Gentoo Forums
Gentoo Forums
Gentoo Forums
Quick Search: in
Thinkpad Upgrade: 8 GiB RAM + 80 GB SSD
View unanswered posts
View posts from last 24 hours

 
Reply to topic    Gentoo Forums Forum Index Installing Gentoo
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
der bastler
Apprentice
Apprentice


Joined: 13 Apr 2003
Posts: 257

PostPosted: Thu Mar 15, 2012 5:45 pm    Post subject: Thinkpad Upgrade: 8 GiB RAM + 80 GB SSD Reply with quote

So it's come to this: My reliable Thinkpad T400S will get an upgrade.

Its somewhat damaged 250 GB HDD will be replaced by a Intel 320 Series SSD with 80 GB capacity. RAM will be expanded from one module with 2 GiB to two modules à 4 GiB (Kingston ValueRAM SO-DIMM 4GB PC3-8500S CL7).

The new SSD comes with built-in encryption, therefore I don't need my own custom initramfs-based LUKS+LVM approach anymore. Although shrinking the existing (amd64) installation is possible, I think it's time for a new, clean installation.

/dev/sda1: mounted at /boot, 32 MB, ext2
/dev/sda2: mounted at /, 16000 MB, ext3
/dev/sda3: mounted at /var, 8000 MB, ext3
/dev/sda4: mounted at /home, remaining space (<56000 MB), ext3

First, no swap. I have experience with a swap-less desktop system. My first netbook had 2 GiB RAM and 4 GB Flash: no space left for a swap -- and I didn't miss the swap space. Ok, memory demanding processes (e.g. mogrify with large images) got killed automatically, but that was tolerable and the rest remained stable. And as far as I know suspend to disk works with files, too?

Second, no dedicated /tmp partition. In previous systems I had one, mounted noexec+nosuid+nodev. This time, in my opinion there's enough RAM left for a tmpfs /tmp (size=2GB).

What do you think about such a setup? No swap, /tmp as tmpfs, ext3 as filesystem on a SDD.

I'm looking forward to receiving your feedback. :)
_________________
Tempus fugit.
@frank@troet.cafe
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
NeddySeagoon
Administrator
Administrator


Joined: 05 Jul 2003
Posts: 54098
Location: 56N 3W

PostPosted: Thu Mar 15, 2012 7:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

der bastler,

Check that your SSD supports the trim instruction. It probably does.
If so, choose a filesystem that supports trim too. Later in life, when the enire 80G has been written once, this will maintain thw write speed.

Sectors that are freed when a file is removed will be erased ready to be rewritten , when the trim command is issued to the drive. They with thus be ready for immeadate reuse.
Without trim, the drive must erase a newly alocated block before it can be writte and erase is a very slow operation

That means ext4 not ext3. There are other filesystesm that support trim.

With 8G Ram, you can put /var/tmp/portage in RAM. Thats where all your builds take place. You will be able to emerge everything except LibreOffice and perhaps Firefox.

A 2G /tmp is huge. Just let it slosh aourd in RAM with no restrictions. shmfs will take up a maximum of 50% of your RAM by defualt and nothing if its not used.
It can also be swapped out but you won't have a swap partition. Its possible to have a swap file if you find you need swap on odd occasions.

Only you can determine your filesystem sizes from what you will use the system for.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
eccerr0r
Watchman
Watchman


Joined: 01 Jul 2004
Posts: 9645
Location: almost Mile High in the USA

PostPosted: Thu Mar 15, 2012 7:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

My netbook has 2GB RAM and 32GB SSD (eeePC). /tmp is on tmpfs, up to 1.5GB and /var/tmp/portage builds in tmpfs. 1GB swap. I can't build firefox with it like this, I have to use regular disk space to build firefox. Most other things build just fine.

I was hoping that compression is sufficient to hibernate most of the time... but really it's not, there were many times I couldn't hibernate because I was using too much memory. Probably need 1.5GB or so to hibernate all of the time, and maybe then some to deal with any swap that was used...

Fortunately suspend/resume works just fine.
_________________
Intel Core i7 2700K/Radeon R7 250/24GB DDR3/256GB SSD
What am I supposed watching?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
der bastler
Apprentice
Apprentice


Joined: 13 Apr 2003
Posts: 257

PostPosted: Thu Mar 15, 2012 9:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

NeddySeagoon wrote:
Check that your SSD supports the trim instruction.

According to http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/solid-state-drives/ssd-320-specification.html this is the case. Fine, then I'll give ext4 a try. Thanks for bringing up the TRIM topic -- heard it, but put it aside!

