Re: [gentoo-user] Grub, gpt partitions and BIOS, not uefi thing.
On Sat, Apr 27, 2024 at 9:53 AM Dale wrote: > > Howdy, > > I'm installing Gentoo on another old box. To be consistent I like to > use cgdisk, GPT I think it is called, to partition all my drives, > regardless of size. Thing is, Grub works differently with GPT than it > does with the old DOS or whatever it is called, like fdisk does in the > old days. I did some research but still find myself in some muddy > waters. My take on some things I've read, I need a boot partition, not > to be confused with the /boot for kernels, init thingys and such. Where > I get lost, most use gdisk. I like cgdisk. Before that I liked > cfdisk. Anyway, how do I set up that partition with cgdisk? Any > minimum size requirements or tiny is enough? Does it have to be a > specific type? Does it need to be in a specific place? Formatted with > a file system? Also, when I do grub-install, do I still point to > /dev/sda or to /dev/sda1, if sda1 is the special boot partition? > > I tried to find a step by step howto with this info but the ones I find > either don't work or leaves me more confused. Given that the method is > also aging out, it's hard to find good guides. I'd be real happy just > to have a link to a good howto that I can make sense of. I can save a > copy local and even print it. Maybe someone has some notes that will > help. I just need something to help clear up the muddy waters. > > Thanks to anyone who has a link, some notes or something. :-D > > Dale > > :-) :-) I think I'm not really understanding your request because I only remember fdisk from the old days, and none of your cfdisk and cgdisk apps. If you're working with disk in your new old-box machine then I'd suggest trying gparted as it pretty much does everything I've ever needed. It's minimally graphical, can changes the partition type and boot flags. This is just one of a billion pages you might look at: https://linuxiac.com/how-to-use-gparted-to-create-and-resize-partitions/ Wishing you the best of luck, Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] How to synchronise between 2 locations
On Wed, Mar 27, 2024 at 11:59 AM J. Roeleveld wrote: > > Hi all, > > I am looking for a way to synchronise a filesystem between 2 servers. Changes > can occur on both sides which means I need to have it synchronise in both > directions. > > Does anyone have any thoughts on this? > > Also, both servers are connected using a slow VPN link, which is why I can't > simply access files on the remote server. > > -- > Joost > > How synchronized? For instance, does it need to handle identicals where a file is on both sides but has been moved? - Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] OT: how does excel find commas within fields of a csv file?
On Wed, Feb 28, 2024 at 6:25 PM Adam Carter wrote: >> >> The other thing is, look up the definition (such as there is) of CSVs. >> Special characters (such as commas) can be quoted. Standard practice as >> far as I can tell, is that any cell containing a comma will be >> double-quoted, and the quotes are stripped on import. > > > Thanks - looks like quoting is the answer. It might not be something you want to deal with but pretty much every Python data analysis and machine learning package has functions for reading and writing CSV files. - Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] Why is KDE so bad at multiple monitors?
On Wed, Feb 28, 2024 at 3:24 PM Dale wrote: > > Paul B. Henson wrote: > > On Sat, Feb 24, 2024 at 08:53:37PM -0800, Daniel Frey wrote: > >> After cursing KDE for a while with three monitors, does anyone have any > >> idea why KDE is so bad at managing multiple monitors? > > . I ended up adding this to /usr/share/sddm/scripts/Xsetup: > > > > xrandr --output DVI-D-0 --primary --output HDMI-A-0 --left-of DVI-D-0 > > --output DisplayPort-0 --right-of DVI-D-0 > > > > Always perfect since then :). > > I have two questions. Does a upgrade change it back to defaults? If > so, there may be a file in /etc somewhere that is more permanent. If > not, cool. :-) > > How did you get the info to match the hardware you have? My main > display is on a DB15HD port. My second display in on a HDMI port. I > figure you ran a command to gather that info or there is a source of all > the possibilities. > > I'd like to give that a shot. Might help with my occasional issue. > > Dale > > :-) :-) If you're just looking for what's connected to what port then xrandr will tell you that. To get to Paul's equation you would need to figure out the ordering yourself I think HTH, Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] Re: How to set up drive with many Linux distros?
On Mon, Feb 26, 2024 at 4:45 PM Grant Edwards wrote: > > On 2024-02-26, Wol wrote: > > On 26/02/2024 20:51, Grant Edwards wrote: > > > >> The simple answer is to quit wasting time trying to multi-boot like > >> that and just buy a dozen USB flash drives. > >> > > And then, if USB isn't the default boot media, he might as well sort out > > UEFI boot, and multi-boot that way. > > Except that every time I've found a write-up about multibooting a lot > of Linux distros with UEFI, it turns out that it doesn't actually work > very well and is more work to maintain than what I'm doing now. > > -- > Grant I have no experience beyond three operating systems on a single machine but if you grabbed just 2 or 3 USB flash drives then I would think you could test it pretty easily. I believe the UEFI boot procedures are storing a unique ID for the disk or the partition you are requesting. If you have a unique ID that's different for each flash drive it would (hopefully) find the one you're looking for which should be relatively simple. I would suggest you use the boot ordering feature and make the system hard drive last in the list. If no USB devices are plugged in it would default to your system drive. If a flash drive is plugged in it should find its ID and boot that first. I do not know if, for instance, you had 20 different drives listed in your BIOS whether it would be a lot slower to boot but you could test that yourself. Good luck, Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] Why is KDE so bad at multiple monitors?
On Sun, Feb 25, 2024 at 10:35 AM Daniel Frey wrote: > I probably should have added more details... I do have an nvidia card - > RTX 3070Ti. Monitors use 2x DP ports and 1x HDMI port. > > KDE behaves very strangely. Like, it crashes often when using multiple > monitors and I've never been able to figure that out. > > nvidia-settings (which I plain forgot about) can generate an Xorg.conf > file from what I remember, maybe I'll try that. > > I currently don't have an Xorg.conf (as everything I've read says it > should autodetect...) so maybe I'll try overriding it. > > Dan I'm not Gentoo-based but have a similar setup. 3080ti, 2 Asus monitors, 1 Samsung, all running 1920x1080, all in landscape. I have absolutely no problems at all with KDE remembering where everything goes, all 3 monitors, all taskbars, for multiple users with different configurations. I use 1 HDMI cable and 2 HDMI->DVI cables. Everything just works. I have no xorg.conf file. I tried Wayland for a while but there were too many weird artifacts so I'm back to basics. I'd suggest you look carefully at every flag you are using to build your software. I've used 3 distros here recently, as well as Win 10 & 11 and none of them have had problems like you are describing. Best of luck, Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] Re: How to set up drive with many Linux distros?
On Fri, Feb 23, 2024 at 12:52 PM Grant Edwards wrote: > > On 2024-02-23, Mark Knecht wrote: > > On Fri, Feb 23, 2024 at 11:59 AM Grant Edwards < grant.b.edwa...@gmail.com> > > wrote: > >> > >> The simple solution is to give up on multi-booting a dozen different > >> distros on a single disk and buy a pocketful of USB 3 thumb drives. > >> > > > > Given performance does drop a bit and there can be issues with allocating > > hardware, why not use Virtualbox which allows you to run both your base > > distro and then as many of the others as your hardware can handle as VMs? > > The machine is used for testing PCI and PCI-express boards and their > drivers. I don't really trust PCI passthrough (especially when it > comes to interrupt handling) enought to do such testing in a > VM. IFAICT, it's very rare for customers to use VMs. If customers do > start to use VMs, then we'll have to test with VMs also. > In that specific use case I completely agree. The only other idea I had was to install to a different disk and then use something like Clonezilla to move it to the partition you want it in on your system. While I suspect you were being sarcastic I do not think any solution that involves a 'pocketful of USB 3 thumb drives' will be satisfying. Wishing you luck, Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] Re: How to set up drive with many Linux distros?
On Fri, Feb 23, 2024 at 11:59 AM Grant Edwards wrote: > > > The simple solution is to give up on multi-booting a dozen different > distros on a single disk and buy a pocketful of USB 3 thumb drives. > Given performance does drop a bit and there can be issues with allocating hardware, why not use Virtualbox which allows you to run both your base distro and then as many of the others as your hardware can handle as VMs? This is how I go about investigating a new distro before committing to it.
Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Suggestions for backup scheme?
On Fri, Feb 2, 2024 at 4:39 PM Grant Edwards wrote: > > I googled for ZFS backup applications, but didn't find anything that > seemed to be widespread and "supported" the way that rsnapshot is. I'm not exactly sure I'm following your thoughts above but have you investigated True-NAS? It is Open ZFS based and does support snapshots. HTH, Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] AMD microcode error?
On Sun, Jan 28, 2024 at 9:49 AM Peter Humphrey wrote: > > On Sunday, 28 January 2024 16:39:56 GMT I wrote: > > > Hits on the web suggest downgrading linux-firmware, which I've now done and > > will await results. The latest upgrade was to version 20240115-r1, four days > > ago. > > s/Hits/Hints/ > > -- > Regards, > Peter. > If it is a memory error then there are there possibilities: 1) The new linux-firmware has a problem and the error is untrue 2) The DRAM was bad but not tested earlier and is true 3) The DRAM has gone bad and the error is true A reasonable next step is to run some sort of longer term memory test, memtest 86, memtest64 or something else of your choice. Good luck, Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] chrome-remote-desktop
On Wed, Jan 24, 2024 at 9:01 AM Thelma wrote: > > Is anybody using extension: net-misc/chrome-remote-desktop in Gentoo? > > The package installed OK, but Google I think only supports Windows and Mac. OK, I hesitate to delve into this too much but I did use it a 5-6 years ago on Gentoo, but mostly for Gentoo-to-Gentoo connections. It did work but then Google said they were going to start charging to use it so I stopped. It was, at least at the time, Google's proprietary protocol and IIRC required that I use google-chrome in some way which I no longer remember Today I don't run Gentoo anymore but for Kubuntu-to-Kubuntu and Kubuntu-to-Raspberry Pi/Stellarmate which is Debian based I use VNC Viewer which works fine for my needs. If you don't figure this one out you might try that. The instructions for setting it up were at RealVNC's web site. Good luck & HTH, Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Dual Booting - selection from command line
On Wed, Jan 17, 2024 at 9:58 AM wrote: > > On 1/10/24 15:14, Mark Knecht wrote: > > > > > > On Wed, Jan 10, 2024 at 2:38 PM > wrote: > > Thank you, yes that work perfectly > > "efibootmgr -n " is one time entry for one reboot; to set it permanently one should use: > "efibootmgr -o + arrange entries" > > Does anybody know how to rename the boot entries, in my case I have: > > efibootmgr > BootCurrent: 0004 > Timeout: 1 seconds > BootOrder: ,0004,0002 > Boot* rEFInd Boot Manager HD(1,GPT,87a5c5b6-c0a8-024c-b1c0-622907add992,0x800,0x20)/File(\EFI\REFIND\REFIND_X64.EFI) > Boot0002* UEFI OS HD(1,GPT,87a5c5b6-c0a8-024c-b1c0-622907add992,0x800,0x20)/File(\EFI\BOOT\BOOTX64.EFI)424f > Boot0004* rEFInd Boot Manager HD(1,GPT,9d2481cf-8c35-4d9d-88ee-1d0d6e06cc68,0x800,0x1dc800)/File(\EFI\refind\refind_x64.efi) > > This is cryptic, > - is sda disk > 0004 - nvme disk > > How to rename them to SDA and NVME respectively man efibootmgr shows a 'label' option but I've never used it. Try it at your own risk. If I was going to try it I would first create the new one with the new label using the data from an existing option, test it, and if it worked then delete the one with the less useful name. >From Google Bard: Use efibootmgr -c -d -p -l -L to create a new entry with the desired label and correct path to the bootloader: : The disk where the bootloader resides (e.g., /dev/sda) : The partition number where the bootloader is located (e.g., 1) : The desired label for the boot option : The full path to the bootloader file (e.g., \\EFI\\ubuntu\\shimx64.efi)
Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Dual Booting - selection from command line
On Wed, Jan 10, 2024 at 2:38 PM wrote: > > On 1/9/24 19:22, Nikos Chantziaras wrote: > > On 10/01/2024 02:18, the...@sys-concept.com wrote: > >> I have a box that is two HD's and both are bootable; using "refind" instead of grub. > >> So the selection I choose at boot which drive to boot will be the default (during reboot, from command line) until I select the second drive. > >> > >> The box will be installed in a remote location, so I have no option to select which drive to boot from (unless I'm in front of the box). > >> Is it possible to select which drive I want to "boot" from the command line (reboot #2 etc)? > > > > Maybe this helps: https://gist.github.com/Darkhogg/82a651f40f835196df3b1bd1362f5b8c > > Thank you for the link. I have no experience with refind but for my UEFI systems I accomplish this using efibootmgr and a simple batch file. The machine always boots Linux by default but from within Linux I can tell it to reboot into Windows mark@science2:~$ sudo efibootmgr BootCurrent: 0003 Timeout: 1 seconds BootOrder: 0003, Boot* Windows Boot Manager Boot0003* ubuntu mark@science2:~$ cat bin/RebootWindows sudo efibootmgr -n reboot mark@science2:~$ HTH, Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] Dolphin and side pain not updating when mounting drives
On Tue, Jan 9, 2024 at 2:58 PM Dale wrote: > One reason I was asking, if no one else was seeing this, I was going to reset my KDE config and get a fresh start. I haven't done that in a long time It's worth a try but it didn't help the one problem I've had with KDE for maybe the last year or so. In my case I use the Virtual Desktops with 6 desktops. I used to be able to leave apps open on different desktops - terminals, browsers, etc., and when I shut down and restart the next day they would still be on the virtual desktop that I left them on. Now they all show up on Desk 1 and resetting my config didn't fix that. Anyway, best wishes for both the New Year and for solving your issue. Cheers, Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] Dolphin and side pain not updating when mounting drives
On Mon, Jan 8, 2024 at 6:39 PM Dale wrote: > > Howdy, > > When I remount, whether it is a encrypted drive > or not, the main window updates when I click on c directory but the > folders panel never shows the little arrow or expands as it normally > does. Even if I navigate in the main window all the way to the e > directory, the folders panel never 'sees' the newly mounted > folders/directories. It used to expand as I navigate through directories. > Hi, I don't use the Folders panel so I only tried it now. The way you describe the problem it sounds like a bug, and I do see inconsistent operation of the 'little arrows'. I don't have any real drives to mount in this machine, but if I have a directory that has no subdirectories then there is no arrow. If I navigate into an empty test directory and create a subdirectory I get an arrow, but if I delete the subdirectory nothing seems to make the arrow go away which, to me, is inconsistent. In the settings area I see there is a way to report usage issues in the Configure Dolphin section. I am using version 23.08.1 HTH, Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] Open source network monitoring / intrusion detection recommendations?
On Wed, Dec 20, 2023 at 4:38 PM Paul Colquhoun wrote: > > On Thursday, December 21, 2023 8:53:05 A.M. AEDT Mark Knecht wrote: > > Hi, > >I have a couple of older, by today's standards not very powerful, > > laptops and I was considering setting up some sort of network monitoring > > aimed mostly at watching for intrusion events but also just network traffic > > and resource issues. I'm wondering what you all might be using for that > > sort of stuff in the home environment? The network has Linux, Windows, > > Chromebox and Android devices along with a number of smart TV's. > > > >Thanks in advance for any suggestions. > > > > Cheers, > > Mark > > > I haven't used any of them, but this article lists 6 options. > I'd already heard of Kali, but you might find what you are after here: > > https://www.comptia.org/blog/linux-distributions-for-ethical-hacking-and-pen-testing > Paul, Thanks. I know of Kali but I'm not looking to hack, just to monitor my network, preferably with an app that has a GUI interface. One of the apps I've looked is Zabbix for network monitoring but there are a lot of options: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_network_monitoring_systems For intrusion detection I've not found anything I'd feel comfortable running myself. Nonetheless thanks for your suggestion. Mark
[gentoo-user] Open source network monitoring / intrusion detection recommendations?
Hi, I have a couple of older, by today's standards not very powerful, laptops and I was considering setting up some sort of network monitoring aimed mostly at watching for intrusion events but also just network traffic and resource issues. I'm wondering what you all might be using for that sort of stuff in the home environment? The network has Linux, Windows, Chromebox and Android devices along with a number of smart TV's. Thanks in advance for any suggestions. Cheers, Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] Something not right with LVM, I think.
On Sun, Oct 29, 2023 at 7:28 AM Dale wrote: . > > The enclosure that doesn't work right is a StarTech SAT3510BU2E. The > ones that work fine, they are Rosewill RX304APU335B. Both of those > models have fans. They have both eSATA and USB but I've never used the > USB ports. > > All the external drives appear the same in every way except that one > enclosure requires me to restart LVM to get that last bit cryptsetup > needs. I can't make any sense of it. I have two of the StarTech ones. > I may try the other one. See if it does the same thing. What's odd, it > seems to work fine on the 770T system with a fresh install and new > kernel. > > I don't see anything different between the two types of enclosures > except I have to restart LVM with one of them. Weird for sure. > > Any ideas? First, Hi Dale... I'm hesitant to take you in the wrong direction. Just jotting down a couple of thoughts. 1) I know you don't like rebooting but if it was me I would mod my /etc/fstab to not mount these drives automatically. (noauto vs auto). I would then reboot and do some experimenting mounting by hand, or in a bash script, to see if they reliably mount and unmount after the machine is up. 2) You suggest these enclosures are identical, but in a quick search for specs the Rosewill appears to support drives up to 6TB but the StarTech only supports up to 4TB. What size drives are you using? https://media.startech.com/cms/pdfs/sat3510bu2e_datasheet.pdf https://www.newegg.com/rosewill-rx304-apu3-35b/p/N82E16817182316 If those specs are the right ones the enclosures are not identical. Good luck, Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] OFF TOPIC Need Ubuntu network help
> This wasn't the kernel. It was doing something else. I googled for it and others had the same issue but I never found where there was a fix. Odd thing is, it didn't do it every time. Just most of the time. When I was having network problems, it added a few more wait times. Once it took about 5 minutes from grub to a login prompt. > I get that the installation is gone so we'll likely never know what happened but that said I would have thought sudo dmesg after a login would have probably shown if something weird was holding up giving you a login opportunity. Strange to me that you didn't investigate it. I have 4 Ubuntu-based machines here and over the last 6 years I've never seen a 1 minute delay to login, much less 5 minutes. When I look in the kernel ring buffer on my desktop machine I see most everything done in 14 seconds from power-on. After that there are some delays on the order of 90 seconds for a wireless network I don't actually use much to be authenticated, and then a few apparmor comments out around 5 minutes, but none of that impairs normal login. I think you are better off running Gentoo. You do you, right? I hope the new setup works well for you. - Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] OFF TOPIC Need Ubuntu network help
On Tue, Oct 17, 2023 at 11:07 AM Dale wrote: > > Mark Knecht wrote: > > > > On Tue, Oct 17, 2023 at 9:41 AM Dale wrote: > > > > > Well, the 770T now has Gentoo on it. As usual, my fresh built kernel > > booted the very first time without error and every thing worked. > > Sometimes, things go right. ROFL I have to say tho, I wish they would > > split the install docs into two parts. One for old BIOS and one for the > > efi thingy. It was confusing in a couple places but I got there. Maybe > > some color coding would help??? > > > > > Congrats. I hope it goes well. > > There are still times I wish I was running Gentoo - the documentation, > camaraderie and deep technical knowledge of the group, but I just > don't have time or patience to iron out issues with applications when > Gentoo isn't a supported distro. Still, for something like a NAS box it > makes sense if everything you run is sour\ce code coming from the > Gentoo code stores. > > Cheers, > Mark > > > > Ubuntu had a few points where it waited for a while. A couple times, it had a two minute wait which makes the boot time pretty long. I suspect that's a bit of a red herring. Ubuntu's default kernel builds support for pretty much everything in the Linux hardware universe so there's a lot of probing around for hardware you don't have and then a whole lot of modules once you're up and running. My desktop machine has 115 modules showing up in lsmod. If you put a little bit of time into your kernel development then I suspect the boot time would become much closer to what you see on Gentoo. After all, the kernel is the kernel. It doesn't belong to Gentoo or Ubuntu. We're all running, more or less, the same kernel source code and I suspect, by the time it gets to machine code, pretty much the same bits for identical hardware. None the less I'm happy you're up and running.
Re: [gentoo-user] OFF TOPIC Need Ubuntu network help
On Tue, Oct 17, 2023 at 9:41 AM Dale wrote: > > Well, the 770T now has Gentoo on it. As usual, my fresh built kernel > booted the very first time without error and every thing worked. > Sometimes, things go right. ROFL I have to say tho, I wish they would > split the install docs into two parts. One for old BIOS and one for the > efi thingy. It was confusing in a couple places but I got there. Maybe > some color coding would help??? > Congrats. I hope it goes well. There are still times I wish I was running Gentoo - the documentation, camaraderie and deep technical knowledge of the group, but I just don't have time or patience to iron out issues with applications when Gentoo isn't a supported distro. Still, for something like a NAS box it makes sense if everything you run is sour\ce code coming from the Gentoo code stores. Cheers, Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] OFF TOPIC Need Ubuntu network help
On Mon, Oct 16, 2023 at 9:56 AM Dale wrote: > Mark, the command nmcli you listed isn't installed on this machine as it > uses netplan. It seems netplan is new so maybe it is a little buggy > right now. I read that if I have netplan, I shouldn't install other > network managers, tools like ifconfig to see things is OK but don't use > those to "manage" the network. The use of two network managers can and > likely will cause a clash. That said, I do have ip and route > installed. Given it is working now, well, no need posting the working > results. ;-) Since Michael mentioned that netplan is new, that > explains why I wasn't getting many hits when searching. It's new. > There likely isn't many hits to find when searching, yet. netplan isn't new. It's been in Ubuntu since 16.04 LTS which was 2015. What is new is making it the default way of handling networks. I don't find it buggy and I don't know why you cannot find help in Google. I'm finding 100's of things to look at without going to 'Ask Ubuntu' netplan status is nice because it shows who rendered a network whether netplan did it or not. It is possible to have multiple renderers on the machine but you do have to configure things so they don't collide. I do not recommend you do anything like that. For my Kubuntu desktops I actually use System Settings to set fixed ip addresses but I do agree that cli configuration for Ubuntu Server can be confusing. However, complaining about systemd in this day and age seems pointless. It's here and it isn't going away.
Re: [gentoo-user] OFF TOPIC Need Ubuntu network help
On Mon, Oct 16, 2023 at 12:52 AM Dale wrote: > > Howdy, > > I finally got through with my backup restore. I had shutdown the NAS > box with Ubuntu on it since I was done with it. I wanted to do some > updates and check some other stuff, still learning how Ubuntu works, so > I rebooted it. I didn't hook up the drives with my backups on them > since I don't need them to update and such. The network not only > doesn't come up, it is just plain dead. The LEDs on the card are out, > the router shows no connection either, not even as inactive. I did a > LOT of searching. Found others with similar problems but nothing > helped. I found one thread that was recent and exactly my problem. It > appears that after some attempts to figure it out, the guru trying to > help ran out of ideas. I'll post a link below. [1] It's kinda hard to > post info since I have no way to get it from the NAS box to my main rig > since the network isn't working. That said, when I run lshw -C network, > it shows it as being disabled. It looks just like the thread linked below. > > Since this is a built in network port and there is a history of issues > with those things with me, I installed a PCIe network card. It shows up > the same way, disabled. I rebooted the router just in case. I also > checked the BIOS to be sure it was enabled there, some glitch or > something could have disabled it. It shows up as enabled. I checked > the cable but then I thought of a way to rule out hardware. I booted a > Knoppix system that I have on the Ventoy USB stick. I still love that > thing. :-D The network came up and worked just fine without me doing a > single thing. I tried another image, can't recall which, and the > network worked in it too. I then said to heck with it, pulled out a > spare hard drive and put it in place of the current drive with Ubuntu on > it. I then tried to install Debian. Guess what, the network doesn't > work with it either. So, boot from USB image, network works. Boot from > a hard drive, network dead. > > Since the Ubuntu forums are no help, searching didn't help, my last > resort is to ask here, on a Gentoo forum. :/ I figure there may be a > few people here that use Ubuntu on some system and are familiar with > this. Given it works on Knoppix and such, it has to be something > related to Ubuntu and I guess Debian as well. I downloaded both those > images a while back. My first instinct, the updates broke something. > What's odd, it doesn't work with the USB Debian/Ubuntu images either and > it worked fine before when I installed from it. > > Anyone here have ideas? Keep in mind, that thing uses systemd. I > thought I hated that before. I truly hate that thing now. Trying to > figure out how to restart something is like pulling teeth with no pain > meds. Heck, I have to google just to find out what the name of the > service is because most make no sense. Still, I'd like to get it > working. If not, the 770T may end up with Gentoo yet. > > [1] https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2483647 > > Thanks. > > Dale > > :-) :-) Dale, Sorry for your problems. I have a bunch of Kubuntu and Ubuntu Server machines here so maybe I can help. First, I am NOT understanding your situation completely. I have a suspicion that possibly you didn't configure a status ip and something has changed it. That happened to me once with Ubuntu Server and also with Kubuntu 1) Does your Ubuntu machine have a keyboard and monitor? 2) If it does lets try a couple of commands to get a baseline and have you post results back ip l show route -n ip r sudo ifconfig nmcli device ping www.yahoo.com (change enp5s0 as needed) ip l show enp5s0 | grep --color -w UP Let's start with that and see where it leads.
Re: [gentoo-user] Getting output of a program running in background after a crash
> I'm planning on my new rig having the Ryzen 5900X. Is the 5950 better? While I've kinda picked that one, I'm open to ideas if it is faster and I can afford it. As it is, I'm looking at between $300 and $350 for the 5900. My last CPU cost a little over $100. > I'm not going to say one is better than the other. The 5950X has more cores, the 5900X runs at a higher speed. It depends on your workload which will be better for you. I do a lot of things based around machine learning where I felt I was better off having more cores - give 12 to the ML job, keep 4 for my personal use. It's worked out well. However you don't ever talk much about what you actually use your computers for other than having 250 disk drives and moving data around your network. Depending on how you are moving data you might be better off with 5900X going faster. You can use this site to get some comparative data: https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/AMD-Ryzen-9-5950X-vs-AMD-Ryzen-9-5900X/4086vs4087 BTW - you probably know both of these CPUs have been superseded by the 7900X and 7950X. THere's also the 3D versions which have faster and larger cache. > While at it. In the past, I always bought the mobo, CPU and memory from the same place. Generally if one of those is bad, it's sometimes hard to know which one is bad. Sometimes even the BIOS beep codes are no help because there may be none. If the mobo doesn't boot up, worst case, send all three back to the same place. Given how far things have come, do I need to worry about a bad one out of the box anymore? I can save some money if I buy from different places. Cannot answer but you need a return policy from every vendor. If it doesn't boot and you cannot figure it out you send everything back to multiple vendors I guess. Until recently I built all my machines myself. My 5900X machine has water cooling and I had cash so I paid a local storefront here to build it. I bought right in the middle of the pandemic and the chip shortage cost me huge dollars. Most expensive machine I've ever owned. Probably could build it today for less than 50% of what I paid.
Re: [gentoo-user] Getting output of a program running in background after a crash
On Fri, Oct 13, 2023 at 10:02 AM Dale wrote: > > Michael wrote: > > On Friday, 13 October 2023 02:35:21 BST Dale wrote: > > root@fireball / # cryptsetup benchmark > # Tests are approximate using memory only (no storage IO). > PBKDF2-sha1 878204 iterations per second for 256-bit key > PBKDF2-sha256 911805 iterations per second for 256-bit key > PBKDF2-sha512 698119 iterations per second for 256-bit key > PBKDF2-ripemd160 548418 iterations per second for 256-bit key > PBKDF2-whirlpool 299251 iterations per second for 256-bit key > argon2i 4 iterations, 1048576 memory, 4 parallel threads (CPUs) > for 256-bit key (requested 2000 ms time) > argon2id 4 iterations, 1048576 memory, 4 parallel threads (CPUs) > for 256-bit key (requested 2000 ms time) > # Algorithm | Key | Encryption | Decryption > aes-cbc128b63.8 MiB/s51.4 MiB/s > serpent-cbc128b90.9 MiB/s 307.6 MiB/s > twofish-cbc128b 200.4 MiB/s 218.4 MiB/s > aes-cbc256b54.6 MiB/s37.5 MiB/s > serpent-cbc256b90.4 MiB/s 302.6 MiB/s > twofish-cbc256b 198.2 MiB/s 216.7 MiB/s > aes-xts256b68.0 MiB/s45.0 MiB/s > serpent-xts256b 231.9 MiB/s 227.6 MiB/s > twofish-xts256b 191.8 MiB/s 163.1 MiB/s > aes-xts512b42.4 MiB/s18.9 MiB/s > serpent-xts512b 100.9 MiB/s 124.6 MiB/s > twofish-xts512b 154.8 MiB/s 173.3 MiB/s > root@fireball / # > > > > root@nas:~# cryptsetup benchmark > # Tests are approximate using memory only (no storage IO). > PBKDF2-sha1 741567 iterations per second for 256-bit key > PBKDF2-sha256 910222 iterations per second for 256-bit key > PBKDF2-sha512 781353 iterations per second for 256-bit key > PBKDF2-ripemd160 547845 iterations per second for 256-bit key > PBKDF2-whirlpool 350929 iterations per second for 256-bit key > argon2i 4 iterations, 571787 memory, 4 parallel threads (CPUs) for > 256-bit key (requested 2000 ms time) > argon2id 4 iterations, 524288 memory, 4 parallel threads (CPUs) for > 256-bit key (requested 2000 ms time) > # Algorithm | Key | Encryption | Decryption > aes-cbc128b 130.6 MiB/s 128.0 MiB/s > serpent-cbc128b64.7 MiB/s 161.8 MiB/s > twofish-cbc128b 175.4 MiB/s 218.8 MiB/s > aes-cbc256b 120.1 MiB/s 122.2 MiB/s > serpent-cbc256b84.5 MiB/s 210.8 MiB/s > twofish-cbc256b 189.5 MiB/s 218.6 MiB/s > aes-xts256b 167.0 MiB/s 162.1 MiB/s > serpent-xts256b 173.9 MiB/s 204.5 MiB/s > twofish-xts256b 204.4 MiB/s 213.2 MiB/s > aes-xts512b 127.9 MiB/s 122.9 MiB/s > serpent-xts512b 201.5 MiB/s 204.7 MiB/s > twofish-xts512b 215.0 MiB/s 213.0 MiB/s > root@nas:~# > > > > Is that about what you would expect? Fireball is on a 970 mobo. It's > slightly newer. I think the 770T is about 2 years older, maybe 3. > THis was just for kicks because I think somewhere, this thread or some other I think you mentioned a Ryzen 5900 and mine is a 5950, now about 18 months old: mark@science2:~$ cryptsetup benchmark # Tests are approximate using memory only (no storage IO). PBKDF2-sha1 2212185 iterations per second for 256-bit key PBKDF2-sha2564161015 iterations per second for 256-bit key PBKDF2-sha5121798586 iterations per second for 256-bit key PBKDF2-ripemd160 841553 iterations per second for 256-bit key PBKDF2-whirlpool 675628 iterations per second for 256-bit key argon2i 11 iterations, 1048576 memory, 4 parallel threads (CPUs) for 256-bit key (requested 2000 ms time) argon2id 11 iterations, 1048576 memory, 4 parallel threads (CPUs) for 256-bit key (requested 2000 ms time) # Algorithm | Key | Encryption | Decryption aes-cbc128b 1181.2 MiB/s 5132.1 MiB/s serpent-cbc128b 107.8 MiB/s 426.1 MiB/s twofish-cbc128b 221.1 MiB/s 418.1 MiB/s aes-cbc256b 890.1 MiB/s 4167.7 MiB/s serpent-cbc256b 116.0 MiB/s 428.3 MiB/s twofish-cbc256b 224.2 MiB/s 417.7 MiB/s aes-xts256b 4121.7 MiB/s 4115.7 MiB/s serpent-xts256b 385.9 MiB/s 401.6 MiB/s twofish-xts256b 394.5 MiB/s 405.0 MiB/s aes-xts512b 3480.2 MiB/s 3486.3 MiB/s serpent-xts512b 408.9 MiB/s 401.4 MiB/s twofish-xts512b 395.9 MiB/s 404.8 MiB/s mark@science2:~$
Re: [gentoo-user] Getting output of a program running in background after a crash
On Sun, Oct 8, 2023 at 10:56 AM Dale wrote: > > Howdy, > > I use Konsole a lot, that thing within KDE that acts like a console. > Anyway, I'm running a offline file system check on a rather large file > system. For some reason, Konsole decided to crash. I can see the file > system is still running with top, ps etc but I can't see anything to > know what it is doing. Is there a way to get that back? Should I kill > it and restart now that Konsole is running again? I'd think a regular > term signal would give it a safe stopping place but still kinda chicken > to do it. Then again, what if it stops and needs my input or worse yet, > it displays a error that I can't see but I need to know and see? > > Any thoughts? Is there a way to get it back? Kill it and restart? Do > nothing and hope for the best? > > Thanks. > > Dale > > :-) :-) I would suggest you learn screen - a very simple app that allows you to start an app and then disconnect from it. You can then log out, close your terminal, or in your case if konsole really crashed, you just open a new konsole and reconnect. The screen process keeps all the terminal output so you can review it while the process is running or after it has finished. I do not know how to reliably get access to your process if it's really still running. Someone else here can probably give you better instructions on that. HTH, Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] Re: 6.1.53-gentoo-r1 kernel not booting
On Sat, Oct 7, 2023 at 9:18 AM Dale wrote: > > My first kernel, emerge prechecks warned that it wasn't and might or might not work. So, I went back to a version that it claims is supported. I have to say tho, the nvidia site wasn't very helpful. The messages when emerging nvidia-drivers was a lot more help. That said, it does load the drivers. They are listed with lsmod. Given the kernel is on my main rig, it's harder to test since I don't reboot often. At some point, I may start a thread about it if a update or something doesn't fix it. After all, current kernel is working just fine. > > I just thought it worthwhile to follow this problem since it might help or give clues on things to look into. Might be related, might not. > Hi Dale, So assuming I understand your situation, you built nvidia-drivers to work with 6.1.55 - but got no GUI. The build told you it might not work and it didn't. You went back to an earlier kernel and it does work. I don't think you shared what NVidia card is in this machine, and I don't think you shared what version of NVidia drivers worked with the old kernel and what version didn't work with the new kernel? - Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] Re: 6.1.53-gentoo-r1 kernel not booting
On Sat, Oct 7, 2023 at 9:01 AM Dale wrote: > > Peter Böhm wrote: > > Am Samstag, 7. Oktober 2023, 14:42:48 CEST schrieb Nuno Silva: > > > >> I'm not sure it's fair to say it'll be easier in the webforum. [...] > > I think everything has its advantages and disadvantages. I suggested the forum > > because there are also some Gentoo developers active there. If a problem > > requires several different experts (because I don't know everything either) > > it's certainly faster and easier there than here. I would also like to > > emphasize that it was only a suggestion. > > > >> It is worth it mentioning the issue there, though, as somebody there who > >> is not reading this list might know what is going on. > > I am one of the moderators of the forum and therefore read every new thread > > > > ;-) > > I haven't been following all of this thread but I recently built a > kernel 6.1.55 and it boots fine but no GUI. I made sure the symlink is > pointing to the right kernel, re-emerged nvidia-drivers and such but > still no joy. If a thread is started there, could someone post a link > here? I'd like to follow this to see if anything helps me with my > issue, although it is different, it may have a similar solution. > > Dale > > :-) :-) Have you triple checked the NVidia site to make sure your new kernel is actually supported by the driver you're building. Sometimes they are delayed by a bit. HTH, Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] Switching from desktop to desktop without function keys.
