It tells you what you can do. As long as you get the device name right you are not going to mess up your OS partions. You can afford to make mistakes and start over if you don't get it right the first time.
NOT quite ready to "Just do it".
It is the same old thing that worries me....
The provided documentation for the SSD only supports Apple and Windows OS -- no indication of Linux being supported, and the SSD seems to be pre-loaded with software that works with those OSes to clone from an existing hard-disk.
It is obvious that one swipe of fdisk and all that pre-loaded stuff is gone. And then there is the question of loading ext2, ext3, or ext4.
============
So I went looking on the WWW for Linux solid state drive advice and it comes up with several issues that have existed for a long time (since my last SSD on the EEEpc 701-4G)
A. Some say that I should leave 7% unused by partitions up to 10Gbyte to get better useful life out of the device. (It seems that the unused area is reallocated on demand by the SSD for replacement of failed areas, or managing other problems.)
B. Consider lowering the Swapdisk usage
C. Limit the frequent rewrites for items such and files that update the time and date, and Firefox.
While I never did actually wearout the SSD on EEEpc 701-4G, it was hugely debated as to how long one might last if measures were not taken.
The main thing is that SSD devices suffer from frequent revision of small files. It may not actually be the writing that is the source of trouble, but the erasure has to rewrite a much larger block that with mechanical hard drives.
So I am doing a bit more reading before I actually partition my SSD.
My Transcend SSD370s claims to support S.M.A.R.T, TRIM, and NCQ. I hope so as it appears there is no firmware update resource currently available for these. (Other SSD brands do provide for firmware updates.)
S.M.A.R.T. is a hard disk failure monitor that has been available for a long time. Most of it is about mechanical failure indicators, so it is of limited use in SSD devices. What the failed writes and reads.
NCQ - Linux Native Command Queing previously suffered from problems in SSD. (See the ARCHline linux below and the particular section of NCQ errors.) The user may have to disable NCQ if it outputs error messages.
++++++++++++
Overall, I am hoping that the SSD device firmware has finally matured to the point than most of these problem areas are resolved. My choice to buy a Transcend SS370s was quite random.
That preloaded software is useless on Linux, who cares if it's blown away? If you need to clone disks we have better ways of doing it anyway (dd anyone?)
Use ext4, the Debian default, why not?
See "OS just works thread" for use of smartctl and fstrim.
I am working on this at my own pace. Actually Ext4 is preferred for SSDs as it has automated TRIM ready-to-go. Before that, deployment of TRIM was more involved. (See, I am learning by reading and researching.)
I was able to connect with the WWW and use apt-get to update and upgrade the Debian Wheezy that Cubian provides. It only complained about a 'time warp' due to the Cubieboard lacking a RTC and I neglected to first set the time and date before running apt-get.
Repositories for the Cubieboard are a wonder thing. Lots of Debian software to acquire if so desired.
===========
I would rather not damage the SSD as I could have returned it if it wouldn't do Linux. But I passed the point of no return.
It is partially done. I ran fdisk and successfully created two partiions, one for Linux and another for a Linux swap disk.
I still have some reservations about heuristically having mkfs provide the right Ext4 formating as the wrong block size could be an issue in SSDs. There seems there is a way to limit it to 4096byte blocks or larger that MIGHT be okay. But since, SSD are supposedly allocating ONLY 4096 byte blocks, I may just specifically designate that. I need to actually try to confirm which solution is best.
+++++++
It seems that Transcend doesn't have Linux support and Linux doesn't have Transcend support. Both are pretending neither exists. It is just a fact of life that some manufactures are Microsoft and Apple loyalists. While the product may support Linux, they won't acknowledge such.
You presume that a SSD is completely supported in Linux from any source. I have my doubts.
You presume that a SSD is completely supported in Linux from any source. I have my doubts.
I do indeed.
Thing is that an SSD should sit on the end of your SATA cable and look like a disk drive. If it does not conform to the specs for that, SATA protocol, ATA commands, then it is defective and goes back to the shop.
I am not really worrying so much as I am exploring for new information on a need-to-know and nice-to-know basis.
So, the ext4 is installed at 1024 K sectors, and 512K sectors seem to be the default minimum for the Transcend SSD370s. It appears that SSD sectors sizes have gotten smaller of recent and are not the issue the once were. 4096K sectors don't seem to be the minimum.
Sure it is a $50.00 USD SSD, but my next one might be much larger and a major cash outlay. I might as well find out now what might be an issue.. while the cost of an error is affordable.
For instance, I didn't know that running defragmentation in Windows is an SSD killer. Go ahead and verify this for me. I won't try it.
++++++++
Using gparted in a GUI makes these items easy -- just fill-in the menu requests and point and shoot.
It is all back to the good old basics. With fdisk, I have a partitioned, and with mkfs.ext4 and mkswap, I formated SSD now with a Swapdisk partition, but I am a bit uncertain that I have mount points that are useful.
I could install the Root file system in the NAND flash, and have the SSD just be storage or I can have the Root on the SSD and boot from it. I am not sure which might be better. I am still trying to decide what I expect ho a finished file system will best perform.
So I am going to move on to installing the Wifi on a USB dongle. In that way, I won't have to sit in front of a pile of hardware clutter (the Cubieboard, power supply, and SSD with wiring) to do further configuration. I can just log in over wifi via telnet or SSH and do things.
