IRC: #boycottnovell @ Techrights IRC Network: Wednesday, October 06, 2021

schestowitz

> A lot of the services on the RPi are disk intensive, even the

schestowitz

> Gemini-building scripts. MicroSD is rather susceptible to wear and

schestowitz

> tear, especially from write cycles. Furthermore, the drive is already

schestowitz

> nearing the capacity at which EXT4 performance degrades, regardless of

schestowitz

> medium:

schestowitz

schestowitz

> $ df -h /

schestowitz

> Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on

schestowitz

> /dev/root 12G 9.2G 2.1G 82% /

schestowitz

schestowitz

> Since the RPi4 can boot from USB, this combination might be an option:

schestowitz

> https://thepihut.com/products/ssd-to-usb-3-0-cable-for-raspberry-pi

schestowitz

-TechrightsBN/#boycottnovell-thepihut.com | SSD to USB 3.0 Cable for Raspberry Pi | The Pi Hut

schestowitz

> https://thepihut.com/products/wd-green-240gb-2-5-ssd

schestowitz

-TechrightsBN/#boycottnovell-thepihut.com | WD Green 240GB 2.5" SSD | The Pi Hut

schestowitz

schestowitz

> The smaller, cheaper model is out of stock. The down side is that these

schestowitz

> won't fit in any known case. But I think the combination would be a way

schestowitz

> to increase performance and capacity while proactively addressing both

schestowitz

> wear and space limitations. The the space limmit is visibly impending,

schestowitz

> the effects of wear always come as a surprise often at inconvenient times.

schestowitz

schestowitz

> Shall I see if I can have the cable and the SSD sent?

schestowitz

Sounds like a good precaution.

schestowitz

What are the prospects of using external magnetic disk? I have 2 that are barely used anymore. Not sure how reliable that would be, but what I have in mind is mounting some of the data of the /homedir on those, then keeping just OS-level things on the MicroSD. Is that too feasible?

schestowitz

Re: Hackaday censorship

> https://twitter.com/zoobab/status/1444922946510807044

schestowitz

-TechrightsBN/#boycottnovell-@zoobab: Hackaday censored comments about the vaccine in its article about the cancellation of the CCC in Leipzig, 23 commen… https://t.co/i7E5c9WIi4

-TechrightsBN/#boycottnovell-@zoobab: Hackaday censored comments about the vaccine in its article about the cancellation of the CCC in Leipzig, 23 commen… https://t.co/i7E5c9WIi4

schestowitz

> I pointed to the issues with the J&J vaccine in Slovenia (some 20y guy

schestowitz

> died), my comment was removed.

schestowitz

I can understand why they want a post about CCC NOT to turn into a BIG FIGHT over vaccines, as that can attract some people with more radical views. My guess is, they try to keep things on topic.

schestowitz

I'd not censor like this myself, but I try to reason about how they go about thinking...

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schestowitz-TR

I have just made a backup of all pu crontabs

Oct 06 01:54

schestowitz-TR

*pi

Oct 06 01:54

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Oct 06 06:28

Techrights-sec2

ack

Techrights-sec2

crontabs are often overlooked.

Techrights-sec2

Are there any in /etc/cron* as well?

Techrights-sec2

$ find /etc/cron* -type f -print

Techrights-sec2

/etc/cron.d/.placeholder

Techrights-sec2

/etc/cron.daily/bsdmainutils

Techrights-sec2

/etc/cron.daily/logrotate

Techrights-sec2

/etc/cron.daily/.placeholder

Techrights-sec2

/etc/cron.daily/passwd

Techrights-sec2

/etc/cron.daily/apt-compat

Techrights-sec2

/etc/cron.daily/dpkg

Techrights-sec2

/etc/cron.daily/man-db

Techrights-sec2

/etc/cron.hourly/fake-hwclock

Techrights-sec2

/etc/cron.hourly/.placeholder

Techrights-sec2

/etc/cron.monthly/.placeholder

Techrights-sec2

/etc/crontab

Techrights-sec2

/etc/cron.weekly/.placeholder

schestowitz

no idea who runs it or whose code

Techrights-sec2

/etc/cron.weekly/man-db

Techrights-sec2

Where is the source for altlink_4f1 in IRC?

