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Toumam
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Joined: 19 May 2004
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 26, 2004 6:19 pm    Post subject: Gentoo for an arcade game Reply with quote

Hi,
I would like to use a Gentoo for an arcade game and I would like to shutdown the OS just by turning off the electricity without having a problem for the next boot.
After having looking for a while I ask your help.
I think problems with memory can be fixed using flash memory isn’it?
Thanks
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NeddySeagoon
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Joined: 05 Jul 2003
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 26, 2004 7:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Toumam,

Err No. The problem stems from having unwritten data in cache in memory and filesystems marked as in use. FLASH will not change this.

You need to stop the system using disc cache by mounting with the sync option. that way data will not be kept in memory. This will give you a huge speed hit for writes. I'm not sure about reads.
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Computer users fall into two groups:-
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HydroSan
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Joined: 04 Mar 2004
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 26, 2004 8:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Maybe once Magnetic RAM gets underway, it would work. Perhaps even Reiser4 could help in this situation? I remember reading that Reiser4 either performs a write, or it doesn't, and thus eliminates all corruption problems.
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NeddySeagoon
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 26, 2004 8:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Toumam,

If its to be a single app box, most of the filesystesms could be mounted read only. You could point /tmp and maybe /var at the shared memory filesystem. That does mean you can't save high scores though.

There is a small chunk (<100 bytes) of unused CMOS (battery backed RAM) that you could use for persistent data too.
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NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
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those that have never had a hard drive fail.
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krinkle
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Joined: 04 Feb 2003
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PostPosted: Sun Jun 27, 2004 6:41 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

if he's only using it as an arcade machine, does he really need all the disk caches flushed before the system shuts down? i don't see it as a big deal.

i'm guessing the reason flash would be advantageous is that it' not too good for your hard drive to randomly have power cut from it. you don't know where the heads are/what they are doing. i'm guessing that most of the time it wouldn't harm the drive, but i would bet it would shorten it's life.
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NewBlackDak
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PostPosted: Sun Jun 27, 2004 7:35 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Use a very small HDD for /boot, swap, /tmp, and /var. Run the rest on a read-only USB pen.
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paulr
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PostPosted: Sun Jun 27, 2004 8:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Have a fake power switch on the box that runs shutdown...... if you don't need a mouse dismantle an old one, wire the switch on the mouse buttons to your power button, then just shutdown when the "mouse button" is pressed.
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Toumam
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 28, 2004 1:31 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ok Thanks a lot I’m going to have a look with all this.
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Sastraxi
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Joined: 25 Feb 2003
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 28, 2004 5:44 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Or, just run acpid and your system will handle shutdown itself once the power button is pressed.

emerge -pv acpid
/etc/init.d/acpid start
rc-update add acpid default
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Deathwing00
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 28, 2004 12:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Moved from Multimedia.
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