Re: Strange behaviour in plasma5

[Hans]

Am Sonntag, 23. August 2020, 21:51:43 CEST schrieb Hans:
Answer myself. Looks, like the issue is gone. Weired, as it appeasrs for some 
says and I have nothing changed. 

However, looks at it is fixed, yeah! I will watch this either.


Thanks for all the help.

Best

Hans


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Re: Homebuilt NAS: System Drive Filesystem?

[Patrick Bartek]

On Sun, 23 Aug 2020 14:26:15 -0700
David Christensen  wrote:

> On 2020-08-23 11:22, Patrick Bartek wrote:
> > On Sat, 22 Aug 2020 01:49:45 -0700
> > David Christensen  wrote:
> >   
> >> On 2020-08-21 21:02, Patrick Bartek wrote:  
> >>>
> >>> Hi! All:
> >>>
> > [snip]
> >
> > Mine's the Ultra Fit, too, but 32GB. I've done some addtional research,
> > and it looks like it has wear leveling built in. > Read a SanDisk blurb
> > that all their solid state devices have it by default.   
> 
> AIUI all USB flash drives have wear-leveling -- it is a practical 
> requirement.  Otherwise, "hot spots" would wear out patches very quickly.

Wasn't always that way. Even now I wouldn't expect it on cheap "Made in
China" ones which would get lost long before they wear out. :)

> 
> > In any case, the
> > NAS software I'll be using (OpenMediaVault) has a specific plugin for
> > solid state to reduce write wear to a minimum.  
> 
> If they've done the engineering, figured it out, and made it a plug-in, 
> that sounds ideal.  If you find an explanation of how they do it, please 
> post a link.

I've checked the docs and nothing on what that particular plugin
actually does.  OMV just recommends installing it when using flash
or ssds. Once I installed, I'll look around to see if I can find out
what it's doing.

> 
> >> I used a 2015 MacBook Pro 15 with VirtualBox and a Debian desktop as a
> >> [snip]
> >>
> >>
> >> If I wanted to use a USB flash drive as a Debian system drive again, I
> >> would probably just go with an Ultra Fit 16 GB and ext4.  They are
> >> inexpensive; and if they fail too often, I would try a high endurance SD
> >> card and USB adapter.  
> > 
> > My plan is after the OS install and configuring to just clone the drive
> > for a quick reinstall, if or when it's needed.  
> 
> Clones are nice.  Good appliances often include backup and restore features.

Haven't gotten that far into the docs which are poor to say the least.

> 
> >> Tuning the system to minimize flash drive writes sounds appealing, but I
> >> never had much success at it.  Mounting the root filesystem with
> >> 'relatime' or 'noatime' options sounds like a good way to break things,
> >> and I'm not going to audit an entire Debian system to figure it out.  I
> >> tried running without swap -- that is a good way to crash your systems.
> >> I have not tried alternate filesystems, because I want to be able to
> >> boot a standard Debian Installer and run the rescue console when needed
> >> (thus precluding ZFS, which I really want).  One trick I have not tried
> >> is a USB disk on module.  Eventually SSD's became cheap enough that I
> >> replaced all of the USB flash drives, so I have not pursued this.  
> > 
> > I'll use "relatime" instead of "noatime." "Relatime" is said to
> > create less problems with software that needs dates/times when files,
> > etc. were last modified, accessed, etc.  
> 
> I only use 'relatime' on data disks.  I would not use it on a root 
> filesystem.   /boot might be okay.  (I let the installer set the boot, 
> swap, and root entries in fstab and I am loath to touch them.)

We'll see if "relatime" proves bad for / since, except for swap, it will
be the only partition on the system drive.  This old box doesn't support
UEFI/GPT.