NeddySeagoon wrote:
With 8G Ram, you can put /var/tmp/portage in RAM. Thats where all your builds take place. You will be able to emerge everything except LibreOffice and perhaps Firefox.

I already use libreoffice-bin because I didn't notice an advantage in wasting hours of CPU time for a source build. Are firefox-bin and thunderbird-bin worth a try -- apart from the artwork licence issue?

NeddySeagoon wrote:
A 2G /tmp is huge.

All previous systems had approx. 5 GB /tmp because K3B stored images in /tmp. Of course, that can be changed in K3B's preferences, but... old habits die hard. :wink: Well, perhaps 1 GB suffices.

NeddySeagoon wrote:
Only you can determine your filesystem sizes from what you will use the system for.

The sizes are deduced from the df output of my current system plus tolerance. Tomorrow I'll watch the impact of a 300 MB system update on disk usage (especially /var/tmp/portage). Perhaps I can shift some GBs to home...
_________________
Tempus fugit.
@frank@troet.cafe
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
gorkypl
Guru
Guru


Joined: 04 Oct 2010
Posts: 444
Location: Kraków, PL

PostPosted: Fri Mar 16, 2012 11:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

der bastler wrote:

All previous systems had approx. 5 GB /tmp because K3B stored images in /tmp. Of course, that can be changed in K3B's preferences, but... old habits die hard. :wink: Well, perhaps 1 GB suffices.

When mounting /tmp in ram you can specify the maximum size you will allow it to use, but if it is not needed it will not be taken.
I have 8GB of ram and here is a line from my /etc/fstab
Code:

none         /tmp      tmpfs   defaults,noatime,size=4G,mode=1777   0   0
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
der bastler
Apprentice
Apprentice


Joined: 13 Apr 2003
Posts: 257

PostPosted: Sun Aug 26, 2012 10:28 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Just for the records: Yesterday I've ordered two Kingston ValueRAM SO-DIMM 4GB PC3-8500S CL7 and one Intel Series 320 SSD with 80 GB.

I'll post the log of the re-installation process soon.
_________________
Tempus fugit.
@frank@troet.cafe
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
der bastler
Apprentice
Apprentice


Joined: 13 Apr 2003
Posts: 257

PostPosted: Tue Sep 04, 2012 11:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, now I'm pondering how to enable the TRIM command -- Online discard or batched discard?

My personal standard procedures for filesystem creation would involve mkfs.ext4 (was: mkfs.ext3) and tune2fs:
Code:
mkfs.ext4 -j -O dir_index /dev/sdaX
tune2fs -o journal_data -c 0 -i 0 /dev/sdaX

(according to the man pages, discard is set by default at mkfs time)

In case of online discard (i.e. TRIM at every delete op), fstab would be defined as follows:
Code:

shm         /dev/shm   tmpfs   nodev,nosuid,noexec    0   0
proc        /proc      proc    defaults               0   0

/dev/sda1   /boot      ext2    discard,noatime,noauto         1   2
/dev/sda2   /          ext4    discard,noatime                0   1
/dev/sda3   /home      ext4    discard,noatime,nosuid,nodev   0   2

none        /tmp       tmpfs   defaults,noatime,nosuid,noexec,nodev,size=2G,mode=1777   0   0
none        /var/tmp   tmpfs   defaults,noatime,nosuid,nodev,mode=1777   0   0


But is online discard safe to use? Or should I create a cron job with fstrim commands?
_________________
Tempus fugit.
@frank@troet.cafe
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
mbar
Veteran
Veteran


Joined: 19 Jan 2005
Posts: 1990
Location: Poland

PostPosted: Thu Sep 06, 2012 10:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yes, it's perfectly safe.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
der bastler
Apprentice
Apprentice


Joined: 13 Apr 2003
Posts: 257

PostPosted: Fri Sep 07, 2012 5:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Finally, I've found a statement from Intel dealing with SSD optimisation: http://cache-www.intel.com/cd/00/00/49/23/492352_492352.pdf

Limit capacity:
Quote:
Setting usable capacity to 80% of the factory default configuration provides a balanced solution for many applications. Using more than 90% of the factory default capacity is not recommended, unless write component of the target workload is predominantly sequential.


Partition aligment is not needed:
Quote:
With the Intel SSD 320 Series, aligning partitions or RAID volumes is not required and provides no performance benefit.


