libera/#maemo/ Saturday, 2020-02-01

brolin_empeyhttps://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-FK1lqE9mphI/XjUZA0c5khI/AAAAAAAAD_8/89lRdLh5QhoHvnJQKqlTZnJk-4zc716AACK8BGAsYHg/s0/2020-01-31.jpg07:26
brolin_empeyThe drive cases finally arrived at my office today, literally one month since I ordered them from DealExtreme.  I still need to try using one of them.  It looks like I was correct that the circuit board uses screws instead of retaining clips to hold the mSATA card/drive in place.  Too bad but I guess I should not complain for the price I paid.07:27
brolin_empeyBleh, it uses screws to hold the circuit board in the plastic case too and the mSATA drive is not visible through the case so the label on the mSATA drive is not visible without removing the screws to open the case.  Seems like a bad design but I could only buy one or maybe two of the apparently better designed StarTech drive cases for what I paid for ten of these cheap drive cases from Asia.07:43
brolin_empeyApparently getting a Dell PowerEdge 2950 server computer to boot from a SATA SSD that is a clone of the SATA HDD from which the same computer in the same configuration booted without a problem is much easier said than done.  Why does the computer not just automatically boot from the new drive, which is a clone of the old drive?  Maybe this behaviour is normal for actual server computer hardware but it seems counterintuitive for desktop/notebook computer08:25
brolin_empeyhardware.  We should have gotten a normal desktop computer, which would have been much quieter and would have firmware that behaves normally but this computer was bought in 2014 or earlier and it was not my choice to buy it.08:25
brolin_empeyI lost the message I wrote because I accidentally pressed Ctrl+Q (Quit) instead of Ctrl+A (Select All).  I got the computer to boot from the SATA SSD but only if the RAID controller is enabled and I have to press a key before the computer will boot from the SATA SSD.  The RAID controller should be disabled because this computer has only ever had one HDD or SSD installed at once but I cannot get the computer to boot from the SATA SSD unless the RAID09:25
brolin_empeycontroller is enabled.  I have spent way too much time on this crap by now, will leave the “fun” for another day.09:25
brolin_empeys/one HDD/one physical HDD/09:27
brolin_empeyThe “rotational” pseudofile for sda in sysfs is 1 instead of 0 even though this computer now has only an SSD, not an HDD. (fail)09:30
MaxdamantusWhen you are trying to do it without having it in RAID mode, do you at least see the device in the boot order menu?10:31
Maxdamantusafaik BIOSes tend to have the settings based around SATA slots, so if you put it in a different slot, it's subject to different boot settings.10:32
brolin_empeyI do not know if this computer was even designed for the use case of having only a single physical HDD or SSD without using RAID because this computer is a rackmount server with hot-pluggable 2.5-inch HDD/SSD bays on the front, not a regular desktop computer.10:36
MaxdamantusI would imagine it should support non-RAID mode regardless.10:37
Maxdamantusbut the boot sequence options will almost certainly involve different configuration depending on whether it's in RAID mode.10:37
Maxdamantusthat is, you can probably enable/disable individual drives from being booted when in non-RAID mode, but in RAID mode, it will presumably show a separate device which could be enabled/disabled as a boot device.10:38
MaxdamantusThere should be some menu where you set boot priority. You should see if you can see the SSD in that menu.10:39
MaxdamantusI would personally be wary of using the "RAID" functionality provided by a motherboard, even if it's only over one drive.10:40
Maxdamantussince unless you're using some dedicaded RAID card that has an NVRAM or backup battery solution for power loss, you're certainly going to be subject to write hole issues if you're using two drives.10:41
Maxdamantusand since you have that lack of consistency for two drives, I would wonder if people really expect to care when they're using one drive in RAID mode.10:42
brolin_empeyI saw something about “ATA mode” but do not know what that means in this context, maybe PATA emulation mode versus AHCI for the SATA host controller?  The only way I was able to get the computer to boot from the SATA SSD was to use the setup program for the host controller/RAID controller to create some type of virtual drive from the single physical drive, apparently using RAID 0 (is that striping?) but then I still have to press a key after the firmware10:45
brolin_empey stops while booting to get the computer to boot from the SATA SSD.  I have little experience with working on site with actual server computers as opposed to desktop/notebook computers and remotely accessing an actual server computer in a data centre in a different metropolitan area.10:45
MaxdamantusRAID0 is striping, yes.10:46
Maxdamantusalso, presumably when you're using the RAID mode, you don't get regular access to SMART on the drive.10:47
brolin_empeyI wonder if the RAID controller is a physical device, such as a plug-in card, that I can remove since I do not want to use RAID.  I think the RAID controller is integrated on the motherboard because the motherboard firmware setup program has an option for whether the RAID controller should be enabled.  If I disable the RAID controller then I cannot get the computer to boot from the SATA SSD but the computer seems to have noticed that I replaced the SATA HDD10:56
brolin_empeywith a SATA SSD even though the new drive is a clone of the old drive.  I guess I should search the Internet for how to use the PowerEdge 2950 with a single physical HDD/SSD without using RAID but I expected that the computer would just boot unattended after replacing the drive so I already had to connect a video monitor and keyboard just to see why the computer was not available on the network because usually this computer is only accessed over the network10:56
brolin_empeyafter the OS is running from the HDD or SSD.10:56
brolin_empeyWow, with WineVDM on my office computer, I actually have the Comet Busters New Executable file running on Windows 10 for x86-64!  The WavMix16 DLL is not correctly installed so Comet Busters seems to be using PC speaker sound effects that are emulated using the normal “sound card” (actually just an IC on the motherboard) but these simple sound effects seem to have stopped working after playing the game for a while.11:40
brolin_empeyApparently WineVDM is sufficiently advanced technology.11:42
brolin_empeyApparently it works with the “sound card” too but I always reach game over on level 2.13:04
brolin_empeyI wonder if the network multiplayer works with Windows 7 for x86-64 on another computer in my office.13:06

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