**** BEGIN LOGGING AT Sun Sep 05 02:59:58 2010
Sep 05 07:09:32 <echosystm> hi guys, i read a post on the forum that the sheeva/guruplugs have very poor circuitry and are expected to only last about ~200 days if left on
Sep 05 07:09:35 <echosystm> is this true?
Sep 05 07:10:41 <echosystm> http://plugcomputer.org/plugforum/index.php?topic=2184.0
Sep 05 09:45:32 <kblin> echosystm: hm, can't confirm all of that
Sep 05 09:48:05 <kblin> I'm running my sheevaplug 24/7 and it's been running for a year
Sep 05 09:48:23 <kblin> granted, I'm running on power supply number three now
Sep 05 09:48:54 <kblin> so I do agree that the PSU sucks
Sep 05 09:52:09 <kblin> however, that's relatively easy to fix
Sep 05 09:56:14 <kblin> I'm not running my sheevaplug with an external 5V PSU, which seems to work nicely
Sep 05 09:59:07 <kblin> er
Sep 05 09:59:15 <kblin> s/not/now/
Sep 05 10:00:16 <kblin> but depending what you need, the seagate dockstar has similar hardware and is way cheaper
Sep 05 10:00:24 <kblin> has less ram, though
Sep 05 10:00:44 <kblin> more usb ports, otoh :)
Sep 05 11:10:05 <ShadowJK> what was supply number 2?
Sep 05 11:15:57 <kblin> ShadowJK: a replacement for the first one that died. the first one died within the 30 day warranty period, and a couple of days before I was flying to the US for a meeting
Sep 05 11:16:17 <kblin> so getting a replacement was affordable
Sep 05 13:04:33 <ShadowJK> I wore out my root drive (OCZ Rally2) :(
Sep 05 13:04:44 <ShadowJK> it lasted a year and a few days :)
Sep 05 13:06:33 <Barlow> ShadowJK: meh, did you disable logging?
Sep 05 13:06:46 <ShadowJK> nope
Sep 05 13:07:02 <ShadowJK> squid was logging quite happily
Sep 05 13:07:31 <ShadowJK> squid cachespool elsewhere on nilfs2 instead of rootfs' ext3
Sep 05 13:08:08 <Barlow> i disabled most of the logging. so i hope it will last a while
Sep 05 13:08:25 <ShadowJK> it had pretty benign failure mode
Sep 05 13:08:30 <ShadowJK> afaict no data loss at all
Sep 05 13:08:59 <ShadowJK> when I try write to a specific sector, i get an error and then entire device starts reporting read-only
Sep 05 13:09:19 <ShadowJK> I've had sd cards before that just silently corrupted stuff
Sep 05 13:10:23 <Barlow> oh that makes it easier to transfer to a new drive :)
Sep 05 15:18:40 * ppmt is away: "Out in the field"
Sep 05 15:49:30 * ppmt is away: Away
Sep 05 15:51:05 <tinker-f595> kblin: I have been running my sheevaplug constantly for 18 months with no problems.  It powers a 2.5 " usb hdd.
Sep 05 15:52:32 <kblin> tinker-f595: you've probably got one of the few good ones
Sep 05 15:52:45 <tinker-f595> or you got one of the few bad ones
Sep 05 15:52:51 <noidea``2> :|
Sep 05 15:53:14 <tinker-f595> or you have a bad line supply with nasty spikes
Sep 05 15:53:46 <kblin> tinker-f595: I doubt that. I've got a UPS in front of the plug
Sep 05 15:54:19 <kblin> and by in front, I mean the plug's connected to the UPS' output
Sep 05 15:54:36 <tinker-f595> out of curiosity when your power supply went out did you have the sheevaplug it powering any other devices
Sep 05 15:54:48 <kblin> nope
Sep 05 15:54:56 <kblin> well, the first time, yes
Sep 05 15:54:58 <tinker-f595> kblin: and you know that the UPS is good?
Sep 05 15:55:37 <kblin> I've got other hardware attached to it that's fine. I don't have an oscilloscope to check
Sep 05 15:55:56 <tinker-f595> a lot of devices actually draw more power than the USB standard specifies
Sep 05 15:56:14 <kblin> yeah, but I've had a powered USB drive connected to it the second time it died
Sep 05 15:56:24 <tinker-f595> interesting
Sep 05 15:56:57 <tinker-f595> so what did the supply look like after it failed?
Sep 05 15:57:30 <kblin> a bit hard to tell with all the brown goo over there, but the cap right where the power cable goes to the main pcb is bulging
Sep 05 15:58:53 <tinker-f595> oh bad capacitors
Sep 05 15:59:31 <kblin> the cap next to it is completly baked in that brownish goo, but that doesn't look to good either
Sep 05 16:00:38 <tinker-f595> that has been an ongoing problem in the electronics indusry for the past 10 years or so. "Counterfeit" bad electrolytic capacitors sold as good ones
Sep 05 16:02:39 <kblin> haven't seen that since the MSI board issue in 2002
Sep 05 16:19:30 <tinker-f595> it still goes on unfortunately
Sep 05 16:25:33 <tinker-f595> For example Hitachi posted an alert in May 2009 that there were counterfeit capacitors in the market labelled as Hitachi
Sep 05 17:16:39 * mwester has re-capped several flat-panel monitors and a Dell motherboard in the past few years; defnitely still a problem.
Sep 05 17:35:24 <noidea`> I'm having a problem with nfs-kernel-service on ubuntu :/
Sep 05 17:35:39 <noidea`> its starts correctly
Sep 05 17:35:59 <noidea`> but after 'unexporting directories for NFS kernel dameon
Sep 05 17:36:01 <noidea`> it gives
Sep 05 17:36:01 <noidea`> FATAL: Error inserting nfsd (/lib/modules/2.6.35.4/kernel/fs/nfsd/nfsd.ko): Invalid module format
Sep 05 17:36:19 <noidea`> and then continues to start correctly
Sep 05 17:36:28 <noidea`> (sheevaplug)
Sep 05 17:36:31 <noidea`> Any ideas?
Sep 05 17:37:48 <noidea`> yea, nfs  is enabled in the kernel
Sep 05 20:20:45 * ppmt is back (gone 04:31:13)
Sep 05 20:39:29 <ryan-c> noob question: How do I generate a new uInitrd?
Sep 05 20:44:25 <Tootoot222> ryan-c: there is normally very little use in using initrds
Sep 05 20:44:44 <Tootoot222> since the sheevaplug has a set of hardware that doesn't ever change, you can build all your hardware support into the kernel
Sep 05 20:44:50 <ryan-c> m
Sep 05 20:44:59 <Tootoot222> then once it's booted you can hotplug everything extra, like usb devices
Sep 05 20:45:05 <ryan-c> Hm.
Sep 05 20:45:33 <Tootoot222> the kernels from http://sheeva.with-linux.com/sheeva/
Sep 05 20:45:40 <Tootoot222> have all the hardware support you need built into them
Sep 05 20:45:45 <ryan-c> well I'm trying to upgrade the kernel for plubpbx because it's not entirely happy with my newer revision sheevaplug.
Sep 05 20:45:55 <Tootoot222> what kernel do you have atm?
Sep 05 20:46:09 <ryan-c> 2.6.30-2-kirkwood
Sep 05 20:46:38 <ryan-c> I've got this thing going on: [    0.260000] Kirkwood: MV88F6281-Rev-Unsupported, TCLK=166666667.
Sep 05 20:46:56 <ryan-c> the clock's running too fast
Sep 05 20:47:27 <Tootoot222> try using one of the kernels from with-linux.com
Sep 05 20:47:35 <ryan-c> can those kernels boot from SD?
Sep 05 20:48:12 <Tootoot222> that a uboot thing
Sep 05 20:48:18 <Tootoot222> nothing to do with the kernel
Sep 05 20:48:23 <ryan-c> okay
Sep 05 20:49:05 <Tootoot222> you should be able to just replace the current kernel you have with those from inside the folders
Sep 05 20:49:16 <ryan-c> I'll try it whenever it is that apt-get upgrade finishes
Sep 05 20:49:18 <Tootoot222> I.E. if you have your kernel at /boot/uImage atm, just rename the old one and name the new one the same
Sep 05 20:51:47 <ryan-c> i think i'll also have to change uboot to not load the initrd
Sep 05 23:15:38 <ryan-c> damn
Sep 05 23:15:54 <ryan-c> writing to the SD card is tragically slow.
Sep 05 23:16:07 <ryan-c> 2796148 bytes (2.8 MB) copied, 52.745 s, 53.0 kB/s
Sep 05 23:22:41 <Tootoot222> depends on the class of card you have
Sep 05 23:22:53 <ryan-c> it's a class 6
Sep 05 23:23:06 <Tootoot222> 50kB/s seems painfully slow then o_O
Sep 05 23:23:16 <ryan-c> yes
Sep 05 23:23:18 <ryan-c> indeed
Sep 05 23:23:27 * ryan-c suspects a kernel issue
Sep 05 23:23:42 <Tootoot222> you still on the 30-2 one?
