SanDisk Ultra PLUS 16 & 32GB @ $10 and $15 (BB)

I learned the hard-enough way, Samsung EVOs write at 20MB/sec while Sandisk Ultra Plus writes at 80MB/sec, although both read at 80MB/sec. Not that EVOs are a total waste, they make great backup storage and even a nice gift to friends and neighbors who have a smart phone or tablet and you've got media content they'd like.

I don't know how long the sale is on at Best Buy, but the 16GB is $9.99 and the 32GB is $14.99.

Those items get pricey when they're not on sale! But twice in the last two months Best Buy has refunded the difference when the price dropped within 14 days, so it's a good trend. Really it makes little devices behave much friendlier than other brands.

I'll go check my pennies :-)

*2nd Edit: Over at Armbian, there's reasonably extensive comparisons between major micro SD-type cards, and it was said that EVO and UltraPlus do random writes at 3MB/sec, meaning they're both as slow in some respects. All I know is, EVO is painfully slow and UltraPlus less obvious bottlenecks.

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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/13/2017 01:22PM by JoeyPogoPlugE02.

Since this post is somewhat disposable, maybe I can ask something:

Pennies extremely tight, I bought a 16GB Sandisk Ultra Plus today and copied my Pogoplug v4 Mobile's old SD card to it. Since that's Ext3, I was wondering if you can change format to Ext4 or if it's advisable?

This was a gift from Gravel Claus and I want to treat it with respect, hence a better SD card now.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/14/2017 08:03PM by JoeyPogoPlugE02.

JoeyPogoPlugE02 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Pennies extremely tight, I bought a 16GB Sandisk Ultra Plus today and copied my Pogoplug v4 Mobile's old SD card to it. Since that's Ext3, I was wondering if you can change format to Ext4 or if it's advisable? This was a gift from Gravel Claus and I want to treat it with respect, hence a better SD card now.
>
I don't think you will have any problem to reformat your SD card with an EXT4 file system. If possible, try to disable journaling option to minimize write cycles.

Joey,

>today and copied my Pogoplug v4 M
> obile's old SD card to it. Since that's Ext3, I
> was wondering if you can change format to Ext4 or
> if it's advisable?

Yes. It is easy to change to Ext4 from Ext3. It is advisable. And do not disable journaling,.

Backup first and then follow the instruction:
https://debian-administration.org/article/643/Migrating_a_live_system_from_ext3_to_ext4_filesystem

-bodhi
===========================
Forum Wiki
bodhi's corner (buy bodhi a beer)

Wow, super cool thanks for checking it out and all that. I went into fstab and changed it to Ext4, but for now am updating everything and probably won't do anything major tonight. HEre's how it looks:

# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
/dev/root      /               ext4    noatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1
tmpfs          /tmp            tmpfs   defaults          0       0
/swapfile1     none            swap     sw               0       0   
/dev/sdb1      /mnt/sdb1       vfat    defaults          0       0

Okay bodhi, halfway down that page you specified it talks about the root boot, so that's where I'm starting with this and got this:

root@debian:~# mount -o remount,ro /
mount: / is busy

Now terribly sure how that works but I'll leave it alone for tonight and be happy it's not hosed LOL
Of course being Windows-centric I mounted (then unmounted) this drive in Mint already and tried to cheat but the Linux partitioning app doesn't convert in place to Ext4.
This is the new stick and the old one is there for backup, so there's not much worry right now. I'll get some sleep, any further helps or blindside prevention is well received you know.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/15/2017 12:15AM by JoeyPogoPlugE02.

root@debian:~# free
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:        121712      86580      35132          0       4160      44520
-/+ buffers/cache:      37900      83812
Swap:      1048572          8    1048564

I've got some homework tomorrow, but that's it I can't stay awake anymore, g' 'night :-)

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/15/2017 01:14AM by JoeyPogoPlugE02.

Joey,

I am not sure where you are. Are you using the new Ext4 stick as rootfs? did you convert it to Ext4 on Linux Mint?

Please summarize the steps you did.

-bodhi
===========================
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/15/2017 03:16PM by bodhi.

Bodhi, for ages in Windows you could convert your FAT32 installation to NTFS, whether in Windows or even in accessed from Partition Magic. So I was only seeing if that option exists for Ext3 > Ext4 in GParted.

So for now I copied the old stick to the new, then updated and upgraded the copy. I stopped up there where you saw the

root@debian:~# mount -o remount,ro /
mount: / is busy

I might take a small break and consider starting from scratch. Still wow, the new SD card is fantastically better than the old drugstore SD card.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/15/2017 11:25PM by JoeyPogoPlugE02.

Is this cool, I hosed it so quick there wasn't time to feel bad.

Bodhi if I haven't offended you beyond recognition with my Tom Foolery, maybe it's best at my skill level to start afresh with Ext4.

What I've never understood is, where to begin because I don't get what's been placed on the NAND (?) I know right now the Pogo4 boots to nothing basically, doesn't even give the router indication something's plugged-in on the usual address-reserved 192.168.178.105

Remember I have a copy which is still on the new SanDisk, and I could live with that for a while if need be.

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Joey,

Sorry I forgot to respond :)

So I was only seeing if that option exists for Ext3 > Ext4 in GParted. 

So for now I copied the old stick to the new, then updated and upgraded the copy.

Are you in Mint at this point? if you are, then the USB stick is mounted as a data drive, not rootfs drive.

root@debian:~# mount -o remount,ro /
mount: / is busy

You can't do the above. / is the rootfs.

So in Mint, just right-click on the drive icon and try eject it (or Safely remove drive). If it is busy then it is till synching. When it can be ejected, then you're done. Take it to the pogoplug and power up.

-bodhi
===========================
Forum Wiki
bodhi's corner (buy bodhi a beer)

And about this,

Quote

What I've never understood is, where to begin because I don't get what's been placed on the NAND (?) I know right now the Pogo4 boots to nothing basically, doesn't even give the router indication something's plugged-in on the usual address-reserved 192.168.178.105

The Pogo V4 NAND has stock kernel stored in its partition,

[    8.232115] Creating 5 MTD partitions on "orion_nand":
[    8.237265] 0x000000000000-0x000000200000 : "u-boot"      --- This is our new u-boot
[    8.244149] 0x000000200000-0x000000500000 : "uImage"    --- This is stock kernel image 1
[    8.250934] 0x000000500000-0x000000800000 : "uImage2"  --  This is stock kernel image 2 
[    8.257891] 0x000000800000-0x000001000000 : "failsafe"    --  We don't care about the rest from here.
[    8.265035] 0x000001000000-0x000008000000 : "rescue"

Becasue the way the default u-boot envs are set up right now, it will only try to boot USB, SD card, or SATA. When it can't find any of these devices to load the kernel, it will do nothing.

If we had a set up to boot stock kernel (uImage) in the default envs, then it would have tried that. But there was no setup.

-bodhi
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Great stuff, I'm still picking this all up, thanks.

One thing, when I copy a USB stick I've been used to using a Windows app called Partition Magic, which has a copy mode that's bulletproof, never lets me down. From there I booted into a Mint USB stick and put the microSD card into an adapter to USB.

I see the namesake for this topic went up 25% in price this week starting a few minutes ago LOL

Well bodhi that'll teach me a lesson to copy an 8GB microSD card to 16GB and use GParted to expand it to the full 16GB and then hose the 8 GB.

I'll take a breather and assess whats next, but hey bodhi just to change the subject, what's been your joy lately or area of happy interest?

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Joey,

> One thing, when I copy a USB stick I've been used
> to using a Windows app called Partition Magic, whi
> ch has a copy mode that's bulletproof, never lets
> me down. From there I booted into a Mint USB stick
> and put the microSD card into an adapter to USB.

Partition Magic is a good tool (been there). But try to use Mint for all your format, paritioning.

> I'll take a breather and assess whats next, but he
> y bodhi just to change the subject, what's been yo
> ur joy lately or area of happy interest?

Life ain't bad :)

-bodhi
===========================
Forum Wiki
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bodhi Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> Partition Magic is a good tool (been there). But t
> ry to use Mint for all your format, paritioning.
>

Good advice and I installed new Mint (XFCE) on a salvaged 2.5" hard drive. On the Thin Client I'm typing on, I can power off, then swap hard drives quick and hopefully have Linux options for disk management and overall groovy'ness. I didn't enable Logical Disk Management which is stated you can shrink the volume or take snapshots. Is that good to enable or nah?
>
> Life ain't bad :)

Right on! This is going to be difficult for my skill level but I'll attempt this once again soon. Hey you're not saying I can actually format with data in place are you? That would be pretty easy if that options exists, but Mint isn't root.

Mosquitoes are out in full force here in the upper Great Lakes region. I hope they like the taste of my blood pressure meds LOL Maybe they'll chill out a little.

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@Joey: TBH, I don't know if this is a good deal or not, but just wanted to share. Currently, my local Fry's Electronics store is offering this Unirex 32GB microSDHC Class 10 with Speed Upto 50MB/s $19.99 - $11.99 (promo code: 974075) = $8 with an in-store pick up.

Joey,

> y you're not saying I can actually format with dat
> a in place are you? That would be pretty easy if t
> hat options exists, but Mint isn't root.

You could migrate a live rootfs to Ext4. But before doing that, either back up rootfs first, or make a clone and migrate the clone.

-bodhi
===========================
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bodhi's corner (buy bodhi a beer)

+1

bodhi Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Joey,
>
> > y you're not saying I can actually format with d
> at
> > a in place are you? That would be pretty easy if
> t
> > hat options exists, but Mint isn't root.
>
> You could migrate a live rootfs to Ext4. But befor
> e doing that, either back up rootfs first, or make
> a clone and migrate the clone.

Joey,

> Right on! This is going to be difficult for my ski
> ll level but I'll attempt this once again soon. He
> y you're not saying I can actually format with dat
> a in place are you? That would be pretty easy if t
> hat options exists, but Mint isn't root.

So how did it go with the Ext4 convesion?

-bodhi
===========================
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bodhi Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> So how did it go with the Ext4 convesion?

Knock on wood I'll get prepped today and try this tonight. I'll go with two spares in case of trouble.

But like you said, this is good, the RootFS instructions halfway down the page, but this time we're plugging the SD card in Mint and running the command prompts from there (and with sd card known partitions but unmounted), right?

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Wow, sometimes I feel jinxed, this is one. I powered off, switched SATAs, booted Mint, and there's no GParted! It sure was there when I installed Mint the other day! Nowhere to be found, nothing to do with Partition or anything like that.

I've got to find a use for this bad luck!

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Joey,

> I've got to find a use for this bad luck!

:))

In Mint, it is Menu --> Administration --> GParted.

And when you do this, the rootfs is offline (i.e. not live). So you can do anything. Including wipe out and create a brand new Ext4 partition.

When we say live rootfs, we meant while the Pogoplug is running, and we want to convert it to Ext4. This is possible, but back it up first. Or clone it using Mint and then boot the Pogoplug with the clone, and then convert this clone to Ext4.

-bodhi
===========================
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bodhi Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Joey,
>
> > I've got to find a use for this bad luck!
>
> :))
>
> In Mint, it is Menu --> Administration --> GParted
> .
>
> And when you do this, the rootfs is offline (i.e.
> not live). So you can do anything. Including wipe
> out and create a brand new Ext4 partition.
>
> When we say live rootfs, we meant while the Pogopl
> ug is running, and we want to convert it to Ext4.
> This is possible, but back it up first. Or clone i
> t using Mint and then boot the Pogoplug with the c
> lone, and then convert this clone to Ext4.

Seems like GParted had uninstalled itself, because it wasn't anywhere to be found. So it tried to re-install it using software manager, which confirmed it wasn't installed (!) but it had a fetching error. But my Mint is also at 640x480 resolution and I'm guessing that's a requirement needed higher.

