Somewhere out there! » Systems

Jaunty and md

Nicholas Lee — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 21:18:32 +0000

Not to disrespect Ubuntu, but Jaunty must be the worse release they have made in a long time. Whether it be an unusable desktop because of a poor kernel – upgrading to 2.6.30 is a good idea – or just poor packaging – md overwriting the mdadm.conf file? WTF? See here and here for the workaround lists, and here to fix the md issue.

Karmic is getting good reviews. Lets hope its an easy upgrade and sets the scene for an amazing 10.4 release.

kvm disk performance with different backends

Nicholas Lee — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 23:16:11 +0000

Here some results from testing I did in August 2009 on KVM with the three different disk image drivers. First a single disk system running Ubuntu x64 9.04:

QCOW2: /dev/vda: Timing cached reads: 9836 MB in 2.00 seconds = 4923.22 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 1050 MB in 3.00 seconds = 349.92 MB/sec

RAW: /dev/vda: Timing cached reads: 10118 MB in 2.00 seconds = 5064.57 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 1054 MB in 3.00 seconds = 351.32 MB/sec

LVM /dev/vda: Timing cached reads: 9328 MB in 2.00 seconds = 4668.90 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 202 MB in 3.00 seconds = 67.26 MB/sec

qcow2,488M,61454,88,288839,43,61540,14,45880,57,445361,57,13550.6,99,16,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++ raw ,488M,54972,86,54393,16,60636,17,68490,84,442091,43,6685.1,97,16,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++ lvm ,488M,58248,90,62764,17,58271,19,64677,83,455263,38,7912.3,96,16,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++

QCOW2 Version 1.03c ------Sequential Output------ --Sequential Input- --Random- -Per Chr- --Block-- -Rewrite- -Per Chr- --Block-- --Seeks-- Machine Size K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP /sec %CP vm2 488M 61454 88 288839 43 61540 14 45880 57 445361 57 13551 99 ------Sequential Create------ --------Random Create-------- -Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- -Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- files /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP 16 +++++ +++ +++++ +++ +++++ +++ +++++ +++ +++++ +++ +++++ +++ vm2,488M,61454,88,288839,43,61540,14,45880,57,445361,57,13550.6,99,16,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++


RAW
Version 1.03c       ------Sequential Output------ --Sequential Input- --Random-

-Per Chr- --Block-- -Rewrite- -Per Chr- --Block-- --Seeks--

Machine        Size K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP  /sec %CP

vm2            488M 54972  86 54393  16 60636  17 68490  84 442091  43  6685  97

------Sequential Create------ --------Random Create--------

-Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- -Create-- --Read--- -Delete--

files  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP

16 +++++ +++ +++++ +++ +++++ +++ +++++ +++ +++++ +++ +++++ +++

vm2,488M,54972,86,54393,16,60636,17,68490,84,442091,43,6685.1,97,16,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++

LVM Version 1.03c ------Sequential Output------ --Sequential Input- --Random- -Per Chr- --Block-- -Rewrite- -Per Chr- --Block-- --Seeks-- Machine Size K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP /sec %CP vm2 488M 58248 90 62764 17 58271 19 64677 83 455263 38 7912 96 ------Sequential Create------ --------Random Create-------- -Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- -Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- files /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP 16 +++++ +++ +++++ +++ +++++ +++ +++++ +++ +++++ +++ +++++ +++ vm2,488M,58248,90,62764,17,58271,19,64677,83,455263,38,7912.3,96,16,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++,+++++,+++

Then a spreadsheet with a large set of test using Ubuntu x64 9.04 host with two ES SATA disks and LVM over raid1/md.

Sun and IBM

Nicholas Lee — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 21:41:03 +0000

I haven’t seen much yet to confirm this deal, but if it does happen next week it mark an interesting change in course. The thing that would interest me greatly would be zfs on linux – with Sun owned by IBM and their investment in Linux it might lead to a reconcilation between Sun and Linux licenses. While Solaris has come a long way in the last couple years, but the only reason why I use solaris is zfs. Linux is still a much more flexible, effective and deployable solution.

Fences from Stardock

Nicholas Lee — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 00:26:19 +0000

Very useful Windows desktop icon organiser by Stardock. Review from Lifehacker.

linux-image-virtual with ESX

Nicholas Lee — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 19:51:33 +0000

According to this thread, if you need to use the linux-image-virtual package on ubuntu then it only supports the “bus logic” scsi controller with ESX.

UAWEA Launchedr Error. Abnormal game exit detected

Nicholas Lee — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 19:23:24 +0000

I was trying a Windows Live game on Steam yesterday and got the above error. After a lot of googling I discovered that I needed to install Game for Windows Live. There is version 1.2 and 2.0. Once this were installed the game run correctly.

Install Ubuntu via USB

Nicholas Lee — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 19:14:07 +0000

: Image via Wikipedia

I tried several methods last night including Unetbootin, and this is the one that worked best.

Basically copy the ISO on the USB root directory, add vmlinuz and initrd.gz from main/installer-i386/current/images/hd-media/. Then add syslinux.cfg with:

default vmlinuz
append initrd=initrd.gz

If you have boot problems you might also need to run install-mbr /dev/sda from the mbr package.

Ubuntu and djbdns

Nicholas Lee — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 19:07:42 +0000

I keep smacking into this issue. So a couple notes to myself for future reference.

Before install touch /etc/inittab and afterwards add this to /etc/event.d/svscan:

start on runlevel 3
start on runlevel 4
start on runlevel 5

stop on runlevel 0
stop on runlevel 1
stop on runlevel 6

respawn
exec /usr/bin/svscanboot

Vim and indents

Nicholas Lee — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 19:01:59 +0000

A few useful vim indenting links:

This is the most useful bit when pasting into a vim window.

nnoremap :set invpaste paste? imap set pastetoggle=

Lanuchy

Nicholas Lee — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 20:45:16 +0000

Lanuchy is a quicksilver-like key stroke application lanucher for linux and windows. Very cool.