++++++++++++++++++
In other words, this project is pretty much a done deal at this point. But there are still loose ends. The S.M.A.R.T daemon appears not installed, so I can't yet get reports, and so on. But I do know how to get that installed.
I am still thinking of a dual function device.
A. A file server available via wifi.
B. A IR controlled digital juke box.
The fact that I do NOT have the GUI Desktop installed is good for me.
It is forcing me to revisit how these things are done with the command line. And that is really what I bought the Cubieboard for -- to teach me to be better at LInux configuration and systems administration. One REALLY needs a spare computer to explore and learn Linux in depth. You want to keep your regular computer for access to info on the WWW and everyday work... so you can't afford to try things.
+++++++
And yes, I can redo the SSD if I made any big mistakes.
So far, I think I have a swapdisk that is 10Gbytes and that is way too big. Also I left 7% of the SSD unused as suggested in an article, and that really may no longer be necessary as well.
I am just feeling my way through these things and mentioning salient points of concern that others mentioned. I really don't want to just jam it together and watch it suddenly crash with no idea of what might have been the cause.
My USB Wifi dongle, which is aTP-Link TL-WN832N v3, seems to require a firmware upgrade inorder to use Debian Linux (or any Linux). So I am off in that weed patch for awhile. Actually the device was produced in 3 versions and I got the one that is a problem.
FYI...
Way back when I commited to Linux, I purchased quite a few books that were 'non-distribution' alligned to get me started. The publisher had a buy two, get one free offer if you bought direct --- don't use Amazon. All are available in FREE download versions.
Running Linux
Linux in a Nutshell
Linux Administrators Guide
Linux Network Administration
and so on. (These came from O'Reilly)
Slowly I have migrated to Debian as a main-stream distribution and the CubianX is a Debian distribution just for the Cubieboard.
So I am delighted to discover that Debian manuals are available and make it all a bit easier that reading a generalized text. The Debian Reference seems to offer me more certainty about the way I should go about things and why. I just printed a copy to PDF to use off line.
I did start out with Ubuntu 10.04 and really enjoyed the on-line support from other users. But I have moved on as the Ubuntu community has gotten difficult to keep up with.
It wasn't always that way.
Ubuntu really helped popularize the simplicity of LiveCD/DVD installation. That was a very significant contribution to Linux.... only one disk to get the whole OS working.
Even to this day, Debian installation offers iso images for multiple CDs/DVDs and the rather dreary fumbling through the machine demanding another disk.
I tried distributions sold on piles of CDs before Ubuntu (Red Hat and Slackware) and the whole installation process just made me confused and frightened that I was in over my head.
Fortunately, Debian now allows one to choose to dismiss the piles of disk and have the installation proceed from a repository after the first disk gets to a certain point. My last two Debian installs have been that way.
But I still feel the best way to start with Linux is to have an extra machine and be willing to load and reload whenever you get lost.
Well, except Knoppix was the first live CD Linux. And a very fine thing too. Ubuntu has contributed nothing much.
Not sure what you have been up to but only one CD has been required to install RedHat since it existed. I have never had more than one Debian or other distros CD for installation.
Yes, I did have the RedHat boxed CD sets back in the day. A convenience for those behind a 14.4K Baud modem. If they and Slackware and others had not produced those CDs Linux would have been a lot harder to get into for many.
I have tried Knoppix. It seemed to be very German... technical and chock full of stuff.
Knoppix may NOT have been 'the first LiveCD'
"The first Linux-based 'Live CD' was Yggdrasil Linux first released in beta form 1992~1993 (ceased production in 1995), though in practice its functionality was hampered due to the low throughput of contemporary CD-ROM drives. DemoLinux, released in 1998, was the first Linux distribution specially designed as a live CD. The Linuxcare bootable business card, first released in 1999, was the first Live CD to focus on system administration, and the first to be distributed in the bootable business card form factor. As of 2015, Finnix (first released in 2000) is the oldest Live CD still in production. Knoppix, a Debian-derived Linux distribution, was released in 2003, and found popularity as both a rescue disk system and as a primary distribution in its own right." -- Wikipedia entry for LiveCD.
I never heard of Yggdrasil, but join the club -- Wikipedia makes us all look like idiots when we try to spout history. I just fear that Wikipedia is too respected as 'the final authority'.
Knoppix is intended as a LiveCD only Linux, like Puppy Linux. But it seems Knoppix is more of a Swiss Army knife type tool. I found the DVD version too slow -- maybe on a USBstick I would enjoy using it.
That's the thing about history, there is what I know happened, there is what you know happened, then there is what actually happened. If we dig up enough evidence we might start to agree on what happened. Which may still not be what actually happened!
Knoppix can be installed to your hard drive/SSD. After that it's pretty much a Debian variant.
Well, I am not particularly interested in installing Knoppix. I want to just install Debian with ARM support.
I have the Cubian working. I even found out how to migrate the SDcard image to the SSD as the image I used didn't support the shell script solution that I read about. And I have gotten into verifying which USB wifi device drivers are available. So those installation goals are within reach.
But I hit snags with apt and aptitude. Attempting to install more software from Debian repositories appears broken. This is a big issue with me as I would rather not have to compile from source all and everything that Debian has to offer for the ARM7 devices at this point. It is just another distraction.