> 
> > My systems rarely use swap, and when they does it's only a few
> > kilobytes. My main 1-year old under-the-desk box with 16GB RAM has
> > yet to use any.  
> 
> Run from RAM is definitely the best situation.
> 
> [snip]
> 
> 
> > OpenMediaVault, to its credit, is very lightweight and
> > RAM efficient. Perfect for the home NAS on an old system.  
> 
> I have mixed feelings about pre-rolled appliance distributions.  If I 
> can fumble my way through the UI and solve my needs without 
> understanding what is going on under the hood, okay.  I did this with 
> IPCop for years.  (And, it was simple enough that I could mess around 
> under the hood.)  But, when I tried to make changes and understand what 
> was going on under the hood of FreeNAS, it was a disaster.  I started 
> over with FreeBSD RELEASE and rolled my own.

I initially thought of rolling my own, too, just for the learning
experience, but OMV would save so much time and seems very
configurable.  And it is open source.  Uses Debian as its OS.

B 

Re: stretch vs iptables auto-start

[Gene Heskett]

On Sunday 23 August 2020 16:10:10 deloptes wrote:

> Hi Gene,
>
> Gene Heskett wrote:
> > Since the big conversion of file structs vs who owns what, which
> > apparently includes running rc.local as the logged in user and not
> > as root, that has hidden the iptables stuff from everybody but root
> > since its not now in the users $PATH.
>
> I was running home brew iptables firewall until couple of months ago.
> It was time to upgrade since iptables is getting replaced by net
> filter (nftables). It was obvious that at some point an upgrade is
> inevitable.
>
> After researching some options I picked up shorewall and I am very
> happy with it.
>
> My requirement was to be able to easily configure and maintain a
> firewall with at least 3 (three) network cards Internet, Intranet and
> DMZ. Accent put on easy to configure - and I must admit the shorewall
> thing is amazing.
>
> > So what is the best way to assure this stuff gets started during a
> > reboot or restart of X? Stuff that s/b running regardless of any X
> > restarts until the next full reboot?  Stretch, uptodate plus tde
> > here.
>
> I don't know if it suits your needs - you might be looking for a
> desktop firewall, which I do not need and thus don't know ... but keep
> in mind that at some point in the future nftables will be the king.
>
> regards

At the present time I have around 80 rules, all designed to deny the 
network spiders and bots that think they have to mirror my several 
giga-byte site, 2 or 3 times a day.  And that was eating up my bandwidth 
allocation on a slow net connection.

Is there a tut someplace to guide one in converting from iptables to this 
newer nftables? I'm assumeing its a similar utility.

Thanks.


Cheers, Gene Heskett
-- 
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable.
 - Louis D. Brandeis
Genes Web page 

Re: stretch vs iptables auto-start

[Gene Heskett]

On Sunday 23 August 2020 15:45:22 Joe wrote:

> On Sun, 23 Aug 2020 14:26:19 -0400
>
> Gene Heskett  wrote:
> > Greetings all;
> >
> > Since the big conversion of file structs vs who owns what, which
> > apparently includes running rc.local as the logged in user and not
> > as root, that has hidden the iptables stuff from everybody but root
> > since its not now in the users $PATH.
> >
> > So what is the best way to assure this stuff gets started during a
> > reboot or restart of X? Stuff that s/b running regardless of any X
> > restarts until the next full reboot?  Stretch, uptodate plus tde
> > here.
>
> My server iptables is inherited from, I think, sarge, so it's probably
> not done optimally today. It's an init script run from /etc/rcS.d.

Ah,/etc/rcS.d/S18netfilter-persistent
but that does not mention iptables anyplace in it.  Whats the diff?

Or better yet, can this "netfilter" thingy import a set of rules saved 
from iptables?  Hey, I've got an idea, go RTFM.  Except there isn't one.

Next?

> My netbook was stretch until a few weeks ago, is now buster, therefore
> is somewhat broken. It has iptables-persistent installed, which I
> believe is all that is needed now.
>
> Or you can muck about with systemd...

Thanks.

Cheers, Gene Heskett
-- 
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable.
 - Louis D. Brandeis
Genes Web page 

Re: Homebuilt NAS: System Drive Filesystem?

