a “toy”, to play around a Debian system; I have yet to find a real use for it (unless you counted when I originally bought and used it for: as a home file server using the original Linksys firmware).

I am not really familiar with alternative device. But if you are really looking a workable low power alternative, a cheap netbook (e.g. eeePC) could easily fill that role. Perhaps, install Ubuntu on it; it’s a lot easier to work with.

I have not personally tried the UUID method. Looking at the howto you linked, it appeared to be non-trivial. Writing to the flash is always risky, but the risk would be minimised if you backup the flash, and perform a verification of the backup before proceeding.

]]> By: Darko http://blog.chewearn.com/2008/08/12/debian-nslu2-post-install-part-1/comment-page-1/#comment-206 Darko Sat, 13 Dec 2008 19:46:40 +0000 http://blog.chewearn.com/?p=100#comment-206 Ok, I think this is what I need to do but was shy to try it without understanding it. http://www.nslu2-linux.org/wiki/HowTo/MountDisksByLabel Any experience with this ? What's the worse that can happen ? I take a backup of my image and reflash it if necessary ? Right ? Ok, I think this is what I need to do but was shy to try it without understanding it.

http://www.nslu2-linux.org/wiki/HowTo/MountDisksByLabel

Any experience with this ? What’s the worse that can happen ? I take a backup of my image and reflash it if necessary ? Right ?

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