Linux Music server

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Andrew
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#16

Post by Andrew »

I only had to install the OS this way the first time. Now I have got it going I have been able to use "yum update" to keep the OS up to date with patches and I have moved from Fedora 7 to Fedora 8 and then onto Fedora 9 as each one become obsolete using "yum upgrade".

-- Andrew
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Nick
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#17

Post by Nick »

Yep, the updater is vastly better than when you had to deal with bunches of RPMs. I think folk noticed just how good the Debian updater was getting.
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SimonC
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#18

Post by SimonC »

Aye up Nick,

Finally got the server back together last weekend and started with centos. First in a long line of questions and cries for help:

I'm installing the OS onto a 4gb CF card and running 2 sata drives as main storage. So far I just hooked up the CF to do a test install and its dying on me with out of disk space part way through.
I've just used all the install defaults so far to see what I ended up with (GUI install, gnome desktop and default partitioning on the CF) and it gets to the end of disk 1 fine, insert disk 2 and it throws up the out of space error.

Any thoughts on what to try next? There's a thousand and one install options amd I don't have the experience to know which direction to go in with this yet.

Thanks for any help

Si
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Nick
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#19

Post by Nick »

I would start with a cut down server only install, you can add the rest later. I would leave all teh GUI stuff off for the moment (or forever)

Also how is it partitioning things? you want / /etc /usr /bin /home on the SSD, I would put the rest /tmp /var /opt on the raid array. Even if that means you need to setup a number of raid partitions on the disks.

/tmp of course doesn't need to be on a raid setup, create a /tmp on both disks.
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SimonC
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#20

Post by SimonC »

Nick wrote:I would start with a cut down server only install, you can add the rest later. I would leave all teh GUI stuff off for the moment (or forever)

Also how is it partitioning things? you want / /etc /usr /bin /home on the SSD, I would put the rest /tmp /var /opt on the raid array. Even if that means you need to setup a number of raid partitions on the disks.

/tmp of course doesn't need to be on a raid setup, create a /tmp on both disks.
OK, I was just installing on the CF card to begin with. I'll hook up the sata's and give it another go.

I'm guessing I can set the /tmp and /var locations during the install. I'll stop being lazy and trawl the docs about this before I bug you again :wink:
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Nick
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#21

Post by Nick »

Thats ok, you can set the /tmp and /var when you partition the disk, just don't use the "use defaults" Oh, and swap needs to be on the raid as well.
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kuroguy
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#22

Post by kuroguy »

I've read that you shouldn't raid the swap partition. The reason is that raid adds cpu overhead and the last thing you want to do when accessing swap is to make the processor/memory work harder. besides, if your system crashes the swap will be reset on reboot anyway.
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#23

Post by kuroguy »

also, as I sit here listening to music on my linux music player (headless) running MOC and MPD, top reports no swap is being used and my box only has 128K ram.
SimonC
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#24

Post by SimonC »

kuroguy wrote:also, as I sit here listening to music on my linux music player (headless) running MOC and MPD, top reports no swap is being used and my box only has 128K ram.
I'm running 2Mb of ram on an atom dual core cpu so I shouldn't have a big problem running swap wherever it ends up.

Keep the comments coming, I'm learning my way round linux as I go on this project.

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Nick
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#25

Post by Nick »

Sorry, I didn't mean to run swap on a raid partition, I just meant on the disk not the flash driver.

You might not need swap most of the time, but you may find you need to build something from source and find gcc running out of space.
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kuroguy
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#26

Post by kuroguy »

SimonC wrote:
kuroguy wrote:also, as I sit here listening to music on my linux music player (headless) running MOC and MPD, top reports no swap is being used and my box only has 128K ram.
I'm running 2Mb of ram on an atom dual core cpu so I shouldn't have a big problem running swap wherever it ends up.

Keep the comments coming, I'm learning my way round linux as I go on this project.

Simon C
My point is, when you finally get it up and running, you are likely to find that it doesn't use any of the swap you allocated after all.

By the way, please post what software you finally end up with as I'm very interested in your project.
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Nick
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#27

Post by Nick »

My point is, when you finally get it up and running, you are likely to find that it doesn't use any of the swap you allocated after all.
Yes, I agree, but my additional point is that for the effort of creating a couple of extra partitions, you avoid the time when you find that you have run out of swap. Sizing any machine such that its continually using swap is unnecessary now, the days of watching systems thrashing has hopefully gone. But it doesn't hurt to add a extra few GB to be sure.

I just had a burst of feeling old, I suspect the phrase "thrashing" isn't even in common use anymore :-(
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pre65
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#28

Post by pre65 »

Nick wrote: I just had a burst of feeling old, I suspect the phrase "thrashing" isn't even in common use anymore :-(
Might still be at Eton (or Harrow/Rugby etc) :lol:
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G-Popz THE easy listening connoisseur. (Philip)
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Dave the bass
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#29

Post by Dave the bass »

Nick wrote:
I just had a burst of feeling old, I suspect the phrase "thrashing" isn't even in common use anymore :-(
It's definitely still applied to the action of running-in Fostex drivers :D

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Greg
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#30

Post by Greg »

Nick wrote: I suspect the phrase "thrashing" isn't even in common use anymore :-(
It is amongst Stackridge fans :wink:
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