[David Christensen]

On 2020-08-23 15:56, Dan Ritter wrote:


ZFS likes RAM and will use it to the extent possible. It can be
ordered to use a specific (maximum) amount. Deduplication
requires lots of RAM, but hardly anybody actually wants ZFS's
deduplication.


+1


David

Re: Homebuilt NAS: System Drive Filesystem?

[Dan Ritter]

Patrick Bartek wrote: 
> On Sat, 22 Aug 2020 01:49:45 -0700
> David Christensen  wrote:
> 
> > On 2020-08-21 21:02, Patrick Bartek wrote:
> 
> I'll use "relatime" instead of "noatime." "Relatime" is said to
> create less problems with software that needs dates/times when files,
> etc. were last modified, accessed, etc.

This is reasonable.

> My systems rarely use swap, and when they does it's only a few
> kilobytes. My main 1-year old under-the-desk box with 16GB RAM has
> yet to use any.

Depends on what you're running. 

> I won't be using ZFS because of its propensity for lots of RAM. The old
> box I'm using for this project has only 8GB of DDR2, and I don't plan
> to expand that. OpenMediaVault, to its credit, is very lightweight and
> RAM efficient. Perfect for the home NAS on an old system.

I must refute this calumny.

ZFS likes RAM and will use it to the extent possible. It can be
ordered to use a specific (maximum) amount. Deduplication
requires lots of RAM, but hardly anybody actually wants ZFS's
deduplication.

On the nearest server to hand, ZFS is currently using about 2GB
of RAM to support 10TB of available disk space.

-dsr-

Re: Homebuilt NAS: System Drive Filesystem?

[David Christensen]

On 2020-08-23 11:22, Patrick Bartek wrote:

On Sat, 22 Aug 2020 01:49:45 -0700
David Christensen  wrote:


On 2020-08-21 21:02, Patrick Bartek wrote:


Hi! All:

For my Homebuilt NAS [specs below], I've decided on a very small 32GB
SanDisk flash drive for the system drive to keep the 6 available SATA
II connectors free for storage drives. But I'm concerned about writes
wearing out the flash drive too soon. I don't know if it has wear
leveling built in.  Nothing in the specs about it. So, worse case, I'll
assume it doesn't.

For that reason, I thought EXT4 without journaling would work well.  No
journaling -- issues that causes aside -- would reduce writes a lot.
Then I came across F2FS which I hadn't heard of.  After some reading,
it seems the perfect filesystem for my purposes: It's more "modern" and
faster than EXT4, designed specifically for solid state devices, and
available in the Debian Repo. (I plan to use OpenMediaVault NAS
software which is Debian based.)

Opinions?  Suggestions?  Recommendations?

Thanks


B

THE BOX: ASRock 770DE+ BIOS/MBR Only MB (EFI/GPT Not Supported), AMD
Phenom II X4 CPU at 3.0GHz, 8GB DDR2 RAM (16GB Max), 6 SATA II, 1 IDE
(Master and Slave) -- IDE DVD Writer on Master, 1 Floppy connector, but
no floppy drive, 6 USB 2.0/1.0, 1GB ethernet


I ran a Samba server and a backup server on my SOHO LAN using SanDisk
Ultra Fit 16 GB USB 3.0 flash drives with ext4 for several years.  I
installed Debian just like I would for a HDD or SSD.  The computers
worked, and the flash drives did not wear out.  But, they saw light use.


Mine's the Ultra Fit, too, but 32GB. I've done some addtional research,
and it looks like it has wear leveling built in. > Read a SanDisk blurb
that all their solid state devices have it by default. 


AIUI all USB flash drives have wear-leveling -- it is a practical 
requirement.  Otherwise, "hot spots" would wear out patches very quickly.




In any case, the
NAS software I'll be using (OpenMediaVault) has a specific plugin for
solid state to reduce write wear to a minimum.


If they've done the engineering, figured it out, and made it a plug-in, 
that sounds ideal.  If you find an explanation of how they do it, please 
post a link.




