**** BEGIN LOGGING AT Sat Aug 02 02:59:57 2008
Aug 02 18:41:54 <luv2chill> hi guys... noob here so please pardon such an elementary question... I am trying to set up RAID1 on a slug running SlugOS/BE. I was advised by folks here that it saves a lot of grief by using a separate drive as the root file system and just setting up a single partition on the disks to be RAIDed
Aug 02 18:42:29 <luv2chill> so that's what I've done--I've got a 2GB USB flash drive for the primary and swap partitions, and two identical 16GB flash drives for the RAID
Aug 02 18:42:59 <luv2chill> I went ahead and got two USB hubs, one for each port on the slug--that way I'll have plenty of ports if I need them
Aug 02 18:43:40 <luv2chill> I was proceeding through the wiki article on setting up RAID1 but have hit a snag... I created all the partitions in the right places, but when I reboot the slug it is choosing one of my 16GB drives as sda
Aug 02 18:44:22 <luv2chill> I have tried alternating positions in the hub of the 2GB and 16GB drive but if both are present then linux always mounts the 16GB as sda
Aug 02 18:44:56 <luv2chill> So... first of all is there any way around that (short of removing the hub from port1 on the slug and dedicating that port to the 2gb drive
Aug 02 18:45:51 <mwester> Not even that will work reliably
Aug 02 18:46:01 <luv2chill> hmm
Aug 02 18:46:13 <luv2chill> so this is a common issue then?
Aug 02 18:46:15 <mwester> The problem is that USB devices are removable, and hence you cannot determine anything based on what port or hub they are plugged into.
Aug 02 18:46:25 <mwester> This is common on all USB devices.
Aug 02 18:46:47 <mwester> The solution is not to use /dev/sda as the identifier for the device.
Aug 02 18:47:08 <mwester> Rather, use the partition UUID or partition label to match them up.
Aug 02 18:47:33 <mwester> That's how it's done on all other linux systems, and that's how SlugOS does it in the normal case.
Aug 02 18:48:07 <luv2chill> ok well i just got worried by the verbage in the wiki "Now the NSLU2 runs Slug-OS and starts from the first partition on the first USB drive"
Aug 02 18:48:29 <mwester> Yeah, that probably needs to be corrected in the wiki.
Aug 02 18:48:31 <luv2chill> didn't know if there had to be a way to "force" the 2GB drive to be "the first USB drive"
Aug 02 18:49:10 <mwester> Probably the whole procedure needs to be reviewed... the project has been around for a while, and the wiki is often a bit "disorganized".
Aug 02 18:49:39 <luv2chill> well i'm grateful to have any kind of writeup at all :)
Aug 02 18:50:57 <luv2chill> i mean I could just follow the wiki exactly (it specifies using only 2 disks but not using the first two partitions on the second disk)
Aug 02 18:51:33 <luv2chill> but that wastes space and folks here (might have even been you--can't remember) said it was better to have a dedicated drive for the OS/swap
Aug 02 18:53:48 <luv2chill> so if you'll pardon noob follow-up questions, given your suggestion of not using /dev/sda, does that mean I should prevent those identifiers from being assigned, or does that just mean I need to create (or are they already created) new identifiers
Aug 02 18:54:14 <luv2chill> would just assigning a label to the drive be all that is necessary?
Aug 02 19:06:37 <luv2chill> ok looks like i can assign labels to partitions when i format them (i.e. mkfs.ext3 /dev/sda2 -l Swap) but I don't think that's what you meant? I should be looking for a way to label the entire disk, not just a partition on the disk, right?
Aug 02 19:07:49 <luv2chill> ok scratch that, just re-read what you wrote... looks like that is what i need to do
Aug 02 19:08:30 <luv2chill> but im still not sure how that will change how I follow the wiki article
Aug 02 19:09:46 <luv2chill> maybe i should make this easier on myself and just use the boot drive in port 1 on the slug, then plug in both of the raid drives into a hub on port 2... from my testing it looks like the slug tries to mount anything in port 1 first, then proceeds to port 2
Aug 02 19:11:13 <luv2chill> I had originally wanted to hang one of 16GB off port 1 and the other off port 2. Wouldn't it be faster that way (and less prone to failure)?