Sep 05 23:24:01 <ryan-c> yesh
Sep 05 23:24:11 <ryan-c> apt-get upgrade is still going.  very. slowly.
Sep 05 23:34:33 <tinker-f595> that is a pretty old kernel version
Sep 05 23:34:45 <ryan-c> yes
Sep 05 23:34:55 <ryan-c> which is why i'm going to upgrade it
Sep 05 23:35:08 <ryan-c> when apt finishes :|
Sep 05 23:36:00 <ryan-c> which will probably be sometime tomorrow :p
Sep 05 23:36:46 <tinker-f595> what are you going to replace it with?
Sep 05 23:37:04 <ryan-c> 2.6.35.4 from http://sheeva.with-linux.com/sheeva/
Sep 05 23:37:22 <tinker-f595> still kind of old when it comes to ARM kernels
Sep 05 23:37:28 <ryan-c> uh
Sep 05 23:37:33 <ryan-c> what's newer than that?
Sep 05 23:37:41 <tinker-f595> there has been a lot refactoring of ARM code since then
Sep 05 23:37:52 <ryan-c> that kernel is datestamped aug26th....
Sep 05 23:37:55 <tinker-f595> 2.6.36-rc3
Sep 05 23:38:13 <ryan-c> yeah... totally don't want to compile that myself
Sep 05 23:38:21 <tinker-f595> just because it has a time stamo of aug 26th does not mean it is recent code
Sep 05 23:38:53 <tinker-f595> it is simple to compile and I sue my sheevaplug for ocmpiling
Sep 05 23:39:40 <ryan-c> I have a newer revision sheevaplug that is horrifically slow on the kernel it comes with.
Sep 05 23:39:49 <tinker-f595>  //sue/use/
Sep 05 23:40:12 <tinker-f595> might be some other problem than the kernel
Sep 05 23:40:29 <ryan-c> the info i've seen says it's the kernel
Sep 05 23:40:30 <tinker-f595> it could be something is misconfigured in init
Sep 05 23:40:42 <tinker-f595> and where did you see this information?
Sep 05 23:41:10 <tinker-f595> all the sheevaplugs use the same SOC
Sep 05 23:41:14 <ryan-c> https://www.newit.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,531.0.html
Sep 05 23:41:23 <tinker-f595> gees
Sep 05 23:41:43 <ryan-c> it has a different cpu revission
Sep 05 23:41:43 <tinker-f595> they are just a reseller
Sep 05 23:41:54 <ryan-c> read the thread
Sep 05 23:43:00 <tinker-f595> yes and an uninformed thread it is
Sep 05 23:43:44 <ryan-c> If it's the same silicon then why is there a difference in how the CPU identifies itself to linux?
Sep 05 23:44:02 <tinker-f595> the code does not really do anything and has been in the kernel quite a while
Sep 05 23:44:36 <tinker-f595> have you tried changing kernels and see if you get the same info?
Sep 05 23:45:00 <ryan-c> Are you paying any attention to what I'm saying?
Sep 05 23:45:19 <tinker-f595> some of that info is from strings thrown out by the kernel after retrieving the info from the cpu and putting it in human readable form
Sep 05 23:46:06 <ryan-c> I'm trying to update, but it's taking a long time because the SD card is horribly slow
Sep 05 23:47:56 <tinker-f595> the thing I find really strange about that thread is the say we can not tell when the change went into the kernel code.  It is very simple to look in the history and find out when.
Sep 05 23:50:33 <tinker-f595> july 17th
Sep 05 23:52:31 <tinker-f595> so that would be in 2.6.35.rc6 or later
Sep 05 23:55:03 <ryan-c> might also just be an issue with these SD cards... I donno.
Sep 05 23:56:26 <tinker-f595> what file system ?
Sep 05 23:56:43 <ryan-c> ext2
Sep 05 23:56:50 <tinker-f595> hmmm
Sep 05 23:57:09 <tinker-f595> that can be problematic with SD cards if you are unlucky
Sep 05 23:57:34 <tinker-f595> depends on the particular card and what controller is embedded in it
Sep 05 23:57:56 <tinker-f595> well good luck
Sep 05 23:58:41 <tinker-f595> if I get round to building a kernel from http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/cmarinas/linux-2.6-cm.git;a=summary I might post it some where
**** ENDING LOGGING AT Mon Sep 06 02:59:57 2010