When I go to etc/apt/sources.list, I get Debian repositories. But I can't seem to figure out how they fail or why they fail. I am suspecting that I am being directed to repositories for Intel architecture.
One solution is to drop Cubian and go to OpenWrt, which has its own well-managed respositories for whatever it supports - called opkg.
Another solution is to keep reading and keep hoping that Debian really has the ARM7 repositories.
And the most dreaded is that I have to cross-compile whatever I desire from Debian source to the proper ARM7 Sunxi binaries.
=======
This all has me wondering how well the Raspberry Pi provides repository support. Respository support is really a key issue with new learners using any SoC. Just because it will install a Linux binary and boot doesn't make the setup really useful or fun.
We have real Debian 7 and 8 running on many IGEP ARM boards here and updating via apt has always worked.
Sometimes there are issues reaching the Debian repos or their mirrors. I use local mirrors. On occasion I have found a mirror that did not have the packages or Debian version I wanted.
The sources list on those ARM Debian 8 (Jessie) machines looks like:
deb http://ftp.fi.debian.org/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.fi.debian.org/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free
deb http://security.debian.org/ jessie/updates main
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ jessie/updates main
I pretty sure the only change is "wheezy" to "jessie" in the above when we upgraded.
You should be able to visit the urls in your sources list with your browser and see what's there. At least that tells you if your Cubie can access them or not.
Presumably when you do the "$ apt-get install xyz" command it issues some error messages when it fails. What do they say?
Most people run Raspbian on their Pi. That is Debian with a few tweaks for the Pi. That of course has it's own Raspbian repositories that are mirrored around the world. The Raspbian repos stay up to date with changes in the upstream Debian. Updating a Pi is as easy as any Intel desktop version of Debian or Ubuntu etc.
Why would I imagine otherwise?
OpenWrt has its own special repository, and most of the Linux distributions do -- with varied support for all that is Linux.
Debian seems to offer a more comprehensive list. But, I really was worried that all the not being X86 or AMD64 architectures, the SoC chips didn't have formal Debian repositories.
But happily I see that isn't the case.
I am still not sure that PuTTY or minicom is available for the ARM7 architecture as the listing is rather long to look through and I couldn't seem to use a search feature. Time to develop my 'grep' skills.
+++++++++++
Things are progressing toward learning how to manage Debian on a SoC board. Not having a GUI and related graphic system administrative tools is pushing me to learn more traditional UNIX-like solutions.
Actually Aptitude is very helpful, maybe more so than Synaptic.
www.distrowatch.com is very helpful to locate distributions of Linux that support CPUS that are not i386, x86_64 or AMD64. I saw a lot of alternative architectures I have never considering using.
It seems that the Raspberry Pi and the Cubieboard1 are ARM7, but the Debian repositories list ARM by Armel, Armhf, and Arm64.
After a bit of searching, I presume that Arm7 should use Armhf repositories.
It gets a bit confusing as the Raspberry Pi is a Broadcom chip with its own video support, and the Cubieboard is a Sunxi Allwinner A10 chip with different video support -- even though both support HDMI and may adapt to VGA
In general "apt-cache search whatever" will find whatever you want. Although a bit of a "grep whatever" on the output is sometimes required to filter out what you don't want.
Actually I have no idea what synaptic does or why I might need one
You are right. The whole ARM architecture thing is a confusing mess. There have been many generations of ARM with a bunch of different instruction sets and differing floating point capabilities, and on top of that one can run an ARM as a big endian or little endian processor. Jeeze.
Luckily things have stabilized a bit recently and Debian decided to support only two ARM variants (Oh and 64 bit ARM but never mind that). Don't ask me what they are called it's too confusing.
Unfortunately the original Pi whilst working with a normal Debian install had a chip that was not optimized for floating point maths with Debian. Hence the need to create Raspbian, which is basically Debian compiled with the correct floating point options.
But then, the new Raspi Pi 2 is a more up to date ARM variant so the Raspbian optimizations are really not needed.
But, we continue to use Raspbian because it works the same across all Pi versions and includes, out of the box, the correctly set up boot loader, video drivers and so on.
I guess you are about to learn why the Pi is a hit and the Cubbie is not. I mean, how come your video is not working out of the box?
"I guess you are about to learn why the Pi is a hit and the Cubbie is not. I mean, how come your video is not working out of the box?" == pompous presumptive snipe.
Well, my HDMI video is working in Android 4.0.4 and Debian Desktop includes the GUI, and VGA can be deployed from the GPIO if one creates a dongle.
I chose to load a binary that supports HDMI output and usb keyboard only as terminal, not the XWindows systems. I have found that to gain a better knowledge of Linux installation and configuration in general, I should just work at the terminal until I am satisfied. XWindows and the GUI seems to keep me less engaged with learning.
But it seems that I might just be able to install a desktop and change the Runtime have a GUI.
I simply wanted to run headless, but not have to actually set up another computer as a terminal.
++++++++++++
Debian claims to offer 50,000 packages according to Distrowatch. So I am simply exploring how many Debian packages really might be supported in the repository that applies to Armhl.
