OZ 3.5.1 - Mount / on sd card?

[just_another_guy]

Hello everyone,

So I installed OZ 3.5.1 succesfully on my poodle, however I would like to run entirely off of the SD card (512MB) which offers considerably more space.  I followed the instructions in the openembedded wiki, however they did not work.  (i.e. created duplicate/modified rootfs on the SD card, but upon boot does not boot from the SD card)

Has anyone done this recently?  Do you have any suggestions?

Also, does this impact the responsiveness of the Zaurus at all?  (i.e. is the SD card slower than internal memory?).

Thanks,

~Abe

[oxstone]

I did it on my collie. It worked fine. I made a script to automate everything. Speed was ok.
However, it simply destroyed my SD card! It was a Kingston 256Mb. Installing / on a SD card really stresses the memory card. I returned mine (it's still guaranteed). I'll probably buy a Panasonic SD card, since it seems only Japanese-made cards and more specifically cards from that brand last more than a month used as /...

[just_another_guy]

Thanks for the information.  Would you mind sharing your script with me?  I followed the instructions, but perhaps missed a step or two.  Also - why do you think the SD cards are stressed being root?  All of the logging, etc goes on in the ramdisk in /var, is there that much reading/writing going on in the rootfs?  

Perhaps we could modify such things to give SD cards a longer life as root .  It really is more convenient than worrying about fitting into the x MB available in the Zaurus itself.

Thanks again,

~Abe

[oxstone]

Thanks for the information.  Would you mind sharing your script with me?  I followed the instructions, but perhaps missed a step or two.  Also - why do you think the SD cards are stressed being root?  All of the logging, etc goes on in the ramdisk in /var, is there that much reading/writing going on in the rootfs? 

Perhaps we could modify such things to give SD cards a longer life as root .  It really is more convenient than worrying about fitting into the x MB available in the Zaurus itself.

Thanks again,

~Abe

Files are available here:

http://www.oxstone.com/Z_move_root_to_sdcard/

I already read installing / on a SD card can destroy it. SD cards are really fragile. Trust me: it destroyed my 256Mb Kingston card. Anyway, I'll buy a Panasonic one in the next weeks, and I'll continue to install everything on the SD card.

[awaldram]

I improved performance on collie

by instead of creating a new /proc

linking /mnt/root/proc to /proc on the SD

this has the advantage that the dynamic filesystem is on the fast ram and also cleared a problem where aqpkg would not start (recursuvly traversing the proc file strucure)

I guess it also lowers the load on the SD

[tedbundyjr]

awaldram: can you detail up, step by step how you create new /proc and link it to the /mnt/root/proc ?

[hotwolf]

I haven't switched to OZ 3.5.1 yet, but I have the same problem starting aqpkg. Everything works fine if I boot from internal flash. But as soon as I boot from my SD card aqpkg hangs while trying to read the configuration (at 28% on the progress bar). I've replaced the /proc directory with a symbolic link to /mnt/root/proc, but this didn't change anything.

awaldram: Could you give me some more insight on what the problem is and why setting the link should have fixed it?

Thanks,
Dirk

[oxstone]

I haven't switched to OZ 3.5.1 yet, but I have the same problem starting aqpkg. Everything works fine if I boot from internal flash. But as soon as I boot from my SD card aqpkg hangs while trying to read the configuration (at 28% on the progress bar). I've replaced the /proc directory with a symbolic link to /mnt/root/proc, but this didn't change anything.

awaldram: Could you give me some more insight on what the problem is and why setting the link should have fixed it?

Thanks,
Dirk

I installed OZ 3.5.1 on my SD card + SL5500. I did not noticed noticeable problems with aqpkg.

[inman]

awaldram: can you detail up, step by step how you create new /proc and link it to the /mnt/root/proc ?

Since /proc is a virtual filesystem, you can just

Code: [Select]

mount -t proc proc /some/mount/point
Another way to do this is to make a binding between the filesystem and the new mount point:

Code: [Select]

mount -t proc -o bind /proc /some/mount/point
Either one of these is better than using a symbolic link.