**** BEGIN LOGGING AT Sun Nov 22 02:59:57 2009
Nov 22 18:01:23 <Guest7459> hey guys
Nov 22 18:01:43 <Guest7459> does anyone know how to test the speed of your SD card on the sheeva plug
Nov 22 18:01:51 <PhotoJim> dd
Nov 22 18:02:15 <PhotoJim> dd bs=1024 count=1M if=/dev/zero of=/path/to/sdcard/speedtest.txt
Nov 22 18:02:18 <PhotoJim> that'll do a 1-gig file
Nov 22 18:02:20 <PhotoJim> adjust accordingly
Nov 22 18:02:35 <PhotoJim> then copy a couple of big files to clear the cache
Nov 22 18:02:44 <PhotoJim> and then dd if=/path/to/sdcard/speedtest.txt /dev/null
Nov 22 18:02:56 <PhotoJim> the first creates the file and tests write speed, the latter tests read speed
Nov 22 18:03:08 <Guest7459> so you make a file and then copy the file to null
Nov 22 18:03:14 <PhotoJim> that's what I do
Nov 22 18:03:20 <Guest7459> ok will try that not
Nov 22 18:03:23 <Guest7459> now
Nov 22 18:03:24 <PhotoJim> can't comment on whether there are better ways, but this works and it's simple
Nov 22 18:03:34 <PhotoJim> remember to delete the file when done :)
Nov 22 18:05:38 <Guest7459> will try now
Nov 22 18:11:58 <Guest7459> say if i want to do a 50MB file instead of 1GB would this be correct
Nov 22 18:12:06 <Guest7459> dd bs=50 count=1M if=/dev/zero of=/path/to/sdcard/speedtest.txt
Nov 22 18:12:26 <Guest7459> dd bs=50 count=1M if=/dev/mmcblk0p1 of=/path/to/sdcard/speedtest.txt
Nov 22 18:12:46 <Guest7459> cause my sd card is on 500MB
Nov 22 18:13:03 <PhotoJim> yep, but a small file won't give very accurate timing
Nov 22 18:13:07 <PhotoJim> still, it'll give you an idea
Nov 22 18:13:21 <PhotoJim> err
Nov 22 18:13:23 <PhotoJim> I wouldn't do it that way
Nov 22 18:13:47 <PhotoJim> dd bs=1024 count=50K
Nov 22 18:13:49 <PhotoJim> etc
Nov 22 18:13:55 <Guest7459> ok
Nov 22 18:13:59 <PhotoJim> 1 KB blocks, 50K times
Nov 22 18:14:03 <PhotoJim> = 50M
Nov 22 18:14:07 <PhotoJim> my way was ... 1 G
Nov 22 18:14:12 <Guest7459> ok
Nov 22 18:14:19 <PhotoJim> bigger blocks are somewhat more efficient, more accurate
Nov 22 18:14:20 <PhotoJim> to a point at least
Nov 22 18:16:46 <Guest7459> got some thing like
Nov 22 18:16:46 <Guest7459> 892108+0 records in
Nov 22 18:16:46 <Guest7459> 892108+0 records out
Nov 22 18:16:46 <Guest7459> 44605400 bytes (45 MB) copied, 261.118 s, 171 kB/s
Nov 22 18:17:01 <PhotoJim> 171 kB/s to write, then
Nov 22 18:17:03 <PhotoJim> that's not fast
Nov 22 18:17:06 <Guest7459> i know
Nov 22 18:17:09 <PhotoJim> try reading now
Nov 22 18:17:15 <PhotoJim> cheap flash media often has very slow write speeds
Nov 22 18:17:22 <PhotoJim> don't know if your media is cheap but if it is, that's no surprise