Aug 02 19:28:44 <luv2chill> hehe they are abandoning ship :)
Aug 02 19:29:04 <luv2chill> sorry for being lame... i'll keep reading and see what i can come up with
Aug 02 19:29:18 <luv2chill> this is just a hobby thing so i have no time constraints
Aug 02 19:29:37 <luv2chill> meanwhile if anyone wants to take pity on me any help would be much appreciated
Aug 02 19:32:59 <mwester> If you're looking for a "how-to" from someone that's done this before, I'm afraid you're out of luck.  You're one of a very few people, most of whom would consider themselves experts (hence the poor info on the wiki), who have undertaken this.
Aug 02 19:33:32 <mwester> Frankly, the slug lacks the I/O bandwidth to do this effectively, so if it's RAID you want you can get it, but if you expect RAID *and* performance, you'll need to consider other devices.
Aug 02 19:33:42 <mwester> So, I'm afraid you're trailblazing...
Aug 02 19:36:43 <luv2chill> heh, story of my life
Aug 02 19:37:01 <luv2chill> do you think this would actually incur a performance hit?
Aug 02 19:37:17 <luv2chill> I'm not looking for any increased performance--i want raid for the redundancy
Aug 02 19:38:01 <luv2chill> basically all i am wanting to use this for at this point is a svn server
Aug 02 19:38:17 <luv2chill> presently that is running on another box i need to decomission
Aug 02 19:38:23 <mwester> It will cut your I/O bandwidth in half.  Is that a performance hit? :D
Aug 02 19:38:27 <luv2chill> ha
Aug 02 19:39:05 <luv2chill> well that should just be for writes, correct?
Aug 02 19:39:32 <luv2chill> with raid1 reads are theoretically faster (at least on normal setups)
Aug 02 19:40:21 <luv2chill> i think id be willing to take the hit on writes since reads will occur much more often
Aug 02 19:41:06 <luv2chill> but if somehow this makes reading crawl also i may scrub the idea and just do periodic rsyncs or something
Aug 02 21:41:16 <luv2chill> ok so i'm trying to add a label to my swap partition with mkswap -L but it appears that switch isn't supported? 
Aug 02 21:42:05 <luv2chill> the wiki discusses doing this but mkswap -L SWAP /dev/sdc2 just brings up the list of allowable commands
Aug 02 23:53:18 <luv2chill> mwester: you around?
Aug 02 23:55:37 <luv2chill> or anyone who can help me label my swap partition? mkswap -L doesn't seem to be functional in busybox 1.01
Aug 03 00:27:15 <mwester> luv2chill:  I'd use UUIDs instead of labels; but you can mix them.
Aug 03 00:27:42 <mwester> You may need to use the ipkg search tool (link is on the wiki) to find an alternate mkswap utility that's a bit more full-featured.
Aug 03 02:18:34 <luv2chill> thanks mwester... yeah it seems the swap partition isn't assigned a UUID either :|
Aug 03 02:19:12 <luv2chill> the blkid command shows a UUID for every partition but that one
Aug 03 02:19:30 <mwester> <device DEVNO="0x0803" TIME="1215730845" TYPE="swap" LABEL="SWAP-sda3" UUID="30d
Aug 03 02:19:30 <mwester> 232a0-1f94-4646-aa67-c6f675b811bc">/dev/sda3</device>
Aug 03 02:19:35 <mwester> From my fedora system
Aug 03 02:19:49 <mwester> So I think it works, there's just something missing :(
Aug 03 02:20:04 <luv2chill> what command did you use to give that output?
Aug 03 02:20:15 <mwester> That's from /etc/blkid/blkid.tab 
Aug 03 02:20:47 <mwester> (the blkid cache file)
Aug 03 02:22:44 <luv2chill> hmm
Aug 03 02:23:01 <luv2chill> well I googled some and saw other folks talking about no UUID on their swap partition
Aug 03 02:23:05 <luv2chill> so i figured it was normal
Aug 03 02:23:16 <luv2chill> maybe I'll try recreating it
Aug 03 02:23:24 <mwester> Ok.  Perhaps fedora is abnormal; that's been claimed before :)
Aug 03 02:23:30 <luv2chill> heh
Aug 03 02:23:42 <mwester> But certainly you should be able to put a label on it with the correct mkswap command, no?
Aug 03 02:24:26 <luv2chill> I would think... but it seems that the version of busybox is very old (circa 2006)
Aug 03 02:26:26 <luv2chill> looks like there's a pkg called  swap-utils that contains mkswap
Aug 03 02:27:51 <luv2chill> oh, nvm that is an unslung package
Aug 03 02:28:02 <mwester> busybox is almost certainly not going to do the job for anything serious.  The first thing I do when I "turnup" a SlugOS system is install the coreutils, procps, bash, and a lot of other standard utilities.  Busybox is excellent to get a system booted up, but it's never claims to be a full replacement for the real stuff.