activelow

might contain some more of it: /var/spool/cron/crontabs/*

Oct 06 07:26

Techrights-sec2

commit 62e72cffe1920aa7ded0e3f97ce0e853ecbc7642

Techrights-sec2

commit 365a03cfdf62b4e5ed3cf3c32fcb45aacb6a6e17

Techrights-sec2

commit 7fbbf9f28f08e4565ad95bcd5ae70446f9dce8d8

Techrights-sec2

commit f47ddbb446906aec1792ede343c12035799762d5

Techrights-sec2

commit e8f76442566f7d5b6d079cba77fd1ed3e7c8b733

Techrights-sec2

readability changes

schestowitz

activelow: yes, that is where I took them from

Oct 06 07:33

schestowitz

we might move the capsule to an external disk

Oct 06 07:33

schestowitz

>> What are the prospects of using external magnetic disk? I have 2 that

schestowitz

>> are barely used anymore. Not sure how reliable that would be, but what I

schestowitz

>> have in mind is mounting some of the data of the /homedir on those, then

schestowitz

>> keeping just OS-level things on the MicroSD. Is that too feasible?

schestowitz

> They would be best if kept in a proper enclosure, including the Pi,

schestowitz

> while operating. Magnetic disks are highly susceptible to damage from

schestowitz

> even mild knocks while in use.

schestowitz

schestowitz

> The USB cable is sold out at the moment but could be restocked any time.

schestowitz

> Or not. We'll have to see.

schestowitz

OK, I think it'll take another year or so before we really run out of space, but as you note the risk is now growing (data corruption).

schestowitz

>> What are the prospects of using external magnetic disk? I have 2 that

schestowitz

>> are barely used anymore. Not sure how reliable that would be, but what I

schestowitz

>> have in mind is mounting some of the data of the /homedir on those, then

schestowitz

>> keeping just OS-level things on the MicroSD. Is that too feasible?

schestowitz

> Another option is just to migrate to a newer, larger microSD card every

schestowitz

> year or so. That'd be rather inexpensive. microSD cards are not a

schestowitz

> durable good and heavily used ones like that in this Pi ought to be

schestowitz

> replaced occasionally. Underprovisioning them can make them last longer

schestowitz

> though. In either case, the question is whether to wait until the

schestowitz

> errors show up or to migrate first.

schestowitz

I like this option better. At the moment I back up everything under /home (all accounts) every now and then, with a stack of backups piling up on external disks. I use rsync for that.

activelow

hint: i am syncing backup disks with linux md-raid

Oct 06 08:18

activelow

1) this can be done online, 2) md-raid does some increment tracking internally 3) and requires little knowledge of how to handle RAID-1 with spares

Oct 06 08:19

Techrights-sec2

ack

Oct 06 08:20

Techrights-sec2

If it facillitates those links getting indexed in the Internet Archive,

Oct 06 08:20

Techrights-sec2

then it can be an advantage.

Oct 06 08:20

activelow

sorry if i interrupted something, rarely however is the power of linux md-raid mentioned for a backup strategy

Oct 06 08:22

activelow

in combination with nilfs2 (and automatic garbage collection fully disabled) this offers exceptional features

Oct 06 08:24

activelow

depending on what the requirements are

Oct 06 08:24

activelow

keeping nilfs2 on top of linux md-raid level-1 (with two or more mirrors), anytime can one of the online disks be set to faulty, and removed (not that trivial as one might think to correctly identify any disk)

Oct 06 08:26

activelow

then next, nilfs2 garbage collector can be activated to free all segments marked for deletion (log-structured is neat) to provide free space, while the backup spare removed does contain those segments for archival

Oct 06 08:27

activelow

nilfs2 garbage collector "protection period" can be configured, how long segments marked for deletion are kept

Oct 06 08:29

activelow

and then, i had written a fsck utility for nilfs2, which can verify *ALL* data and metadata segment CRCs

Oct 06 08:29

activelow

which too produces a logfile of segments and CRC each, to archive separately somewhere; it isn't alot of data, can be plotted onto 9pin matrix printer for example, for the paranoid

Oct 06 08:30

activelow

nilfs2 garbage collector is dangerous, because it tends to be activated automatically when a filesystem is mounted, i deactivated this with a patch to prevent accidents

Oct 06 08:32

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Oct 06 08:34

schestowitz-TR

raid not much of an option

Oct 06 08:35

schestowitz-TR

it's a single-board computer

Oct 06 08:35

activelow

i attached RAID-1 rotational disks with USB3... ~60MiB/s is good enough

Oct 06 08:36

schestowitz-TR

I'll ask....