Nov 22 18:17:46 <Guest7459> sorry i did it the proper way there. i did 100MB
Nov 22 18:17:46 <Guest7459> 892108+0 records in
Nov 22 18:17:46 <Guest7459> 892108+0 records out
Nov 22 18:17:46 <Guest7459> 44605400 bytes (45 MB) copied, 261.118 s, 171 kB/s
Nov 22 18:17:55 <Guest7459> sorry this is it
Nov 22 18:17:56 <Guest7459> 102400+0 records in
Nov 22 18:17:56 <Guest7459> 102400+0 records out
Nov 22 18:17:56 <Guest7459> 104857600 bytes (105 MB) copied, 48.0403 s, 2.2 MB/s
Nov 22 18:18:02 <PhotoJim> that's better, still not fast
Nov 22 18:18:17 <Guest7459> when i had the BS=50 then i got the slow speed
Nov 22 18:18:26 <PhotoJim> yep, smaller packets = less efficiency
Nov 22 18:18:37 <Guest7459> it is a cheap SD card, just finding out how to test them when i recieve my new one
Nov 22 18:18:43 <Guest7459> will try read
Nov 22 18:19:01 <PhotoJim> write speed isn't crucial, though
Nov 22 18:22:11 <Guest7459> are you sure this is right dd if=/path/to/sdcard/speedtest.txt /dev/null because it is giving me
Nov 22 18:22:37 <Guest7459> dd: unrecognized operand `/dev/null
Nov 22 18:23:01 <PhotoJim> did you put a ` before /dev/null?
Nov 22 18:23:10 <Guest7459> no
Nov 22 18:23:12 <PhotoJim> to see for sure that it exists:
Nov 22 18:23:18 <PhotoJim> ls -l /dev | grep null
Nov 22 18:23:24 <PhotoJim> you should see a line for null
Nov 22 18:23:26 <Guest7459> null is there
Nov 22 18:23:32 <PhotoJim> then it should work
Nov 22 18:23:37 <PhotoJim> try it again
Nov 22 18:23:40 <suihkulokki> of=/dev/null
Nov 22 18:23:45 <PhotoJim> dd if=.../speedtest.txt of=/dev/null
Nov 22 18:23:53 <PhotoJim> if you're where speedtest.txt is
Nov 22 18:24:00 <PhotoJim> dd if=./speedtest.txt of=/dev/null
Nov 22 18:24:13 <Guest7459> oh yea the was it
Nov 22 18:24:16 <Guest7459> needed of=
Nov 22 18:24:23 <Guest7459> 204800+0 records in
Nov 22 18:24:23 <Guest7459> 204800+0 records out
Nov 22 18:24:23 <Guest7459> 104857600 bytes (105 MB) copied, 0.849923 s, 123 MB/s
Nov 22 18:24:30 <PhotoJim> that's very fast.
Nov 22 18:24:46 <PhotoJim> of course that could be cached.
Nov 22 18:24:54 <Guest7459> oh right
Nov 22 18:24:55 <PhotoJim> do this to clear the cache:
Nov 22 18:24:57 <Guest7459> it might be
Nov 22 18:25:01 <PhotoJim> dd if=/dev/random of=/dev/null
Nov 22 18:25:06 <PhotoJim> then hit control-c after 30 or 60 seconds
Nov 22 18:25:14 <PhotoJim> and try it again
Nov 22 18:25:25 <PhotoJim> it being the read from speedtest.txt
Nov 22 18:26:40 <Guest7459> same speed
Nov 22 18:26:40 <Guest7459> dd if=/dev/random of=/dev/null
Nov 22 18:26:46 <Guest7459> 104857600 bytes (105 MB) copied, 0.857745 s, 122 MB/s
Nov 22 18:26:47 <PhotoJim> well, there you go.
