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[steffo]

Hello all,
I bought a Guruplug totally unaware of what I bought.
Cheep and fun as my NSLU2 broke, I thought..

Bricked it in a few minutes but now it srerves me well on
uname -a
Linux guruplug-debian 2.6.33.6 #5 PREEMPT Sat Mar 12 10:32:02 CET 2011 armv5tel GNU/Linux
Works well but -

When i reboot with the HDD mounted the boot failes, the rootfs is on the plug and I only have media on the HDD - and no microcard installd - though i have one..
Anoying...

My questions: think they are easy for you but I have not found any good answerers while searching..
1)
Is it any bad for keeping the server file system run on the internal guruplug? - I hear things as the internal memory could wear out so it should boot from external disk - is there any truth in this?
The internal memory, file system space and performance is fully up to my needs, but will my plug be worn out?
2)
Is there a way to make my plug reboot (for any reason) without I need to physically disconnect the USB Hard drive?
3)
Im thinking of bying a new HDD, was planning for a esata and than make my plyg from booting from it.
Today I have my media disk formated in ntfs so the ntfs-3g helps me mount.
Monitoring performance I can often see that just ntfs-3g process is the bottleneck..

Soo - my idea is that by a new esata disk to boot from, format with extX to get rid of the ntfs-3g issue in some cases
same linux version.

have my media on that new esata disk and only move ntfs-needed media during night jobs.

So, can I boot from a esata disk from wher I am today?
would i benefit from a "wear out" perspective?

Regards
Steve

[IvanSanchez]

When i reboot with the HDD mounted the boot failes, the rootfs is on the plug and I only have media on the HDD - and no microcard installd - though i have one..

If you have a JTAG and can see the boot sequence, could you post the last lines? They should offer some insight.

Is it any bad for keeping the server file system run on the internal guruplug? - I hear things as the internal memory could wear out so it should boot from external disk - is there any truth in this?

Any flash chip degrades with writes. As long as you're not rewriting stuff into the internal microSD 24/7, you'll be fine.

Besides, how much does a new microSD card cost nowadays? 5€?

Is there a way to make my plug reboot (for any reason) without I need to physically disconnect the USB Hard drive?

SSH into it (as root), and run

Code: [Select]

reboot There you are.

Soo - my idea is that by a new esata disk to boot from

The usual thing to do is boot from the internal microSD, then mount the external drive.

Besides, as fas as I know, the default uBoot doesn't allow for booting off eSata drives, only USB devices (such as the internal microSD slot, the SD slot, or a pendrive). uBoot is upgradable but a PITA AFAIK.

[steffo]

Thanks.

I am worried about "wearing out" the internal disk, and I have a bunch om uSD cards which are as you say almost for free.

I don't need any more space in my root file system, I have my media on a USB disk.

I have JTAG (saved me many times).
I don't need to boot from a hdd file system, just as said worried to wear internal nand.

Is it wise to install a external microSD and boot from that to save the plug's life?
Or should I mount a external microSD and mount some directories on that (that is R/W heavy)?
Or should I forget the whole thing and boot on original HW and just keep the media extrenaly?

It's the operating systems read / write im worring about so can I mount external microSD and direct those logs/cache/whatever that woule be nice

Regards S

[NewIT_Marcus]

Is it wise to install a external microSD and boot from that to save the plug's life?
Or should I mount a external microSD and mount some directories on that (that is R/W heavy)?

Both are good strategies

Or should I forget the whole thing and boot on original HW and just keep the media extrenaly?

You'll still have wear - especially /var/log - if you boot from internal.

It's the operating systems read / write im worring about so can I mount external microSD and direct those logs/cache/whatever that woule be nice

You're looking at it the right way. There are techniques to minimise NAND wear  - although such tecniques are somewhat appropriate for (micro)SD card too - check the discussions of flashybrid on the plug computer forum.