LVM2 or AFS on SGI O2?

iMike · Posted: Mon Jul 04, 2005 9:53 pm Post subject: LVM2 or AFS on SGI O2?

While waiting for Gentoo's arcboot to be fixed, I thought I'd ask for advice on getting around the relatively skimpy space one sometimes finds themselves with on older machines. In my case, I was originally trying to install Gentoo on an SGI O2 with a single 2GB harddrive and it's not much space.

Has anyone got LVM2 running on their SGI O2 (or other MIPS box)? I recently found another harddrive I can stick in the box and an external drive that might work. If LVM support were there--especially convenient in a LiveCD or boot image, I think I could make good use of it.

Alternatively, has anyone got AFS running on their MIPS?

Thanks for the advice.

Lupin_the_3rd · Apprentice Joined: 03 Apr 2005 Posts: 168

Redhatter · Posted: Thu Jul 07, 2005 11:22 am Post subject:

Software RAID does work... Kumba's been experimenting with RAID 5 on Octane, and apparently has seen considerable speed increases.

Apparently LVM works too, there was a keyword request for it, but none of us have had the time to fully check it out. I will point out though, there's no support in the netboot images for LVM/RAID... but that may change soon.

Might I suggest just giving it a try and reporting back how it goes? You'll possibly need to keep / on a non-RAID drive, but that doesn't stop you RAID-ing the other two drives, and using that for /usr and/or /home. (Heck, even use some symlinking magic).

So yeah, in theory, it should work... and support for it may be in the pipeline. (I'll certainly look into it for Cobalt netboot images) Your best avenue would be to have a fiddle.

On the arcboot issue, you might want to look in portage, there's a newer version released recently. I think it's keyworded ~mips, but may still be worth a try.
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iMike · Posted: Sun Jul 10, 2005 10:02 pm Post subject:

Lupin,

That is a very interesting solution indeed! Thanks for sharing it. We have myrinet at work, but I had not thought about using it for my own machines. Mixing work (solutions) with pleasure, hey, why not?

Thanks!

iMike · Posted: Sun Jul 10, 2005 10:42 pm Post subject:

Redhatter,

It sounds like some fun to try out RAID, and I might be able to give it a go if I can find a 68-pin/68-pin Ultra SCSI cable to hook up the (possibly) working external drives I came upon. If I can make it go, I will report back.

Unfortunately, I've been hung up on the arcboot/arcload problem. Arcboot still does not work: on your advice, I downloaded the latest version again yesterday, and it still fails to compile. From what I can tell via bugzilla, arcboot 0.3.8.6 fails to compile on sgi o2 r5000, this has been an issue since the end of May. As far as I can see, arcload is the up-and-coming successor, but you have to make new--or resize current--volume headers (more details at this thread).

In short, my experiment to try and run Gentoo on my O2 began at sort of a crossroads when a lot of changes (for the better) appear to be happening. I could try the arcload route now and see how far I get, but I've been expecting either a fixed arcboot or a more convenient arcload might be just around the corner. Do you have any idea how things are progressing?

/Mike

Kumba · Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2005 7:46 pm Post subject:

Still haven't fixed arcboot, mainly because it keeps slipping my mind. Been playing with new experimental Octane patches lately. The IP30 Author just got the PCI card Cage working yesterday, which means USB2, Sound, and other neat things can be used on Octane now.

As for arcboot, I won't make any promises, but I'll see if I can get to it sometime this week. I'll probably be taking off Wednesday from work to watch the launch of the Space Shuttle, so maybe I'll find some time then to knock that bug out. It'll likely be the last arcboot released, though. While arcboot has the advantage of filesystem support, arcload is our more preferred choice due to the wide range of systems it can support (including IP28 and IP27). Downside is, of course, the volume header thing. Arcload may get some kind of file system support in the future, but I'm not real sure about that.

--Kumba
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