I was wondering what kind of performance difference we would see when
booting CSOS from an SSD instead of an SD card.
So, I got a Samsung EVO 120 Gb SSD drive to test that. According to the
'WB documentation'
(http://www.wandboard.org/index.php/50-20131017-wandboard-sata-boot), it
is possible to change the boot device but that will void the warranty.
Since JackOfAll's images are meant to boot from the SD card, I did not
change the hardwired boot device but instead let it boot from the SD
card and then point to the SSD drive to run the rest of the software.
I compared the time LMS takes to scan my library from both options
(Sandisk 8Gb class 10 SD card vs Samsung EVO 120 Gb SSD drive) and these
are the results:
(My music library resides on a NAS; network drive mounted by WB)
Media Scan Details on SD Card:
************************************************************
Discovering playlists: /media/nasmusic/0 - iTunes/Playlists (11 of 11)
Complete 00:00:00
Scanning new playlists: /media/nasmusic/0 - iTunes/Playlists (10 of
10) Complete 00:00:02
iTunes Import (11978 of 11978) Complete 00:08:12
iTunes Playlist Import (41 of 41) Complete 00:00:49
Pre-caching Artwork (1244 of 1244) Complete 00:14:04
The server has finished scanning your media library.
Total Time: 00:23:07 (Friday, 14 February 2014 / 16:28)
Media Scan Details on SSD drive:
************************************************************
Discovering playlists: /media/music/0 - iTunes/Playlists (11 of 11)
Complete 00:00:00
Scanning new playlists: /media/music/0 - iTunes/Playlists (10 of 10)
Complete 00:00:01
iTunes Import (11978 of 11978) Complete 00:13:02
iTunes Playlist Import (41 of 41) Complete 00:00:49
Pre-caching Artwork (1244 of 1244) Complete 00:02:20
The server has finished scanning your media library.
Total Time: 00:16:12 (Friday 14. February 2014 / 17:27)
The is a difference but not that huge; 23 min vs 16 min. Although
scanning speed seems to vary a bit between different scans. Note that I
always ran a clear library and rescan everything. The fastest result I
got was a little over 9 minutes on the SSD drive. I find that a bit
strange but have no exponentiation for it.
I would have expected a bit bigger difference between the two.
Here's what I did to boot the WB from the SSD drive:
1. Connect SSD drive to laptop and initialize drive
2. Write F19 - R4 to SSD drive (same procedure as with SD card)
3. Connect SSD drive to WB
4. SSH into WB
5. Manually mount SSD drive partition 3 (mount point used is
/media/ssd): mount /dev/sda3 /media/ssd
6. Edit uEnv.txt in /media/ssd:
#mmcroot=/dev/mmcblk0p3 ro
mmcroot=/dev/sda3 ro
7. Do the same thing to uEnv.txt in /boot
This is important because the WB will still start to boot from the SD
card. It is this uEnv.txt file that the WB will use to boot. So, the
boot device is still the SD card (initially) but will continue the
process from the SSD drive. The boot device can be changed from SD card
to SATA but this is hardwired on the WD. To change the boot device
you'll need to solder some resistors on the board (note that this voids
your warranty). At this time I chose to leave it as is because it is
easier to load new images on the system. Whenever a new image is release
you simple follow these steps again.
8. Create directory /bootsd (I've done this to make the SD card boot
files available in case I need to change something).
9. Edit fstab in /media/ssd/etc:
#/dev/mmcblk0p3 / ext4 defaults,noatime,errors=remount-ro 0 0
/dev/sda3 / ext4 defaults,noatime,errors=remount-ro 0 0
/dev/mmcblk0p1 /bootsd ext2 defaults,noatime 0 0
/dev/sda1 /boot ext2 defaults,noatime 0 0
#/dev/mmcblk0p2 swap swap defaults,noatime 0 0
NOTE that I still mount the first partition of the SD card which is now
available in /bootsd. This step is not required.
10. Reboot the system.
JackOfAll, if you have two minutes time could you tell me if the above
process looks ok to you?
1 x SB3, 1 x SB Boom, 1 x SB Radio and 2 x SB Touch - all wireless
1 x Wandboard Dual behind the bedroom ceiling
1 x Wandboard Dual for 'msqueeze' (http://www.msqueeze.co.nf/index.html)
project
ReadyNAS NVX running LMS 7.7.3. w iTunes plugin
iPeng 7 on iPhone.
SqueezePad & iPeng 7 on iPad.
http://www.last.fm/user/phibon
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pascal Hibon's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=7969
View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=99395
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