Aptitude offers overview of what is installed and what is available. This info is not so easy to locate in apt. Since it is not a GUI application, it is small and I suppose even a Raspberry Pi user might benefit from finding out what packages are installed and what are available, but uninstalled.
I MUST fix apt. Neither PuTTY nor mincom are located fro installation. But my ADSL modem went down, so everything is stalled until my ISP resolves my ADSL services.
Cubieboard has consistently moved toward upgrading its board's resource to provide a complete mini-computer; Raspberry Pi has remained focused on the cheapest and smallest. Cubieboard is up to it's 4th board in the stores, but I have one of #1 boards.
So Debian support may be different on each generation.
What I am trying to now learn is how much is available without turning to source and compiling my own binaries. I don't need 50,000 packages, but the installation I chose is rather barebones just to keep the binaries less than 1Gbyte.
Cubieboard and Raspberry Pi share the 'ArmHardFloatPort'. And I guess that means the repository resources are equal -- or at least considered equal from the Debian point of view (see below discussion of Raspbian as an unofficial Debian port -- I guess supported independently by Rasp Pi Foundation).
https://wiki.debian.org/ArmPorts?highlight=(\bCategoryPorts\b) Note that Raspbian is an additonal unofficial Debian armhf port that targets v6 instead of v7. Not sure how that plays out with official Debian repositories being useful to Raspberry Pi, or Raspian repositories being useful to Cubieboard-1.
It is not so much that I must prove Cubieboard superior to Raspberry Pi.
I just thought that they may have the same repository solution. I really don't have a desire to prove the Cubieboard superior to the Raspberry PI so much as I have a desire to master more and more of LInux. The SoC devices go in many different developmental directions that seem to make it difficult for Linux to keep up.
I personally feel more confident with OpenWrt's efforts to hack routers as there seems to be much less of the leading edge involved. Debian may just not be able to get good input about all the various Arm devices available.
I could be doing all this on my MR-3020 with OpenWrt, or with an old XP machine I have. Each has its own quirks and each offers somewhat different opportunities to learn.
Since my DSL modem went down, I am trying to figure the best way to proceed.
1. Have the telephone company come out and replace it at no cost to me, and verify the rest of the service is okay (this may take a week). Meanwhile, I could pull a long wire from another internet service in my building to my Cubieboard and get some progress.
2. Buy a DSL modem and hopefully be up and running ASAP.
I suppose I am going to go with option #1 as I just dislike throwing money at problems and hoping they will go away.
1. Get a big SSD. Pick one that is a good size / dollar, and don't go very rock bottom.
2. Format it like you would anything else. If you are worried about the writes, leave some of the drive, perhaps a third unused. The little controller inside will deal with this for you.
3. Run it like you would anything else.
4. Know it will fail horribly sometime in the future. When it does, you are likely to have nothing usable.
5. Plan on your next SSD well before the drive is expected to fail.
How do you know?
6. I say you don't. And that's the cynic in me seeing failures happen while the little programs say the drive is fine.
7. SSD drives work until they don't.
8. Manage your data accordingly.
That's it. Do that stuff, and you will benefit from the speed of the SSD, and you won't suffer a loss that wipes out all the advantages, and you will be regularly upgrading to even better, faster SSD drives.
I say the things are worth it.
For what it's worth, I got a big one, allocated half of it and have written the living Smile out of it for about three years. It's time. I'm getting another one. This one can become that test disk, or something.
No matter what I've done, the little program says, "your drive is healthy..." I ran some other thing a while back and it said I had 7 years, based on the data recorded by the drive. I'm cutting that in half. Still worth it.
And when I say, "wrote the Smile out of it", that's pretty big stuff. 250GB VM's, lots of snapshots, moving data to and from the machine a lot, etc... I'm not a light user. I can't imagine you doing much on that Cubie that will even phase a reasonable SSD in less than 5 years. Whatever you do end up doing would have to be heavy throughput, near constant, for a good year to make a dent.
I've really enjoyed reading all these posts and learning about how easy Linux is to use.
It's like all things, you mostly hear about the bad stuff and the troubles and woes of some users. You hear all the warm and fuzzy stuff from people at the other end of the spectrum. The truth lies in the middle some place.
Bottom line, it's a tool and like any other tool, you use what works best for you, feels comfortable for you or gets the job done quickest for you. You aren't picking a lifetime spouse or choosing a path to eternal salvation....you are picking a tool to help you do some task.
How are you posting here without an internet connection?
Sorry can't post much from this phone trying to get out of Heathrow airport...
Without my usual DSL land line, but still able to reach out via wifi and my Asus EEEpc notebook. Redundancy is the key to reliability, right?
@rdl2004
I am happy to hear you are enjoying all this. Unlike some enthusiast that deny there are any challenges involved in learning Linux, I am simply mentioning what's going.
But this is Linux on an ARM SoC, not the more tried and true desktop PC from Intel or AMD.
+++++++++++++++++++
Heater seemed to jump on the Cubieboard for having poor support compared to others, but I am finding that not to be the case. Actually Linux-Sunxi has a serious commint to Debian that they are documenting and following.
The problems that I personally have are just because I have been lazy and not learning the lower levels of Linux systems. This has all been fun and rewarding to me. And the knowledge gained with all apply to Debian in a transferable way. I am attempting to avoid compiling from source and download packages instead. And it looks like I am getting the hang of that.
