On Fri, Dec 24, 2010 at 2:26 PM, chris (fool) mccraw <[email protected]>wrote:
> On Fri, Dec 24, 2010 at 13:52, Denis Heidtmann > <[email protected]> wrote: > > > My understanding is tailoring for SSD takes into account that there is a > > limit on the number of writes the drive can handle. I would expect that > > involves choices in the kernel. Speed is not the issue. If the netbook > > remix does that, I will choose it. > > I'm not aware of any version of linux that installs or behaves > differently as regards write endurance on SSD's. i am not an expert > though, perhaps someone else on this list knows of one. > > the linux kernel, starting with 2.6.33, knows about and uses the TRIM > command (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRIM_(SSD_command)), so you'll > want something with either a kernel at least that new or one with that > feature backported to it (backporting features like these is less > likely in my experience, outside of the redhat/centos world). > > from some cursory googling on eeepc 900 and ssd write endurance, it > seems unlikely that you'll trip over write endurance actually being a > problem--for one, the drive in that machine is said to have 3% > capacity set aside for relocating failing sectors (which the > drive/controller handles independently of OS), plus be rated at either > 10k or 100k writes per cell before failure. to hit 100k writes, you'd > have to write the same block 30x/day for 8 years (i stole all this > info from http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?id=25304, didn't > verify any of it). > > everyone's different, but as a gambling man who likes good odds, i > wouldn't worry about the SSD failing in a way that you or even linux > will notice (automatic failure/relocation of sectors by the drive will > not be communicated even to the linux kernel). i don't know about > you, but my usage patterns aren't rewriting the same file over and > over again (or if i do, i am backing up my Magnum Opus frequently to > somewhere offsite). the worst offender on a system like the eeepc > will probably be swap if you run enough apps to have it swapping, but > these machines are slow enough without swapping that i went and bought > more ram as soon as i started hitting swap..it was cheap ($30) and now > i typically can run 2 VM's simultaneously (windows, so, bloated!) and > still have good interactive performance. > > all that said, make frequent backups to another machine. frankly i'd > say loss/theft of the entire laptop, or operator error are more likely > causes of actual data loss. > > > I realize the BIOS is independent of the OS, but the manuals describe > > getting to the start of the BIOS upgrade through the OS. How do I do it > > with a broken OS? I have the new BIOS file. Is just adding it to a > > bootable thumb drive all that is needed? > > depends on the machine/BIOS. in your case, it appears that is just about > it: > > http://rosenred.wordpress.com/2009/05/14/asus-eeepc-900-bios-update/ This is all great information. I guess my path is set. Thanks for your efforts to educate me. -Denis _______________________________________________ PLUG mailing list [email protected] http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
