This machine was constructed in late 2015.
Goals:
- Runs Linux.
- Dual use: (1) multithreaded performance for transcoding, (2) low power for day long desktop use.
- SSD system disc: low power, cool, quiet
- Two hot swap hard drives with off buttons for temporary media file storage and backups
Non-goals:
- Bleeding edge.
- Saving money compared to a prebuilt system.
- Cool appearance
- PCI expansion slots.
- Video capability
- GIGABYTE GA-H97M-HD3 LGA 1150 Intel H97 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
- 1 x HDMI port, supporting a maximum resolution of 4096x2160@24Hz or 2560x1600@60Hz
- DSUB, DVI
- 6 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors
- 6 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports (4 ports on the back panel, 2 ports available through the internal USB header)
- 6 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports (2 ports on the back panel, 4 ports available through the internal USB headers)
- from: Amazon
- price: $78.99
I was tempted by the AMD FX-6300, $100 and six threads, champion price/performance leader now. But it is only slightly faster than the Intel in Handbrake benchmarks, runs hotter with higher wattage. You also have a greater motherboard selection with Intel.
The i3-4360's multithreaded Handbrake benchmarks compare favorably to i5 and i7 processors which cost more.
- Intel Core i3-4360 Haswell Dual-Core 3.7 GHz LGA 1150 54W BX80646I34360 Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4600
- 2 cores / 4 threads
- 54W TDP
- from: Amazon
- price: $149.99
Better CPU fan cooler
At max load the processor was running too hot, so I bought a Noctua NH-L9i.
This is my first aftermarket cooler. The build, finish and fit are more impressive that the stock cooler (which I've always had good luck with in the past). Much more metal in the Noctua for a better heat sink. Bolting it from the rear of the motheboard seems a more reassuring method than the plastic twist connectors the stock coolers use.
I had room for a larger cooler, but this one is lighter than the others and I hope will be less strain on the motherboard. Weight: 420g (= 14.8oz).
When removing the stock cooler I noticed the thermal pad had not spread very much. Maybe a reason for the high temperatures?
- from: Amazon
- price: $39.95
Liquid cooling
It was still running too hot for Handbrake, so I wanted to try liquid cooling. I chose the Arctic Liquid Freezer 120 because it was well reviewed and I find the name comforting.
Results are very good:
Core temps in C cores CPU fan liquid cooling 2 60 39 3 70 45 4 too damn hot 48 The two 120mm fans that sandwich the radiator are quiet when idling, but definitely audible when the system is under load. They looked pretty cheap to me; might be able to find quieter replacements. Check the thickness carefully; there are limits to how deep they can be.
Later: I set the BIOS CPU fan speed to "Silent", making the new exhaust fans spin slower and much quieter. The temperature rises only about 2C over the default setting.
- from: Amazon
- price: $73.85
Crucial Ballistix Tactical 8GB Kit (4GBx2) DDR3-1600 UDIMM LP CT5859739
Found using the Crucial memory configuration tool, just enter the motherboard.
2 sticks for the dual-channel CPU and motherboard.
- DDR3 PC3-12800 • 8-8-8-24 • Unbuffered • NON-ECC • DDR3-1600 • 1.35V • 512Meg x 64 • Low Profile •
- from: Crucial
- price: $55.99 + 3.92 tax
I wanted light-colored case because dust is less visible on it, and a metal case because plastic does not last long enough for me.
- LIAN LI PC-9NA Silver Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
- from: Newegg
- price: $109.99
Important features: the 80mm fan can be replaced, and with a 120mm fan; fan speed control and off switch on the front.
- ICY DOCK TurboSwap MB171SP-B Tray-Less 3.5" SATA Hard Drive Mobile Rack with 80mm Cooling Fan
- qty: 2
- from: Newegg
- price: $38.99 each
SeaSonic Platinum Series SS-400FL2
This may be higher end than I need, but since the system is meant to run on an SSD system disc, I wanted to try a silent power supply. Fully modular is a plus, as is 6 SATA connectors.
- SeaSonic Platinum Series SS-400FL2 Active PFC F3 400W ATX12V Fanless 80 PLUS Platinum Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply New 4th Gen CPU Certified Haswell Ready
- from: Newegg
- price: $109.99
Kingston Digital 120GB SSDNow V300 SATA 3 2.5
- Kingston Digital 120GB SSDNow V300 SATA 3 2.5 (7mm height) Solid State Drive (SV300S37A/120G)
- from: Amazon
- price: $39.99
I used this same model for a build 4 years ago.