Oct 06 08:36

activelow

anyway, rsync is useful too of cause, using this regularly, not for backup though

Oct 06 08:36

activelow

and if the features of nilfs2+raid-1 online backup are not required, rsync or a git push may be sufficient

Oct 06 08:38

activelow

btw. usb flash-memory with terrabytes are available, USB2, these can be used with RAID too, which i would like to try how long-term reliable this would be with nilfs2

Oct 06 08:43

activelow

if those are inserted into a USB3 hub, for example, I/O performance of ~30MiB/s should be possible

Oct 06 08:45

schestowitz-TR

I might just buy a newer sd card

schestowitz-TR

though I'd hate to put aside a perfectly good one

schestowitz-TR

one strategy might be:

schestowitz-TR

replicate existing one

schestowitz-TR

prepare to use as fallback

schestowitz-TR

to reduce downtime

schestowitz-TR

in case the existing one fails

schestowitz-TR

it runs ipfs, gemini and other service off of it

Oct 06 08:50

activelow

i had very bad luck with microSD in recent month, and i keep all data i wouldn't want to loose on RAID only

Oct 06 08:51

activelow

i suspect microSD are very sensitive to sudden power loss

Oct 06 08:51

schestowitz-TR

good to know

Oct 06 08:52

schestowitz-TR

this is a very io-intensive device

Oct 06 08:52

schestowitz-TR

mostly because ipfs runs endlessly, doing tons of stuff

Oct 06 08:52

schestowitz-TR

the card has been in use for a year so far

Oct 06 08:53

activelow

tortured some intentionally too, with swapfs on top to see how long this will last, didn't last long, total failure

Oct 06 08:53

activelow

depends on the type of microsd too, some implement internal wear leveling, others don't

Oct 06 08:53

schestowitz-TR

it was be a disaster if it suddenly stopped working -- a lot of unforeseen disruption

Oct 06 08:55

activelow

problem i am having: the distfile mirrors are blown up, it was necessary to delete sources already, because otherwise this wouldn't fit onto 1.5TiB RAID anymore...

Oct 06 09:00

activelow

and this doesn't include the git clones of various *BSD, linux kernel, and things, with another 1.5TiB RAID flooded

Oct 06 09:01

activelow

and more than 90% is bitrot

Oct 06 09:07

Techrights-sec2

ack

Techrights-sec2

with 2xUSB3 RAID1 or RAID0 can be used. Though RAID protects against the

Techrights-sec2

failure of the drive as a whole not individual flipped bits.

Techrights-sec2

With three USB ports and three drives or equivalent media, you could also

Techrights-sec2

run with RAIDZ1 from OpenZFS. That would track and possibly correct for

Techrights-sec2

flipped bits.

activelow

no need for zfs at all, nilfs2 on top of raid1

Oct 06 09:44

activelow

linux md-raid, to be precise

Oct 06 09:45

activelow

zfs had been a second-class citizen on linux a long time, and i am not willing to beta-test btrfs either

Oct 06 09:46

activelow

besides, nilfs2 offers features and some specific qualities which which zfs doesn't: it is a log-structured filesystem, zfs is NOT

Oct 06 09:46

activelow

the tiny fsck i had written for nilfs2 is, somehow, amazing

Oct 06 09:46

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Oct 06 09:49

schestowitz-TR

activelow: thanks, passing this along

Oct 06 10:00

schestowitz-TR

nb: thunderbird does a poor job with pgp these days. rianne cannot get it to work at all (for now) and this morning I updated the software, then tried things again, to no avail. No sign of a fix on the way...

