Re: Introducing console-tools v1 (install-tools replacemement)
 

Outstanding. Is the first partition being VFAT for the NIT and installed applications (I know one of the mapping programs dumps its data on the internal card), or is it purely for compatibility with windows?

BTW, PenguinBait, I apologize if these questions have been answered before elsewhere. I have read over this and other threads (this one is, what, 24 pages and 250 posts?), and honestly, some of the threads are for older revisions of software or older procedures, so its all a bit confusing.

--vr

Re: Introducing console-tools v1 (install-tools replacemement)
 

I have made as small as 5MB, but in general I have at least 128MB fat. Its nice if you need to actually plug into a windows device. some apps may write out there also.

Questions are never a problem, sometimes it may take a few days before I respond.

Re: Introducing console-tools v1 (install-tools replacemement)
 

Thanks man, I'm glad to hear that...Right now, I'm working nights in downtown DC, and this being a government agency, no wireless. So when I have time to work with it, I don't have any way to reflash it until I get home if I brick it...So I'm trying to make absolutely sure I have the process down in my mind before I start.

--vr

Re: Introducing console-tools v1 (install-tools replacemement)
 

Does anyone have the item file for the cloned partition. I have to reflash today after running out of memory on the flash boot. I've reinstall console-tools but, now I have no items in my bootmenu and I don't want to recloned.

Problem with "Backup" "Error: Expected at least 7 tokens for --radiolist, have 4."
 

First, I love these tools, especially PBeasy :) I've been having trouble running Backup from PB though. I have formatted internal 2gb and external 8gb cards to have linux partition. I am booting from flash, and trying to backup internal linux system to external linux partition.

Here are my file systems:

~ $ sudo sfdisk -l

Disk /dev/mmcblk0: 61440 cylinders, 4 heads, 16 sectors/track
Units = cylinders of 32768 bytes, blocks of 1024 bytes, counting from 0

Device Boot Start End #cyls #blocks Id System
/dev/mmcblk0p1 0+ 6143 6144- 196607+ 6 FAT16
/dev/mmcblk0p2 6144 45055 38912 1245184 83 Linux
/dev/mmcblk0p3 45056 61439 16384 524288 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/mmcblk0p4 0 - 0 0 0 Empty

Disk /dev/mmcblk1: 249216 cylinders, 4 heads, 16 sectors/track
Units = cylinders of 32768 bytes, blocks of 1024 bytes, counting from 0

Device Boot Start End #cyls #blocks Id System
/dev/mmcblk1p1 0+ 209343 209344- 6699007+ 6 FAT16
/dev/mmcblk1p2 209344 247167 37824 1210368 83 Linux
/dev/mmcblk1p3 247168 249215 2048 65536 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/mmcblk1p4 0 - 0 0 0 Empty

When I run Backup, I get this message:
You have selected to backup all data on /dev/mmcblk0p2 to Error: Expected at least 7 tokens for --radiolist, have 4. Use --help to list options.


Any ideas? Thanks in advance!

*******************FIXED!************************* **
After partitioning, I used the MKFS tool in PB to format the partitions. I assumed that making the partitions would automatically do this, but I guess not.
************************************************** *****

Re: Introducing console-tools v1 (install-tools replacemement)
 

I was able to partition and clone my internal card, but have not yet done the external card. I created 4 partitions on the internal, 256MB FAT, 2 768MB ext3 and a 220MB (the rest of the card) that I created as ext2 for swap. I mistakenly built the partition as type 82 originally, then found that pb could not see it for swap, so I recreated it.

However, I enabled swap on the internal card in pb, but free still shows

Why is it not enabling the swap like it should be? Is creating a type 82 partition, using mkswap and swapon then adding to /etc/fstab an option? or is this ill-advised?

--vr

Re: Introducing console-tools v1 (install-tools replacemement)
 

Had the same problem and got helped :

As root in xterm, type :
"swapon /dev/mmcblkXpY"
( where X= 1 / 0 for ext./ int. mmc and Y=part. nr.).

( swapoff un-does )

After each reboot you have to do it again.
( Let "Personal menu" run this code for you.)

Re: Introducing console-tools v1 (install-tools replacemement)
 

I did something similar. Created /dev/mmcblk0p4 as type 82 (Linux swap), did a mkswap on it then did a swapon. I also added the swapon command to /etc/init.d/rcS.

For some reason, swapon -a doesn't find the swap partition, but I specified it, which works out better, because if I put a swap partition on the external card, I can point the swap to the internal and vice versa in rcS.

Has anyone figured out the optimum amount of swap?

--vr

Re: Introducing console-tools v1 (install-tools replacemement)
 

No, but :
It was discussed a bit in, I think, the Console-tools thread.
256 MB was often recommended, but I think more from a general Linux rule of thumb.
Mine is 256 MB, and after checking it in Load-applet now and then I believe half would have been quite enough.
But then I'm not a heavy user.


EDIT.
I had one bad experience with swap at my first tries.
Seeing a swap part. (made with "pb"-cfdisk) not recognized, I changed it to something else, and then back to swap.
Then nothing worked properly until I had reformatted my card.
( Of course, knowing no Linux I didn't know how to properly solve it.)

Re: Introducing console-tools v1 (install-tools replacemement)
 

Actually, twice the swap goes back far beyond Linux. SunOS (at the time) used twice the swap, mainly for crashes...Because SunOS (and Solaris currently) will dump memory to a swap area in the event of a crash.

For Linux, nobody has really pinned it down to a verifiable optimum, it depends on system configuration and use, however, the size of swap, if it is used should be no more than 4 times your physical memory, something to do with drive performance.

That said, I have a broad range of swap among my Linux boxes, generally the more memory the machine has, the less swap I use.

As a for instance, the following is a random sample of my machines

My workstation (power user, KDE + Compiz, etc) - 4GB RAM, 8GB swap (141k used -- I need to reduce this)
Wife's workstation (typical user) - 1GB RAM, 1GB swap (49k used)
mail server - 1GB RAM, 1GB swap (487M used)
VMware server - 4GB RAM, 2GB swap (176k used)

So it runs the gamut. The more memory I have, generally the less I need to swap. I was just wondering if there was a number that was settled on, so thanks for your answer.

--vr