Nothing wrong with the video or HDMI on the Cubieboard 1.
And here is a video of the Cubieboard_4, which is a lot more than what I have for more cost. BUT no Sata. (I really like the SATA interface of early boards.) I suspect the Gigabyte BRIX is a much better performer as it is an Intel machine and costs about the same and allows a Sata hard disk.
Comments
$ sudo fdisk /dev/whateverSataDevice
It tells you what you can do. As long as you get the device name right you are not going to mess up your OS partions. You can afford to make mistakes and start over if you don't get it right the first time.
It is the same old thing that worries me....
The provided documentation for the SSD only supports Apple and Windows OS -- no indication of Linux being supported, and the SSD seems to be pre-loaded with software that works with those OSes to clone from an existing hard-disk.
It is obvious that one swipe of fdisk and all that pre-loaded stuff is gone. And then there is the question of loading ext2, ext3, or ext4.
============
So I went looking on the WWW for Linux solid state drive advice and it comes up with several issues that have existed for a long time (since my last SSD on the EEEpc 701-4G)
A. Some say that I should leave 7% unused by partitions up to 10Gbyte to get better useful life out of the device. (It seems that the unused area is reallocated on demand by the SSD for replacement of failed areas, or managing other problems.)
B. Consider lowering the Swapdisk usage
C. Limit the frequent rewrites for items such and files that update the time and date, and Firefox.
https://sites.google.com/site/easylinuxtipsproject/ssd
http://tombuntu.com/index.php/2008/09/04/four-tweaks-for-using-linux-with-solid-state-drives/
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Solid_State_Drives
While I never did actually wearout the SSD on EEEpc 701-4G, it was hugely debated as to how long one might last if measures were not taken.
The main thing is that SSD devices suffer from frequent revision of small files. It may not actually be the writing that is the source of trouble, but the erasure has to rewrite a much larger block that with mechanical hard drives.
So I am doing a bit more reading before I actually partition my SSD.
S.M.A.R.T. is a hard disk failure monitor that has been available for a long time. Most of it is about mechanical failure indicators, so it is of limited use in SSD devices. What the failed writes and reads.
TRIM is specifically an SSD feature.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trim_(computing)
NCQ - Linux Native Command Queing previously suffered from problems in SSD. (See the ARCHline linux below and the particular section of NCQ errors.) The user may have to disable NCQ if it outputs error messages.
++++++++++++
Overall, I am hoping that the SSD device firmware has finally matured to the point than most of these problem areas are resolved. My choice to buy a Transcend SS370s was quite random.
ARCHlinux seems to run down these details quite well. One may want to buy a brand that actually is know to issue a Linux specific firmware update.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Solid_State_Drives#Firmware_Updates
Just do it already!
That preloaded software is useless on Linux, who cares if it's blown away? If you need to clone disks we have better ways of doing it anyway (dd anyone?)
Use ext4, the Debian default, why not?
See "OS just works thread" for use of smartctl and fstrim.
I was able to connect with the WWW and use apt-get to update and upgrade the Debian Wheezy that Cubian provides. It only complained about a 'time warp' due to the Cubieboard lacking a RTC and I neglected to first set the time and date before running apt-get.
Repositories for the Cubieboard are a wonder thing. Lots of Debian software to acquire if so desired.
===========
I would rather not damage the SSD as I could have returned it if it wouldn't do Linux. But I passed the point of no return.
It is partially done. I ran fdisk and successfully created two partiions, one for Linux and another for a Linux swap disk.
I still have some reservations about heuristically having mkfs provide the right Ext4 formating as the wrong block size could be an issue in SSDs. There seems there is a way to limit it to 4096byte blocks or larger that MIGHT be okay. But since, SSD are supposedly allocating ONLY 4096 byte blocks, I may just specifically designate that. I need to actually try to confirm which solution is best.
+++++++
It seems that Transcend doesn't have Linux support and Linux doesn't have Transcend support. Both are pretending neither exists. It is just a fact of life that some manufactures are Microsoft and Apple loyalists. While the product may support Linux, they won't acknowledge such.
You presume that a SSD is completely supported in Linux from any source. I have my doubts.
Thing is that an SSD should sit on the end of your SATA cable and look like a disk drive. If it does not conform to the specs for that, SATA protocol, ATA commands, then it is defective and goes back to the shop.
So, the ext4 is installed at 1024 K sectors, and 512K sectors seem to be the default minimum for the Transcend SSD370s. It appears that SSD sectors sizes have gotten smaller of recent and are not the issue the once were. 4096K sectors don't seem to be the minimum.
Sure it is a $50.00 USD SSD, but my next one might be much larger and a major cash outlay. I might as well find out now what might be an issue.. while the cost of an error is affordable.
For instance, I didn't know that running defragmentation in Windows is an SSD killer. Go ahead and verify this for me. I won't try it.
++++++++
Using gparted in a GUI makes these items easy -- just fill-in the menu requests and point and shoot.
It is all back to the good old basics. With fdisk, I have a partitioned, and with mkfs.ext4 and mkswap, I formated SSD now with a Swapdisk partition, but I am a bit uncertain that I have mount points that are useful.
I could install the Root file system in the NAND flash, and have the SSD just be storage or I can have the Root on the SSD and boot from it. I am not sure which might be better. I am still trying to decide what I expect ho a finished file system will best perform.
