QWORQS

So i need a few SSDs for a certain project that i will be starting in a few months, but before i shell some money into SSDs while i have so many SSDs and USB flash drives, I want to try and replace the SATA SSDs with USB flash sticks and see how it goes, if all goes well, i will be using the FLASH sticks in place of the SSDs and take the SSDs into my new project.

What i will be testing later on is

1- Speed

2- Reliability (They will write once read millions of times on this MySql server).

But first, i took out all my flash sticks, and decided to run speed tests on them (With the DD command).

Most of the candidate sticks are USB3, but one of the host machines does not have USB3 ports, so i will test every stick on USB2 and USB3 before i use them.

So, basically, the test results are as follows. Even when the data transfer rate does not exceed the USB2 specification, the USB 3 sticks function better on a USB port.

Please note that USB flash disks do not have wear leveling functionality, they are only for that tables that are not written into often (but read many times)

I will be installing the USB 3 drives on the production machines now and I will report any failures caused by the USB flash disks.

For SD cards, i used the USB reader (FOR MRG1 31123-004. A001F 121412 5V CHINA)

	Short Name	Size	Speed Read USB 2	Speed Write USB2	Speed Read USB 3	Speed Write USB3
Lexar Korea – LJDS33-64G 100-104 B 33800-64GBA 1813SV:05dc P:a833	S33 64G	64G	35.17	19.30	U3 106.89	U3 26.11
Lexar OrangeV:05dc P:a205		32G	32.60	19.10	U3 43.37	U3 24.55
Lexar 32GB Class 10 8296952A SD card with our card readercard reader V:05e3 P:0736		32G	17.48	9.98	SD 18.85	SD 11.38
V:05dc P:a205		16G	32.60	15.47	U3 43.39	U3 17.27
SanDisk 16GB Cruzer Blade V:0781 P:5567		16G	20.68	6.77	21.53	7.58
Lexar (Orange) V:05dc P:a833		8G			U3 93.07	U3 8.99
Lexar (Blue) V:05dc P:a205		8G	32.60	10.84	U3 42.41	U3 10.99
Lexar S70 V:05dc P:a202			17.90	5.73	17.97	5.23
Old lexar V:05dc P:c75a (Stick 142)		8G	20.37	4.53	21.11	4.69
Sony 8GB Class 10 cardcard reader		8G	18.73	7.57	19.23	7.30

 

I would like to employ multiple connections to download a file from my server on the internet, the best way to do that is to split the file into 5GB chunks…

In linux, to split a file, i don’t need to decompress it then re-compress it in chunks, the easiest way is to use this command

split -b 5120MB file_to_split.bin

If you want the split parts to have a numeric suffix for example, try this, pay attention to the dot at the end which the numeric suffix will follow

split -d -b 9000m –suffix-length 3 myfile.zip myfile.zip.

The result to the above would be

myfile.zip.000 myfile.zip.001 myfile.zip.002 etc…

That’s it, happy downloading

Now, to put it back together (Assuming your system orders them correctly by name ;))

cat file_to_split.bin.* > file_to_split.bin

If it does not or your dont want to take any chances,

cat file_to_split.bin.000 file_to_split.bin.001 file_to_split.bin.003 > file_to_split.bin

To combine files split up with linux split on windows, you can use the copy command to concatenate them such as

copy /b xaa + xab + xac + xad + xae + xaf + xag + xah + xai resulting.tar.bzip2

I have a Huawei E1752 Dongle from Orange Jordan (Formerly known as Mobilecom) that will only connect to the Orange Jordan network, the name E1752 is just a variant of E1750.

At first, i thought unlocking those required flashing new firmware, turns out i was wrong, this one in particular, all you need to do is enter the unlock code !

So i made sure it was unlocked on more than 1 computer, and then i made sure it was unlocked on more than one other service provider (i tried SIM cards from both umniah and zain)

To unlock the card, all you ever need to do is enter the unlock code ONCE and the dongle is permanently unlocked, What you need after that is to make sure you use the official Huawei software to connect it (unless you are connecting on Linux), you should be able to connect the dongle using any software for Windows that supports this, i chose to use the official “Huawei mobile partner) software, which is the software for this dongle before it gets modified by telcos.