I used a 2015 MacBook Pro 15 with VirtualBox and a Debian desktop as a
[snip]


If I wanted to use a USB flash drive as a Debian system drive again, I
would probably just go with an Ultra Fit 16 GB and ext4.  They are
inexpensive; and if they fail too often, I would try a high endurance SD
card and USB adapter.


My plan is after the OS install and configuring to just clone the drive
for a quick reinstall, if or when it's needed.


Clones are nice.  Good appliances often include backup and restore features.



Tuning the system to minimize flash drive writes sounds appealing, but I
never had much success at it.  Mounting the root filesystem with
'relatime' or 'noatime' options sounds like a good way to break things,
and I'm not going to audit an entire Debian system to figure it out.  I
tried running without swap -- that is a good way to crash your systems.
I have not tried alternate filesystems, because I want to be able to
boot a standard Debian Installer and run the rescue console when needed
(thus precluding ZFS, which I really want).  One trick I have not tried
is a USB disk on module.  Eventually SSD's became cheap enough that I
replaced all of the USB flash drives, so I have not pursued this.


I'll use "relatime" instead of "noatime." "Relatime" is said to
create less problems with software that needs dates/times when files,
etc. were last modified, accessed, etc.


I only use 'relatime' on data disks.  I would not use it on a root 
filesystem.   /boot might be okay.  (I let the installer set the boot, 
swap, and root entries in fstab and I am loath to touch them.)




My systems rarely use swap, and when they does it's only a few
kilobytes. My main 1-year old under-the-desk box with 16GB RAM has
yet to use any.


Run from RAM is definitely the best situation.



I won't be using ZFS because of its propensity for lots of RAM. The old
box I'm using for this project has only 8GB of DDR2, and I don't plan
to expand that.


Two words: bit rot.


We have been discussing dm-integrity on another thread.  I am still 
trying to figure out if it is production ready and supported/ integrated 
on Debian 10.




OpenMediaVault, to its credit, is very lightweight and
RAM efficient. Perfect for the home NAS on an old system.


I have mixed feelings about pre-rolled appliance distributions.  If I 
can fumble my way through the UI and solve my needs without 
understanding what is going on under the hood, okay.  I did this with 
IPCop for years.  (And, it was simple enough that I could mess around 
under the hood.)  But, when I tried to make changes and understand what 
was going on under the hood of FreeNAS, it was a disaster.  I started 
over with FreeBSD RELEASE and rolled my own.




Thanks for your input.


YW.  :-)


David

Re: stretch vs iptables auto-start

[deloptes]

Hi Gene,

Gene Heskett wrote:

> Since the big conversion of file structs vs who owns what, which
> apparently includes running rc.local as the logged in user and not as
> root, that has hidden the iptables stuff from everybody but root since
> its not now in the users $PATH.
> 

I was running home brew iptables firewall until couple of months ago. It was
time to upgrade since iptables is getting replaced by net filter
(nftables). It was obvious that at some point an upgrade is inevitable.

After researching some options I picked up shorewall and I am very happy
with it.

My requirement was to be able to easily configure and maintain a firewall
with at least 3 (three) network cards Internet, Intranet and DMZ.
Accent put on easy to configure - and I must admit the shorewall thing is
amazing.

> So what is the best way to assure this stuff gets started during a reboot
> or restart of X? Stuff that s/b running regardless of any X restarts
> until the next full reboot?  Stretch, uptodate plus tde here.

I don't know if it suits your needs - you might be looking for a desktop
firewall, which I do not need and thus don't know ... but keep in mind that
at some point in the future nftables will be the king.

regards

Re: Strange behaviour in plasma5

[Hans]

> 
> Hi Hans,
> 
> if nobody answers to your question then you can try to ask in Debian's
> KDE mailing list - debian-...@lists.debian.org
> 
> https://lists.debian.org/debian-kde/
> 
> Kind regards
> Georgi

Hi Georgi,

thanks for the advice! I will wait a few days, and if no one answers, I will 
try to contact the other list.