On Sat, Sep 30, 2023 at 12:59 PM Dale wrote: > > Howdy, > > I've googled for this several times when I got a few minutes. So far, I > don't see a way to do this. As some know, I'm on the path to building a > new rig. Some of you are about to see why that is. I have 18 virtual > desktop thingys here. Sadly, quite often something is on all of them. > That and the age of my current system is why I want to build a new rig. > Anyway, I sometimes need to switch to another desktop but the plasma > thingy at the bottom is slow or not responding. I can switch with the > function keys up until about 10. After that, those keys seems to be > used for something else or I just run out of function keys. There's > only 12 of them on my keyboard anyway. I'm six short. > > Is there a way with the keyboard to switch to a desktop above 10? Even > if it just switches up one at a time, that would work. Say switch to 10 > and then keep hitting a set of keys to go to 11, then 12, then 13 etc > etc. Eventually, I get to the one I want. > > Ideas? Is this possible? > > Dale > > :-) :-) > > P. S. Dug out my older Gigabyte 770T mobo. Found the CPU that used to > be on it and installed it and a OEM cooler. Got a new power supply > too. It seems the video card is bad that used to be on it. New one on > the way. This could be a new torrent box and/or NAS box. Maybe. I know it doesn't answer your question the way you'd like but I'm set up so that my mouse touching the upper left corner of my left-hand monitor shows all apps on all desktops. I have 3 monitors and 6 desktops and often have 8-10 apps running, sometimes more, and showing them all just allows me to get to the app I'm looking for without having to remember which desktop they are on. Hope you find the answer you're looking for. Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] Network throughput from main Gentoo rig to NAS box.
On Sat, Sep 23, 2023 at 9:22 AM Rich Freeman wrote: > > On Sat, Sep 23, 2023 at 8:04 AM Dale wrote: > > > > I'm expecting more of a consistent throughput instead of all the > > idle time. The final throughput is only around 29.32MB/s according to > > info from rsync. If it was not stopping all the time and passing data > > through all the time, I think that would improve. Might even double. > > Is anything else reading data from the NAS at the same time? The > performance is going to depend on a lot of details you haven't > provided, but anything that reads from a hard disk is going to > significantly drop throughput - probably to levels around what you're > seeing. > > That seems like the most likely explanation, assuming you don't have > some older CPU or a 100Mbps network port, or something else like WiFi > in the mix. The bursty behavior is likely due to caching. > > -- > Rich Let's not forget that Dale also likes to put layers of things on his drives, LVM & encryption at a minimum. We also don't know anything about his block sizes at either end of this pipe. I would think maybe running iotop AND btop on both ends would give some clues on timing. Is the time when gkrellm is idle due to the host disk not responding or the target getting flooded with too much data? - Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] Network throughput from main Gentoo rig to NAS box.
> > Oh. My pepper sauce was getting loud and my eyes were watery. Now that I got that done, I can see better after opening the doors a few minutes. This is what I get now. My NAS box, running it first: > > root@nas:~# iperf -s > > Server listening on TCP port 5001 > TCP window size: 128 KByte (default) > > > > From main rig, running NAS box command first and it appeared to be waiting. > > > root@fireball / # iperf3 -c 10.0.0.7 > iperf3: error - unable to connect to server - server may have stopped running or use a different port, firewall issue, etc.: Connection refused > root@fireball / # > > > So, it appears to be waiting but my main rig isn't getting it. Then it occurred my VPN might be affecting this somehow. I stopped it just in case. OK, same thing. I did run the one on the NAS box first, since I assume it needs to be listening when I run the command on my main rig. After stopping the VPN, I ran both again. > > Just so you know the machine is reachable, I am ssh'd into the NAS box and I also have it mounted and copying files over with rsync. Could my router be blocking this connection? I kinda leave it at the default settings. Read somewhere those are fairly secure. > > I'm working in garden a bit so may come and go at times. I'm sure you doing other things too. :-D > > Dale > > :-) :-) If you're running a VPN then you'll need someone at a higher pay grade than me, but packetizing TCP packets into and out of VPN security is certainly going to use CPU cycles and slow things down, at least a little. No idea if that's what caused your gkrellm pictures. Also, any network heavy apps, like playing video from the NAS or from the Internet is also going to slow file transfers down. Your error message is telling you that something is in the way. Can you ping the NAS box? ping 10.0.0.7 Can you tracepath the NAS box? tracepath 10.0.0.7 Are you sure that 10.0.0.7 is the address of the NAS box? Do you have a /etc/hosts file to keep the names straight? HTH, Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] Network throughput from main Gentoo rig to NAS box.
On Sat, Sep 23, 2023 at 6:41 AM Dale wrote: > > Mark Knecht wrote: > > > > On Sat, Sep 23, 2023 at 5:05 AM Dale wrote: > > > If you need more info, let me know. If you know the command, that might > > help too. Just in case it is a command I'm not familiar with. > > > > Thanks. > > > > Dale > > > > :-) :-) > > You can use the iperf command to do simple raw speed testing. > > For instance, on your server open a terminal through ssh and run > > iperf -s > > It should tell you the server is listening. > > On your desktop machine run > > iperf -c 192.168.86.119 > > (replace with the IP of your server) > > It runs for 5-10 seconds and then reports what it sees > as throughput. > > Remember to Ctrl-C the server side when you're done. > > HTH, > Mark > > > > I had to install those. On Gentoo it's called iperf3 but it works. Anyway, this is what I get from running the command on the NAS box to my main rig. > > > root@nas:~# iperf -c 10.0.0.4 > tcp connect failed: Connection refused > > Client connecting to 10.0.0.4, TCP port 5001 > TCP window size: -1.00 Byte (default) > > [ 1] local 0.0.0.0 port 0 connected with 10.0.0.4 port 5001 > root@nas:~# > > > This is when I try to run from my main rig to the NAS box. > > > root@fireball / # iperf3 -c 10.0.0.7 > iperf3: error - unable to connect to server - server may have stopped running or use a different port, firewall issue, etc.: Connection refused > root@fireball / # > > > I took what you said to mean to run from the NAS box. I tried both just in case I misunderstood your meaning by server. ;-) > > Ideas? > > Dale I thought the instructions were clear but let's try again. When using iperf YOU have to set up BOTH ends of the path, so: 1) On one end - let's say it's your NAS server - open a terminal. In that terminal type mark@plex:~$ iperf -s Server listening on TCP port 5001 TCP window size: 128 KByte (default) 2) Then, on your desktop machine that wants to talk to the NAS server type this command, replacing my service IP with your NAS server IP mark@science2:~$ iperf -c 192.168.86.119 Client connecting to 192.168.86.119, TCP port 5001 TCP window size: 85.0 KByte (default) [ 1] local 192.168.86.43 port 40320 connected with 192.168.86.119 port 5001 [ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth [ 1] 0.-10.0808 sec 426 MBytes 354 Mbits/sec mark@science2:~$ In this case, over my wireless network, I'm getting about 354Mb/S. Last time I checked it I hooked a cable between the 2 rooms I got about 900Mb/s.
Re: [gentoo-user] Network throughput from main Gentoo rig to NAS box.
On Sat, Sep 23, 2023 at 5:05 AM Dale wrote: > If you need more info, let me know. If you know the command, that might > help too. Just in case it is a command I'm not familiar with. > > Thanks. > > Dale > > :-) :-) You can use the iperf command to do simple raw speed testing. For instance, on your server open a terminal through ssh and run iperf -s It should tell you the server is listening. On your desktop machine run iperf -c 192.168.86.119 (replace with the IP of your server) It runs for 5-10 seconds and then reports what it sees as throughput. Remember to Ctrl-C the server side when you're done. HTH, Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] What is the point of baloo?
On Sun, Sep 17, 2023 at 12:04 PM Wols Lists wrote: > > On 17/09/2023 19:35, Peter Böhm wrote: > > Am Sonntag, 17. September 2023, 19:46:05 CEST schrieb Wols Lists: > > > >> It always annoys me, but baloo seems to be being an absolute nightmare > >> at the moment. > > > >> I tried to kill it and it appears to have just restarted. Is there a use > >> flag I can use to just get rid of it completely? > > > > Do you mean use-flag "semantic-desktop" ? > > > > (I have disabled it in my make.conf) > > > I guess I do. I've just disabled indexing as per Mark, and it's reduced > my load average from 12 "just like that". It's just an absolute pain in > the arse given that about the only KDE app I actually use is Konqueror. > > But yes, I'll set -semantic-desktop in make.conf. > > Why does all this crap default to "I'll waste as much of your computer > time as I can, and I won't tell you what I'm doing, or how to benefit > from it"? > > In turning off indexing, I notice there's also plasma search. But I > haven't got a clue what all those widgets do. So I click on the "info" > button and I just get the description AGAIN. What's the point of all > this crap, if they can't be arsed to tell you what it DOES!?!? > > Cheers, > Wol > I do agree, and for a user like me primarily on Kubuntu I cannot easily get away from having it on the machine so I'm happy to just be able to turn it off. As for documentation, it's horribly out-of-date and it's probably the biggest negative about using Open Source as no one really wants to write it, and most users don't read it anyway. I feel ya! - Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] What is the point of baloo?
On Sun, Sep 17, 2023 at 10:46 AM Wols Lists wrote: > > It always annoys me, but baloo seems to be being an absolute nightmare > at the moment. > > Iirc, it's "the file indexer for KDE" - in other words it knackers your > response time reading all the files, wastes disk space building an > index, and all for what? > > So that programs you never use can a bit faster? What the hell is the > point of shaving 10% of a run time of no seconds at all? > > I tried to kill it and it appears to have just restarted. Is there a use > flag I can use to just get rid of it completely? > > What I find really frustrating is it claims to have been "built for > speed". If it's streaming the contents of disk into ram so it can index > it, it's going to completely knacker your system response whatever > (especially if a program I WANT running is trying to do the same thing!) > > Cheers, > Wol In KDE System Settings search for baloo, select file search and turn off indexing? I turned it off years ago due to this sort of issue, as well as others. sudo updatedb and locate are my friends. Very fast, zero overhead as best I can tell
Re: [gentoo-user] Anyone used openmediavault with LVM?
On Tue, Sep 12, 2023 at 8:55 AM Peter Humphrey wrote: > > On Tuesday, 12 September 2023 16:45:21 BST Dale wrote: > > > I currently have Ubuntu installed. I would have been done with it > > sooner but I had a typo in exports and it wouldn't allow me to mount the > > thing. Wrong IP for my main system. At least it's secure. ROFL So > > far, my biggest gripe is sudo this, sudo that. Dang, give me root and > > be done with it. :/ I did try, no freaking password for the thing. I > > gotta google that tho. There has to be a way. > > You could try 'sudo su -' . I don't know, but it's worth a try. > > -- > Regards, > Peter. If root has a password set then su - is sufficient for Kubuntu. I expect in Dale's case sudo su - gets him to root and then he can set the password and be done with sudo. - Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] TrueNAS not helping me now.
On Wed, Sep 6, 2023 at 12:33 PM Dale wrote: > > Mark Knecht wrote: > > > > > > > > I have two drives and it sees them as one larger drive. No RAID or > > > anything. At least not that I know of anyway. To be honest, I know > > > very little about RAID. Read threads on it but never used it. > > > > > > Basically, I took two drives, I think they are 8 and a 10TB but may be > > > something else, and it sees them as one 18TB or something like that. > > > I'm wanting to add a 6TB or something to that until I can get larger > > > drives, maybe a better plan too. > > > > OK, you chose striped. That gives more space but no redundancy. If > > one of those drives goes bad you probably lose everything. Better to > > choose mirrored if you want your data to be safe, assuming you don't > > have a second TrueNAS box or some way to back it up. > > > > Anyway, a simple NFS server with LVM sounds like it would make > > you happy, and happy is or should be what life is about, so go make > > yourself happy! ;-) > > > > But learn about and use RAID or you're dancing on the head of > > a pin for reliability. > > > > Cheers, > > Mark > > > If you say so. Sounds right. ;-) Those drives are my backup. Some > important things I have three copies of. Most stuff, my copies I work > with on my main rig and then the backup copy. Odds of both failing > should be small. After all, the drives spend most of their time > unplugged and locked in a fire safe. A couple really important things I > may not can replace, like family pictures, those I also have copies on > DVD or something. It's not 100% fool proof but it is better than > nothing at all. > > I hooked the drives back up. I'm going to try adding that drive again, > if I can figure out how it is done. I feel like I'm looking at the > option but don't know that is it. :/ > > Dale > > :-) :-) You should be able to add a drive to an existing striped pool. IIRC, because I'm not using TrueNAS at this time, you want to look at your pool, then choose the three dots in the upper right. In a general Google search I would start with TrueNAS add drive to existing striped pool I see a number of reasonable looking pages but I've never used a striped pool so YMMV. As for the Ubuntu Server / LVM question, why do you want to partition a storage pool? Why not just leave it as one large drive, place different data in different directories, and then mount the directories over NFS as needed? You can still do backups of each directory and you have no restrictions on data other than running out of disk space. Good luck, Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] TrueNAS not helping me now.
> > I have two drives and it sees them as one larger drive. No RAID or > anything. At least not that I know of anyway. To be honest, I know > very little about RAID. Read threads on it but never used it. > > Basically, I took two drives, I think they are 8 and a 10TB but may be > something else, and it sees them as one 18TB or something like that. > I'm wanting to add a 6TB or something to that until I can get larger > drives, maybe a better plan too. OK, you chose striped. That gives more space but no redundancy. If one of those drives goes bad you probably lose everything. Better to choose mirrored if you want your data to be safe, assuming you don't have a second TrueNAS box or some way to back it up. Anyway, a simple NFS server with LVM sounds like it would make you happy, and happy is or should be what life is about, so go make yourself happy! ;-) But learn about and use RAID or you're dancing on the head of a pin for reliability. Cheers, Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] TrueNAS not helping me now.
> > > Is there a how to, since it is a GUI, pictures would be nice, that shows how to add a drive? If I can add a drive, that'll work. My duckduckgo searches turned up results that says I can't do that. I found dozens of them. I can't find a single one that shows how to do it tho. I'd like to use the GUI if possible. I've read that for TrueNAS, everything should be done with the GUI because of the way it is setup. I dunno. I just want to do it. > > I do plan to replace that drive later tho. I have a spare drive laying around that I can put in for now. Later, I plan to but a 14, 16 or 18TB drive and replace it. I notice the 18TB drive prices are getting reasonable. Sort of. Will I be able to add the larger drive then remove the old temporary one later? If I can't, I may as well switch now. I only have 4 slots, three already used I think. I have little wiggle room in that old rig. > > If this falls though, sounds like Ubuntu is the tool. It has been around a long time and lots of people use it so don't see it going away anytime soon. > > Thanks, to all, for the replies. > > Dale > > :-) :-) Dale, You've gotten good advice from everyone. However there are some issues around how you set up the pool originally as to what you can do now. I am leaping to the conclusion that you put in multiple hard drives and chose 'Mirror' and not 'Stripe'. If you chose to mirror multiple drives then adding another drive to the mirror (read RAID) isn't going to make it larger. If you chose stripe then it will. (TTBOMK) If you are mirrored and have a larger drive you want to add, but don't have either a physical slot to put it in OR don't have another controller port then you can fail/dismiss/remove 1 drive from the mirror, install your larger drive physically and then add it to the mirror and TrueNAS will do the formatting and data copying. However ensure you are NOT using a shingled drive. I ran TrueNAS for a couple of years and it worked fine, but I did have problems with a couple of their updates not applying correctly, or at least leaving me with error messages. I never had an operational problem but the error messages hung around and I got tired of not knowing how to eliminate them. That said I eventually decided that for my simplistic home needs I was better off with Ubuntu Server and NFS. I don't use LVM but it's supported. If you want to manage your server with a graphics front end look into NetData. The free version gives me pretty much everything I liked about the TrueNAS front end and it's HTML based so I can view the server from any of my machines. Best of luck, Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] TrueNAS not helping me now.
On Wed, Sep 6, 2023 at 7:34 AM Dale wrote: > > Howdy, > > I took a old hand me down puter and put TrueNAS and some hard drives in > it a good while back. Well, the drives are filling up. I wanted to add > another drive to the pool but it appears you can't do that. With LVM, > it is easily doable, in minutes. So, TrueNAS, while a neat tool, isn't > going to work for how I end up doing things. Time to get a better tool. > > I'm wanting to install something that I can use LVM on. It's something > I'm already familiar with and it will serve me very well. I'm thinking > about just installing a binary based OS that is lightweight. The old > computer isn't super powerful. It has 8GBs of memory and a 4 core CPU. > About 15 years old I think. I don't think I'll even need a GUI really. > I figure I'll need NFS or something so I can mount it and LVM to manage > the drives and such. I'll also need support for encryption. I use > sys-fs/cryptsetup and whatever tools it depends on. > > Since some on this list have used other distros and know what they > support, what would you recommend? Ubuntu? Slack? I do want something > that is fairly well maintained and will be around for a long time. > While I could likely install something else and LVM still have my data, > I don't want to have to learn something only to switch and learn again. > If there is a distro that has a light GUI, that would be fine too. I > don't recall using a GUI to use LVM or encryption tho. Still, could > come in handy if it is really light. Odds are, I'll only start the GUI > if I need it. > > Thoughts? Alan, I bet you have some ideas. :/ LOL > > Thanks. > > Dale > > :-) :-) With TrueNAS I believe you can add new disks to an existing pool, but if your pool was RAID1 I think you're just getting more RAID1, not more space. The more typical TrueNAS disk change is to rotate to a larger drive, where you decommission a 3TB drive, physically remove it, add a new 6TB drive, then go through the same process for your second/third/fourth drives. That process grows your space. If you're looking for a bog simple NFS server try Ubuntu Server. It will take you maybe 20 minutes to install and after adding the NFS stuff should do everything you want. I do that for my Plex and NFS needs. Ubuntu server does not include X but you can add it later if you want. Updating Ubuntu is more or less a two command process: sudo apt update sudo apt upgrade The first command where it understands what's new, and the second where it installs it. kernel updates typically add a new kernel but keep the current kernel as a fallback in case something goes wrong. Adding a new program is generally a one command process, such as: sudo apt install nfs-kernel-server See this page for instructions on getting NFS installed and working: https://ubuntu.com/server/docs/service-nfs NOTE: Ubuntu is systemd so you may or may not like that Good luck whatever you do. Cheers, Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] Is distfile partial mirror with failover possible?
On Mon, Sep 4, 2023 at 12:38 PM Alan McKinnon wrote: > > > > On Mon, Sep 4, 2023 at 8:26 PM Neil Bothwick wrote: >> >> On Mon, 4 Sep 2023 19:49:56 +0200, Alan McKinnon wrote: >> >> > Quick n dirty solution: >> > >> > put all distfiles on a central server >> > FS mount that remote dir to /var/cache/distfiles on all hosts >> >> That's what I used to do, but had problems when downloading the same file >> from to clients at once. >> >> BTW Welcome back Alan, but leave your dirty top-posting in Archland :P >> > > Eh, I use gmail in the browser . the blerry thing is built to top post, like Outlook > > > Alan > I'm a GMail user also. Sadly you'll want to not only bottom post, but also select all text you're responding to, remove formatting (Ctrl-V) and then type your response or you'll be down voted for responding in HTML. I hate it also, but this list is easily one of my favorites and I'm no longer a Gentoo user. Best wishes, Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] he's baaaaaaack :-D
On Thu, Aug 31, 2023 at 11:15 AM Alan McKinnon wrote: > > Hello Gentoo'ers > > After some years away, I'm back to Gentoo. Arch was nice and I got fuzzies but something was always missing. Was on Mint for a while but eventually got fed up with how it does Bluetooth. So Gentoo is now on the new laptop from work. > > Going through the list archives, I see a whole bunch of familiar names like Dale, Helmut, Peter, Rich, Grant, Walter, William and more. > > For those who never knew me, My name is Alan, first used Gentoo 18/19 years ago, work at a large mobile operator where I'm a sysadmin and general know-it-all-busy-body working with ICT stuff, so happy to make your acquaintance. > > -- > Alan McKinnon > alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com > Nice to see an old friend back here. Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] Plasma session saving
On Sat, Jul 1, 2023 at 6:44 AM Peter Humphrey wrote: > > On Saturday, 1 July 2023 14:06:05 BST Peter Humphrey wrote: > > Hello list, > > > > Plasma and friends were upgraded this week, and since then my sessions are > > not being saved. Even KMail's internal settings aren't saved unless I stop > > it myself before logging out. > > > > Is this a known problem? > > ...and I've just noticed that KMail's folder list is not in alphabetical > order. Just now I tried setting the order to 'Manul by drag and drop' and > restarting KMail. The order seemed better, but when I set the order back to > alphabetical it switched the order to the one shown in the attachment. > > Weird. > > -- > Regards, > Peter. Frustrating I'm sure. If this is the thing I've run into a few times over the years then the only way out I've found is to delete my user config files and start over. As a test, create a new user, log in using KDE and see if that user saves state the way your account used to. If it does then Google for the files you need to get rid of and treat your account like a new user. HTH, Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] kernel driver for: Intel Corporation I211 Gigabit Network Connection
On Fri, Jun 30, 2023 at 1:44 PM wrote: > > On 6/30/23 14:13, Mark Knecht wrote: > > > > > > On Fri, Jun 30, 2023 at 1:01 PM > wrote: > > > > On 6/30/23 13:03, the...@sys-concept.com wrote: > > > I have a motherboard that I think is using incorrect network driver. > > > > > > lspci -knn |grep net -A 4 > > > 04:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Intel Corporation I211 Gigabit Network Connection [8086:1539] (rev 03) > > > Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. I211 Gigabit Network Connection [1043:85f0] > > > Kernel driver in use: igb > > > > > > The network speed on the switch is only 10Mbs or 100Mbs (orange light) > > > > > > > Is the switch a reliable 1Gb switch? I've owned a couple of cheap switches that said they > > were 1Gb but didn't always work. > > I'm using TRENDnet 24-Port Gigabit Switch > > I had problem with slow connection to this PC using other switches, always slow especially trying to initiate X2go session with this PC, it take about 25sec to start session, > Trying to open X2go session with other PC on same network it take about 4sec. > > But I think I'm not only the one having problem with this Intel adapter and igb driver. > > https://askubuntu.com/questions/1307288/slow-10-mb-s-wired-connection-on-18-04 Well, I don't think the driver itself is the problem. I have an AMD-based motherboard but it reports the same Intel device. I have no problems getting about 850-900Mb sustained throughput. I'm using Kubuntu, not Gentoo, but Ubuntu-based like the link you provided. My switch is just a cheap Netgear thing. I get green lights on the switch but on the back of my PC I have solid green on the right and flashing orange on the left. I've never bothered to determine why those are the light colors. However just using throughput testing to another local machine (see the instructions I gave Dale sometime ago on this list) I get good throughput. mark@science2:~$ lspci -knn | grep Eth -A3 07:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8125 2.5GbE Controller [10ec:8 125] (rev 05) Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. RTL8125 2.5GbE Controller [1043:87d7] Kernel driver in use: r8169 Kernel modules: r8169 08:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Intel Corporation I211 Gigabit Network Connection [8086:1539] (re v 03) Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. I211 Gigabit Network Connection [1043:85f0] Kernel driver in use: igb Kernel modules: igb mark@science2:~$ I do not currently use the 2.5Gb interface. Don't think I can help beyond this info. Good luck, Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] kernel driver for: Intel Corporation I211 Gigabit Network Connection
On Fri, Jun 30, 2023 at 1:01 PM wrote: > On 6/30/23 13:03, the...@sys-concept.com wrote: > > I have a motherboard that I think is using incorrect network driver. > > > > lspci -knn |grep net -A 4 > > 04:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Intel Corporation I211 Gigabit > Network Connection [8086:1539] (rev 03) > > Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. I211 Gigabit Network Connection > [1043:85f0] > > Kernel driver in use: igb > > > > The network speed on the switch is only 10Mbs or 100Mbs (orange light) > > Is the switch a reliable 1Gb switch? I've owned a couple of cheap switches that said they were 1Gb but didn't always work.
Re: [gentoo-user] Bespoke terminal font
On Mon, Jun 5, 2023 at 10:31 AM Mark Knecht wrote: > > > > On Mon, Jun 5, 2023 at 9:43 AM Matt Connell wrote: > > > > On Mon, 2023-06-05 at 08:54 -0700, Mark Knecht wrote: > > > There's a terminal font called 'hack' that doesn't have anything > > > inside the zero. > > > > Is this the right one? > > > > https://github.com/source-foundry/Hack > > Bummer. Looks like he might have changed it. > > I'm starting to have old-person type eye problems and > found this article: > > https://itsfoss.com/fonts-linux-terminal/ > > which from the example has nothing inside the zero, > but the picture on the github page looks like it does. > > Mark As for other fonts to explore AI suggests: Droid Sans Mono Inconsolata Liberation Mono I see some example pages that look ok but I don't have time to explore and test. HTH, Mark Source Code Pro
Re: [gentoo-user] Bespoke terminal font
On Mon, Jun 5, 2023 at 9:43 AM Matt Connell wrote: > > On Mon, 2023-06-05 at 08:54 -0700, Mark Knecht wrote: > > There's a terminal font called 'hack' that doesn't have anything > > inside the zero. > > Is this the right one? > > https://github.com/source-foundry/Hack Bummer. Looks like he might have changed it. I'm starting to have old-person type eye problems and found this article: https://itsfoss.com/fonts-linux-terminal/ which from the example has nothing inside the zero, but the picture on the github page looks like it does. Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] Bespoke terminal font
On Mon, Jun 5, 2023 at 8:36 AM Peter Humphrey wrote: > > Hello list, > > I'm still trying to find a terminal font (not an X font) to suit my > deteriorating sight. Every terminal font I've found includes either a dot in > the centre of the /zero/ character or a diagonal bar across it. Either of > these makes a zero resemble an eight: 0, 8. I often need a magnifying glass to > see which it is. I suppose it's meant to distinguish a zero from a capital o: > 0, O, but this can be handled better in moderate to large font sizes such as I > use, by sloping the shoulders of the zero to resemble those used in the > publishing trade. > > I use DejaVu mono in KDE Plasma, which does not do this and is much easier to > Read with the plain 0. I'd like to find a terminal font like it. Or is there a > tool I can use to adjust the Terminus Font I use in my VTs? All the font > editors I've seen are for GUI use. > > There was a half-suitable utility years ago, whose name I've forgotten, which > might well be suitable if it could handle two-byte characters. > > Is there either a console font like what I've described, or a font editor that > would allow me to make my own? > > -- > Regards, > Peter. > There's a terminal font called 'hack' that doesn't have anything inside the zero. No idea whether it addresses any other issues. Sorry about the eyesight issues. I'm starting to deal with a bit of that myself. Good luck, Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] Portage load control
On Fri, May 12, 2023 at 10:42 AM Peter Humphrey wrote: > > On Friday, 12 May 2023 17:58:46 BST Jack wrote: > > > Again, --load-average tells emerge whether it can start a new > > job/package, but has no control over how high the load will get based > > on the already started jobs. If emerge starts new jobs when the load > > is over that specified by --load-average, that does smell like a bug in > > emerge. > > Hooray! > Peter, I agree with Jack's response, but the keyword & potential issue is all based around that one word - "If". The way I see this is unless you have tracked down realtime what processes are running and where the CPU usage is going, and can further be sure that it's a process emerge itself started, then we don't really know what is causing the problem. My concern is what happens if emerge is honoring --load-average but you're seeing system usage created by some tool emerge called that doesn't understand --jobs and emerge doesn't know about at that level? Think some Rust code getting built by a rust compiler, or some deep make system. Anyway, I had a couple of thoughts: 1) If it's really a bug then as others have said report it up the chain and hope for a fix. 2) If I wanted to solve the problem today(ish) then I'd build a Gentoo VM in Virtualbox, dedicate some number of cores to it, build everything with binary packages and probably run an NFS server in the VM which I mount in the host machine. I then update the host machine from the binary packages and Virtualbox manages to never use more cores than I give it. That fix is more or less guaranteed to work. 3) As a question for the far more knowledgeable system folks I'd ask "Can this problem be solved by cgroups?" If I have a cgroup with 10 processors in it, can I start emerge in the host environment and then just transfer the emerge process ID to a cgroup that I've set up for this purpose? Isn't that what cgroups is supposed to be used for? Anyway, just thoughts. Good luck, Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] Portage load control
On Fri, May 12, 2023 at 9:59 AM Jack wrote: > > On 2023.05.12 12:23, Mark Knecht wrote: > [snip .] > >One interesting point is that the first Gentoo page I found to > > look at the emerge man page shows LOAD as the value provided > > to the --load-average option, but nowhere does it specify anything > > other than it's a floating point value: > I suspect the specification of floating point implies that it CAN take > digits after the decimal point, but not that they are required, > although that should be easy enough to test. > > > > https://dev.gentoo.org/~zmedico/portage/doc/man/emerge.1.html > > > > For clarification reading other sites, my understanding is that a > > load average value of 1 in the top application is meant to > > represent 1 CPU core operating at 100%. Assuming that's > > true, then on Peter's 24 core machine, with LOAD=40, he's > > telling emerge it's ok to use more cores than his machine has. > > > > Is that consistent with your (or others) understanding? > Close, but not quite. (See > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Load_(computing) for more details.) I > think your understanding will match any observations, but I see the > definition as different. I understand the load (instantaneous, not > average) is the number of processed in the "r" state, i.e., running or > waiting for a CPU slice. That excludes any process explicitly sleeping > or waiting for IO. Since it can change so quickly, the point load is > not very useful, so it is more commonly presented as a value averaged > over a period of time. Top shows 1, 5, and 15 minute averages. > > Again, --load-average tells emerge whether it can start a new > job/package, but has no control over how high the load will get based > on the already started jobs. If emerge starts new jobs when the load > is over that specified by --load-average, that does smell like a bug in > emerge. > > > > > I think the mistake is one of those easy to make ones where > > the human things 40% (hence 40) and the machine things > > 40% (hence 0.4) > > > > Cheers, > > Mark > > OK, I find that all reasonable. One point about the Wikipedia description for anyone following who may not actually read it is that the average is accomplished with an exponential moving average and therefore is not, by definition, linear over time. As a little experiment that anyone can run I'll include a little AI generated batch file people can use to actually see more of what's going on in top, htop and btop. Note on my system the CPU affinity didn't work and I don't care to debug it. However this loops continuously until you hit ctrl-C. If you watch CPU load you'll see it climb quickly at first and then more slowly until you get up to 1.0. It will go a little higher (1.03 in my case) which is likely the CPU load from the programs monitoring the system and other background junk. None the less, 1 core running continuously generates as load of 1 after some period of time. As with all code on the Internet I take no responsibility for any damage caused my this code and neither does Google's Bard. #!/bin/bash # This batch program loops until you hit Ctrl-C. # Get the current processor affinity. affinity=$(cat /proc/self/cpuset) # Set the processor affinity to a single core. echo $affinity | sudo tee /proc/self/cpuset while true; do # Do nothing. : done # Reset the processor affinity to the default. echo "" | sudo tee /proc/self/cpuset
Re: [gentoo-user] Portage load control
On Fri, May 12, 2023 at 9:08 AM Jack wrote: > > > -j 1 > > -j1 --load-average=40 > > -j1 --load-aveeage=40.0 > > -j1 --load-average=4.0 > > -j1 --load-average=0.4 > > -j10 --load-average=0.4 > > > > etc., and see what happens? > --load-average controls whether or not emerge starts another > job/package, so testing by emerging a single package will not actually > test this. That's why I suggested running some application to get the > load up to 10 (arbitrary number) and then emerging a larger number of > small packages. If --load-average is set to anything less than the > actual load, it should only launch one package at a time. Having that > simple example to add to the bug would give the developers an easy way > to test. > > I think the fact that Peter's actual load went over 70 is because each > individual job/package had no limit on the number of parallel compiles > make could kick off. There is likely no bug there. The real problem > (as Peter keeps pointing out) is that with the load that high, emerge > still starts additional jobs. Jack, I totally agree, as long as nothing is broken, but yeah, the list I provided was more meant to engender ideas for Peter. One interesting point is that the first Gentoo page I found to look at the emerge man page shows LOAD as the value provided to the --load-average option, but nowhere does it specify anything other than it's a floating point value: https://dev.gentoo.org/~zmedico/portage/doc/man/emerge.1.html For clarification reading other sites, my understanding is that a load average value of 1 in the top application is meant to represent 1 CPU core operating at 100%. Assuming that's true, then on Peter's 24 core machine, with LOAD=40, he's telling emerge it's ok to use more cores than his machine has. Is that consistent with your (or others) understanding? I think the mistake is one of those easy to make ones where the human things 40% (hence 40) and the machine things 40% (hence 0.4) Cheers, Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] Portage load control
On Fri, May 12, 2023 at 7:27 AM Peter Humphrey wrote: > > On Friday, 12 May 2023 15:13:08 BST Mark Knecht wrote: > > > My opinion: load-average probably works, but we are misunderstanding > > the documentation. > > That's what bothers me the most - that I have a mental block somewhere. :( > > -- > Regards, > Peter. Just for clarity, how are you measuring 'load average'? Just looking at what is reported in top or something else that takes stats? So if it's either a documentation issue, or an understanding the documentation issue, possibly set up a 'design of experiments' set of tests? For instance: 1) Pick 1 semi-large package that spawns a few extra jobs to get built 2) Remove the binaries from your system 3) Ensure all the source is prefetched 4) Build the package with no options measuring load-average Repeat 2 - 4 using a few different options: -j 1 -j1 --load-average=40 -j1 --load-aveeage=40.0 -j1 --load-average=4.0 -j1 --load-average=0.4 -j10 --load-average=0.4 etc., and see what happens?
