Re: [gentoo-user] combining pdf files, different size

[Nuno Magalhães]

I use pdf2ps, cat ps1 ps2 ps3 > final.ps, ps2pdf
I think these come in some postscript package (at least they did in debian).

Re: [gentoo-user] Fileserver with Raid + Crypto + BtrFS

[Nuno Magalhães]

On Wed, Nov 11, 2015 at 5:09 PM, Ralf
 wrote:
> So I'm
> thinking about to migrate to Btrfs.

Have you considered ZFS?
I currently have some disks with {fs}+LVM+RAID1 and others with a ZFS
mirror (no extra disks for ARC or anything), both approaches seem
manageable. To me btrfs still seems "not-ready-yet", but that's just
me.

Can't offer any real benchmarks, i'm just starting out, but the
correct comparison seems to be btrfs vs ZFS, not btrfs vs fs+LVM+RAID.

Cheers,
Nuno

Re: [gentoo-user] System76 Hardware

[Nuno Magalhães]

On Fri, Oct 2, 2015 at 9:55 AM, Emanuele Rusconi  wrote:
>> [1] http://www.pcidatabase.com/
>
>
> I didn't know that. It doesn't seem to have System76 in the database,
> though.

That's because System76 doesn't manufacture hardware components, but
(at least most of) those found in one of their laptops will likely be
in that database.

Re: [gentoo-user] System76 Hardware

[Nuno Magalhães]

I'd say the method is the same as with any other laptop: pick one
specific model, look into its hardware (this[1] and a liveCD may be
handy), search for drivers, search "gento" + ,
follow the handbook.
You have the slight assurance those laptops are built with linux in
mind; anything else is just business as usual.

Cheers,
Nuno

[1] http://www.pcidatabase.com/

Re: [gentoo-user] preserving zpool mountpoint on boot?

[Nuno Magalhães]

I assume your RTFM means set it to legacy and use /etc/fstab?
Seems ucmbersome, but it's worth a try.

[gentoo-user] preserving zpool mountpoint on boot?

[Nuno Magalhães]

Greetings,

If i export/import a zpool, the altroot property is not preserved so
it always gets mounted at /.

In /etc/init.d/zfs, the import line reads
$ZPOOL import -c $ZPOOL_CACHE -aN 2>/dev/null || true
so no -options there.

I've also tried with
zpool import -o altroot=/mnt -o cachefile=/etc/zfs/zpool.cache poolname
which works, but the cache file only lives until export, so i assume
it's not some kind of configuration save point. A simple import
afterwards will place the pool at / again. Same for -R.

Is there some option i can put in /etc/modprobe.d/zfs.conf (which
currently doesn't exist)?

Thanks,
Nuno

Re: [gentoo-user] OT: webserver reccomendations

[Nuno Magalhães]

Been happy with nginx ever since it wasn't 1.0 yet.
Curious about YAWS :)

Re: [gentoo-user] recommended applications

[Nuno Magalhães]

On Sun, May 24, 2015 at 12:07 PM, behrouz khosravi
bz.khosr...@gmail.com wrote:
 I dont know i3wm

 Its a tiling window manager. I have used it and I recommend it to anyone
 interested in tiling window managers.

What's your take on xmonad?

+1 for irssi
midnight commander anyone?

Re: [gentoo-user] Tips for fresh install with GRUB2+RAID1+LVM2

[Nuno Magalhães]

On Tue, May 19, 2015 at 3:44 PM, Peter Humphrey pe...@prh.myzen.co.uk wrote:
 Hmm. Looks like I'm hijacking Nuno's thread. Apologies if that's ruffled any
 feathers, but I think I'm still on-topic, more or less, and he may still be
 interested in the conversation.

No sweat, i intend to get an SSD for my laptop. It interests me and
it's on topic. :)

Re: [gentoo-user] Tips for fresh install with GRUB2+RAID1+LVM2

[Nuno Magalhães]

On Mon, May 18, 2015 at 2:08 AM, Rich Freeman ri...@gentoo.org wrote:
 On the other hand, both btrfs and zfs will get you a level of data
 security that you simply won't get from ext4+lvm+mdadm - protection
 from silent corruption.

That's one of the advantages i see in ZFS. Do you use it frequently?
Can anyone comment on its memory usage (without dedicated SSDs for
ARC)?

Maybe i'd use the 4 drives as a ZFS pool.

For now LVM complains about duplicate PVs (when pvcreate /dev/md0),
i'll have to fiddle with the filters in lvm.conf

Re: [gentoo-user] Tips for fresh install with GRUB2+RAID1+LVM2

[Nuno Magalhães]

btrfs... ZFS... dunno... we'll see ;)

On Sun, May 17, 2015 at 11:08 PM, Stefan G. Weichinger li...@xunil.at wrote:

 As you ordered 2 ssds right now this seems a perfect opportunity to
 start over and test something new (btrfs is in the linux kernel since
 2009).

SSDs? Nope... not yet, maybe when i use this desktop as backup i'll
get an HDD caddy + SSD for the laptop.
Then decide what to replace Windows on the laptop with... maybe
Slackware, i've been curious about these two distros... or LFS or
Devuan. We'll see.