What happened was this, at first, i tried to connect with mobile partener, and it asked me for an unlock code.

Then i went to http://a-zgsm.com/freecode/huawei/submit/ and entered the IMEI code printed on the back of the dongle, and that was it, it was unlocked, permanently ! on any computer that has never seen this dongle before.

 

Things i notices
I unlocked 2 of those, and they both share the starting part of the IMEI code (35463904) then the remaining part is different for both dongles

The other computer i tested on could not find drivers for the thing, so i downloaded some drivers, I will post them here for you to download them whenever i have the time and i make sure it wont be a copyright issue.

I downloaded some software from Huawei’s website thinking it was the new version of mobile partner, something about windows 8.1, ran it on windows 7, and the software claimed to have updated my modem or modified it, but that is not relevant to the unlocking because i did not run this on the second USB dongle that i unlocked.

Anyways, if you have any questions, Let me know and i will certainly share my thoughts.

Being a linux super user / server administrator for many many years, i still use windows for my work / personal use, working with putty all the time to access the linx machines.

So just in order to drop the laptop, and replace it with a flash stick in my pocket, and maybe sometimes an external hard drive (when i am dealing with big files), I have decide to drop windows all together, in favor of a linux installation on a flash stick in my pocket.

Then, i can use the work PC, and the home PC, and my laptop anywhere without having multiple installations of the same thing.

Because my computer has data aging back to 2001 that i sometimes need or use etc… I will probably be keeping my windows installation in my laptop even when i boot it from a flash stick with Debian Linux on it.

But for this ambitious project, i have to compile a list of programs that replace my everyday use programs, i am not talking adobe premier here, i am talking more like adobe photoshop. and something to replace adobe dreamweaver.

To do this, i will use a USB3 64GB flash stick, and dedicate 32GBs to a FAT/NTFS system suitable for use on any windows PC, and a bootable EXT4 (has to be the second one because windows only sees the first partition on flash sticks) that boots debian wheezy. I have left a post somewhere on this blog on how to do that that i will link from here very soon.

So, here is a list of things i use every day, and candidates for linux, I will keep growing this list as i go because i think it is very essential

	Windows	Linux
I use it for all my image processing needs	Adobe Photoshop	The Gimp
I might use it for documents i get by email etc…	Microsoft office	One of the 2 popular office suites for Linux.
I use dreamweaver for everything, All the formatted documents i create for myself or to send to others are either HTML or PDF, plain text documents are the ones i use most of the time, but that comes with vanilla debian	Adobe dramweaver	Quanta Plus, Aptana, KompoZer, BlueGriffon
Web browser	Firefox	Whatever name the chose for Firefox
	WinSCP
	FileZilla
	VMWARE workstation	VMWARE workstation
	Windows Network	Samba

 

So here are the quick steps

apt-get install ssh openssh-server fail2ban

apt-get install php5-cli whois php5-mysql mysql-client php5-curl php5-mcrypt apache2 php5 openssl wget ssl-cert php5-imagick php5-gd dnsutils
apt-get install apache2 php5 php5-common php5-mysql php5-xmlrpc php5-cgi php5-curl php5-gd php5-cli php5-dev php5-imap php5-mcrypt

apt-get install rsyslog iptraf

For the PECL
apt-get install apache2-threaded-dev php5-dev php-pear make


For the pecl_http
apt-get install zlib1g zlib1g-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev libpcre3-dev php5-curl libevent-dev


pecl install raphf
pecl install propro
pecl install http://pecl.php.net/get/pecl_http-1.7.6.tgz


Then, create the following file in the php config directory with the following contents

/etc/php5/conf.d/http.ini

extension=raphf.so
extension=propro.so
extension=http.so

Since i keep this blog for my own records, i could not find the post about installing APC.

So, here are the quick steps since i don’t have enough time today to explain the whole installation

1- Install the tools
apt-get install apache2-threaded-dev php5-dev php-pear make
pecl install apc
Add the file /etc/php5/conf.d/apc.ini with the contents extension=apc.so (And any other relevant settings)
vi /etc/sysctl.conf Add the line kernel.shmmax = 67108864 (or whatever space you need)

While trying to answer a friend’s question who just messaged me on facebook today about this very matter, i wanted to see if anyone has any idea i missed on this matter, visiting this thread on stack overflow i found the classic debate, here is my take on that classic debate that i stood by for many years (and I’m usually not a stubborn person)

So here is the state of affairs.

1- Camp 1: learn C first, it will help you when you learn C++ and you will be a better C++ programmer

2- Camp 2: You carry too many methods that are bad practices in C++

Well, here is the thing, the course of action i recommend is the following, I also explain exactly why so that if it does not apply to you, you can infer your own judgment

The way I think of it is in terms of how much time learning will take and what you end up with

Even though C is certainly not a prerequisite to C++, and with practice, Someone who started with C++ can be as efficient a C++ programmer as one who started with C, the truth of the matter is that C is ALMOST a subset of C++, there are few minor differences that make some C code not valid for a C++ compiler, but they can be summed up in a page or so.

So let’s get started composing the logic on whether you should learn C before C++ or not.

Objective 1: C will never be of any use to me, i have an assignment in C++ and that is all i care about, getting that assignment over and done with, in this case i recommend starting with C++.
Objective 2: I want to learn C++ so that i can make software.

Assuming you have objective #2

So, C is a small language, learning it from a good book can be around a 230 page read (I recommend Kernighan- Ritchie. The C programming language), once you finish with C, you can train on the basic concepts that you will need plenty in C++, the building blocks inside objects/classes of C++ are technically written in C.

At this stage (stage 1 of 2) Once you know C, C is under your belt, this is a great language for embedded devices, for example a router has a few kilobytes left for you after linux is installed on it’s 4MB of memory, you can’t fit the C++ library in there, C is the tool you need here (with much smaller libraries), a C++ developer will not wrap his head easily around what subset of C++ he/she is allowed to use, but if you know C, you are already productive after the first 230 pages, you can start doing serious things at this stage.

Then, the upgrade to C++, from a time perspective is a simple one, one thing to take care about is to always remember that you need to focus on Object oriented, when i made the switch to C++ many years ago, i paid plenty of attention to the concept of OO, and in no time, i found myself using it professionally when writing in C++, and not using it at all when writing in C, so the case of sloppy programming in C++ for those coming from C is not a big deal, nor has to apply to you, with very little effort you can get over your C habits, you just need to stay aware that you want to use OO.

From my deep understanding of both languages, 90% of what you learn in C is also part of what you will have to learn in C++, so you will not be wasting any time, reading a C++ book when you come from C is much much faster, so my recommendation is that you learn C first. this route will give you the most bang for your time.

I even recommend living in C for a year or so before you make that magical jump to C++. most of Linux’s important software packages are for example written in C not C++, so having good command of C first can be very beneficial.

The problem with DD is that it copies the whole disk, In reality, the disk could have 10GBs but that dump file has to be of the disk size, lets say 100GBs

So, how do we get a dump file that is only around 10GBs in size.

The answer is simple. Compressing a zero fill file is very efficient (almost nothing).

So, frst we create a zero fill file. with the following command, i recommend you stop the fill while there is still a bit of space on the disk especially if the disk has a database running that could need to insert.. so stop the running fill with ctrl+c before you actually fill the whole disk

cat /dev/zero > zero3.fill;sync;sleep 1;sync;

At this point, you can either delete the zero.fill file or not, It will not make a difference in the dump size, deleting is recommended, but it wont make much of a difference.

Notes
sync flushed any remaining buffer in memory to the hard drive
If the process stops for any reason, keep the file already written and make a second one and a third and whatever it takes, do not delete the existing one, just make sure almost all of your disk’s free space is occupied by zero fill files.

Now, to DD and compression on the fly (So that you won’t need much space on the target drive)

If you want to monitor the dump, you can use pv

dd if=/dev/sdb | pv -s SIZEOFDRIVEINBYTES | pigz --fast > /targetdrive/diskimage.img.gz

Or if you like, you can use parallel BZIP2 like so, in this example this is a 2TB hard drive

dd if=/dev/sda | pv -s 2000398934016 | pbzip2 --best > /somefolder/thefile.img.bz2

without the monitoring

dd if=/dev/sdb | pigz --fast > /targetdrive/diskimage.img.gz

Now, to dump this image back to a hard drive

Note that using pigz for the decompression in this situation is not recommended, somthing along the lines of this

DO NOT USE this one, use the one with gunzip

pigz -d /hds/www/vzhost.img.gz | pv -s SIZEOFIMAGEINBYTES | dd of=/dev/sdd

Will work, but it will decompress the file in place before sending it through the pipe, so the recommended way to do it on the fly is with gunzip, this is also true because there are no benefits from parallel gzip while decompressing

gunzip -c /hds/www/vzhost.img.gz | pv -s SIZEOFIMAGEINBYTES | dd of=/dev/sdb

Or

pigz -d /hds/www/vzhost.img.gz | dd of=/dev/sdd

My records
The following are irrelevant to you, this is strictly for my records

mount -t ext4 /dev/sdb1 /hds

dd if=/dev/sdc | pv -s 1610612736000 | pigz --fast > /hds/www/vzhost.img.gz

One that covers doing for part of a disk

Assume i want to copy the first 120GB of a large drive where my windows partition lives, I want it compressed and i want the free space cleared

first, in windows use SDELETE to zero empty space

sdelete -z c:

Now, mount the disk on a linux partition

dd if=/dev/sdb bs=512 count=235000000 | pigz --fast > /hds/usb1/diskimage.img.gz
dd if=/dev/sdb bs=512 count=235000000 | pbzip2 > /hds/usb1/diskimage.img.gz

If it is advanced format, you would probably do
dd if=/dev/sdb of=/hds/usb1/firstpartofdisk.img bs=4096 count=29000000

or something like that

Now, if we have a disk image with the extension (.bin.gz) and we want to extract it to a different directory, we can pipe it as follows

gunzip -c /pathto/my_disk.bin.gz > /targetdir/my_disk.bin

Here is the theory behind what we are doing

1- Fill all empty space with zeros, you can do that by writing a gigantic file full of zeros to fille up all empty space then crash when no space is left to put the file

cat /dev/zero > zero.fill;sync;sleep 1;sync;

Delete the file we just made, zeros are left behind

rm -f zero.fill

Shut down the VM, and go to the windows host running the vmware workstation

Navigate to the directory where the .vmdk files are located.

In my case, i was switching to the openwrt from dd-wrt.

I got my netgear WNDR3700 V3 (which is broadcom not atherios) used from ebay, Switching from dd-wrt to openwrt

First of all, there is a bug in the dd-wrt 21061 that makes it not possible to use SSH, so i logged in with telnet

Now,

wget http://theplacewhereyouputthefile/filename.bin (the original firmware is .chk not .bin)

Then

mtd -e linux -r write /tmp/x.bin linux

And the router showed things like

Unlocking Linux …

Erasing Linux

Writing from x.bin to Linux … [e]
Writing from x.bin to Linux … [w]

Then, connection to the host was lost

Then the router was bricked

I did get ping replies from the router, but that did not mean it is working

So, my next thing to do was this, the router booted itself into recovery mode, so i got the original firmware.

tftp -i 192.168.1.1 put x.chk

Transfer successful: 7258170 bytes in 29 second(s), 250281 bytes/s

Where X is simply the factory firmware .chk file, now leave the router for more than 5 minutes while it digests the update, then use the web interface to update to the openwrt chk file