So I am going to move on to installing the Wifi on a USB dongle. In that way, I won't have to sit in front of a pile of hardware clutter (the Cubieboard, power supply, and SSD with wiring) to do further configuration. I can just log in over wifi via telnet or SSH and do things.
++++++++++++++++++
In other words, this project is pretty much a done deal at this point. But there are still loose ends. The S.M.A.R.T daemon appears not installed, so I can't yet get reports, and so on. But I do know how to get that installed.
I am still thinking of a dual function device.
A. A file server available via wifi.
B. A IR controlled digital juke box.
The fact that I do NOT have the GUI Desktop installed is good for me.
It is forcing me to revisit how these things are done with the command line. And that is really what I bought the Cubieboard for -- to teach me to be better at LInux configuration and systems administration. One REALLY needs a spare computer to explore and learn Linux in depth. You want to keep your regular computer for access to info on the WWW and everyday work... so you can't afford to try things.
+++++++
And yes, I can redo the SSD if I made any big mistakes.
So far, I think I have a swapdisk that is 10Gbytes and that is way too big. Also I left 7% of the SSD unused as suggested in an article, and that really may no longer be necessary as well.
I am just feeling my way through these things and mentioning salient points of concern that others mentioned. I really don't want to just jam it together and watch it suddenly crash with no idea of what might have been the cause.
My USB Wifi dongle, which is aTP-Link TL-WN832N v3, seems to require a firmware upgrade inorder to use Debian Linux (or any Linux). So I am off in that weed patch for awhile. Actually the device was produced in 3 versions and I got the one that is a problem.
https://wiki.debian.org/ath9k_htc
https://wiki.debian.org/ath9k_htc/open_firmware
Yes, Linux does have its challenges in the 'easy-to-use' department. But what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.
Wifi drivers are a dicey area of support in Linux. It is easier to check before you buy that to play catch up.
Way back when I commited to Linux, I purchased quite a few books that were 'non-distribution' alligned to get me started. The publisher had a buy two, get one free offer if you bought direct --- don't use Amazon. All are available in FREE download versions.
Running Linux
Linux in a Nutshell
Linux Administrators Guide
Linux Network Administration
and so on. (These came from O'Reilly)
Slowly I have migrated to Debian as a main-stream distribution and the CubianX is a Debian distribution just for the Cubieboard.
So I am delighted to discover that Debian manuals are available and make it all a bit easier that reading a generalized text. The Debian Reference seems to offer me more certainty about the way I should go about things and why. I just printed a copy to PDF to use off line.
http://www.debian.org/doc/user-manuals
I did start out with Ubuntu 10.04 and really enjoyed the on-line support from other users. But I have moved on as the Ubuntu community has gotten difficult to keep up with.
Ubuntu really helped popularize the simplicity of LiveCD/DVD installation. That was a very significant contribution to Linux.... only one disk to get the whole OS working.
Even to this day, Debian installation offers iso images for multiple CDs/DVDs and the rather dreary fumbling through the machine demanding another disk.
I tried distributions sold on piles of CDs before Ubuntu (Red Hat and Slackware) and the whole installation process just made me confused and frightened that I was in over my head.
Fortunately, Debian now allows one to choose to dismiss the piles of disk and have the installation proceed from a repository after the first disk gets to a certain point. My last two Debian installs have been that way.
But I still feel the best way to start with Linux is to have an extra machine and be willing to load and reload whenever you get lost.
Not sure what you have been up to but only one CD has been required to install RedHat since it existed. I have never had more than one Debian or other distros CD for installation.
Yes, I did have the RedHat boxed CD sets back in the day. A convenience for those behind a 14.4K Baud modem. If they and Slackware and others had not produced those CDs Linux would have been a lot harder to get into for many.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caldera_OpenLinux
I have tried Knoppix. It seemed to be very German... technical and chock full of stuff.
Knoppix may NOT have been 'the first LiveCD'
"The first Linux-based 'Live CD' was Yggdrasil Linux first released in beta form 1992~1993 (ceased production in 1995), though in practice its functionality was hampered due to the low throughput of contemporary CD-ROM drives. DemoLinux, released in 1998, was the first Linux distribution specially designed as a live CD. The Linuxcare bootable business card, first released in 1999, was the first Live CD to focus on system administration, and the first to be distributed in the bootable business card form factor. As of 2015, Finnix (first released in 2000) is the oldest Live CD still in production. Knoppix, a Debian-derived Linux distribution, was released in 2003, and found popularity as both a rescue disk system and as a primary distribution in its own right." -- Wikipedia entry for LiveCD.
Mind you, Yggdrasil disappeared the year I discovered Linux and before most people had ever heard of Linux.
¨
Finnix looks cool, must give it a spin.
Knoppix is intended as a LiveCD only Linux, like Puppy Linux. But it seems Knoppix is more of a Swiss Army knife type tool. I found the DVD version too slow -- maybe on a USBstick I would enjoy using it.
Knoppix can be installed to your hard drive/SSD. After that it's pretty much a Debian variant.
I have the Cubian working. I even found out how to migrate the SDcard image to the SSD as the image I used didn't support the shell script solution that I read about. And I have gotten into verifying which USB wifi device drivers are available. So those installation goals are within reach.