Best regards and a nice weekend

Hans

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Re: stretch vs iptables auto-start

[Joe]

On Sun, 23 Aug 2020 14:26:19 -0400
Gene Heskett  wrote:

> Greetings all;
> 
> Since the big conversion of file structs vs who owns what, which 
> apparently includes running rc.local as the logged in user and not as 
> root, that has hidden the iptables stuff from everybody but root
> since its not now in the users $PATH.
> 
> So what is the best way to assure this stuff gets started during a
> reboot or restart of X? Stuff that s/b running regardless of any X
> restarts until the next full reboot?  Stretch, uptodate plus tde here.
> 
>

My server iptables is inherited from, I think, sarge, so it's probably
not done optimally today. It's an init script run from /etc/rcS.d. 

My netbook was stretch until a few weeks ago, is now buster, therefore
is somewhat broken. It has iptables-persistent installed, which I
believe is all that is needed now. 

Or you can muck about with systemd...

-- 
Joe

Re: Strange behaviour in plasma5

[Georgi Naplatanov]

On 8/23/20 9:24 PM, Hans wrote:
> Hi folks, 
> 
> in debian/testing I discovered a strange issue in plasma5. As I could not 
> dicover the related module, please let me describe, what is happening:
> 
> I am running plasma5 with 6 virtual screens. X is hardware accelerated (using 
> proprietrary Nvidia driver) and I activated some "compiz" edffects of 
> plasma5. 
> Here the "rotating cube when changing virtual screen" is activated.
> 
> But, when I click on, say for example, screen 2, then it rotates wild, and is 
> ending on some screen, but not on screen 2 as wished. This is independent of 
> activated cube anomation or deactivated.
> 
> However, when clicking on an active application in the desktop bar, then it 
> is 
> switching correctly to the screen, where this application is running.
> 
> Can someone confirm this or knows, which module is responsible for it? I 
> believe it is the Screen-Switcher (do not know, how it is called in English, 
> in German it is called "Arbeitsflächen-Umschalter", I have a German desktop 
> and environment).
> 
> Thanks for any help. I would have filed a bugreport, if I would know, what 
> module/lib/application is responsible for this.
> 

Hi Hans,

if nobody answers to your question then you can try to ask in Debian's
KDE mailing list - debian-...@lists.debian.org

https://lists.debian.org/debian-kde/

Kind regards
Georgi

Re: troubles with mpt3sas module on a very recent Dell server

[deloptes]

Patrice Duroux wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I am trying to install a Debian system on a recently purchased Dell
> PowerEdge R840.
> After trying many versions and distributions (including also Ubuntu Server
> 20.04 LTS) up to Debian Bullseye Alpha 2, the situations are always very
> similar to this:
> 
> https://access.redhat.com/solutions/4954451
> 
> I checked for all iDRAC, BIOS and firmware updates.
> 
> Here are version messages extracted from dmesg:
> 
> 5.7.0-2-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 5.7.10-1 (2020-07-26) x86_64 GNU/Linux
> mpt3sas version 33.100.00.00
> FW Package Ver(16.17.00.05)
> LSISAS3008: FWVersion(16.00.08.00), ChipRevision(0x02),
> BiosVersion(18.00.00.00)
> 
> Hardware setup does not have any RAID support.
> 5 disks are attached: 1 x 240Go SSD SATA + 4 x 1,8To SAS
> 
> Don't really know where to address this or if/how I can help.
> 
> Thanks,
> Patrice

I don't know if it helps, totally different hardware, but I've never had an
issue with this - in operation since 2012.