Re: [gentoo-user] Portage load control
On Fri, May 12, 2023 at 6:46 AM Peter Humphrey wrote: > > On Friday, 12 May 2023 00:08:03 BST Mark Knecht wrote: > > On Thu, May 11, 2023 at 3:07 PM Peter Humphrey > > > > wrote: > > > On Thursday, 11 May 2023 17:18:17 BST Mark Knecht wrote: > > > > > > > > The ''problem' is this can easily hit 100% of the cores you have in the > > > > machine if not sensibly set. (You choose what's 'sensible') > > > > > > Once again, --load-average is being ignored. Why is it there? Surely, it > > > must be to mitigate the worst effects of that N*K, but it isn't doing so. > > > > From your description, yeah, it's weird, but possibly it's managing it over > > (for instance) over much longer time frames or something like that. > > > > Or possibly it just doesn't work. > > That's it, I'm sure. > > > Or possibly whoever wrote the man page misunderstood. > > Load-average has been around for a long time. > > > Poking around a bit this morning I took the path at the bottom of the > > link I gave you to the Portage niceness page. It says scheduling policy > > control started with portage-3.0.35 which on paper sounds sort of recent. > > Possibly a bug crept in, but I was curious as to what you have for > > PORTAGE_SCHEDULING_POLICY, if any, and whether you need to enable some > > sort of scheduling to get this under control? > > > > https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Portage_niceness > > I have no PORTAGE_SCHEDULING_POLICY, or not that I can find. It seems to me > that such a policy is to do with the running of portage in the OS, rather than > how it launches its own emerge jobs. Is that right? > > > Anyway, I feel for ya. Peter, My point about PORTAGE_SCHEDULING_POLICY is that it *might* have an effect on what you're seeing, not that it *would* have an effect. If there's one thing I most distrust about the Open Source world, it's documentation... WRT the floating point issue, the Gentoo Catalyst page https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Catalyst in the "Jobs and load average" section states: FILE /etc/catalyst/catalyst.confcatalyst.conf # Integral value passed to emerge as the parameter to --jobs and is used to # define MAKEOPTS during the target build. jobs = 4 # Floating-point value passed to emerge as the parameter to --load-average and # is used to define MAKEOPTS during the target build. # load-average = 4.0 so once again, the use of floating point is documented as (you choose) either important or required. My opinion: load-average probably works, but we are misunderstanding the documentation. Note that the example using 4.0 is a pretty load number. Good luck, Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] Portage load control
On Thu, May 11, 2023 at 3:07 PM Peter Humphrey wrote: > > On Thursday, 11 May 2023 17:18:17 BST Mark Knecht wrote: > > The ''problem' is this can easily hit 100% of the cores you have in the > > machine if not sensibly set. (You choose what's 'sensible') > > Once again, --load-average is being ignored. Why is it there? Surely, it must > be to mitigate the worst effects of that N*K, but it isn't doing so. > >From your description, yeah, it's weird, but possibly it's managing it over (for instance) over much longer time frames or something like that. Or possibly it just doesn't work. Or possibly whoever wrote the man page misunderstood. Poking around a bit this morning I took the path at the bottom of the link I gave you to the Portage niceness page. It says scheduling policy control started with portage-3.0.35 which on paper sounds sort of recent. Possibly a bug crept in, but I was curious as to what you have for PORTAGE_SCHEDULING_POLICY, if any, and whether you need to enable some sort of scheduling to get this under control? https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Portage_niceness I find this page a bit troubling as it isn't clear to a dummy like me what happens if nothing is set. If I still ran Gentoo, or if it was easier to set up a VM, I'd try it myself but alas it ain't to be. Anyway, I feel for ya. Good luck, Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] Portage load control
On Thu, May 11, 2023 at 9:03 AM Peter Humphrey wrote: > > On Thursday, 11 May 2023 15:58:20 BST Mark Knecht wrote: > > Going further, this page states: > > > > "The load average value is the same as displayed by top or uptime, and for > > an N-core system, a load average of N.0 would be a 100% load. Another rule > > of thumb here is to set X.Y=N*0.9 which will limit the load to 90%, thus > > maintaining system responsiveness." > > That's the first reference I've seen to percentage load. Interesting. Perhaps > changes are afoot already. > > > So, how many cores does your system have? For a 16 core system, if you want > > 40% load, you only want to spawn 16 * 0.4 jobs so you'd set that value to > > 6.4 > > 24 cores, but portage is ignoring my load-average anyway, so I'm interested to > see what the bug reports elicits. > > -- > Regards, > Peter. I'm sure you get this but I'm pointing toward the EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS portage variable which, according to it's page that "defines entries to be appended to the emerge command line." I suspect they are appended, but that doesn't guarantee that they override other entries that you are adding by hand or have somewhere else. It seems reasonable to me that you might just use this setting with nothing else and see if you can get it under control. Note the blue section on the page: Note When MAKEOPTS="-jN" is used with EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS="--jobs K --load-average X.Y" the number of possible tasks created would be up to N*K. Therefore, both variables need to be set with each other in mind as they create up to K jobs each with up to N tasks. The ''problem' is this can easily hit 100% of the cores you have in the machine if not sensibly set. (You choose what's 'sensible') HTH, Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] Portage load control
Going further, this page states: "The load average value is the same as displayed by top or uptime, and for an N-core system, a load average of N.0 would be a 100% load. Another rule of thumb here is to set X.Y=N*0.9 which will limit the load to 90%, thus maintaining system responsiveness." So, how many cores does your system have? For a 16 core system, if you want 40% load, you only want to spawn 16 * 0.4 jobs so you'd set that value to 6.4 On Thu, May 11, 2023 at 6:45 AM Mark Knecht wrote: > > > > On Thu, May 11, 2023 at 6:34 AM Peter Humphrey wrote: > > > > On Monday, 8 May 2023 11:20:45 BST Neil Bothwick wrote: > > > > > Maybe you should take this to bgo where it can be flagged for the portage > > > devs to look at, just keep us posted on the outcome. > > > > So far, I've just been asked whether I expected something different, to which I > > replied "Why is --load-average=40 being ignored?" > > > > Perhaps we don't all understand the same things about how this is supposed to > > work. > > > > -- > > Regards, > > Peter. > > > > OK, this is a bit of a weird thing for me to ask you to try but this page on emerge: > > https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS > > says pretty clearly that "--load-average X.Y" should be a floating point number so > try it with "--load-average 40.0", and further with and without the --jobs option. > > Note 2 things - this page doesn't say to use an "=" AND it was last edited > on my birthday. It wasn't a good year for me. Possibly it wasn't a good year > for this man page... ;-) >
Re: [gentoo-user] Portage load control
On Thu, May 11, 2023 at 6:34 AM Peter Humphrey wrote: > > On Monday, 8 May 2023 11:20:45 BST Neil Bothwick wrote: > > > Maybe you should take this to bgo where it can be flagged for the portage > > devs to look at, just keep us posted on the outcome. > > So far, I've just been asked whether I expected something different, to which I > replied "Why is --load-average=40 being ignored?" > > Perhaps we don't all understand the same things about how this is supposed to > work. > > -- > Regards, > Peter. > OK, this is a bit of a weird thing for me to ask you to try but this page on emerge: https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS says pretty clearly that "--load-average X.Y" should be a floating point number so try it with "--load-average 40.0", and further with and without the --jobs option. Note 2 things - this page doesn't say to use an "=" AND it was last edited on my birthday. It wasn't a good year for me. Possibly it wasn't a good year for this man page... ;-)
Re: [gentoo-user] text output from the kernel during boot is not showing
On Mon, Apr 24, 2023 at 2:31 PM wrote: > > On 4/24/23 14:39, Mark Knecht wrote: > > > > > > On Sat, Apr 22, 2023 at 11:56 AM > wrote: > # Append parameters to the linux kernel command line for non-recovery entries > #GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="" Consider uncommenting this line and running sudo update-grub > # The resolution used on graphical terminal. > # Note that you can use only modes which your graphic card supports via VBE. > # You can see them in real GRUB with the command `vbeinfo'. > #GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480 > GRUB_GFXMODE=1024x768x32 While I understand that you probably didn't change this setting do you know that 1024x769x32 is ok? Have you run vbeinfo or verified by some other means? HTH, Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] text output from the kernel during boot is not showing
On Sat, Apr 22, 2023 at 11:56 AM wrote: > > I upgraded to kernel 6.1.19 and nvidia-525.105.17 > > But during boot text is not showing up/scrolling > > -- > Thelma Is this possibly a grub setting? Check /etc/default/grub or whatever it might be on your system and look at GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash" If that's there then remove the word 'quiet' and run sudo update-grub or whatever is appropriate for your system to set up the change. HTH, Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] Nvidia-drivers fails to patch
On Thu, Apr 20, 2023 at 3:36 PM Dale wrote: > * patch -p1 failed with > /var/tmp/portage/x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers-470.182.03/files/nvidia-drivers-470.141.03-clang15.patch You know I don't run Gentoo, right? That looks weird to me - building 470.182.03 but patching it with 470.141.03. Just looks weird... I think the other day someone - maybe Thelma? - had a problem where there was something left over in some 'patch' directory. Possibly you have something like that going on? You know I don't run Gentoo, right? ;-) Cheers, Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Finally got a SSD drive to put my OS on
> I wonder. Is there a way to find out the smallest size file in a directory or sub directory, largest files, then maybe a average file size??? I thought about du but given the number of files I have here, it would be a really HUGE list of files. Could take hours or more too. This is what KDE properties shows. I'm sure there are more accurate ways but sudo ls -R / | wc give you the number of lines returned from the ls command. It's not perfect as there are blank lines in the ls but it's a start. My desktop machine has about 2.2M files. Again, there are going to be folks who can tell you how to remove blank lines and other cruft but it's a start. Only takes a minute to run on my Ryzen 9 5950X. YMMV.
Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Finally got a SSD drive to put my OS on
On Wed, Apr 19, 2023 at 12:39 PM Nikos Chantziaras wrote: > > On 19/04/2023 22:26, Dale wrote: > > So for future reference, let it format with the default? I'm also > > curious if when it creates the file system it will notice this and > > adjust automatically. It might. Maybe? > > AFAIK, SSDs will internally convert to 4096 in their firmware even if > they report a physical sector size of 512 through SMART. Just a > compatibility thing. So formatting with 4096 is fine and gets rid of the > internal conversion. I suspect this is right, or has been mostly right in the past. I think technically they default to the physical block size internally and the earlier ones, attempting to be more compatible with HDDs, had 4K blocks. Some of the newer chips now have 16K blocks but still support 512B Logical Block Addressing. All of these devices are essentially small computers. They have internal controllers, DRAM caches usually in the 1-2GB sort of range but getting larger. The bus speeds they quote is because data is moving for the most part in and out of cache in the drive. In Dale's case, if he has a 4K file system block size then it's going to send 4K to the drive and the drive will write 8 512 byte writes to put it in flash. If I have the same 4K file system block size I send 4K to the drive but my physical block size is 4K so it's a single write cycle to get it into flash. What I *think* is true is that any time your file system block size is smaller than the physical block size on the storage element then simplistically you have the risk of write amplification. What I know I'm not sure about is how inodes factor into this. For instance: mark@science2:~$ ls -i 35790149 000_NOT_BACKED_UP 33320794 All_Files.txt 7840 All_Sizes_2.txt 7952 All_Sizes.txt 33329818 All_Sorted.txt 33306743 ardour_deps_install.sh 33309917 ardour_deps_remove.sh 33557560 Arena_Chess 33423859 Astro_Data 33560973 Astronomy 33423886 Astro_science 33307443 'Backup codes - Login.gov.pdf' 33329080 basic-install.sh 33558634 bin 33561132 biosim4_functions.txt 33316157 Boot_Config.txt 33560975 Builder 8822 CFL_88_F_Bright_Syn.xsc If the inodes are on the disk then how are they stored? Does a single inode occupy a physical block? A 512 byte LBA? Something else? I have no clue. > > I believe Windows always uses 4096 by default and thus it's reasonable > to assume that most SSDs are aware of that. >
Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Finally got a SSD drive to put my OS on
On Wed, Apr 19, 2023 at 10:59 AM Dale wrote: > > Peter Humphrey wrote: > > On Wednesday, 19 April 2023 09:00:33 BST Nikos Chantziaras wrote: > > > >> With my HDD: > >> > >># smartctl -x /dev/sda | grep -i 'sector size' > >>Sector Sizes: 512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical > > Or, with an NVMe drive: > > > > # smartctl -x /dev/nvme1n1 | grep -A2 'Supported LBA Sizes' > > Supported LBA Sizes (NSID 0x1) > > Id Fmt Data Metadt Rel_Perf > > 0 + 512 0 0 > > > > :) > > > > When I run that command, sdd is my SDD drive, ironic I know. Anyway, it > doesn't show block sizes. It returns nothing. > > root@fireball / # smartctl -x /dev/sdd | grep -A2 'Supported LBA Sizes' > root@fireball / # Note that all of these technologies, HDD, SDD, M.2, report different things and don't always report them the same way. This is an SDD in my Plex backup server: mark@science:~$ sudo smartctl -x /dev/sdb [sudo] password for mark: smartctl 7.2 2020-12-30 r5155 [x86_64-linux-5.15.0-69-generic] (local build) Copyright (C) 2002-20, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org === START OF INFORMATION SECTION === Model Family: Crucial/Micron Client SSDs Device Model: CT250MX500SSD1 Serial Number:1905E1E79C72 LU WWN Device Id: 5 00a075 1e1e79c72 Firmware Version: M3CR023 User Capacity:250,059,350,016 bytes [250 GB] Sector Sizes: 512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical In my case the physical block is 4096 bytes but addressable in 512 byte blocks. It appears that yours is 512 byte physical blocks. [QUOTE] === START OF INFORMATION SECTION === Model Family: Samsung based SSDs Device Model: Samsung SSD 870 EVO 500GB Serial Number:S6PWNXXX LU WWN Device Id: 5 002538 XX Firmware Version: SVT01B6Q User Capacity:500,107,862,016 bytes [500 GB] Sector Size: 512 bytes logical/physica [QUOTE]
Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Finally got a SSD drive to put my OS on
On Wed, Apr 19, 2023 at 3:35 AM Peter Humphrey wrote: > > On Wednesday, 19 April 2023 09:00:33 BST Nikos Chantziaras wrote: > > > With my HDD: > > > ># smartctl -x /dev/sda | grep -i 'sector size' > >Sector Sizes: 512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical > > Or, with an NVMe drive: > > # smartctl -x /dev/nvme1n1 | grep -A2 'Supported LBA Sizes' > Supported LBA Sizes (NSID 0x1) > Id Fmt Data Metadt Rel_Perf > 0 + 512 0 0 > That command, on my system anyway, does pick up all the LBA sizes: 1) Windows - 1TB Sabrent: Supported LBA Sizes (NSID 0x1) Id Fmt Data Metadt Rel_Perf 0 + 512 0 2 1 -4096 0 1 Data Units Read:8,907,599 [4.56 TB] Data Units Written: 4,132,726 [2.11 TB] Host Read Commands: 78,849,158 Host Write Commands:55,570,509 Error Information (NVMe Log 0x01, 16 of 63 entries) Num ErrCount SQId CmdId Status PELoc LBA NSIDVS 0 1406 0 0x600b 0x4004 0x0280 0 - 2) Kubuntu - 1TB Crucial Supported LBA Sizes (NSID 0x1) Id Fmt Data Metadt Rel_Perf 0 + 512 0 1 1 -4096 0 0 Data Units Read:28,823,498 [14.7 TB] Data Units Written: 28,560,888 [14.6 TB] Host Read Commands: 137,865,594 Host Write Commands:209,406,594 Error Information (NVMe Log 0x01, 16 of 16 entries) Num ErrCount SQId CmdId Status PELoc LBA NSIDVS 0 1735 0 0x100c 0x4005 0x0280 0 - 3) Scratch pad - 128GB SSSTC (No name) M.2 chip mounted on Joylifeboard PCIe card Supported LBA Sizes (NSID 0x1) Id Fmt Data Metadt Rel_Perf 0 + 512 0 0 Data Units Read:363,470 [186 GB] Data Units Written: 454,447 [232 GB] Host Read Commands: 2,832,367 Host Write Commands:2,833,717 Error Information (NVMe Log 0x01, 16 of 64 entries) No Errors Logged NOTE: When I first got interested in M.2 I bought a PCI Express card and an M.2 chip just to use for a while with Astrophotography files which tend to be 24MB coming out of my camera but grow to possibly 1GB as processing occurs. Total cost was about $30 and might be a possible solution for Gentoo users who want a faster scratch pad for system updates. Even this second rate hardware has been reliable and it pretty fast: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09K4YXN33 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08ZB6YVPW mark@science2:~$ sudo hdparm -tT /dev/nvme2n1 /dev/nvme2n1: Timing cached reads: 48164 MB in 1.99 seconds = 24144.06 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 1210 MB in 3.00 seconds = 403.08 MB/sec mark@science2:~$ Although not as fast as M.2 on the MB where the Sabrent M.2 blows away the Crucial M.2 mark@science2:~$ sudo hdparm -tT /dev/nvme0n1 /dev/nvme0n1: Timing cached reads: 47660 MB in 1.99 seconds = 23890.55 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 5452 MB in 3.00 seconds = 1817.10 MB/sec mark@science2:~$ sudo hdparm -tT /dev/nvme1n1 /dev/nvme1n1: Timing cached reads: 47310 MB in 1.99 seconds = 23714.77 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 1932 MB in 3.00 seconds = 643.49 MB/sec mark@science2:~$
Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Finally got a SSD drive to put my OS on
On Tue, Apr 18, 2023 at 2:15 PM Dale wrote: > > Mark Knecht wrote: > > > > On Tue, Apr 18, 2023 at 1:02 PM Dale wrote: > > > > > Someone mentioned 16K block size. > > > I mentioned it but I'm NOT suggesting it. > > It would be the -b option if you were to do it for ext4. > > I'm using the default block size (4k) on all my SSDs and M.2's and > as I've said a couple of time, I'm going to blast past the 5 year > warranty time long before I write too many terabytes. > > Keep it simple. > > - Mark > > One reason I ask, some info I found claimed it isn't even supported. It actually spits out a error message and doesn't create the file system. I wasn't sure if that info was outdated or what so I thought I'd ask. I think I'll skip that part. Just let it do its thing. > > Dale I'd start with something like mkfs.ext4 -b 16384 /dev/sdX and see where it leads. It's *possible* that the SSD might fight back, sending the OS a response that says it doesn't want to do that. It could also be a partition alignment issue, although if you started your partition at the default starting address I'd doubt that one. Anyway, I just wanted to be clear that I'm not worried about write amplification based on my system data. Cheers, Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Finally got a SSD drive to put my OS on
On Tue, Apr 18, 2023 at 1:02 PM Dale wrote: > > Someone mentioned 16K block size. I mentioned it but I'm NOT suggesting it. It would be the -b option if you were to do it for ext4. I'm using the default block size (4k) on all my SSDs and M.2's and as I've said a couple of time, I'm going to blast past the 5 year warranty time long before I write too many terabytes. Keep it simple. - Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Finally got a SSD drive to put my OS on
On Tue, Apr 18, 2023 at 7:53 AM Nikos Chantziaras wrote: > > On 16/04/2023 01:47, Dale wrote: > > Anything else that makes these special? Any tips or tricks? > > Only three things. > > 1. Make sure the fstrim service is active (should run every week by > default, at least with systemd, "systemctl enable fstrim.timer".) > > 2. Don't use the "discard" mount option. > > 3. Use smartctl to keep track of TBW. > > People are always mentioning performance, but it's not the important > factor for me. The more important factor is longevity. You want your > storage device to last as long as possible, and fstrim helps, discard hurts. > > With "smartctl -x /dev/sda" (or whatever device your SSD is in /dev) pay > attention to the "Data Units Written" field. Your 500GB 870 Evo has a > TBW of 300TBW. That's "terabytes written". This is the manufacturer's > "guarantee" that the device won't fail prior to writing that many > terabytes to it. When you reach that, it doesn't mean it will fail, but > it does mean you might want to start thinking of replacing it with a new > one just in case, and then keep using it as a secondary drive. > > If you use KDE, you can also view that SMART data in the "SMART Status" > UI (just type "SMART status" in the KDE application launcher.) > Add to that list that Samsung only warranties the drive for 5 years no matter how much or how little you use it. Again, it doesn't mean it will die in 5 years just as it doesn't mean it will die if it has had more than 300TBW. However it _might_ mean that data written to the drive and never touched again may be gone in 5 years. Non-volatile memory doesn't hold it's charge forever, just as magnetic disk drives and magnetic tape will eventually lose their data. On all of my systems here at home, looking at the TBW values, my drives will go out of warranty at 5 years long before I'll get anywhere near the TBW spec. However I run stable, long term distros that don't update often and mostly use larger data files.
Re: [gentoo-user] Can some config files be automatically protected from etc-update?
On Mon, Apr 17, 2023 at 2:08 PM Frank Steinmetzger wrote: > > Am Mon, Apr 17, 2023 at 12:28:01PM -0700 schrieb Mark Knecht: > > > In my experience with all distros I go outside the distro for this > > sort of issue. Put a copy somewhere, white a little script that > > does a diff on the files you feel are important enough and run > > a cron job hourly that looks for any differences. > > Isn’t that exactly what etc-update does? IIRC (my last Gentoo update was a > few months ago), I select one of the files, and it lets me view a diff in > vim (configurable) of my old version and the new one from the update. Then I > can either merge the two files right in vim, or elect to keep the new or old > file entirely. > It might do most of that, if it's working. If no bugs have been introduced since the last time you used it, if the user has their eyes open and doesn't make a mistake. I do not know if it has an option to keep a copy somewhere safe, and again, I run multiple distros and like a solution that, for me, works on all distros. To each his own. ;-) (And shame on you for being 'a few months' behind on your updates) ;-)
Re: [gentoo-user] Can some config files be automatically protected from etc-update?
On Mon, Apr 17, 2023 at 12:40 PM Lee wrote: > > Really, etc update has a facility for skipping whatever files you want. > > Lee >> In my experience with all distros I go outside the distro for this >> sort of issue. Put a copy somewhere, white a little script that >> does a diff on the files you feel are important enough and run >> a cron job hourly that looks for any differences. >> >> HTH, >> Mark > Absolutely really. It's not only about whether that option works today but whether it keeps working in the future, assuming it really works at all. There's also the case of the machine going down, a disk corrupting, etc. and how long it takes to find the notebook where supposedly we had the notes about how we set things up. And what about other machines using other distros? I'm only offering what I do. I personally wouldn't run the cron job but for all my machines part of my backups is a big list of config files kept elsewhere on the network so that I don't have to reconstruct that sort of config stuff. Add to Walter's list other things like NFS exports and for old people like me it's just easier to be prepared. Just my POV.
Re: [gentoo-user] Can some config files be automatically protected from etc-update?
On Mon, Apr 17, 2023 at 11:26 AM Walter Dnes wrote: > > Now that the (no)multilib problem in my latest update has been solved, > I have a somewhat minor complaint. Can I get etc-update to skip certain > files? My latest emerge world wanted to "update"... > > 1) /etc/hosts (1) > 2) /etc/inittab (1) > 3) /etc/mtab (1) > 4) /etc/conf.d/consolefont (1) > 5) /etc/conf.d/hwclock (1) > 6) /etc/default/grub (1) > 7) /etc/ssh/sshd_config (1) > > ...hosts is critical for networking. consolefont allows me tp use the > true text console with a readable font, etc, etc. I have my reasons > for making certain settings, and keeping them that way. > In my experience with all distros I go outside the distro for this sort of issue. Put a copy somewhere, white a little script that does a diff on the files you feel are important enough and run a cron job hourly that looks for any differences. HTH, Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] Finally got a SSD drive to put my OS on
On Mon, Apr 17, 2023 at 2:41 AM Wols Lists wrote: > > On 17/04/2023 02:14, Dale wrote: > > My current install is over a decade old. My /boot partition is about > > 375MBs. I should have made it larger but at the time, I booted CD/DVD > > media when needed. I didn't have USB sticks at the time. This time, I > > plan to make some changes. If I put Knoppix and/or Gentoo LiveGUI in > > /boot, it will be larger. Much larger. Mark's idea is best tho. If I > > can get Grub to work and boot it. > > If you dd your boot partition across, you can copy it into a larger > partition on the new drive, and then just expand the filesystem. > > So changing partition sizes isn't a problem if you want to just copy > your system drive onto a new disk. > > Cheers, > Wol I'm not sure I'd use dd in this case. If he's moving from an HDD with a 4K block size and a 4K file system block size to an SDD with a 16K physical block size he might want to consider changing the filesystem block size to 16K which should help on the write amplification side. Maybe dd can do that but I wouldn't think so. And I don't know that formatting ext4 or some other FS to 16K really helps the write amplification issue but it makes sense to me to match the file system blocks to the underlying flash block size. Real speed testing would be required to ensure reading 16K blocks doesn't slow him down though. Just a thought, Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] updating /boot directory EFI
On Mon, Apr 17, 2023 at 10:11 AM Michael wrote: > > On Monday, 17 April 2023 17:52:25 BST Mark Knecht wrote: > > > One thing I haven't decoded is why Windows is and Kubuntu is 0003. > > See below ... > > > > I now better understand Mitch D.'s point that the pointers to which OS to > > boot are not in a disk file, like the old grub configuration, but rather in > > Flash memory on the motherboard. I suppose the numbering is just the > > luck of the draw, or that 0001 and 0002 were used at one time and no longer > > present, but that's just a guess. > > Exactly the latter, they are no longer present. I copy kernel images manually > to /boot/EFI/Gentoo/ and run 'efibootmgr --create' to add entries to the UEFI > boot menu with my choice of labels. They are added being numbered > incrementally. If I remove some of the older menu entries, their > corresponding numbers are also removed and become available for any new > bootable .efi images I may add in the future. > > In addition, if I boot with any USB drives attached, the UEFI firmware will > scan such devices and add any bootable images to the UEFI boot menu stored in > NVRAM, by numbering such images incrementally. This will further increase the > numbers of boot menu entries, which once the USB devices are removed their > entry number will become vacant and available to be reallocated. > Ah, so in that case if I booted the original Kubuntu install from a USB stick then possibly an entry was used doing that. I also used memtest86 prior to the Kubuntu install so possibly that was an entry. Anyway, it makes more sense now. If you go back into the archives for this list, list December I asked a question "Duel boot - How to verify boot loader updates?". That was maybe a month or two after I noticed the Kubuntu ESP being changed and the Windows ESP being mounted instead. I just never finished the thread what with the holidays and visitors, etc. I appreciate the help so thanks and maybe the thread will help someone else one of these days. Cheers, Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] updating /boot directory EFI
On Mon, Apr 17, 2023 at 8:18 AM Michael wrote:
>
> On Monday, 17 April 2023 14:31:08 BST Mark Knecht wrote:
> > 2) The more complicated view with GUIDs and such:
> >
> > mark@science2:~$ efibootmgr -v
> > BootCurrent: 0003
> > Timeout: 1 seconds
> > BootOrder: 0003,
> > Boot* Windows Boot Manager
> > HD(1,GPT,2052c843-0057-494a-a749-e8ec3676514a,0x800,0x32000)/File(\EF
> >
I\MICROSOFT\BOOT\BOOTMGFW.EFI)WINDOWS.x...B.C.D.O.B.J.E.C.T.=.{.9.d.
> > e.a.8.6.2.c.-.5.c.d.d.-.4
> > .e.7.0.-.a.c.c.1.-.f.3.2.b.3.4.4.d.4.7.9.5.}
> > Boot0003* ubuntu
> >
HD(1,GPT,2052c843-0057-494a-a749-e8ec3676514a,0x800,0x32000)/File(\EFI\UBUN
> > TU \SHIMX64.EFI)
> > mark@science2:~$
>
> This shows the efibootmgr is using the first disk and boots the Windows
> BOOTMGFW.EFI, or Ubuntu's shimX64.efi from there.
OK, that part makes perfect sense and the files are there.
Additionally the GUID in each HD(...) entry matches the GUID on
/dev/nvme0n1p1
which has a type "EFI system partition" in fdisk. Good so far.
> > The 'problem' with this setup is that all of the grub/efibootmgr stuff
> > is on both drives
>
> Are you sure?
Yes, there is a directory but that directory, which did have a Kubuntu
boot image in the past, is now empty.
HISTORY. I bought the computer with Win 10 installed and a
second empty M.2 drive. To install Kubuntu I switched BIOS to
boot from that drive, installed Kubuntu which populated the EFI
directory with all of the stuff you're showing me. I did not know about
the efibootmgr at the time as this was my fist new MB in about 8
years.
Early on I went to Windows by changing BIOS because, for what
ever reason the Kubuntu install didn't see the Windows disk. I
am assuming that was probably me completely disabling it in
BIOS but I don't remember the details.
Later on a Kubuntu update found Windows, updated the EFI
stuff on the Windows drive and then, I see this morning,
erased everything out of the Kubuntu EFI partition but
left the partition there.
i
>
> This is where the ESP is mounted, but you'll find /boot directory is on
your /
> dev/nvme1n1p3 block device, along with your kernels, initrd images and
> vimlinuz symlinks.
>
Correct.
ESP? EFI System Partition possibly?
> Your GRUB EFI bootable image is on /dev/nvme0n1p1, under
/boot/efi/EFI/ubuntu/
>
> > tmpfs 3.2G 64K 3.2G 1% /run/user/1000
> > mark@science2:~$
>
> I would think Ubuntu installed GRUB on nvme0n1p1 ESP, which it detected by
> scanning your disks. If your nvme0n1p1 fails and has to be removed, you
will
> need to create a new ESP somewhere on the ubuntu disk and then you can
> reinstall GRUB after you reboot with a LiveUSB, or while still running
ubuntu.
Understood. Thanks.
One thing I haven't decoded is why Windows is and Kubuntu is 0003.
I now better understand Mitch D.'s point that the pointers to which OS to
boot are not in a disk file, like the old grub configuration, but rather in
Flash memory on the motherboard. I suppose the numbering is just the
luck of the draw, or that 0001 and 0002 were used at one time and no longer
present, but that's just a guess.
For anyone following along or reading later, there's an easily read web page
on things you can do with efibootmgr located here:
https://www.linuxbabe.com/command-line/how-to-use-linux-efibootmgr-examples
Also, the Windows app similar to efibootmgr (but untested by me) is
possibly called bootcfg.exe
- Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] updating /boot directory EFI
On Mon, Apr 17, 2023 at 4:57 AM Michael wrote:
>
> On Monday, 17 April 2023 00:29:49 BST Arsen Arsenović wrote:
> > Wol writes:
> > > On 16/04/2023 22:30, Mitch D. wrote:
> > >> Wol, can you elaborate on why you think Grub is deprecated on EFI
> > >> systems?
> > >
> > > Because EFI is a boot manager?
> >
> > That is not the case any more than the classic IBM PC boot procedure is.
> > There is technical capability for UEFI firmware to act in such a manner,
> > but, in practice, this is not at all the case.
> >
> > The technical capability comes from the fact that boot entities have a
> > lil' bit of metadata attached to them.
