On 6/18/19 5:26 AM, Erik Josefsson wrote:
This is another quite open question that I probably could research
myself, if I had the time.
As far as I understand, it is quite recent that SD cards are fast and
large enough to be able to carry and run an entire Debian instance.
If this is the case, maybe there is only theory available regarding
whether you can make a computer "run faster" on a 64GB SD card than on a
32GB SD card when cards are otherwise identical.
I don't really know how swap works on a standard computer, even less how
it works when the whole computer runs from/on a SD card.
Swap is supposed to be make your computer pretend that you have more RAM
than it actually has, but if the whole computer is running from/on RAM
(or is it?), then what does swap mean?
On Teres-I with redpill RC2 (now there is a RC3 that I have not yet
installed) an unfortunate website with pop up commercials (like dn.se)
can eat all performance there is and freeze the mouse for hours. I would
guess that could have been fixed on a normal computer with "more RAM",
i.e., "more swap"? But is the same true for e.g. Teres-I?
Second question is if it is meaningful to buy a "super duper blazing
fast" SD card for the task to run a whole Debian system?
There is a very expensive 64GB SD card from SanDisk that is called
Extreme Pro that costs twice as much as same size Extreme Plus. Specs
say it is "super duper blazing fast" for video in "Ultra HD 4K", but
would Pro also be faster than Plus for the task of running Thunderbird
and Firefox at the same time?
Best regards.
//Erik
The best way to answer your question regarding performance of a size N
SD card vs. a size 2*N SD card is to buy two cards and benchmark them
using your workload. Please publish your findings.
I have considered installing and running Debian on SD cards. At this
point, I would probably choose a "high endurance" device rather than a
"fast' device, because I want the system to last. (The few solid-state
device failures I have seen all followed the same pattern: working to
non-working, with no warning and little or no recovery. At least one
included the smell of roasting electronics; e.g. "let the smoke out".)
I have tried running machines without swap, but found that they crashed.
Now I always include a 1 GB swap partition when installing.
I have run Debian on USB flash drives 24x7 in headless servers and in
desktops, but cheap used SSD's are better. (That said, a USB flash
drive install is invaluable for trouble-shooting and maintenance.)
"Run from RAM" means "Live CD". I created my own Debian-based live CD
in the past. I believe the starting point was here:
https://wiki.debian.org/DebianLive
If the Teres-I is a "Do It Yourself Open Source Hardware and Software
Hacker's friendly Modular Laptop", where are the downloads?
https://www.olimex.com/Products/DIY-Laptop/
David