# lspci
08:00.0 SCSI storage controller: LSI Logic / Symbios Logic SAS1068E
PCI-Express Fusion-MPT SAS (rev 08)

# Linux server 4.19.120 #1 SMP Sun May 3 10:11:22 CEST 2020 x86_64 GNU/Linux

# dmesg -T | grep sas
[Wed Aug  5 19:41:22 2020] megasas: 07.706.03.00-rc1
[Wed Aug  5 19:41:22 2020] mpt3sas version 26.100.00.00 loaded
[Wed Aug  5 19:41:45 2020] mptsas: ioc1: attaching sata device: fw_channel
0, fw_id 0, phy 0, sas_addr 0x1221
[Wed Aug  5 19:41:45 2020] mptsas: ioc1: attaching sata device: fw_channel
0, fw_id 1, phy 1, sas_addr 0x12210100
[Wed Aug  5 19:41:45 2020] mptsas: ioc1: attaching sata device: fw_channel
0, fw_id 2, phy 2, sas_addr 0x12210200
[Wed Aug  5 19:41:45 2020] mptsas: ioc1: attaching sata device: fw_channel
0, fw_id 3, phy 3, sas_addr 0x12210300
[Wed Aug  5 19:41:45 2020] mptsas: ioc1: attaching sata device: fw_channel
0, fw_id 4, phy 4, sas_addr 0x12210400
[Wed Aug  5 19:41:45 2020] mptsas: ioc1: attaching sata device: fw_channel
0, fw_id 5, phy 5, sas_addr 0x12210500
[Wed Aug  5 19:41:45 2020] mptsas: ioc1: attaching sata device: fw_channel
0, fw_id 6, phy 6, sas_addr 0x12210600
[Wed Aug  5 19:41:45 2020] mptsas: ioc1: attaching sata device: fw_channel
0, fw_id 7, phy 7, sas_addr 0x12210700

Re: In network bonding second nic (eth1) is not pingable while first one (eth0) is always pingable"

[deloptes]

Dan Ritter wrote:

>> Have to test it with two wired connections connected to Cisco managed
>> switch.
> 
> This really sounds like you're trying to test out a scenario in
> a situation where it can't possibly work.
> 

But this is exactly what he has to do - connect two wired network interfaces
to a managed switch. Then configure LAGG (LACP) on the switch for the two
ports and LAGG (LACP) on the PC/server.

stretch vs iptables auto-start

[Gene Heskett]

Greetings all;

Since the big conversion of file structs vs who owns what, which 
apparently includes running rc.local as the logged in user and not as 
root, that has hidden the iptables stuff from everybody but root since 
its not now in the users $PATH.

So what is the best way to assure this stuff gets started during a reboot 
or restart of X? Stuff that s/b running regardless of any X restarts 
until the next full reboot?  Stretch, uptodate plus tde here.

Thanks.

Cheers, Gene Heskett
-- 
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable.
 - Louis D. Brandeis
Genes Web page 

Strange behaviour in plasma5

[Hans]

Hi folks, 

in debian/testing I discovered a strange issue in plasma5. As I could not 
dicover the related module, please let me describe, what is happening:

I am running plasma5 with 6 virtual screens. X is hardware accelerated (using 
proprietrary Nvidia driver) and I activated some "compiz" edffects of plasma5. 
Here the "rotating cube when changing virtual screen" is activated.

But, when I click on, say for example, screen 2, then it rotates wild, and is 
ending on some screen, but not on screen 2 as wished. This is independent of 
activated cube anomation or deactivated.

However, when clicking on an active application in the desktop bar, then it is 
switching correctly to the screen, where this application is running.

Can someone confirm this or knows, which module is responsible for it? I 
believe it is the Screen-Switcher (do not know, how it is called in English, 
in German it is called "Arbeitsflächen-Umschalter", I have a German desktop 
and environment).

Thanks for any help. I would have filed a bugreport, if I would know, what 
module/lib/application is responsible for this.

Best regards

Hans 

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Re: Homebuilt NAS: System Drive Filesystem?