Okay, put it this way: is it possible, I format a drive with Ext4, copy over everything from the ext3 and it'll like it?

Okay Pt 2: I've got two of the Pogoplug/Debian OSs, so I'll try later tonight bypassing Mint and using puTTY on the Thin Client.

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> Okay, put it this way: is it possible, I format
> a drive with Ext4, copy over everything from the e
> xt3 and it'll like it?

Yes. But you will need to do it as root in command line terminal. Whether in PC Mint or in Pogoplug Debian, you must be root. You need 2 USB drives. The Ext3 is a copy of the rootfs. The Ext4 is the new drive.

>
> Okay Pt 2: I've got two of the Pogoplug/Debian OSs
> , so I'll try later tonight bypassing Mint and usi
> ng puTTY on the Thin Client.

It's fine doing this while the Pogoplug is aleady running. Plug in the Ext3 (with rootfs on it) and the Ext4 (nothing on it) drives . And I'll walk you through the commands.

-bodhi
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HOLD IT! I messed up, didn't even read your walkthrough offer correctly.

Here' what I wrote before that. No, my Mint won't work so thre goes easy Ext4 formatting and that's one format Partition Magic is no good at. Otherwise it's plugged in and ready to go, here's what I wrote before:

I'm at a place where I have enough information to formulate actual questions (that's progress in my world!)

Here goes. At that webpage, THEY SAY:

Let us assume that root partition is /dev/sda1, so your /etc/fstab should look something like this.

/dev/sda1 / ext4 defaults 0 1

But here's my fstab, with just the Ext3 number changed but nothing else done:

# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
/dev/root      /               ext4    noatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1
tmpfs          /tmp            tmpfs   defaults          0       0
/swapfile1     none            swap     sw               0       0   
/dev/sdb1      /mnt/sdb1       vfat    defaults          0       0

That's what I don't understand, is:
1. what their commands will be changed to when (this is them and their example)

fsck.ext3 -pf /dev/sda1

When I'm running that what will I change?

And
2. When I run their code in the meantime, is this right and I dunno... ?

root@debian:~# mount -o remount,ro /
mount: / is busy

Going slow here, but those two snags have me lost.

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Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 06/23/2017 06:27PM by JoeyPogoPlugE02.

Joey,

Ignore that website for now. We are not converting ext3 to ext4 any more. We are going to copy the rootfs from the Ext3 drive to a new Ext4 drive.

Later, when you want to see the conversion of a running system, then we'll go back to this subject.

-bodhi
===========================
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So to proceed.

Do you have the Pogoplug running? and you have a clone of the Pogoplug rootfs drive in another Ext3 drive?

-bodhi
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Yes actually! I'll insert 2nd microSD into USB adapter and away we go...

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Bodhi maybe this is a good time to open a new topic and start fresh. All I've done to previous Debian Pogo4 Mobile OS is change the text number Ext4 in fstab.
Your call but this does sound cleaner already :-))))))

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JoeyPogoPlugE02 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Bodhi maybe this is a good time to open a new topi
> c and start fresh. All I've done to previous Debia
> n Pogo4 Mobile OS is change the text number Ext4 i
> n fstab.
> Your call but this does sound cleaner already :-))
> ))))

OK! Go ahead and create a new topic : "Migrating Debian rootfs from Ext3 to Ext4 file system".

-bodhi
===========================
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bodhi Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> JoeyPogoPlugE02 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Bodhi maybe this is a good time to open a new to
> pi
> > c and start fresh. All I've done to previous Deb
> ia
> > n Pogo4 Mobile OS is change the text number Ext4
> i
> > n fstab.
> > Your call but this does sound cleaner already :-
> ))
> > ))))
>
> OK! Go ahead and create a new topic : "Migrating
> Debian rootfs from Ext3 to Ext4 file system".


All set!
And one last note, this topic was about microSD cards on sale. Well the price went back up! (sound effect: wah wah horn) LOL

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