But I hit snags with apt and aptitude. Attempting to install more software from Debian repositories appears broken. This is a big issue with me as I would rather not have to compile from source all and everything that Debian has to offer for the ARM7 devices at this point. It is just another distraction.
When I go to etc/apt/sources.list, I get Debian repositories. But I can't seem to figure out how they fail or why they fail. I am suspecting that I am being directed to repositories for Intel architecture.
One solution is to drop Cubian and go to OpenWrt, which has its own well-managed respositories for whatever it supports - called opkg.
Another solution is to keep reading and keep hoping that Debian really has the ARM7 repositories.
And the most dreaded is that I have to cross-compile whatever I desire from Debian source to the proper ARM7 Sunxi binaries.
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This all has me wondering how well the Raspberry Pi provides repository support. Respository support is really a key issue with new learners using any SoC. Just because it will install a Linux binary and boot doesn't make the setup really useful or fun.
What is the content of your apt sources list?
We have real Debian 7 and 8 running on many IGEP ARM boards here and updating via apt has always worked.
Sometimes there are issues reaching the Debian repos or their mirrors. I use local mirrors. On occasion I have found a mirror that did not have the packages or Debian version I wanted.
The sources list on those ARM Debian 8 (Jessie) machines looks like: I pretty sure the only change is "wheezy" to "jessie" in the above when we upgraded.
You should be able to visit the urls in your sources list with your browser and see what's there. At least that tells you if your Cubie can access them or not.
Presumably when you do the "$ apt-get install xyz" command it issues some error messages when it fails. What do they say?
Most people run Raspbian on their Pi. That is Debian with a few tweaks for the Pi. That of course has it's own Raspbian repositories that are mirrored around the world. The Raspbian repos stay up to date with changes in the upstream Debian. Updating a Pi is as easy as any Intel desktop version of Debian or Ubuntu etc.
Why would you imagine otherwise?
OpenWrt has its own special repository, and most of the Linux distributions do -- with varied support for all that is Linux.
Debian seems to offer a more comprehensive list. But, I really was worried that all the not being X86 or AMD64 architectures, the SoC chips didn't have formal Debian repositories.
But happily I see that isn't the case.
I am still not sure that PuTTY or minicom is available for the ARM7 architecture as the listing is rather long to look through and I couldn't seem to use a search feature. Time to develop my 'grep' skills.
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Things are progressing toward learning how to manage Debian on a SoC board. Not having a GUI and related graphic system administrative tools is pushing me to learn more traditional UNIX-like solutions.
Actually Aptitude is very helpful, maybe more so than Synaptic.
It seems that the Raspberry Pi and the Cubieboard1 are ARM7, but the Debian repositories list ARM by Armel, Armhf, and Arm64.
After a bit of searching, I presume that Arm7 should use Armhf repositories.
It gets a bit confusing as the Raspberry Pi is a Broadcom chip with its own video support, and the Cubieboard is a Sunxi Allwinner A10 chip with different video support -- even though both support HDMI and may adapt to VGA
should do it. Or In general "apt-cache search whatever" will find whatever you want. Although a bit of a "grep whatever" on the output is sometimes required to filter out what you don't want.
Actually I have no idea what synaptic does or why I might need one
You are right. The whole ARM architecture thing is a confusing mess. There have been many generations of ARM with a bunch of different instruction sets and differing floating point capabilities, and on top of that one can run an ARM as a big endian or little endian processor. Jeeze.
Luckily things have stabilized a bit recently and Debian decided to support only two ARM variants (Oh and 64 bit ARM but never mind that). Don't ask me what they are called it's too confusing.
Unfortunately the original Pi whilst working with a normal Debian install had a chip that was not optimized for floating point maths with Debian. Hence the need to create Raspbian, which is basically Debian compiled with the correct floating point options.
But then, the new Raspi Pi 2 is a more up to date ARM variant so the Raspbian optimizations are really not needed.
But, we continue to use Raspbian because it works the same across all Pi versions and includes, out of the box, the correctly set up boot loader, video drivers and so on.
I guess you are about to learn why the Pi is a hit and the Cubbie is not. I mean, how come your video is not working out of the box?
Well, my HDMI video is working in Android 4.0.4 and Debian Desktop includes the GUI, and VGA can be deployed from the GPIO if one creates a dongle.
I chose to load a binary that supports HDMI output and usb keyboard only as terminal, not the XWindows systems. I have found that to gain a better knowledge of Linux installation and configuration in general, I should just work at the terminal until I am satisfied. XWindows and the GUI seems to keep me less engaged with learning.
But it seems that I might just be able to install a desktop and change the Runtime have a GUI.
I simply wanted to run headless, but not have to actually set up another computer as a terminal.
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Debian claims to offer 50,000 packages according to Distrowatch. So I am simply exploring how many Debian packages really might be supported in the repository that applies to Armhl.
Aptitude offers overview of what is installed and what is available. This info is not so easy to locate in apt. Since it is not a GUI application, it is small and I suppose even a Raspberry Pi user might benefit from finding out what packages are installed and what are available, but uninstalled.
I MUST fix apt. Neither PuTTY nor mincom are located fro installation. But my ADSL modem went down, so everything is stalled until my ISP resolves my ADSL services.