- ASUS Black 12X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM SATA Internal Blu-ray Drive Model BC-12B1ST/BLK/B/AS - OEM
- from: Newegg
- price: $52.99
Later: I wore this one out (after 2.5 years) and replaced it with the same model.
- from: Amazon
- price: $52.50
Info on the first one:
Drive Information OS device name: /dev/sr0 Current profile: BD-ROM Manufacturer: ASUS Product: BC-12B1ST b Revision: 1.00 Serial number: K9QF8H84011 Firmware date: 2113-06-14 11:58: Bus encryption flags: 1E Highest AACS version: 63For the second:
Drive Information OS device name: /dev/sr0 Manufacturer: ASUS Product: BC-12B1ST b Revision: 3.00 Serial number: SIK9LGCLA024 Firmware date: 2115-12-15 13:40: Bus encryption flags: 1E Highest AACS version: 63Third drive
ASUS 16D1HT bought from Alex Coluzzi <alexcoluzzi32@gmail.com>. This is a UHD-friendly drive with firmware modified to accept LibreDrive from MakeMKV.
Price: $138.40 inc/shipping
The previous drive was still working, although I had some errors and increasing cases of the drive wedging the system, requiring a complete shutdown. That's always been an issue with my linux builds. An ASUS issue?
Info:
Drive Information OS device name: /dev/sr0 Current profile: BD-ROM Manufacturer: ASUS Product: BW-16D1HT Revision: 3.10 Serial number: KL8K15F3522 Firmware date: 2119-01-04 10:14 Bus encryption flags: 1F Highest AACS version: 72 LibreDrive Information Status: Enabled Drive platform: MT1959 Firmware type: Patched (microcode access re-enabled) Firmware version: 3.10 DVD all regions: Yes BD raw data read: Yes BD raw metadata read: Yes Unrestricted read speed: Possible, not yet enabledJan 7 2021 drive ruined when doing a full disk standard Blu-ray backup. Disk came out in small pieces. I was out of the house or I might have been able to stop it.
I replaced it with the old (worn out?) BC-12B1ST until I can get a newer model.
At the same time I installed the liquid cooling I replaced the 140mm input fan in front. The Lian Li original had started sticking and I broke a blade messing with it.
The new fan: Noctua 140mm Premium Quiet Quality Case Cooling Fan NF-A14 FLX.
- from: Amazon
- price: $21.35
Later: this lasted about 3.5 years. I replaced it with the same model:
- from: Amazon
- price: $21.35
Still later: turned out to be a loose connection for the old fan so I have a new identical replacement onhand.
A fan speed controller for the input fan to reduce noise. It is a Y-cable that plugs inline between the power source (not the motherboard in this case) and has a knob to turn the speed up and down. Double sided tape mounts it on the rear of the case.
OBSOLETE: I gave up on this and moved the disks to the new curator Supermicro server.
Following the failure of my curator server I relocated its hard drives to 2 external disc arrays attached directly to kate via USB3:
SISUN Tool Free Aluminum USB 3.0 5 bay 3.5 inch SATA Hard Drive Enclosure
price: $169.98 each, free shipping from Amazon.
Performance is better than I expected: 450MB/sec with snapraid sync and scrub.
For each disc I eliminated the 5% space reservation which is the default for ext4; it is not needed on a data disc:
tune2fs -m 0 [device]The disc positions are:
Left array:
label size model serial no speed tera00 4TB WDC WD40EZRX-00SPEB0 WD-WCC4E1875294 5400 rpm Green tera01 4TB TOSHIBA MD04ACA400 15Q3KFG9FSAA 7200 rpm 531 "199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count"; cabling during repair? tera02 4TB WDC WD40EZRX-00SPEB0 WD-WCC4E1907277 5400 rpm Green (empty) tera04 3TB TOSHIBA DT01ACA300 Y36AMP5GS 7200 rpm loud Right array:
label size model serial no speed tera05 4TB WDC WD40EZRX-00SPEB0 WD-WCC4E0632405 5400 rpm Green tera06 4TB WDC WD40EZRX-00SPEB0 WD-WCC4E0987420 5400 rpm Green (empty) parity 4TB WD40EZRZ WD-WCC7K5YC2JFZ 5400 rpm WD Blue parity2 4TB WDC WD40EZRX-00SPEB0 WD-WCC4E1907313 5400 rpm Green History
5/28/2019: replace parity drive.
The TOSHIBA MD04ACA400 drive used for parity had been flakey in mounting for a while, and when it reported I/O errors I replaced it with a WD Blue.
snapraid fix -d parity took 13 hours.
8/29/2019: switch from 10ft to 3ft USB cables
Many errors and flakey behavior with the longer cables.
Previously
I tried this combination but could not get it to work:
price: $425.99 + $29.82 tax, free shipping, from Amazon, shipped from Sans Digital.
Includes two 3-foot cables.
SAS 9207-8e Host Bus Adapter (LSI, now Broadcom).
price: $109.00 + $7.63 tax, free shipping, from Amazon, sold by SCSI4ME.
In May 2021 I added an internal Kingston 128GB SSD to use for temporary storage when copying optical disks. This should be faster and saves wear on the rotating drives.
Disk prep was as for the data disks in curator.
As for the system SSD, this one is just taped to the bottom of the case. Power is chained off the system SSD cable, SATA data is direct to the motherboard.
1 open SATA slot remaining.
Later: in Sept 2022 I removed this SSD and added two 250GB SSD. I used LVM to create a logical volume and striped them. Contention on the SSD has seemed to be a bottleneck; will this help?
- scratch01: Kingston 240GB, new. $21.99 from Amazon.
- scratch02: Samsung 860 EVO 250GB from HVS. SMART Power-on Time: 2621.
Procedure:
Make volume group (does pvcreate automatically):
# vgcreate ScratchGroup /dev/disk/by-partlabel/scratch01 /dev/disk/by-partlabel/scratch02
Make logical volume:
# lvcreate --stripes 2 -l +100%FREE ScratchGroup --name scratch
Make file system:
# mkfs.ext4 -m 0 -T largefile4 -L scratch /dev/ScratchGroup/scratch
fstab, no change:
/dev/disk/by-label/scratch /mnt/scratch ...etc...
Results:
Tests with dd show the striped pair completes in 54% of the time of a lone SSD. I also see less contention when sharing the space.No open SATA slots remaining.
A few days later: scratch02 went bad. I deleted the LVM structures and formatted scratch01 to mount as a standalone volume. No data loss (by luck).
Case
Remove four thumbscrews on the rear and both sides pop off easily.
The front bezel comes off with a pull. The hinges holding this on are the only plastic on the case.
The micro-ATX motherboard mounted at four bolt positions, which is plenty firm. There are two more mounting holes, but I would need spacers to match the case.
The 3 external 5.25" drive slots are in a fixed metal cage, which may make for cooling problems for the 2 turboswap cages and 1 optical drive.
The turboswap cages have 80mm fans on the underside, but there is little space for them to blow into in this arrangement. We may get some hot air out of the rear of the cage.
I mounted the optical drive between the two removable cages, hoping for a greater heat sink if both hard drives are operating at the same time.
Two of the three 5.25" slots have quick release mounts which seem of limited use here. I used bolts at every position possible, on both the right and left.
The front bezel has only a narrow air intake opening.
The internal 3.5" drive cage is removable and I took it out so as to allow less obstruction for the front fan.
There is no space for cable storage behind the motherboard.
The audio sockets in the little I/O port are not labeled. From the front, it is "Headphone" on the left and "Microphone" on the right.
The 140mm fan in front is running at full speed, and although not objectionably noisy, I'll slow it down with a separate controller.
SSD
- The SSD has no mounting facility, but it weighs almost nothing so I taped it to the floor of the case.
Hard drive cages
Power supply
Motherboard
Smoke test
- Booted into Arch Linux the first time, all devices recognized. Confirmed booted in UEFI mode.
Power consumption
Temperature
With the original stock Intel CPU cooler, when idling it was cooler than my i3-2000 system, but at max load running HandBrake it was hotter: about 10C in both cases.
With the Noctua NH-L9i
Noise
A quiet machine, although the front case fan running at full speed was the loudest component. After I added a manual speed controller it can be turned down to be very quiet.
The fanless power supply may not have been necessary.
Appearance
I'm very pleased with the quality of this case. Apart from looking minimalistically elegant, it has a clean design and is well-built. Lightweight aluminum.
After many years with openSuSE I wanted to give Arch Linux a try. I keep hitting their pages when searching for help.
Get the installation live system
Fetch the installation ISO from one of the mirrors at https://www.archlinux.org/download/.
That page has checksums for PGP, MD5 and SHA1. I checked them all to make sure no villain had tampered with the ISO. (I edited the *.md5 and *.sha1 files by hand).
md5sum -c archlinux-2015.11.01-dual.iso.md5
sha1sum -c archlinux-2015.11.01-dual.iso.sha1
gpg --recv-keys 9741E8AC
gpg --verify archlinux-2015.11.01-dual.iso.sig
Instead of burning a CD, I used a USB stick:
dd bs=4M if=archlinux-2015.11.01-dual.iso of=/dev/sdc && sync # VERIFY DEVICE!There is also a netboot method, which I did not try.
Before installation
I followed the detailed Beginner's Guide. I'll give a brief summary of the steps here.
I did an UEFI/GPT/SYSTEMD-BOOT install to the SSD.
Note: have ethernet connected before booting.
Boot the install media
Automatic console login as root.
Start the time-sync daemon:
# timedatectl set-ntp truePrepare the system SSD
Where is the SSD?
# lsblk... says /dev/sda.
Is it partitioned?
# parted /dev/sda print... says not.
Create the partition table and partitions: one for booting and one for everything else:
# parted /dev/sda
(parted) mklabel gpt
(parted) mkpart ESP fat32 1MiB 513MiB
(parted) set 1 boot on
(parted) mkpart primary ext4 513MiB 100%
Verify alignment on the boot partition and exit:
(parted) align-check
(parted) quit
Verify alignment with another utility:
# blockdev --getalignoff /dev/sda1Create the file systems and mount:
# mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/sda1
# mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda2
# mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
# mkdir /mnt/boot
# mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot
Install the base packages
# pacstrap -i /mnt base base-develPrepare the new system
Create fstab:
# genfstab -U /mnt > /mnt/etc/fstabChange root:
# arch-chroot /mnt /bin/bashLocale: edit /etc/locale.gen and uncomment en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8
Run:
# locale-genCreate /etc/locale.conf and add LANG=en_US.UTF-8
Time:
# ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/Chicago /etc/localtime
# hwclock --systohc --utc
Swap
Use a swap file instead of a partition. This is not in the Beginner's guide, I got it from Swap:
# dd if=/dev/zero of=/swapfile bs=1M count=2000 status=progress
(this replaces the wiki's original fallocate -l 2G /swapfile. Linux started complaining about holes in the swap file when created with fallocate)
(Later: increased to bs=8000 to accomodate a rare Handbrake error).
# chmod 600 /swapfile
# mkswap /swapfile
# swapon /swapfile
Edit /etc/fstab to add /swapfile none swap defaults 0 0
Install bootloader
# pacman -S intel-ucode
# bootctl install
Create /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf:
title Arch Linuxlinux /vmlinuz-linuxinitrd /intel-ucode.imginitrd /initramfs-linux.imgoptions root=/dev/sda2 rwEdit /boot/loader/loader.conf to have:
timeout 3default archNetwork
Hostname. Create /etc/hostname and add kate
Edit /etc/hosts and add 127.0.1.1 kate.localdomain kate
Find interface with:
ip linkMake persistent with:
systemctl enable dhcpcd@enp2s0.serviceAdd the MAC address to the router list for assigning fixed IP addresses. Find it with ip link or cat /sys/class/net/DEVICE_NAME/address.
Done
Set passwd and reboot:
passwd
exit (from chroot)
umount -R /mnt (open files? Shutdown will close them)
reboot (remove USB stick before the next boot)
We want to reduce writes to the SSD as much as possible.
Mount with noatime
Edit /etc/fstab to use noatime for the mounts.Enable periodic TRIM
systemctl enable fstrim.service
systemctl enable fstrim.timer
Adjust scheduler
Create /etc/udev/rules.d/60-schedulers.rules and add:
# set deadline scheduler for non-rotating disksACTION=="add|change", KERNEL=="sd[a-z]", ATTR{queue/rotational}=="0", ATTR{queue/scheduler}="deadline"Adjust swappiness
Create /etc/sysctl.d/99-sysctl.conf and add:
vm.swappiness=1Sync busy directories to RAM
Installed profile-sync-daemon and configured it for firefox. See the note in the article on moving the firefox cache directory into the profile tree. (LATER: switched to the palemoon browser and removed caching of firefox).
Installed anything-sync-daemon and configued it to copy .cache/ in the home directory.
This article has techniques for preventing frequent head parking in these drives: Special Consideration for WD Green HDDs.
I did not note all the xorg packages I installed. See the Arch wiki articles for suggestions.
I installed lxde and enabled graphical login with:
systemctl enable lxdm.serviceFonts: added ttf-dejavu fonts.
I won't list all the packages installed or easy config files edited (like /etc/hosts).
Add user
useradd -m wmcclain
passwd wmcclain
Enable sshd daemon
systemctl enable sshd.servicesudo
Run visudo and add:
wmcclain ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALLInstalled getmail to fetch mail from my accounts. On the IMAP servers, all mail is fetched and deleted, and the deleted messages are copied into INBOX.Trash.
A cron job checks the servers every 10 minutes.
A log is written to /dev/shm/getmail.log.
samba
Necessary steps for both thunar and the OPPO player to see the share:
Start and enable nmbd.service as well as smdb.service.
Edit the samba password for a chosen user: pdbedit -a -u wmcclain, and use that to access the share from the client. (This is different than the user's account password).
After upgrade to samba 4.5.0, reenable old security to placate OPPO players:
lanman auth = yesntlm auth = yes raw NTLMv2auth = yesThe share is defined as:
[wem]comment = WEM media filespath = /mnt/queen/home/wmcclain/wempublic = yeswritable = nobrowse list = yesguest ok = yesntp
Install ntp.
Start and enable ntpd.service.
todo: auto on boot, set system clock
allow X11 forwarding over ssh
NOTE: not working yuet.
Edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config:
verify that AllowTcpForwarding and X11UseLocalhost options are set to yes, and that X11DisplayOffset is set to 10 (those are the default values if nothing has been changed, see man sshd_config)
set X11Forwarding to yes
Restart the sshd daemon
xhost +
prevent optical drive tray from automatically closing
Create /etc/sysctl.d/60-cdrom-autoclose.conf and insert dev.cdrom.autoclose = 0.
A large body of submitted software not yet in the official repository. The installation procedure for these packages is different.
Home and search page: AUR Home
Read:
Must have: base-devel installed and sudo configured.
Edit /etc/makepkg.conf and set MAKEFLAGS to -j4 to allow 4 threads.
Example:
Profile-sync-daemon, which manages browser profiles in RAM to save wear on the SSD.
Get the .tar.gz file, save to ~/installs/aur
cd /dev/shm/ # compile in tmpfs, save the SSD
tar zxvf ~/installs/aur/profile-sync-daemon.tar.gz; cd profile-sync-daemon
Inspect the PKGBUILD and .install files for maliciousness.
Build and install (never run as root):
makepkg -sri
The AUR helpers page has supporting utilities. I use cower and burgaur to search for packages, download and build them. They will also show available updates and build those.
Also see:
Update package list and upgrade all packages afterward:
pacman -SyuInstall package only if there is an update:
pacman -S --needed <pkg>Search repository for package:
pacman -Ss <string>List packages that have updates available:
pacman -Qu
I've installed pacserve and will use it on every Arch machine I have in the future, allowing the systems to share the same package downloads.
Use the pacsrv command instead of pacman.
See Full system backup with rsync for the general approach.
Create /usr/local/sbin/backup-sys as:
rsync --info=progress2 -aAXHS --delete --exclude-from=/root/exclude-from-backup.txt / /mnt/$1... where /root/exclude-from-backup.txt is:
/boot//dev//proc//sys//tmp//run//mnt//media//lost+found/swapfile/home/*/.thumbnails//home/*/.cache/mozilla//home/*/.cache/chromium//home/*/.local/share/Trash//home/*/.gvfs//etc/fstab
The system disc is an SSD and I have two hot-pluggable hard drives for work space and backups. The goal is to make the backups bootable so I can switch to them at any time should the SSD fail.
Again, see Full system backup with rsync for the general approach.
Using systemd-boot the only adjustments that need to be made on the backups:
- The default boot entry in /boot/loader/loader.conf and the collection of boot choices in /boot/loader/entries/.
- The file system entries in /etc/fstab.
- Create some optional mount points.
- Create the swap file.
In the example below, king is the system SSD, and the two backup discs are queen and jack. All have the same partition scheme as shown in the installation section above: a small /boot partition (marked bootable) and another for the rest of the disc.
king and queen have already been set up, and we show how to prepare jack.
As a convention I use PARTLABEL names to identify the partitions. This is more readable than UUID and allows easy introduction of replacement discs: none of the system settings need to be changed.
(I think filesystem LABEL might also be used, but PARTLABEL is independent of file system type).
Label the partitions
Spin up jack.
parted /dev/sdb
(parted) name 1 jack-boot
(parted) name 2 jack
(parted) quit
Confirm the names with lsblk -O or blkid.
Copy the boot files
mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/jack
(That's usually where jack's root is mounted, but we'll use it for the boot partition temporarily. We do it just this once).
cp -varp /boot/* /mnt/jack
In /mnt/jack/loader/entries/ the boot files king.conf and queen.conf should be ok as is. Create a new jack.conf file:
title jack: Arch Linuxlinux /vmlinuz-linuxinitrd /intel-ucode.imginitrd /initramfs-linux.imgoptions root=PARTLABEL=jack rwEdit /mnt/jack/loader/loader.conf and change the default so that we have:
timeout 3default jackAt any time, copy /mnt/jack/loader/entries/jack.conf to the /boot/loader/entries/ directories on the other discs.
umount /mnt/jack
Backup the rest of the disc
mount /dev/sdb2 /mnt/jack
backup-sys jack
fstab
The backup procedure does not copy this file, so do it just this once:
cp /etc/fstab /mnt/jack/etcEdit /mnt/jack/etc/fstab and change king to jack for the new system. Add an optional mount point for king. The swapfile should be ok as is. The new contents should include:
PARTLABEL=jack / ext4 rw,noatime,data=ordered 0 1PARTLABEL=jack-boot /boot vfat rw,noatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,errors=remount-ro 0 2/swapfile none swap defaults 0 0PARTLABEL=king /mnt/king ext4 rw,noatime,user,noauto 0 0PARTLABEL=queen /mnt/queen ext4 rw,noatime,user,noauto 0 0Create mount points for the optional drives:
cd /mnt/jack
mkdir -p mnt/king
mkdir -p mnt/queen
swap
When you first boot jack there will be an error about the missing swap file. (We don't back that up). Just create it as we did for the original installation above:
# fallocate -l 2G /swapfile
# chmod 600 /swapfile
# mkswap /swapfile
# swapon /swapfile
What does this get us?
- We can select which (running) drive to boot from by using the BIOS override.
- When the boot menu appears it will contain entries for each of the three discs. We have another chance to boot any of the (running) drives at that time.
2021.03.15:
Foolishly, I shutdown the system during pacman update (or it crashed because of vlc corrupting the gpu) and it would not reboot. Missing image files in /boot.
mkinitcpio would not recreate the images: no profile in /etc/mkinitcpio.d. I tried copying images from another system: no good.
Using a new installation USB as a rescue system I ran pacstrap again:
- mount /dev/disk/by-partlabel/king /mnt
- mount /dev/disk/by-partlabel/king-boot /mnt/boot
- (delete lock in /mnt/var/lib/pacman)
- pacstrap /mnt base linux linux-firmware
Reboot and all well. Firefox complaining about "already running" and deleting the locks did not help, so I restored the whole .mozilla tree from recent backup.
Luckily this procedure did not seem to touch any of the rest of the system configuration.
18-dec-2015: new build
25-dec-2016: replaced older system (montag)
24-may-2017: installed liquid cooling and replaced front input fan
11-jul-2017: replaced failing ASUS optical drive with another of the same model
28-apr-2018: vacuumed radiator in liquid cooler; temps had been creeping up, spiking at 57c for a full load; now at 48-50c. Next time: refresh CPU thermal paste.
27-mar-2019: installed LSI HBA card and attached disc array. (Didn't keep it).
10-jun-2020: replaced optical with new ASUS 16D1HT
7-jan-2021: destroyed ASUS 16D1HT with an exploding disc. Too much high speed spin? Bought a replacement (same model) but did not install it. Using the old ASUS BC-12B1ST which is working well enough.
3-mar-2021: added Scratch space disk.
15-mar-2021: restored system images with pacstrap.
12-sep-2021: I/O error on media work disk "queen". No data loss. Did extra backups and ran mkfs with badblocks r/w scan. 78 hours. Next time: try fsck repair.
SMART long test showed no errors, so I put it back into the system.
19-apr-2022: increased swap file to 8GB to accomodate rare Handbrake error).
10-sep-2022: Expanded Scratch space disk to 2 * 250GB SSD with LVM.
17-sep-2022: the older (Samsung) SSD in scratch space went bad.
25-mar-2023:
- Ancient ASUS BC-12B1ST was failing, replaced it with the ASUS 16D1HT bought in Jan 2021.
- Removed short-lived Samsung SSD that went bad. Discarded.
23-may-2023:
- Read I/O error on disk "queen". Ran "sudo e2fsck -ckpv".
This document was generated on May 27, 2023 at 08:09 CDT with docutils.