Aug '09 15

New Filesystems – EXT4 and BTRFS

by Brin in Computer, Linux | Comments Off on New Filesystems – EXT4 and BTRFS

EXT4 is now considered stable  since 2.6.28, there is a good article here. Its a lot better than ext3, which really only added Journals over ext2. In particular EXT4 now supports Extents, Delayed Allocation and Multiblock Reservations,  as thats the main reasons i use the JFS file system (after having corruption on XFS). These things are important if your doing streaming, like recording TV or Playback of movies, without them, simple things like deleteing a recorded TV show while another is recording will make frames drop. I also use ReiserFS for my MP3 collection, and squid cache dir’s, as you can’t beat ReiserFS for loads of small files.

BtrFS is considered the next generation file system, a development version is in the kernel from 2.6.29, but the disk format changed in 2.6.31. It has all the features of EXT4 plus a heap of others, like filesystem raid, checksum on data and metadata (EXT4 only has checksum on the journal) Snapshots, compression, and more.

NILFS2 is the latest file-system to be talked about and it stands for the New Implementation of a Log-structured File System. “supporting versioning of the entire file system and continuous snapshotting which allows users to even restore files mistakenly overwritten or destroyed just a few seconds ago.”

EXT4 looks like the filesystem to use while we wait for Btrfs to become stable. In Debian EXT4 is Proposed for LennyAndAHalf,  Ubuntu has support since 9.04, NOTE: you need to run grub-install before changing your root/boot partition to EXT4. There are some older performance stats here.

*UPDATE: I’ve found a number of references on the web that EXT4 can result in 0 byte files after a crash. Once you get to 1TB file systems, you can reduce the reserved space to maintain it at 50Gb.

Aug '09 01

Debian 5 on Microsoft Vitrual PC

by Brin in Computer, Linux, Windows | Comments Off on Debian 5 on Microsoft Vitrual PC

To be able to test a Debian 5 Mirror install, I setup virtual PC on XP, as i had the environment already. The new Kernel kills the VM by default, so press TAB on the “Install” prompt, then enter the following to the end of the command line.

noapic nolapic noreplace-paravirt
If you use the Graphical installed Also, modify “vga=788” parameter to “vga=791” to avoid strange resolutions.

As discribed in this blog. I should also look at Virtual Box, there are a number of them around these days, and the choices on Linux is too numerous.

Jun '09 04

iptables

by Brin in Linux | Comments Off on iptables

Been getting alot of INVALID packets on the firewall due to the riverbed, looks like a new packet without the SYN

Found a good tutorial for iptables and SYSCTL values, a Pocket Reference and a Firewall book too.

May '09 24

Bogomips

by Brin in Computer | Comments Off on Bogomips

Interesting to compare different BogoMips from Different CPU’s

  • Intel P-III – 800Mhz = 1600
  • AMD XP2000+ = 3322
  • Intel P-IV – 1800Mhz = 3600
  • Intel E2180 – 2Ghz = 3990
  • AMD XP3000+ = 4381
  • Intel E6850 – 3Ghz = 5990
  • AMD 64X2-6000+ = 6030
  • Intel i7-860 – 3.6Ghz(OC) = 7140
Apr '09 01

Ripping

by Brin in Windows | Comments Off on Ripping

Trying to figure out the best program(s) to use to RIP my DVDs to my server HDD for viewing on the Popcorn hour. The Forum has a link to a few of them Also AutoGK is good for ripping to avi, and MakeMKV for ripping to mpeg. There is a detailed guide to do it manually here. There is also Handbrake, which i’ve seen mentioned a few times too. There is also a good guide for MeGUI.

one Process is use MakeMKV to create a mkv container, use MKExtract to pull out sub scenes you dont want, then insert Chapeters with Chapter Maker

Mar '09 28

ImgBurn device buffer fluctuates

by Brin in Windows | Comments Off on ImgBurn device buffer fluctuates

I’ve noticesd the last few times i’ve used ImgBurn that the device buffer jumps from 100% to 10% and back up again, and hovers around 2X burn speed. I though my HDD must have needed a defrag, as it was pretty full, but after that didnt help i did some searching. I found that if you have 2 Primary and 2 secondary interface devices in device manager. Remove all of them, and reboot so it re-installs them. Fixed the problem for me, burning back up to 12X again.

Mar '09 24

Re-process mail

by Brin in Linux | Comments Off on Re-process mail

I can never remember the command to re-process mail with existing headers. cat 1.txt | uudecode -o /dev/stdout | /usr/sbin/sendmail -v -t -oiee

Mar '09 17

MythTV on AppleTV

by Brin in Linux, Windows | Comments Off on MythTV on AppleTV

I’ve been looking for a good MythTv front end for a while. I’m interested in the new AppleTV (ATV). The ATV supports HDMI output, and since you can hack XBMC onto it, (as they no longer support xbox images) this seems like the best device. Looks like you can hack MythTv straight onto the device acording to AwkwardTv. AppleTV Hacks too.

I’ve found the MythBox script that looks like its more maintained than the XbmcMythtv scipt for XMBC that lets you frontend to your MythTv box. Which should all go together nicely 🙂 well in theory anyway. I’m testing XMBC on Windows, there are 3rd Party downloads that must be used for Mythbox to work. There is also Native Support in XMBC as well according to the wiki .

Or Maybe i should just get a second hand Mac-Mini?

There are a few devices that are similar, WD TV can stream HD content via HDMI, but need a USB HDD. Then there is the Popcorn Hour A110, and Mediagate, as described in this post. Media Players and more have a good selection.

I’ve given up on the official MythTv Frontend on Win32, it just seg faults after i connect to the DB? and MythTv Player development seems to have stalled, although version0.5.1 – pre release 10 does work well for me.

UPDATE: I’ve just ordered a Popcorn A110 from Media Now, based on the fact it can do Hi-Def that the AppleTV cannot, and should be a bit more future proof. This will let me transcode my DVD’s to my Server and play them back from there.