Cubieboard has consistently moved toward upgrading its board's resource to provide a complete mini-computer; Raspberry Pi has remained focused on the cheapest and smallest. Cubieboard is up to it's 4th board in the stores, but I have one of #1 boards.
So Debian support may be different on each generation.
What I am trying to now learn is how much is available without turning to source and compiling my own binaries. I don't need 50,000 packages, but the installation I chose is rather barebones just to keep the binaries less than 1Gbyte.
Cubieboard and Raspberry Pi share the 'ArmHardFloatPort'. And I guess that means the repository resources are equal -- or at least considered equal from the Debian point of view (see below discussion of Raspbian as an unofficial Debian port -- I guess supported independently by Rasp Pi Foundation).
https://wiki.debian.org/ArmPorts?highlight=(\bCategoryPorts\b) Note that Raspbian is an additonal unofficial Debian armhf port that targets v6 instead of v7. Not sure how that plays out with official Debian repositories being useful to Raspberry Pi, or Raspian repositories being useful to Cubieboard-1.
It is not so much that I must prove Cubieboard superior to Raspberry Pi.
I just thought that they may have the same repository solution. I really don't have a desire to prove the Cubieboard superior to the Raspberry PI so much as I have a desire to master more and more of LInux. The SoC devices go in many different developmental directions that seem to make it difficult for Linux to keep up.
I personally feel more confident with OpenWrt's efforts to hack routers as there seems to be much less of the leading edge involved. Debian may just not be able to get good input about all the various Arm devices available.
I could be doing all this on my MR-3020 with OpenWrt, or with an old XP machine I have. Each has its own quirks and each offers somewhat different opportunities to learn.
Since my DSL modem went down, I am trying to figure the best way to proceed.
1. Have the telephone company come out and replace it at no cost to me, and verify the rest of the service is okay (this may take a week). Meanwhile, I could pull a long wire from another internet service in my building to my Cubieboard and get some progress.
2. Buy a DSL modem and hopefully be up and running ASAP.
I suppose I am going to go with option #1 as I just dislike throwing money at problems and hoping they will go away.
Sorry can't post much from this phone trying to get out of Heathrow airport...
2. Format it like you would anything else. If you are worried about the writes, leave some of the drive, perhaps a third unused. The little controller inside will deal with this for you.
3. Run it like you would anything else.
4. Know it will fail horribly sometime in the future. When it does, you are likely to have nothing usable.
5. Plan on your next SSD well before the drive is expected to fail.
How do you know?
6. I say you don't. And that's the cynic in me seeing failures happen while the little programs say the drive is fine.
7. SSD drives work until they don't.
8. Manage your data accordingly.
That's it. Do that stuff, and you will benefit from the speed of the SSD, and you won't suffer a loss that wipes out all the advantages, and you will be regularly upgrading to even better, faster SSD drives.
I say the things are worth it.
For what it's worth, I got a big one, allocated half of it and have written the living Smile out of it for about three years. It's time. I'm getting another one. This one can become that test disk, or something.
No matter what I've done, the little program says, "your drive is healthy..." I ran some other thing a while back and it said I had 7 years, based on the data recorded by the drive. I'm cutting that in half. Still worth it.
And when I say, "wrote the Smile out of it", that's pretty big stuff. 250GB VM's, lots of snapshots, moving data to and from the machine a lot, etc... I'm not a light user. I can't imagine you doing much on that Cubie that will even phase a reasonable SSD in less than 5 years. Whatever you do end up doing would have to be heavy throughput, near constant, for a good year to make a dent.
That's been my experience so far.
It's like all things, you mostly hear about the bad stuff and the troubles and woes of some users. You hear all the warm and fuzzy stuff from people at the other end of the spectrum. The truth lies in the middle some place.
Bottom line, it's a tool and like any other tool, you use what works best for you, feels comfortable for you or gets the job done quickest for you. You aren't picking a lifetime spouse or choosing a path to eternal salvation....you are picking a tool to help you do some task.
Without my usual DSL land line, but still able to reach out via wifi and my Asus EEEpc notebook. Redundancy is the key to reliability, right?
@rdl2004
I am happy to hear you are enjoying all this. Unlike some enthusiast that deny there are any challenges involved in learning Linux, I am simply mentioning what's going.
But this is Linux on an ARM SoC, not the more tried and true desktop PC from Intel or AMD.
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Heater seemed to jump on the Cubieboard for having poor support compared to others, but I am finding that not to be the case. Actually Linux-Sunxi has a serious commint to Debian that they are documenting and following.
http://linux-sunxi.org/Mainline_Debian_HowTo
And Debian seems to be working on support from their end as well.
https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn/Allwinner
The problems that I personally have are just because I have been lazy and not learning the lower levels of Linux systems. This has all been fun and rewarding to me. And the knowledge gained with all apply to Debian in a transferable way. I am attempting to avoid compiling from source and download packages instead. And it looks like I am getting the hang of that.
Nothing wrong with the video or HDMI on the Cubieboard 1.
And here is a video of the Cubieboard_4, which is a lot more than what I have for more cost. BUT no Sata. (I really like the SATA interface of early boards.) I suspect the Gigabyte BRIX is a much better performer as it is an Intel machine and costs about the same and allows a Sata hard disk.