>
> The ability of UEFI to boot linux kernels, as long as they are built with
the
> EFI boot stub enabled, may render 3rd party boot managers and their boot
> loaders redundant. However, as already mentioned below, the flexibility
and
> customisability of GRUB and other boot manager exceeds any UEFI firmware
I've
> come across.
>
>
> > > Why chain-load boot managers?
> >
> > In theory, EFI implementations should provide boot
> > managers. Unfortunately, in practice these boot managers are often so
> > poor as to be useless. The worst I've personally encountered is on
> > Gigabyte's Hybrid EFI, which provides you with no boot options
> > whatsoever, beyond choosing the boot device (hard disk vs. optical disc,
> > for instance). I've heard of others that are just as bad. For this
> > reason, a good EFI boot manager—either standalone or as part of a boot
> > loader—is a practical necessity for multi-booting on an EFI
> > computer. That's where rEFInd comes into play.
> > - https://rodsbooks.com/refind/
>
> I've stopped using GRUB and have been using the UEFI firmware to boot
directly
> Gentoo for more than 10 years now. Given I have also flashed some of the
> MoBos' chipset with new UEFI firmware a dozen times or more, I have not
> experienced any MoBo failures as yet. Also, the ESP partition formatted
with
> FAT32 has remained quite resilient too. No loss of data or fs corruption
yet
> (keeps fingers crossed and checks backups).
>
> My particular systems setup and use case suits this approach, but I
appreciate
> people who multiboot daily/frequently, or need to boot LiveISOs off the
disk
> may find GRUB and friends to be a more suitable solution.
>
>
My needs are quite simple but efibootmgr, set up by the Kubuntu install
on a separate M.2 from the Windows install the machine came with, works for
me. I always start the day in Kubuntu, then reboot to Windows if I'm working
on music:
1) The simple view of the two installations:
mark@science2:~$ efibootmgr
BootCurrent: 0003
Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0003,
Boot* Windows Boot Manager
Boot0003* ubuntu
mark@science2:~$
2) The more complicated view with GUIDs and such:
mark@science2:~$ efibootmgr -v
BootCurrent: 0003
Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0003,
Boot* Windows Boot Manager
HD(1,GPT,2052c843-0057-494a-a749-e8ec3676514a,0x800,0x32000)/File(\EF
I\MICROSOFT\BOOT\BOOTMGFW.EFI)WINDOWS.x...B.C.D.O.B.J.E.C.T.=.{.9.d.e.a.8.6.2.c.-.5.c.d.d.-.4
.e.7.0.-.a.c.c.1.-.f.3.2.b.3.4.4.d.4.7.9.5.}
Boot0003* ubuntu
HD(1,GPT,2052c843-0057-494a-a749-e8ec3676514a,0x800,0x32000)/File(\EFI\UBUNTU
\SHIMX64.EFI)
mark@science2:~$
3) To get to Windows I can choose it in the OS screen if I'm sitting there
but the most reliable way for me to get from Kubuntu to Windows is to just
tell the system to go to Windows at the next boot using a batch file in
Kubuntu:
mark@science2:~$ cat bin/RebootWindows
sudo efibootmgr -n
reboot
mark@science2:~$
The 'problem' with this setup is that all of the grub/efibootmgr stuff
is on both drives and I'm never sure which drive is being used at
which time as I have Kubuntu on nvme1 and Windows boot
manager on nvme0 which I'm never comfortable with but the
Ubuntu stuff figured it out so I don't argue. Pity me if I ever have to
do a reinstall.
mark@science2:~$ df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
tmpfs 3.2G 3.7M 3.2G 1% /run
/dev/nvme1n1p3 916G 622G 248G 72% /
tmpfs16G 66M 16G 1% /dev/shm
tmpfs 5.0M 4.0K 5.0M 1% /run/lock
/dev/nvme0n1p1 96M 32M 65M 33% /boot/efi
tmpfs 3.2G 64K 3.2G 1% /run/user/1000
mark@science2:~$
Re: [gentoo-user] Finally got a SSD drive to put my OS on
On Sun, Apr 16, 2023 at 3:18 PM Frank Steinmetzger wrote: > > Am Sun, Apr 16, 2023 at 01:22:32PM -0700 schrieb Mark Knecht: > > Frank, > >Thank you for the in-depth explanation. > > > >I need to do some study before commenting further other than to say > > so far I'm finding different comments depending on whether it's > > an SSD or an M.2 drive. > > Uhm, I think you mix up some terms here. An M.2 drive *is* an SSD > (literally, as the name says, a solid state drive). By “SSD”, did you mean > the classic laptop form factor for SATA HDDs and SSDs? > > Because M.2 is also only a physical form factor. It supports both NVMe and > SATA. While NVMe is more modern and better suited for solid state media and > their properties, in the end it is still only a data protocol to transfer > data to and fro. > No, I don't believe I've mixed them up but if you see something I'm wrong about let me know. When I speak of SSDs I do mean devices that are marketed as SSDs & probably use SATA. When I speak of M.2 I mean what you and I both call M.2. While SSD & M.2 are both Flash devices they don't provide the same info when queried by smartctl which makes a direct comparison more difficult. Depending on the manufacturer & the foundry they build the chips in the technologies in these devices can be quite different independent of whether they are M.2 or SSD. 1) Dale's Samsung 870 EVO - V-NAND TLC (8-bits/cell) and 600TB written 2) My Crucial 1TB M.2 is QLC (16 bits/cell) and 450TB written 3) My Sabrent 1TB M.2 is TLC (8 bits/cell) and 700TB written 4) My Crucial 250GB is unknown because Crucial sells 5 versions that come from different fabs and have different specs. All 4 drives are warranted for 5 years or hitting the TB written value. All 4 drives have 16K page sizes. That said, I've been using the Crucial on my Kubuntu dual boot for over a year and only have 28TB written so I'm a long way from the 450TB spec and likely won't come close in 5 years. (If I'm even still using this machine.) On the Windows side which I use far less I've only written about 2TB total. In my case the workloads are generally fairly large files. They are generally either 24MB photo files for astrophotography or audio recording files which are typically 50-100K. Neither of them are 'modified' and need to be rewritten. They are either saved or deleted. Whether the write amplification makes a difference or not in real life I don't know. I'm sure for some work loads it does but the 'percent used' value that smartctl returns is 2% for the Crucial and 0% for the Sabrent so both appear to have a lot of life left in them. Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] Finally got a SSD drive to put my OS on
Frank, Thank you for the in-depth explanation. I need to do some study before commenting further other than to say so far I'm finding different comments depending on whether it's an SSD or an M.2 drive. Much appreciated, Mark On Sun, Apr 16, 2023 at 11:08 AM Frank Steinmetzger wrote: > Am Sun, Apr 16, 2023 at 08:08:59AM -0700 schrieb Mark Knecht: > > > If you have an SSD or nvme drive installed then fstrim should be > > installed and run on a regular basis. However it's not 'required'. > > > > Your system will still work, but after all blocks on the drive have > > been used for file storage and later deleted, if they are not > > written back to zeros then the next time you go to use that > > block the write will be slower as the write must first write > > zeros and then your data. > > > > fstrim does the write to zeros so that during normal operation > > you don't wait. > > That is not quite correct. Trimming is about the oppisite of what you say, > namely to *not* rewrite areas. Flash memory can only be written to in > relatively large blocks. So if your file system wants to write 4 KiB, the > drive needs to read all the many kB around it (several hundreds at least, > perhaps eben MiBs, I’m not certain), change the small part in question and > write the whole block back. This is called write amplification. This also > occurs on hard drives, for example when you run a database which uses 4 > kiB > datafile chunks, but on a file system with larger sectors. Then the file > system is the cause for write amplification. > > If the SSD knew beforehand that the area is unused, it does not need to > read > it all in and then write it back. The SSD controller has no knowledge of > file systems. And this is where trim comes in: it does know file systems, > detects the unused areas and translates that info for the drive > controller. > Also, only trimmed areas (i.e. areas the controller knows are unused) can > be > used for wear leveling. > > I even think that If you read from a trimmed area, the controller does not > actually read the flash device, but simply returns zeroes. This is > basically > what a quick erase does; it trims the entire drive, which takes only a few > seconds, and then all the data has become inaccessible (unless you address > the memory chips directly). It is similar to deleting a file: you erase > its > entry in the directory, but not the actual payload bytes. > > AFAIK, SMR HDDs also support trim these days, so they don’t need to do > their > SMR reshuffling. I have a WD Passport Ultra external 2.5″ HDD with 5 TB, > and > it supports trim. However, a WD Elements 2.5″ 4 TB does not. Perhaps > because > it is a cheaper series. Every laptop HDD of 2 (or even 1) TB is SMR. > > -- > Grüße | Greetings | Salut | Qapla’ > Please do not share anything from, with or about me on any social network. > > “It is hard to be a conquering hero when it is not in your nature.” > – Captain Hans Geering, ’Allo ’Allo >
Re: [gentoo-user] Finally got a SSD drive to put my OS on
On Sun, Apr 16, 2023 at 11:54 AM Dale wrote: > > Mark Knecht wrote: > > <<< SNIP >>> > > I guess I don't understand why you would put Knoppix in the boot > > partition vs somewhere else. Is this for some sort of recovery > > process you're comfortable with vs recovering from a bootable DVD? > > > > - Mark > > I'm wanting to be able to boot something from the hard drive in the > event the OS itself won't boot. The other day I had to dig around and > find a bootable USB stick and also found a DVD. Ended up with the DVD > working best. I already have memtest on /boot. Thing is, I very rarely > use it. ;-) So in the scenario you are suggesting, is grub working, giving you a boot choice screen, and your new Gentoo install is not working so you want to choose Knoppix to repair whatever is wrong with Gentoo? If that's the case why shoehorn Knoppix into the boot partition vs just give it its own partition?
Re: [gentoo-user] Finally got a SSD drive to put my OS on
On Sun, Apr 16, 2023 at 9:55 AM Dale wrote: > > I think what I read is that it is done automatically. They could have > meant a cron job. I don't think they said how, just that it is already > set up to do it. Firmware was mentioned in the thread somewhere so I > thought maybe that was it. Either way, fstrim is installed here. It's > part of util-linux and that is pulled in by several packages. I doubt > it will be going away here anytime soon given the long list of packages > that need it. Just to set up a cron job for it. Remembering the steps > for that will take time tho. o_O > Hey - it's the Internet. I thought we could trust everything we read... > > > I've thought of a few options myself. I sort of have a OS copy/backup > already. I currently do the compiling in a chroot on a separate drive. > I then copy the compiled packages and use the -k option to update the > live OS. I'll continue to do that when I start booting from the SSD. > That should limit writes and such to the SSD. I also got to rearrange > things so I can put swap on that spare drive I compile on. I don't want > swap on a SSD. I wish this thing would stop using swap completely. I > have swappiness set to 1 already and it still uses swap. > Well, that sounds like a solution to do your emerge work although you're limited to the speed of that hard drive. If it's done in the background then maybe you don't care. > Right now, I'm debating the size of /boot. Knoppix is pretty large. > The Gentoo LiveGUI thingy is too. So, it will have to be larger than > the few hundred megabytes my current one is. I'm thinking 10GBs or so. > Maybe 12GBs to make sure I'm good to go for the foreseeable future. > They may limit them to DVD size right now but one day they could pass > that limit by. Software isn't getting smaller. Besides, USB is the > thing now. > I guess I don't understand why you would put Knoppix in the boot partition vs somewhere else. Is this for some sort of recovery process you're comfortable with vs recovering from a bootable DVD? - Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] Finally got a SSD drive to put my OS on
> > > Oh, please, don't go anywhere.We already lost the long term Alan. BTW, I checked on him a while back. He's still OK. It's been a while tho. > Dale - I touched - truly. I'm happy to stick around but I no longer run Gentoo and don't want to cause problems or piss off the folks who need to be here. > I read during a google search that some distros handle this sort of thing automatically, some sort of firmware thing or something. I figured Gentoo didn't, it rarely does since that is the point of Gentoo. So, no harm. Heck, I just now applied power to the thing. I don't even have it partitioned or anything yet. Just rebooted after rearranging all the cables, adding power splitter etc etc. I don't know of any distros that do any of this in firmware. Maybe someone else can address that. Many distros now install fstrim by default and update crontab. The Ubuntu family does, which I didn't know before this thread. However it is on both my Kubuntu machine and my Ubuntu Server machine. BTW - Windows does this in Disk Defragmenter but you have to schedule it yourself according to Bard and ChatGPT. I'll be in Windows later today to record some new music and plan to look into that then. Answering the question from below - weekly is what was set up by default here. If your drive isn't near full and you're not writing a lot of new data on it each week then weekly would seem reasonable to me. However being that you are running Gentoo and hence compiling lots and lots and lots of stuff every week it's possible that you might _possibly_ want to run fstrim more often if your intermediate files are going to this drive. > > I do have one gripe. Why can't drive makers pick a screw size and stick to it on ALL drives? It took some digging to find a screw that would fit. Some I bought that are supposed to work on SSDs were to short. It would likely work on a metal adapter but not a thicker plastic one. Luckily, I found 4 screws. No clue where they came from. Just in my junk box. Before this week, never laid eyes on a SSD before. Anyone know the thread size and count on those things? I want to order a few, just in case. I second your gripe. I've purchased a couple of PC builder screw sets from Amazon. > > Is running fstrim once a week to often? I update my OS once a week but given the amount of extra space, I'd think once a month would be often enough. After all, it is 500GB and I'll likely only use less than half of that. Most of the extra space will be extra boot options like Knoppix or something. I'm just thinking it would give it a longer life. Maybe my thinking is wrong??? > > Now to play with this thing. I got to remember what all has to be copied over so I can boot the new thing. :/ Been ages since I moved a OS to another hard drive. Maybe a reinstall would work better. :-\ > I think you have at least 3 options to play with the drive: 1) It's Gentoo so install from scratch. You'll feel great if it works. It will only take you a day or two. 2) Possibly dd the old drive to the SSD. If the new SSD boots as the same /dev/sdX device it should work, maybe, maybe not. 3) If you have another SATA port then dual boot, either with Gentoo on both or something simple like Kubuntu. A base Kubuntu install takes about 15 minutes and will probably give you its own dual boot grub config. When you're sick of Kubuntu you can once again install Gentoo. Good luck no matter what path you take. Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] Finally got a SSD drive to put my OS on
On Sun, Apr 16, 2023 at 1:44 AM William Kenworthy wrote: > > > On 16/4/23 15:18, Peter Humphrey wrote: > > On Sunday, 16 April 2023 02:47:00 BST William Kenworthy wrote: > > > >> look into mount options for SSD's (discard option) and "fstrim" for > >> maintenance. (read up on trimmimg - doing a manual trim before the drive > >> reaches full allocation (they delete files, but do not erase them > >> because erasing is time consuming so its an OS controlled operation) or > >> auto trimming (which can cause serious pauses at awkward times) can > >> prevent serious performance degradation as it has to erase before > >> writing. I am not sure of the current status but in the early days of > >> SSD's, this was serious concern. > > In short, see https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/SSD . :) > > > Excellent, condenses it nicely. > > BillK > > OK Dale, I'm completely wrong, but also 'slightly' right. If you have an SSD or nvme drive installed then fstrim should be installed and run on a regular basis. However it's not 'required'. Your system will still work, but after all blocks on the drive have been used for file storage and later deleted, if they are not written back to zeros then the next time you go to use that block the write will be slower as the write must first write zeros and then your data. fstrim does the write to zeros so that during normal operation you don't wait. I've become so completely used to Kubuntu that I had to read that this is all set up automatically when the system finds an SSD or nvme. In Gentoo land you have to do this yourself. Sorry for any confusion. Time to unsubscribe from this list I guess and leave you all to your beloved distro. Bye, Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] Finally got a SSD drive to put my OS on
On Sat, Apr 15, 2023 at 3:47 PM Dale wrote: > > Howdy, > > I finally broke down and bought a SSD. It's a Samsung V-Nand 870 EVO > 500GB. My current OS sits on a 160GB drive so should be plenty. I plan > to even add a boot image for the Gentoo LiveGUI thingy, maybe Knoppix or > something plus my usual OS. By the way, caught one for sale for > $40.00. It has a production date of 5/2021. > > My question is this. Do I need anything special in the kernel or > special fstab options for this thing? I know at one point there was > folks having problems with certain settings. I did some googling and it > seems to be worked out but I want to be sure I don't blow this thing up > or something. > > Anything else that makes these special? Any tips or tricks? > > Dale > > :-) :-) > > P. S. I'm hoping this will make my system a little more responsive. > Maybe. Either way, that 160GB drive is getting a little full. > Dale, I have 500GB SSDs and 1TB M.2 drives in all of my machines. No machine boots from a spinning drive anyhmore. Never had any problems. The only thing I've done differently is the errors=remount=ro item below. Other than that if whatever OS you install sets up boot, and the machine boots, then it's just a drive in my experience Best wishes, Mark # / was on /dev/nvme1n1p3 during installation UUID=3fe6798f-653f-42e8-8e96-7ba0d490bfdf / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1 # /boot/efi was on /dev/nvme0n1p1 during installation UUID=60DF-9F56 /boot/efi vfatumask=0077 0 1
Re: [gentoo-user] How to restart/fix frozen XFCE4
On Sat, Apr 1, 2023 at 10:28 PM wrote: > > > At time to time my XFCE4 freezes. The screen is responding to the keyboard, mouse pointer is moving on the screen but nothing is responding. > I just lookup some solutions and found this one: > > - press: CTRL+Alt+T (to get to terminal) > - pidof xfce4-panel > - kill -9 pid > > xfwm4 --replace & > > Any other solutions? > > Thelma https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_SysRq_key
Re: [gentoo-user] has anybody use ChatGPT for programming?