NoOp I/O scheduler is recommended:
Quote:
With SSDs, it is recommended to use the simplest noop (no operation) scheduler, unless there are processes in the system that can produce excessive amounts of I/Os and starve other processes.


So, what is my conclusion for the use case "notebook"?
  • use NoOp sscheduler
  • try online discard (and hope drive is not bricked by frequent Trims)
  • don't impose hard limit on usable capacity

_________________
Tempus fugit.
@frank@troet.cafe
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
der bastler
Apprentice
Apprentice


Joined: 13 Apr 2003
Posts: 257

PostPosted: Thu Dec 06, 2012 8:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Conclusion after three months of usage: It works! With 8G of RAM and 80G SSD the notebook is booting blazing fast. KDM is up almost instantly, loading KDE takes only a few seconds. Now that was an investment (RAM: 40 EUR, SSD: 170 EUR) that paid off! :-)

Here's some data...

/etc/fstab
Code:
shm         /dev/shm       tmpfs    nodev,nosuid,noexec   0   0
proc        /proc          proc     defaults              0   0

/dev/sda1   /boot          ext2     discard,noatime,noauto         1   2
/dev/sda2   /              ext4     discard,noatime                0   1
/dev/sda3   /home          ext4     discard,noatime,nosuid,nodev   0   2

none        /tmp           tmpfs    defaults,noatime,nosuid,noexec,nodev,size=2G,mode=1777   0   0
none        /var/tmp       tmpfs    defaults,noatime,nosuid,nodev,mode=1777                  0   0


smartctl --all /dev/sda:
Code:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0020   100   100   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0030   100   100   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       752
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       185
170 Unknown_Attribute       0x0033   100   100   010    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
171 Unknown_Attribute       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
172 Unknown_Attribute       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
183 Runtime_Bad_Block       0x0030   100   100   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
184 End-to-End_Error        0x0032   100   100   090    Old_age   Always       -       0
187 Reported_Uncorrect      0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       3
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x0030   100   100   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
225 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       16636
226 Load-in_Time            0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       42299383
227 Torq-amp_Count          0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       18
228 Power-off_Retract_Count 0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       45123
232 Available_Reservd_Space 0x0033   100   100   010    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
233 Media_Wearout_Indicator 0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
241 Total_LBAs_Written      0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       16636
242 Total_LBAs_Read         0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       3769


disk usage:
Code:
rootfs           20G     11G  7,8G   59% /
/dev/root        20G     11G  7,8G   59% /
tmpfs           3,9G    368K  3,9G    1% /run
udev             10M       0   10M    0% /dev
shm             3,9G       0  3,9G    0% /dev/shm
cgroup_root      10M       0   10M    0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/sda3        54G     22G   30G   43% /home
none            2,0G     16K  2,0G    1% /tmp
none            3,9G    127M  3,8G    4% /var/tmp


The tmpfs "/var/tmp" is not restricted in size, but a compilation of Thunderbird showed that there's indeed a limit at 4G (=1/2 of RAM as expected; the build failed because no space was left). But it is still possible to compile both Thunderbird and Firefox. Just remount /var/tmp with a slightly larger size limit:

Code:
# mount -o remount,size=6G /var/tmp

_________________
Tempus fugit.
@frank@troet.cafe
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
der bastler
Apprentice
Apprentice


Joined: 13 Apr 2003
Posts: 257

PostPosted: Fri Dec 21, 2012 6:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

der bastler wrote:
The tmpfs "/var/tmp" is not restricted in size, but a compilation of Thunderbird showed that there's indeed a limit at 4G (=1/2 of RAM as expected; the build failed because no space was left). But it is still possible to compile both Thunderbird and Firefox. Just remount /var/tmp with a slightly larger size limit:

Code:
# mount -o remount,size=6G /var/tmp


Make this 6600M instead of 6G and compiling libreoffice becomes possible. I've logged the last emerge and did a plot:
http://abelbeck.wordpress.com/?attachment_id=289

(Just in case someone wants to try the mem disk thing, too)
_________________
Tempus fugit.
@frank@troet.cafe
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
d2_racing
Bodhisattva
Bodhisattva


Joined: 25 Apr 2005
Posts: 13047
Location: Ste-Foy,Canada

PostPosted: Fri Dec 21, 2012 7:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi, for the trim support, you can check this : https://github.com/d2racing/d2_racing_overlay/blob/gentoo.org/test_trim.sh

I found that on the net yesterday and I saved it on my github.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic    Gentoo Forums Forum Index Installing Gentoo All times are GMT
Page 1 of 1

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum