/dev/chat - 2017-04-23

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1:25 AM

0

Q: How to blacklist amdgpu?

I would like to blacklist the amdgpu driver. I opened /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf and added the following line: blacklist amdgpu Then I rebooted and ran lsmod | grep amdgpu: $ lsmod | grep amdgpu amdgpu 1564672 23 i2c_algo_bit 16384 1 amdgpu ttm ...

ubuntu kernel-modules

Any suggestions as to why the kernel is ignoring my blacklist?

1:51 AM

@FaheemMitha you got a quote for someone to install a SSD??? I hope they aren't charging much! I'm not sure what they mean by master & primary bootable drives, unless they just mean they'll set the right boot drive in the BIOS.

Installing a SSD in a Desktop PC

... that's just from a quick YouTube search.

3 hours later…

5:06 AM

@derobert No, not much. I suppose I should be able to do it myself...

@derobert I'm not sure either.

The technician should be turning up soon. If he's capable of having a sensible conversation (not a given in India), I'll try to find out what you mean.

I wonder, would it be reasonable to clone my current Debian installation to the new SSDs. Or would be a straight reinstallation be better?

1 hour later…

6:21 AM

My current drives are showing poweron hours as 53053.

Is that a lot?

53053.0 / (24 * 365) = 6.056

6:55 AM

@FaheemMitha Good morning. backblaze.com/blog/how-long-do-disk-drives-last

"The median lifespan of a drive will be over 6 years"

4 hours later…

10:48 AM

So, this question is probably answered somewhere, but why is an SSD a 2.5 inch drive when it apparently has 7 mm thickness?

@Kusalananda Hi. I've got a feeling I've read that one before.

This is the most recent report - backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-failure-rates-q3-2016

Is upgrading the BIOS safe? I just checked, and the version I have is ancient. There have been a bunch of upgrades since then.

After checking, apparently the consensus is to leave the BIOS alone unless you really need to upgrade it.

11:16 AM

@FaheemMitha In that a question about units or is it a question about dimensions?

@Kusalananda Just wondering how something that is 7mm fits in something that is supposedly 2.5 in thick.

@FaheemMitha Um? The disc is 2.5 inches in diameter. The drive is 7mm thick. Where's the issue?

Sorry, I don't understand the question.

@Kusalananda I guess I didn't understand what the 2.5 meant. Is that the width?

It's the diameter of the physical disc. Just as when we used to say 7.25 or 3.5 floppy disks. That was also the diameter of the disc.

Inside the housing.

Apparently it's a lot messier than that. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drive_bay#2.5.E2.80.B3

@Kusalananda oh

11:21 AM

For SSDs, I suppose it's used in the meaning of "2.5 inch form factor".

I.e. as if it was a 2.5 inch actual disc.

s/7.25/5.25/ in my earlier comment.

The SSDs are technically not circular. They appear to be rectangular.

But diameter is certainly a helpful way of thinking about it.

@FaheemMitha Being solid state, I'm assuming it's a bunch of chips, but the drive housing for a disc-based drive is rectangular too (obviously) and follows the same form factor spcifications.

Working on setting up a new VM setup at home. Router, file server and a diskless client for interactive work. Fun way to pass the time on a Sunday.

Need to add a database server too eventually.

Man, I love working with virtual machines!

11:57 AM

@Kusalananda Sure, but you earlier used the term "diameter". Which is customarily used for circular shapes.

@FaheemMitha Yes, the disc (drive platter) in a disc-based drive (non-SSD) is circular and spins.

@Kusalananda The disk is contained in the housing and is invisible from outside, right? For disc-based drives, that is.

Yes.

Hard disk drive platter

A hard disk drive platter (or disk) is the circular disk on which magnetic data is stored in a hard disk drive. The rigid nature of the platters in a hard drive is what gives them their name (as opposed to the flexible materials which are used to make floppy disks). Hard drives typically have several platters which are mounted on the same spindle. A platter can store information on both sides, requiring two heads per platter. == Design == The magnetic surface of each platter is divided into small sub-micrometer-sized magnetic regions, each of which is used to represent a single binary uni...

Solid state drives (SSDs) are called "solid" since they don't spin.

I don't think I've ever seen the inside of an HDD.

:-) You should pick one apart some day.

So, "2.5" is the form factor of the drive, regardless of whether it's an SSD or HDD.

@FaheemMitha If you've never looked inside an HDD I can understand where your confusion comes from.

12:07 PM

Except in the case of an SSD, it's not clear what that means. Since there isn't a hidden circular disk in there.

@Kusalananda I don't know much of anything about hardware. Including at the superficial level.

Well, "2.5" is the form factor. It means it fits in a drive bay that is made for 2.5 drives (HDD or SSD).

@Kusalananda Fair enough.

An SSD since it contains no spinning disc, could be cube-shaped if it wanted I suppose, but it wouldn't fit in existing cases.

@Kusalananda What OS? What VM?

I've mostly used VirtualBox recently.

Though it's owned by Oracle now, isn't it? Ugh.

@FaheemMitha Same old; OpenBSD 6.1 as guests in VirtualBox running on Windows 10.

Yes, VirtualBox is open sourced from Oracle.

12:11 PM

@Kusalananda I don't understand why you are running Win as host. Does your job require it?

I'd use something like Debian instead.

Long discussion about that here yesterday. A project I'm working on may require me to provide Windows executables to clients. This is a work laptop I'm using.

@Kusalananda I vaguely remember something about that.

Still, Windows. Ugh.

Hmm, was it only yesterday?

My main gripe with Windows (the version I'm running) is that it's written for people that don't run services. It says things like "Update your system now, or I'll do it during the night when you're sleeping, including rebooting".

But I'm more careful about bashing random OSes nowadays. They all serves their purposes.

@FaheemMitha Yesterday, also.

I mean, was it only yesterday the discussion took place?

@Kusalananda I find Win objectionable in all sorts of ways.

Yes, yesterday and at some point in the more distant past.

12:18 PM

@Kusalananda I disagree, Win was made to be bashed.

Well, it has bash now, so...

;-)

It's the piñata of operating systems.

Full of goodies?

@Kusalananda No, made for hitting.

> They all serves their purposes.

Even the Dark Empire serves a purpose.

12:20 PM

If enslavement to a proprietary OS is the purpose.

@Kusalananda Sure.

Any Dark Empire in particular?

I was thinking Star Wars there.

Ah. Yawn.

But, as I also said yesterday, I have no interest in the host OS whatsoever. If VirtualBox provided proper OpenBSD support in the form of guest additions, I'd be running Chrome and Slack in a VM too.

I don't see why virtualization is necessary, unless you need multiple OSs. It just impacts performance. And adds another layer of indirection.

Now you're just arguing :-) I have no performance issues in the VMs. And I can add and remove as many drives as I wish, and build whatever network layout I need. I can also add and remove RAM to the guests extremely easily.

12:27 PM

@Kusalananda Just stating personal preference.

The laptop has 4 CPUs and 16Gb RAM, I only need 1 CPU for my work and 2Gb RAM is more than enough.

I guess it all depends on your workflow. I've used VMs too. But not unless I have to.

Actually chroot type things more often. VB is a bit too heavyweight for me.

At one point I booted up Win 7 in a VB. That was a couple of years ago, I think. It was kind of depressing.

I wanted to see what kind of software my scanner used on Windows. I was not impressed.

I actually concluded, surprisingly, that the free software available on Debian was better.

But I'm biased. I find non-free operating systems kind of hateful. I can tolerate them if I have to, but I really prefer not to.

The odd thing is that people say complimentary stuff about the Fujitsu software on Windows, so maybe I'm missing something.

VMs also provides a bit of encapsulation. I'm running a router in a VM. If I wanted to, I think I could even route the host's traffic through it. That would effectively provide me with a virtual router running OpenBSD (which I know how to work the firewall on), protecting my Windows host (which has a firewall thot I rather not touch).

@Kusalananda If you know enough about networking, sure.

2 hours later…

2:43 PM

hI

@TheoneLucas hello

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