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Gentoo Linux
Posted: Mon Mar 16, 2015 1:15 pm
by Arwen
My order for the fitlet-iA10 is in, and my intended OS is the Gentoo distro of Linux.
Initially I will play with using the fitlet as a desktop, to get a feel for it's speed & I/O.
Later, it will replace my old, but reliable fit-PC1 which is my media server, (and has
serial console).
So this thread is to discuss using Gentoo Linux on the fitlet, (either stripped down
server, or as a full desktop).
Anyone else planning on Gentoo?
Re: Gentoo Linux
Posted: Sat Apr 04, 2015 6:53 pm
by Arwen
My Linux build may have these features;
- Linux 4.0 kernel
- Root on ZFS
- UASP driver, (SCSI Protocol over USB)
- Grub 2.x
Hopefully the Linux 4.0 kernel will be released soon.
And looks like 0.6.4 release of ZFS on Linux may also be released this month. Though I
would use the 0.6.3 release if newer is not available.
ZFS gets me mirroring of data, (copies=2), for some datasets, (aka file systems). Even
on a single disk device. So a mSATA drive for the OS is not too bad. Might last >4 years.
That way I get a bit of file system redundancy for "/" and "/home, and save space for things
that backups are more than adequate, like "/usr/src" and "/usr/portage/distfiles".
Re: Gentoo Linux
Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2015 2:02 pm
by Arwen
Linux kernel 4.0.0 is loaded and working. (Though I am still learning the AMD Turbo
mode.) In the short term it's using Grub 0.97.x since Grub 2.x is pretty different. And
again in the short term, it's using EXT4 file system instead of ZFS. The older ZFS
0.6.3 packages won't load with Kernel 4.0. But, ZFS 0.6.4 was released, just waiting
on a package for Gentoo Linux.
Re: Gentoo Linux
Posted: Sun May 24, 2015 7:35 pm
by Arwen
My fitlet-iA10 now has;
- Gentoo Linux
- Kernel 4.0.4
- Grub2
- Dracut, (for initial RAM FS)
- ZFS for root FS
- Serial console, (and boot time messages, but not Grub2)
- Remote terminal server for serial console
ZFS gives me 2 things the Linux BTRFS does not;
- Easy display of file system usage using "df" command.
- Selectable redundancy per FS, even with a single mSATA drive
Now I am working on alternate boot environments using ZFS snapshots & clones.
Those get me an easy way to perform updates. If an update goes south, I simply boot
back to a prior boot environment. Then later try again.
Even got it working last night for the use intended, media server. Of course the
installed 500GB mSATA flash drive is too small
, for all my media. I need another
750GBs at least. (Why can't vendors make a 1.5TB or 2TB mSATA drive?) I guess
it's time to look at external 2.5" drive chassis. (The eSATA port is why I bought from
the fitlet-i model line.)
Still have a few things to take care of;
- Serial access to Grub2
- Serial access to BIOS, (awaiting vendor BIOS update)
- Installation of the remote A.C. power switch for both fitlet-iA10 & terminal server
Re: Gentoo Linux
Posted: Mon May 25, 2015 9:29 pm
by irads
Thanks for sharing.
I'll check progress with serial support.
Re: Gentoo Linux
Posted: Tue May 26, 2015 3:38 pm
by Arwen
Great. I look forward to serial support, (either initially exposing COM1 so I can use it
with Grub, or full BIOS re-direction).
Re: Gentoo Linux
Posted: Wed May 27, 2015 10:43 am
by mbirger
We'll issue a BIOS release in about 2 weeks or so, that will include serial ports operation (on the back panel and on the GPIO connector). Console redirection is still under development and will be ready for the next BIOS release.
Re: Gentoo Linux
Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2015 4:51 am
by Arwen
Got alternate boot environments working using ZFS snapshots and clones. Found I
don't even have to update the initial RAM disk after an update. Here is an simplified
example;
Code: Select all
root@fitlet:~# df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
rpool/root/20150610 14G 4.3G 9.5G 31% /
rpool/root/20150610/var 9.7G 122M 9.5G 2% /var
/dev/sda3 190M 48M 128M 28% /boot
rpool/home 1.0G 18M 1007M 2% /home
rpool/Media 442G 215G 227G 49% /Media
root@fitlet:~# zfs list
NAME USED AVAIL REFER MOUNTPOINT
rpool 226G 222G 144K /rpool
rpool/root 9.49G 5.51G 176K /rpool/root
rpool/root/20150523 4.03G 9.48G 3.89G legacy
rpool/root/20150523/var 133M 9.48G 120M legacy
rpool/root/20150610 386M 5.51G 4.21G legacy
rpool/root/20150610/var 20.3M 5.51G 121M legacy
rpool/home 17.9M 1006M 17.9M /home
rpool/Media 215G 226G 215G /Media
root@fitlet:~# cat /etc/fstab
/dev/sda3 /boot ext4 async,journal_checksum,relatime,nodiratime,discard 1 2
/dev/sda4 none swap sw,discard,pri=1 0 0
rpool/root/20150610 / zfs defaults 0 0
rpool/root/20150610/var /var zfs defaults 0 0
rpool/root/20150523 /abe/20150523 zfs noauto,defaults 0 0
rpool/root/20150523/var /abe/20150523/var zfs noauto,defaults 0 0
root@fitlet:~# grep linux /boot/grub/grub.cfg
linux /linux-4.0.4-gentoo.4 rootfstype=zfs root=ZFS=rpool/root/20150610 ro console=ttyS0,115200n8r
linux /linux-4.0.4-gentoo.3 rootfstype=zfs root=ZFS=rpool/root/20150523 ro console=ttyS0,115200n8r
I really wish plain old Linux distributions supported ABEs. Makes updates much
nicer. Some of the Unix based appliance distros, (FreeNAS for example), use ABEs
for their updates.
Re: Gentoo Linux
Posted: Sun Dec 06, 2015 12:22 am
by Arwen
The migration from fitlet-iA10 to fitlet-H, (which has builtin 2.5" SATA drive bay), went
smooth. So now my storage is this;
1TB mSATA
2TB spinning drive SATA
All my media is on the 2TB drive, (1.4T currently in use). With the OS on the mSATA SSD
in a 20GB partition. Thus, reserving the 950GB remainder in case I have to grow my
media storage.
Even went a bit fancy and carved out a 20GB slice from the 2TB drive. Instead of using
ZFS "copies=2" for redundancy, I now use ZFS mirroring. It's a bit silly, mirroring my OS
from a very fast SSD to a slow model of spinning disk. But, it both works and gives me
mirroring across 2 devices. Less chance of both devices experiencing complete failure
at the same time.
This seems to work great as both Media server and a bit of dumping ground for misc.
things, (like master copy of my web development).
Doing updates with alternate boot environments, (ABEs), is fast. About 30 minutes per
time, done once a month. Plus, confidence that if the update goes poorly, I can restore
service in minutes by booting off the prior boot environment.
Re: Gentoo Linux
Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2016 9:20 pm
by Arwen
This fitlet-H is continuing to work great as a media server. Updates performed
once a month are installed without problems. But even if I experience problems
the ZFS alternate boot environments would allow me to back out my change
in a simple reboot.
The addition of a fit Uptime battery makes it more robust, though I've not had
any power outages since I got the UPS.