Aug 03 02:30:43 <mwester> Strange.  Searching for mkswap using the ipkgfind page comes up with lots of hits.
Aug 03 02:31:19 <luv2chill> heh can you give me that link? I must be using a different search engine
Aug 03 02:31:29 <luv2chill> here's what I was using:
Aug 03 02:31:30 <luv2chill> http://ipkgfind.nslu2-linux.org/details.phtml?package=swap-utils&official=&format=
Aug 03 02:31:30 <mwester> You should be able to download and install one of those, even though they may not be in the same feed as SlugOS 4.8
Aug 03 02:32:13 <mwester> Try entering "mkswap" for the string, and search with the file in package option set.
Aug 03 02:32:26 <luv2chill> ah oops
Aug 03 02:32:33 <luv2chill> I was just searching name and description
Aug 03 02:33:03 <luv2chill> looks like util-linux is what I want
Aug 03 02:33:04 <luv2chill> :)
Aug 03 02:33:45 <mwester> Hmm... you'll even get a real fdisk with that. :)
Aug 03 02:34:09 <luv2chill> doh... no space left on device
Aug 03 02:34:13 <luv2chill> what an idiot
Aug 03 02:34:21 <mwester> Yeah, you need to be turned-up to do it.
Aug 03 02:34:42 <mwester> Usage: mkswap [-c] [-v0|-v1] [-pPAGESZ] [-L label] /dev/name [blocks]
Aug 03 02:34:50 <mwester> :)  Looks like it'll do a label.
Aug 03 02:35:02 <luv2chill> ok well I've got a label assigned to my sdc1 partition I guess I can turn up to that?
Aug 03 02:35:37 <luv2chill> and I will need to edit fstab with the label
Aug 03 02:35:40 <luv2chill> right?
Aug 03 02:35:55 <mwester> Yeah, you can always undo it later -- you just need to get things labeled first.  Then you can "turnup flash", erase the contents of the sdc1 partition, and go from there.
Aug 03 02:37:02 <mwester> But either way you shouldn't have to edit fstab.
Aug 03 02:37:24 <mwester> If you "turnup disk", the turnup procedure will set things up so that it automatically mounts by UUID.
Aug 03 02:37:39 <guardoftheguards> Hey.  Attempting to install Unslung firmware using upslug2.  At this point, the nslu2 will boot to a solid green Ready/Status light.  However, when I look at the logs for my router, there hasn't been a DHCP request and it's not in the device list.  I can't find web interface.
Aug 03 02:37:40 <mwester> SlugOS will do the right thing for your root filesystem.
Aug 03 02:38:32 <luv2chill> ah ok... will I need to edit fstab to reference the label/uuid of the swap partition? or will slugos handle that also?
Aug 03 02:38:53 <mwester> You'll have to handle the rest yourself.
Aug 03 02:39:02 <luv2chill> OK :)
Aug 03 02:39:13 <luv2chill> thanks a lot for your help
Aug 03 02:40:09 <luv2chill> guardoftheguards - it should be at whatever IP it was at before you flashed unslung onto it
Aug 03 02:40:36 <luv2chill> which if you didn't change it before is 192.168.1.177
Aug 03 02:41:14 <luv2chill> if you have the install disc that came with it you can use that to find it and change the IP if needed
Aug 03 02:43:47 <guardoftheguards> Not sure where the install disk went.  Also, it beeps right as the light turns solid green.  I had Unslung installed before, and I don't think it always did that. Did it?
Aug 03 02:44:07 <luv2chill> yeah I'm pretty sure the beep is normal
Aug 03 02:46:30 <luv2chill> here's a link to dl the install util:
Aug 03 02:46:31 <luv2chill> http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c=L_CASupport_C2&childpagename=US%2FLayout&cid=1166859881077&packedargs=sku%3D1115416906769&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper&lid=8107719312B13&displaypage=download#versiondetail
Aug 03 02:47:16 <luv2chill> oh wait nevermind thats just a pdf
Aug 03 02:47:45 <luv2chill> stupid linksys... lemme get my CD real quick and see how big it is
Aug 03 02:51:28 <luv2chill> ah found it on their ftp
Aug 03 02:51:58 <luv2chill> ftp://ftp.linksys.com/pub/network/NSLU2-SetupWizard.zip
**** ENDING LOGGING AT Sun Aug 03 02:59:56 2008