Nov 22 18:26:59 <Guest7459> it is like instance read
Nov 22 18:27:21 <Guest7459> i will update the plug wiki on how to do this cause i could not find out it there
Nov 22 18:27:35 <Guest7459> i am sure everyone like to know how to test their sd card
Nov 22 18:27:36 <PhotoJim> sure, good idea
Nov 22 18:27:49 <PhotoJim> works on any device btw
Nov 22 18:29:45 <PhotoJim> I cheated, I put a hard disk on my SheevaPlug :)
Nov 22 18:38:30 <Guest7459> just updated the wiki http://plugcomputer.org/plugwiki/index.php/SD_Card_As_Root_File_System
Nov 22 18:38:43 <Guest7459> let me know if i went wrong any where
Nov 22 18:39:02 <Guest7459> what? you have an external hard drive attached to it
Nov 22 18:40:18 <PhotoJim> I do.
Nov 22 18:40:24 <PhotoJim> I'm using mine as an off-site backup device.
Nov 22 18:40:29 <PhotoJim> so I needed a terabyte of space.
Nov 22 18:40:38 <PhotoJim> only way to do that is with a hard disk, or a ton of flash drives :)
Nov 22 18:41:03 <PhotoJim> so I have 1.5 TB of space, a 500 GB /, 1 TB for the backup partition, the leftover space (~750 MB) is for swap
Nov 22 18:41:58 <Guest7459> wow
Nov 22 18:42:03 <Guest7459> that is alot of space
Nov 22 18:42:09 <Guest7459> can the sheeva plug handle that
Nov 22 18:42:15 <PhotoJim> more than I need, but if you want more than 1 TB of space, 1.5 is the next step up
Nov 22 18:42:18 <PhotoJim> Yep, no problem
Nov 22 18:42:29 <PhotoJim> jim@toowoomba:/proc$ df -h
Nov 22 18:42:29 <PhotoJim> Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
Nov 22 18:42:29 <PhotoJim> /dev/sda1             459G   11G  425G   3% /
Nov 22 18:42:29 <PhotoJim> tmpfs                 252M     0  252M   0% /lib/init/rw
Nov 22 18:42:29 <PhotoJim> udev                   10M  132K  9.9M   2% /dev
Nov 22 18:42:31 <PhotoJim> tmpfs                 252M     0  252M   0% /dev/shm
Nov 22 18:42:34 <PhotoJim> /dev/sda3             183G   85G   89G  49% /adelaide/home
Nov 22 18:42:37 <PhotoJim> /dev/sda2             734G  426G  271G  62% /adelaide/public
Nov 22 18:42:41 <PhotoJim> 500 GB for / is a bit overkill, as it turns :)
Nov 22 18:42:54 <PhotoJim> but that's ok
Nov 22 18:43:10 <PhotoJim> you have to go into console mode and reconfigure it to boot off USB, but it handles it fine
Nov 22 18:44:41 <Guest7459> i have a 500MB card and 500MB on the plug. nothing compared to yours
Nov 22 18:44:59 <Guest7459> what kind of speeds do you get on the hard drive through usb
Nov 22 18:44:59 <PhotoJim> mine uses more power than yours :)
Nov 22 18:45:00 <PhotoJim> it's not all good
Nov 22 18:45:06 <PhotoJim> but for what I want to do, it's perfect
Nov 22 18:45:16 <PhotoJim> I haven't tested precisely, but I've read that it's in the 20-25 MB/s range
Nov 22 18:45:46 <Guest7459> alright
Nov 22 18:45:58 <Guest7459> just wondering is the usb faster than the sd card
Nov 22 18:46:15 <Guest7459> but then the usb will use more power then the sd card
Nov 22 18:46:28 <PhotoJim> total consumption is about 10 watts at full load
Nov 22 18:47:01 <PhotoJim> a 2.5" laptop hard disk in an enclosure would use less power but be smaller
Nov 22 18:47:10 <PhotoJim> write speed is 22.3 MB/s
Nov 22 18:48:31 <PhotoJim> 32.3 MB/s reading
Nov 22 18:48:34 <PhotoJim> quite respectable
Nov 22 18:48:51 <Guest7459> thinking of hooking my plug up to a battery with a solar panel
Nov 22 18:49:05 <Guest7459> so adding a hard drive might be too much
Nov 22 18:49:06 <PhotoJim> certainly viable
Nov 22 18:49:41 <PhotoJim> I run flash on my router (PC Engines Alix 2D3) to keep it silent.  plus I don't need tons of space.  I used an 8G CF card but it only is using about 800MB.