Oct 06 10:01

activelow

i ditched gpg+thunderbird years ago, and with mutt i keep gpg-classic integration, and version gpg-1.4; gpg-2 is blacklisted

Oct 06 10:02

Techrights-sec2

no, I've not even tried for a while but am thinking about switching clients

Techrights-sec2

at least adding an alternate one. However, I really don't look forward to

Techrights-sec2

that.

schestowitz-TR

it is a big project. anyway, I reduced my reliance on mozilla.

activelow

alot of what i do requires compile-time changes, that's why various TODOS aren't that useful, but i keep everything organized in gentoo overlays and git

Oct 06 10:33

activelow

the gpg-2 and gpgme issues besides the integration with enigmail/thunderbird was one of those, well, notworthy incidents

activelow

even if rianne succeeds with such a setup, how should I say, i wouldn't recommend or advice anything, but i had reasons to blacklist gpg2

Techrights-sec2

Mutt is very widely used and very highly though of, but the key bindings

Techrights-sec2

and UI are very very weird.

Techrights-sec2

Not comforatble but maybe necessary since Mozilla seems to be killing

Techrights-sec2

Thunderbird as per their old long term plans.

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/

Techrights-sec2

-TechrightsBN/#boycottnovell-www.mozilla.org | Internet for people, not profit — Mozilla

Techrights-sec2

Thunderbird not even listed among the "products"

https://launchpad.net/~mozillateam/+archive/ubuntu/thunderbird-next

activelow

the typical mutt setup with gpg2 and gpgme integration isn't a desireable setup either, gpg-1.x with mutt classic integration is the one

Oct 06 10:35

activelow

however, this requires some compile time changes iirc

Oct 06 10:35

activelow

and mutt configuration took some time and effort. as said, i couldn't recommend anything.

Oct 06 10:37

Techrights-sec2

"Pocket" is listed though :(

Oct 06 10:37

schestowitz-TR

Google has Mozilla in its pocket, so you have to wonder where all the data goes, might go, will go

Oct 06 10:38

Techrights-sec2

I thought I have removed Pocket from the browser several times already but

Oct 06 10:46

Techrights-sec2

it seems to not have worked or else come back on its own.

Oct 06 10:46

schestowitz-TR

settings change with updates. More 'feeeeechures'

Oct 06 10:48

activelow

may I ask whom the nickname Techrights-sec2 is associated with?

Oct 06 10:52

schestowitz-TR

sys admin

Oct 06 10:52

schestowitz-TR

one of us

Oct 06 10:52

psydruid

I run my Orange Pi with an SD card but only for u-boot, device tree table and the kernel and the rest off a USB SATA SSD

Oct 06 10:54

psydruid

my SD card died after 10 months due to excessive writes, so I decided to try to find a better solution

Oct 06 10:55

schestowitz-TR

so I guess we need to hurry up and prepare for disasters

Oct 06 10:58

Techrights-sec2

I thought I have removed Pocket from the browser several times already but

Oct 06 10:59

Techrights-sec2

it seems to not have worked or else come back on its own.

Oct 06 10:59

Techrights-sec2

So it seems. That is bad behaviorl perhaps even malicious.

Oct 06 10:59

Techrights-sec2

Techrights-sec2

"thunderbird 160 weeks ago; Successfully built"

Techrights-sec2

Not kept up to date there either. :(

Techrights-sec2

Colluding with Google it seems.

Techrights-sec2

Thunderbird 91.x will be in Ubuntu's next version Impish Indri

Techrights-sec2

So that will trickle down to the Ubuntu derivatives eventually, maybe by the

-TechrightsBN/#boycottnovell-launchpad.net | Official PPA for Thunderbird Beta : “Mozilla Team” team

Techrights-sec2

beginning of next year.

activelow

www-client/seamonkey-2.49.9.1_p0 here; which is thunderbird-52; any later depends on rust already

Oct 06 11:08

Techrights-sec2

Oct 06 11:10

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Oct 06 12:51

Techrights-sec2

back in a bit

Techrights-sec2

back more or less

Techrights-sec2

TB 91 has no way to manage OpenPGP keys, as far as I can tell.

Techrights-sec2

Seems to have been mostly removed, though it does have access to something

Techrights-sec2

but that is out of date and not in sync with OpenPGP itself. :(

Techrights-sec2

Found it. It is quite buried. There are no key management functions available

Techrights-sec2

but import might work.

Techrights-sec2

See "Account Settings" -> "End-To-End Encryption" -> "Add Key"

Techrights-sec2

The default desktop environment for Impish Indri is slick but very

Techrights-sec2

clunky and awkward if one has several concurrent activities.

schestowitz-TR

I don't want to open TB in the daytime or I can end up burning one hour catching up there. I will check later for workarounds, but things worked better for me in the enigmail days.