[Patrick Bartek]

On Sat, 22 Aug 2020 01:49:45 -0700
David Christensen  wrote:

> On 2020-08-21 21:02, Patrick Bartek wrote:
> > 
> > Hi! All:
> > 
> > For my Homebuilt NAS [specs below], I've decided on a very small 32GB
> > SanDisk flash drive for the system drive to keep the 6 available SATA
> > II connectors free for storage drives. But I'm concerned about writes
> > wearing out the flash drive too soon. I don't know if it has wear
> > leveling built in.  Nothing in the specs about it. So, worse case, I'll
> > assume it doesn't.
> > 
> > For that reason, I thought EXT4 without journaling would work well.  No
> > journaling -- issues that causes aside -- would reduce writes a lot.
> > Then I came across F2FS which I hadn't heard of.  After some reading,
> > it seems the perfect filesystem for my purposes: It's more "modern" and
> > faster than EXT4, designed specifically for solid state devices, and
> > available in the Debian Repo. (I plan to use OpenMediaVault NAS
> > software which is Debian based.)
> > 
> > Opinions?  Suggestions?  Recommendations?
> > 
> > Thanks
> > 
> > 
> > B
> > 
> > THE BOX: ASRock 770DE+ BIOS/MBR Only MB (EFI/GPT Not Supported), AMD
> > Phenom II X4 CPU at 3.0GHz, 8GB DDR2 RAM (16GB Max), 6 SATA II, 1 IDE
> > (Master and Slave) -- IDE DVD Writer on Master, 1 Floppy connector, but
> > no floppy drive, 6 USB 2.0/1.0, 1GB ethernet  
> 
> I ran a Samba server and a backup server on my SOHO LAN using SanDisk 
> Ultra Fit 16 GB USB 3.0 flash drives with ext4 for several years.  I 
> installed Debian just like I would for a HDD or SSD.  The computers 
> worked, and the flash drives did not wear out.  But, they saw light use.

Mine's the Ultra Fit, too, but 32GB. I've done some addtional research,
and it looks like it has wear leveling built in.  Read a SanDisk blurb
that all their solid state devices have it by default.  In any case, the
NAS software I'll be using (OpenMediaVault) has a specific plugin for
solid state to reduce write wear to a minimum.

> 
> I used a 2015 MacBook Pro 15 with VirtualBox and a Debian desktop as a 
> [snip]
> 
> 
> If I wanted to use a USB flash drive as a Debian system drive again, I 
> would probably just go with an Ultra Fit 16 GB and ext4.  They are 
> inexpensive; and if they fail too often, I would try a high endurance SD 
> card and USB adapter.

My plan is after the OS install and configuring to just clone the drive
for a quick reinstall, if or when it's needed.

> 
> Tuning the system to minimize flash drive writes sounds appealing, but I 
> never had much success at it.  Mounting the root filesystem with 
> 'relatime' or 'noatime' options sounds like a good way to break things, 
> and I'm not going to audit an entire Debian system to figure it out.  I 
> tried running without swap -- that is a good way to crash your systems. 
> I have not tried alternate filesystems, because I want to be able to 
> boot a standard Debian Installer and run the rescue console when needed 
> (thus precluding ZFS, which I really want).  One trick I have not tried 
> is a USB disk on module.  Eventually SSD's became cheap enough that I 
> replaced all of the USB flash drives, so I have not pursued this.

I'll use "relatime" instead of "noatime." "Relatime" is said to
create less problems with software that needs dates/times when files,
etc. were last modified, accessed, etc.

My systems rarely use swap, and when they does it's only a few
kilobytes. My main 1-year old under-the-desk box with 16GB RAM has
yet to use any.

I won't be using ZFS because of its propensity for lots of RAM. The old
box I'm using for this project has only 8GB of DDR2, and I don't plan
to expand that. OpenMediaVault, to its credit, is very lightweight and
RAM efficient. Perfect for the home NAS on an old system.

Thanks for your input.

B

Re: Encrypt files on Linux, decrypt on Windows

[Matthew Graybosch]

On Sat, 22 Aug 2020 09:30:09 +0200
 wrote:

> I always thought it should be banned by the Geneva Convention, but
> OSHA would be fine by me, too.