Nov 22 19:02:55 <philv> 800MB for a router?!
Nov 22 19:04:45 <PhotoJim> well, it's a fancy router.
Nov 22 19:04:50 <PhotoJim> does a bunch of OpenVPN tunnels too.
Nov 22 19:05:06 <PhotoJim> plus I might have put screen, irssi, etc. on it. :)
Nov 22 19:05:12 <philv> Yeah, but you can do that in about 16MB
Nov 22 19:05:20 <PhotoJim> 692 MB actually.
Nov 22 19:07:47 <armin76> 640k!
Nov 22 19:09:25 <PhotoJim> Heh.
Nov 22 19:09:33 <PhotoJim> I'm sure I could pare it down.  Obviously not much need :)
Nov 22 19:09:41 <PhotoJim> A router doesn't need a quarter gig of RAM either, and yet it has it :)
Nov 22 19:09:53 <PhotoJim> It can be my router until my broadband is faster than 100 Mbps :)
Nov 23 01:47:35 <rektide> installing lighttpd + php5 + ampache
Nov 23 01:47:38 <rektide> preparing to rock the fuck out
Nov 23 01:47:46 <rektide> and end my tyranny over the house music
Nov 23 01:49:08 <rektide> oh, this bastard requires MySQL.  tragic.
Nov 23 01:51:09 <rektide> i'm going to have to start using an overlay FS  Real Soon Now (tm).... running out of nand space mighty quick, with only "minimal" audio server kit
Nov 23 01:51:26 <rektide> pulse audio + mpd + avahi + ampache + lighttpd + mysql
Nov 23 01:55:01 <PhotoJim> external USB :)
Nov 23 01:55:10 <PhotoJim> or stick a huge SD card in the slot.
Nov 23 01:55:17 <rektide> i can do either
Nov 23 01:55:33 <rektide> just need to actually get off my ass and figure out how to overlay /usr
Nov 23 01:56:01 <rektide> right now i'm hoping there are still some good openwrt docs for that
Nov 23 01:56:04 <PhotoJim> i.e. move /usr to another device?
Nov 23 01:56:48 <rektide> no
Nov 23 01:57:15 <rektide> unionfs lets you do more "adventurous" things
Nov 23 01:57:20 <rektide> i want /usr to stay where it is
Nov 23 01:57:23 <PhotoJim> ahh
Nov 23 01:57:38 <rektide> but any changes henceforth get backed on a different device
Nov 23 01:57:39 <PhotoJim> I've not played with unionfs
Nov 23 01:57:45 <PhotoJim> gotcha
Nov 23 01:59:01 <rektide> might try aufs2
Nov 23 01:59:21 <PhotoJim> I can be of no help on any of this :)
Nov 23 01:59:30 <rektide> honestly its something i've "heard about" for a long time (via my openwrt history) but havent really messed with personally thusfar
Nov 23 01:59:47 <PhotoJim> I left the default installation on the nand device, and hooked up a USB drive.  I needed a ton of capacity for what I wanted to do so it made sense to do that.
Nov 23 01:59:58 * PhotoJim nods
Nov 23 02:00:02 <PhotoJim> worth experimenting with I suppose
Nov 23 02:03:04 <rektide> it was an inevitability
Nov 23 02:05:24 <rektide> ugg aufs is another pita module
Nov 23 02:05:25 <rektide> fuck git
Nov 23 02:05:34 <rektide> git has caused everyone who used to make modules
Nov 23 02:05:39 <rektide> to now instead developer kernels
Nov 23 02:06:35 <PhotoJim> heh.
**** ENDING LOGGING AT Mon Nov 23 02:59:56 2009