For now i'll wait 'till the RAID1 finishes sync'ing, LVM is acting
weird. Then hopefully back to the Handbook.

Cheers,
Nuno

Re: [gentoo-user] Tips for fresh install with GRUB2+RAID1+LVM2

[Nuno Magalhães]

On Sun, May 17, 2015 at 8:36 PM, Stefan G. Weichinger li...@xunil.at wrote:
 tl;dr ... maybe you listed some reason to stick with mdadm/lvm2/xfs etc
 ... sorry in that case

I didn't. 2 disks with RAID1/LVM, 2 disks (maybe) with ZFS. Pairs
because by board has 2 SATA channels, otherwise i'd go RAID5 and gain
an extra TB.
BTRFS seems a bit unstable at the moment (i could be wrong).

[gentoo-user] Tips for fresh install with GRUB2+RAID1+LVM2

[Nuno Magalhães]

Hello Gentoo World,


TL;DR warning

I've tested Gentoo and liked it, tried to tune it a bit and borked it. :)

I want to use mdadm to create a RAID1 with 2 SATA disks. From what i
gather, i'll need (bootable)  0xFD partitions, i'll use full disk for
them and no separate /boot (unless required). Is GPT required or can i
stick to MBR? Is fdisk safe? Seems usable to me.

Is 0.90 metadata mandatory for RAID1? What's the recommended version?

I've seen manuals that use mknode, but discovered that mdadm --create
will create a /dev/md for me. (Later i want to get rid of systemd-udev
and use eudev instead.)
Also, why so many tty* and similar in /dev? Is there a way to make it
less crowded? Just a whim...

Does GRUB2 (rather grub2-install) handle well RAID1 stuff or does it
get confused?

What's the difference between dodmraid and domdadm? I don't want to
use fakeraid, so is it safe to just use domdadm?

Then i want to use LVM on the /dev/md and setup my / in an LV. This
seems straightforward (as far as creation goes). Any tips here? I
remember you could tune LVM LVs to the underlying RAID stripe.

I intend to use XFS for /. Incidentally, if i later decide to fork
out /usr (or some other subdirectory) into it's own LV, is it just
a mater of copying its contents and updating /etc/fstab? Or should i
just do it now and expand the LVs if later required (especially if i
want to use different filesystems)?

The problem will be (has been) getting it to boot.

If i have 2 kernels in /boot, shouldn't grub2-mkconfig generate 2
entries in the GRUB boot menu (not counting the recovery entries)?

I read somewhere that genkernel is a bad choice for creating the
kernel because it un/sets a CONFIG_ flag that interferes with RAID/LVM
(sorry, i should've noted where/what). I use make menuconfig anyway,
it's fun. I do use genkernel to create the initramfs, i'm assuming
genkernel --lvm --mdadm --bootloader=grub --install initramfs would
suffice?

I'm assuming the key will be to make sure /etc/mdadm.conf has the
ARRAY= line and that GRUB has the right parameters in
/etc/default/grub, like
GRUB_PRELOAD_MODULES=raid,lvm
Or mdraid09? Where do these come from, /etc/grub/i386pc? Mine's an
amd64 but that's the only directory i could find.
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=domdadm dolvm rootfstype=xfs

Are there any USE flags i should be aware of? Currently i'm gonna go
with USE=bindist 3dnow 3dnowext mmx mmxext popcnt sse sse2 sse3 sse4a
smp ssl unicode -avahi -pulseaudio -selinux -gnome -kde -systemd
-bluetooth -ieee1394 -networkmanager -fortran
Plus CPU_FLAGS_X86 based on an emerge news item about processor flags.
Neither RAID nor LVM should have an impact, application-wise.

While the Handbook is awesome, it doesn't cover this and all the
information i find is either outdated or conflicting. I had a similar
setup with Debian Wheezy on this same hardware, but that was done
through the debian installer, nifty and under the hood.


Incidentally, the hardware's an Asus M2NPV-VM with 4 SATA II disks.
It's my desktop, not mission-critical, but i want to make the most of
it.

Thanks for the patience and feedback (and the distro!) :)

Cheers,
Nuno

Re: [gentoo-user] Hard drive storage questions

[Nuno Magalhães]

Greetings gents.

I may have missed it, but i haven't seen this suggested yet: RAID+LVM.
If you already have a 3TB drive, buy another (or two more) and build a
RAID1 or 5 array on them. Then build your LVM on top of /dev/md0 (or
whatever device your raid is).

Another approach is ZFS with RAID-Z or similar. I don't know how/if
ZFS splits data among the drives, but i assume it's wise enough to do
so in a way similar to a RAID+LVM combo.

If going RAID, make sure the rpm and cache are the same for
performance's sake, and you can mix and match drives from different
vendors (perhaps you should, to add to the redundancy).

I don't know about btrfs, seems like it's still in a testing-phase so
i'm not touching it yet.

Just my 2¢

Cheers,
Nuno