I think the US stopped honoring the Geneva Conventions during the Dubya
administration. Of course, that doesn't leave much hope for OSHA
enforcement either.

Besides, if we're going to put Microsoft on trial in the Hague for
crimes against humanity, we'll need to do the rest of GAFAM too (not to
mention Disney, Nestlé, Bayer, and a great many others).

-- 
Matthew Graybosch   https://matthewgraybosch.com
#include  gemini://starbreaker.org
gemini://tanelorn.city
"Out of order?! Even in the future nothing works."

Re: Encrypt files on Linux, decrypt on Windows

[Charles Curley]

On Sun, 23 Aug 2020 14:03:21 +0300
Andrei POPESCU  wrote:

> Signal is free and open source software.
> 
> Please do feel free to inspect the source code for potential back
> doors or vulnerabilities.

Thank you for the correction. https://signal.org

-- 
Does anybody read signatures any more?

https://charlescurley.com
https://charlescurley.com/blog/


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Re: Encrypt files on Linux, decrypt on Windows

[Andrei POPESCU]

On Vi, 21 aug 20, 13:07:56, Charles Curley wrote:
> On Fri, 21 Aug 2020 13:31:00 -0500
> Paul Johnson  wrote:
> 
> > GnuPG.  It's in Debian, there's Windows versions on its website, and
> > it's not some mystery box like Signal.
> 
> ++
> 
> It also has the advantage that the cryptext will stay encrypted on any
> intermediate servers. WhatsApp and Signal claim their traffic is, but
> one must take their word for it.

Signal is free and open source software.

Please do feel free to inspect the source code for potential back doors 
or vulnerabilities.

Kind regards,
Andrei
-- 
http://wiki.debian.org/FAQsFromDebianUser


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Re: Encrypt files on Linux, decrypt on Windows

[tomas]

On Sun, Aug 23, 2020 at 11:01:34AM +0200, Marek Mosiewicz wrote:

[...]

> Not to mention that GPG can be used for asymmetric cryptography.

Yeah, but it's a "Windows user" at the other end, and (s)he's "too
dumb to install software". And "gpg is too hard".

I must say, this theme, which came up here and there tends to make
me furious. It's condescending (we know nothing about the user in
question. Heck. the original poster has thrown in a query, and for
all I can see has disappeared). And it has the potential to become
a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I stand by: recommend GPG. Come here, if you need help. Learn something
along the way. Your life will be more interesting :-)

Cheers
-- t


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Re: Encrypt files on Linux, decrypt on Windows

[Marek Mosiewicz]

W dniu pią, 21.08.2020 o godzinie 13∶07 -0600, użytkownik Charles
Curley napisał:
> On Fri, 21 Aug 2020 13:31:00 -0500
> Paul Johnson  wrote:
> 
> > GnuPG.  It's in Debian, there's Windows versions on its website,
> > and
> > it's not some mystery box like Signal.
> 
> ++
> 
> It also has the advantage that the cryptext will stay encrypted on
> any
> intermediate servers. WhatsApp and Signal claim their traffic is, but
> one must take their word for it.
Not to mention that GPG can be used for asymmetric cryptography.
> 

Re: Re: troubles with mpt3sas module on a very recent Dell server

[Patrice Duroux]

Hi Reco,

Thanks for your advice, I will test this as soon as possible.

Patrice

Re: Homebuilt NAS: System Drive Filesystem?

[tomas]

On Sun, Aug 23, 2020 at 10:28:53AM +1000, Keith Bainbridge wrote:
> On 22/8/20 6:49 pm, David Christensen wrote:
> >SanDisk 128GB High Endurance Video microSDXC Card
> 
> 
> This came up well in a couple of reviews I read yesterday afternoon.
> 
> The specific summaries:
> After 30+ hours of research and testing, our top choice is [...]
> It has the best durability and value of endurance-focused cards [...]

Wow. Thirty-plus hours. That's endurance ;-P

(sorry, couldn't resist)

Cheers
-- t


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