On Mon, Mar 20, 2023 at 5:52 PM wrote: > > Has anybody use ChatGPT for programming? I think it would very very handy (less bugs) and less questions on the mailing-list > I've used it very early on to write some python code to read some text files and place them in numpy arrays, etc. It worked, the files were read correctly, then they cut off my access due to too many users and I haven't bothered since.
Re: [gentoo-user] PCIe x1 or PCIe x4 SATA controller card
On Mon, Mar 13, 2023 at 7:35 AM Dale wrote: > Another question. My rig is getting a bit aged. I have a AMD FX-8350 8 > core CPU running at 4GHz. I also have 32GBs of memory. I've read that > Intel currently has the best bang for buck on CPUs nowadays. I'm open > to the idea of switching. As far as speed goes, if I built a new rig > that is using a reasonably cost CPU and memory, would I see any real > improvements? I think it all depends on what you're going to use the machine for and whether you really use all your CPU for extended periods of time. For all the hours my machines run they are mostly idle, in the sense that even if I'm keeping the machine busy watching a movie, doing backups, browsing the web, even on my older machines none of those use more than 10-15% of my older machines. The only two things I do which drove the purchase of my new machine were: 1) Studio level audio recording using Mixbus32C (the for-pay version of the Open Source project called Ardour) 2) Astrophotography photo processing using the for-pay program called PixInsight. Mixbus32C issues are more based around real-time performance and use of both the Linux and Windows versions, and being able to transfer projects back and forth between both platforms. I've never heard you talk about using Windows, nor doing anything that takes real-time capabilities so that probably doesn't apply. PixInsight is the processor hog. It can use all my 32GB memory (and more) and it can run for hours using 100% of my CPU so it's the one that drove my eventual purchase of a Ryzen 9 5950X. PixInsight has a benchmark program built in and all the results are open to look at: https://pixinsight.com/benchmark/index.php?sort=cpu=all Interestingly I didn't find your processor even on the list and the top says it covers about 3000 CPU models. You might take a look at this when you boil your processor choices down to 2 or 3. Note that for the specific processor type you can open up the group and look at individual machines. Most/many include what motherboard they were running so that can assist you making choices also. Hope this helps, Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] Re: my 5.15.93 kernel keeps rebooting
On Fri, Feb 17, 2023 at 12:03 PM John Covici wrote: > Well, some progress, but no joy. I found actual messages from > netconsole and it seems no matter what device I put for the source, > netconsole says it doesn't exist. I tried my eno1, and also eth0 and > eth1. In my normal boot sequence, I see that udev renamed eth1 to > eno1, but netconsole still said it does not exist. So, I may have to > use the serial console method, I have to find my cables for that. I > did also try to add net.ifnames=0 to my boot options, but no joy > there. > > -- > Your life is like a penny. You're going to lose it. The question is: > How do > you spend it? > > John Covici wb2una > cov...@ccs.covici.com John, I did a bad job at trying to point you in this direction the other day, and in my testing I'm not sure how well it works. However another option you might investigate is on the receiving end you can apparently set the transmitter's IP address by using the transmitter's mac address. Supposedly you would execute something like the following, with extra spaces added for readability: sudo arp -s 192.168.86.244 90:e6:ba:10:a3:e7 temp which supposedly says 'when you see a packet with this mac address associate it with this IP address'. The temp part says don't add it to the permanent tables. After executing this you are supposed to be able to use tools that filter by IP address but I didn't have great results. Hope this helps, Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] Re: my 5.15.93 kernel keeps rebooting
address=192.168.0.1 netmask=24 broadcast=192.168.0.255 So, before I run this, I don't think the card has any ip address, does it? >From what you hope the receiving machine arp -a ? HTH, Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] df command no longer working
On Sun, Feb 12, 2023 at 1:37 PM Dale wrote: > I did a re-emerge of coreutils, then some of its > friends. It still doesn't work. I saw some clickbait news that coreutils is being rewritten in Rust but I don't think it's been released to the general public. However if you run non-stable packages then possibly you picked it up? Possibly mask the version you are currently using and see if an older version is working?
Re: [gentoo-user] Last rites: app-admin/gkrellm & plugins
On Sat, Jan 28, 2023 at 9:10 AM Jack wrote: > > On 1/28/23 05:35, Peter Humphrey wrote: > > On Saturday, 28 January 2023 09:17:35 GMT Michael wrote: > > > >> Since my coding ability is even worse than Dale's I join him in kindly > >> asking for a maintainer/dev to take it on and keep it running. > > I too am finding it hard to imagine life without gkrellm. I think it needs more > > than just a maintainer though - it needs a replacement for upstream as well. > > I"m actually the one who first heard that the original maintainer had > died. (I had written to him about some support issue, and got a belated > reply from his brother.) Upstream is not dead at all, the activity > level is just fairly low. I tried to post to -dev, but my message never > got through, not sure if it's because I'm not a dev or I made some other > error in sending. The homepage is at htttps://gkrellm.srcbox.net with > source at https://git.srcbox.net/gkrellm/gkrellm. > > The main problem is that is still uses gtk+2. They do have an open > issue about that, but most of the discussion has been on why it would be > so hard to upgrade. There is apparently a lot of fairly low-level > graphics stuff going on, and Bill himself (the original maintainer) said > something like the conversion to gkt+3 would be difficult, but to go to > gtk+4 (I have no idea how far off this is) would essentially be a re-write. > > Jack > I don't know enough about Gentoo anymore but couldn't some smart dev-type build the whole thing as a static package where if you wanted to install it you just get the binary and run it? Or does it have so many dependencies that would be insane to do that? There are a couple of small MIDI/recording apps I use that are that way, but they don't have much of a visual interface. They look like they are from the Windows 98 era.
Re: [gentoo-user] Scanner and weird streaking
On Fri, Dec 30, 2022 at 1:12 PM Urs Schütz wrote: > > Any chance you need to shield the scanner from light sources outside the scan head? > Throw a dark jacket over it for testing. Or if it's that the light is for some reason too bright and the inside of the lid is reflecting it then try a piece of black construction paper on the underside of the lid. - Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] Scanner and weird streaking
On Fri, Dec 30, 2022 at 6:42 AM Dale wrote: > Well, bummer. I was afraid it was going bad. ;-) If it's still moving then it isn't necessarily bad. Possibly you need a new goal for your old equipment? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Hfj_SuVm_0 Good luck, Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] NAS and replacing with larger drives
On Tue, Dec 20, 2022 at 11:52 PM Dale wrote: > This is why at some point, I'd like to have two sets of backups. RAID > or not. Amazon Snowball? :-) ;-) MArk
Re: Living in NGL: was: [gentoo-user] NAS and replacing with larger drives
Hi Rich On Mon, Dec 19, 2022 at 6:30 AM Rich Freeman wrote: > My current solution is: > 1. Moosefs for storage: amd64 container for the master, and ARM SBCs > for the chunkservers which host all the USB3 hard drives. I'm trying to understand the form factor of what you are mentioning above. Presumably the chunkservers aren't sitting on a lab bench with USB drives hanging off of them. Can you point me toward and example of what you are using? I've been considering some of these new mini-computers that have a couple of 2.5Gb/S Ethernet ports and 3 USB 3 ports but haven't moved forward because I want it packaged in a single case. Where does the master reside? In a container on your desktop machine or is that another element on your network? > 2. Plex server in a container on amd64 (looking to migrate this to k8s > over the holiday). Why Kubernetes? Is the Plex server safer when not being used? How long does it take to spin up an instance and do the TV apps understand this operation? Or would it be up and running all the time? Thanks, Mark
Re: Living in NGL: was: [gentoo-user] NAS and replacing with larger drives
sysctl hw SNIP> sudo dmidecode -t processor -t cache
Re: Living in NGL: was: [gentoo-user] NAS and replacing with larger drives
On Sun, Dec 18, 2022 at 1:07 PM Rich Freeman wrote: > > On Sun, Dec 18, 2022 at 2:30 PM Frank Steinmetzger wrote: > > > > Am Sun, Dec 18, 2022 at 01:07:43PM -0600 schrieb Dale: > > > > > Mostly, I need a better CPU. If I encrypt anyway. > > > > Did you ever tell us the exact CPU you have in there? All I can remember is > > it has 4 cores. And some AMD processor with a II in its name, but that was > > you main rig, right? > > What encryption algorithm are you using? You should see if this is > hardware-accelerated in the kernel for your CPU, or if not if there is > another strong algorithm which is. Most newer CPUs will tend to have > hardware support for algorithms like AES, and the kernel will use > this. This will greatly improve CPU performance. > > I've run into this issue with zfs on Raspberry Pis. ZFS does the > encryption internally, and the openzfs code didn't have support for > ARM hardware encryption the last time I checked (this could have > changed). I found that dm-crypt works MUCH better on Pis as a result, > as the kernel does have ARM encryption hardware support. > > Again, this all depends on the algorithm. If you're using something > exotic odds are the hardware won't handle it natively. > > -- > Rich Great background info Rich. Thanks. If Dale would supply us with the first few lines of the following command I think it would help mark@truenas1:~ $ sysctl hw hw.machine: amd64 hw.model: Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-2120 CPU @ 3.30GHz hw.ncpu: 4 Note that hw.ncpu isn't actually cores but rather threads. My processor has just 2 cores. I don't know how to get the CPU flags on FreeBSD nor how to determine if encryption is hardware or software based on TrueNAS. Given some time I might Google that. Cheers, Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] NAS and replacing with larger drives
On Sun, Dec 18, 2022 at 12:20 PM Dale wrote: > root@truenas[~]# iperf -s > > Server listening on TCP port 5001 > TCP window size: 64.0 KByte (default) > > > > And nothing. Several minutes later, still nothing. And it continues to sit there. I don't think it is working. :/ > > Still, odds are, whatever it is, I'm not likely going to be able to change it. That poor old CPU just may not have the needed instruction set to be really fast for this. Maybe a different encryption would be better. I dunno. It's temporary anyway. > > And still nothing. It's been sitting there since I read the last message. Still, nothing. > Sadly, you didn't read all of my instructions or apparently read the man page or help file All you've done is start the server which listens for a connection. Now go to your Gentoo Land machine that you want to backup and execute iperf -c IP.ADDR.OF.SERVER Wait 10 seconds and hit ctrl-C
Re: Living in NGL: was: [gentoo-user] NAS and replacing with larger drives
On Sun, Dec 18, 2022 at 12:08 PM Dale wrote: > I just might find a simple distro that I can install on that thing. Honestly, I don't really care what is on it as long as it does what I want and I can figure out how to make it work easily enough. Consider Ubuntu Server. It's text only and will likely have everything you need to start other than the NFS server which is easy enough to install. ssh is on it by default, You will need a monitor to install. Update after install is probably two commands which is more or less equivalent to emerge -DuN world but takes only a couple of minutes. sudo apt update sudo apt upgrade There are lots of web pages that will tell you how to install and configure the NFS server. It's not hard and only necessary if you actually want to create mounts. Not necessary for rsync.
Re: [gentoo-user] NAS and replacing with larger drives
On Sun, Dec 18, 2022 at 11:39 AM Dale wrote: > > > I suspect it has something to do with this being a older system. I > wouldn't be surprised if the SATA was a older and slower version. I > guess I could google it. > You need to study your specs. Even the first version of SATA, SATA 1, was capable of 150MB/S. SATA2 does 300MB/S. This is unlikely IMO to be due to SATA specs. Have you run iperf yet as I suggested? It will easily tell you what the network performance is and takes 5 seconds in NGL.
Re: [gentoo-user] NAS and replacing with larger drives
> I can't figure out why it is so slow tho. The NAS rig is a 4 core CPU and 8GBs of memory. It should have enough horsepower under the hood. Maybe it is something I'm not aware of. It is a older rig so maybe it isn't SATA's fastest version, maybe even the original or something. I can't find anything in lspci or dmesg so not real sure where to look on BSD. Mine is similar. It's an i3-2120 which is 2 core, 4 threads with 8GB of DRAM. The NIC is on the motherboard and I don't remember what motherboard I bought. It was used and cost my about $50.
Re: Living in NGL: was: [gentoo-user] NAS and replacing with larger drives
On Sun, Dec 18, 2022 at 8:49 AM Jack wrote: > > On 12/18/22 10:38, Mark Knecht wrote: > > Wipe the machine and start over with Gentoo from scratch... > > Wipe the machine and start over with Gentoo from scratch... > > Humm, I think you should... > > Wipe the machine and start over with Gentoo from scratch... > > First there was Linux from Scratch. > > Next came Beyond Linux from Scratch. > > Then there was Gentoo. > > Now, the latest, greatest installment: Gentoo from Scratch. > Gawd, that's funny! Thanks for making me smile, assuming I found what you're talking about: https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Gentoo_ebuild_tree_from_scratch Just what every Gentoo user needs. More management! I really have fallen off the deep end thinking computers are just tools to get a job done. I'm ashamed of myself... In the really early days of Gentoo circa 2003 when I started there was some choice about regular Gentoo or a really low level install. I failed with the low level one but soon learned that every package on my machine was going to get rebuilt anyway so why bother? :-( Sad Mark. I'm a putz...
Re: [gentoo-user] NAS and replacing with larger drives
On Sun, Dec 18, 2022 at 8:29 AM Mark Knecht wrote: > > > > On Sun, Dec 18, 2022 at 8:13 AM Dale wrote: > > > > Well, I finally got it so I could do a backup. I didn't need a hammer but the thought crossed my mind. lol Even tho I now have a 1GB network card, it's still really slow. It shows up as a 1GB connection on both my Gentoo machine and the NAS machine. This is a example of the speeds I'm seeing. Just snippets. > > > > > > 277,193,507 100% 16.18MB/s0:00:16 > > 519,216,571 100% 18.86MB/s0:00:26 > > 738,078,565 100% 23.54MB/s0:00:29 > > > > > > As you can see, the files sizes are large enough it should do better. When I use iftop, it shows it isn't doing anywhere near the speed it should, maybe 1/4th or so. I'd expect at least double or triple that speed. In all honesty, I'd think the hard drive would be the limiting factor. Even on my Gentoo rig I only get about 50 to 60MBs/sec for encrypted drives. I think the encryption slows that down. When copying from a plain drive to a plain drive, I get 100MBs/sec or so. > > > > I can't figure out why it is so slow tho. The NAS rig is a 4 core CPU and 8GBs of memory. It should have enough horsepower under the hood. Maybe it is something I'm not aware of. It is a older rig so maybe it isn't SATA's fastest version, maybe even the original or something. I can't find anything in lspci or dmesg so not real sure where to look on BSD. > > > > Anyway, it's progress for now at least. ;-) At this rate, it'll be done in about a week, maybe. o_O > > > > Dale > > > > To what end Dale? Aren't you painting yourself into a corner with a system you don't really want to run? Wipe the machine and start over from scratch with Gentoo. > > From my vantage point you don't provide enough information for me to make an educated guess. > > 1) Is your data coming off the host machine able to transfer to other machines at 1Gb/S type speeds? > > 2) Can data coming off of your NAS transfer to other machines at 1G/S type speeds? > > 3) How are the two machines connected? If they are going through a router or hub, do you know that hub doesn't limit throughput? > > 4) Is anything else happening on the network? Video flowing around while people are watching TV or something? > > 5) CPU horsepower isn't the only potential bottleneck. Are your disks in the NAS operating slowly? Are you running out of memory? > >Have you considered running something like iperf? > > Mark Run iperf -s in the TrueNAS shell service in the GUI >From you Gentoo Land box run mark@science2:~$ iperf -c truenas1 Client connecting to truenas1, TCP port 5001 TCP window size: 85.0 KByte (default) [ 1] local 192.168.86.43 port 50710 connected with 192.168.86.92 port 5001 [ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth [ 1] 0.-10.0418 sec 1.07 GBytes 918 Mbits/sec mark@science2:~$ Then immediately wipe the machine and start over with Gentoo, or at least start over with the Linux version of TrueNAS. I would have used the Linux version if it had existed when I built the machine. I don't love BSD, but not because it doesn't work but because certain CLI tools have slightly different options. Wipe the machine and start over with Gentoo from scratch... Wipe the machine and start over with Gentoo from scratch... Humm, I think you should... Wipe the machine and start over with Gentoo from scratch...
