A Couple Quick Linux Questions

[TonyTheTiger]

Hi, Everyone.

 

I have another couple of quick(ish) linux questions. I recently received a Samsung 5T drive from Amazon and proceeded to preclear it; with the intendtion of it being my new parity drive. It crashed. Trying to re-preclear it didn't work because it wasn't "assignable" (even with preclear_disk.sh -l). I ended up swapping it with a disk out of my desktop, using GParted to Create a Partion Table and a Partition (my desktop has a copy of Manjaro on it), adding it back to the unRaid server, and re-running preclear. Its currently spinning happily along. Now the nOOb questions:

1. Couldn't I have used Slackware's (or some other) package manager/tool to install GParted (or any other common Linux program) onto unRaid?

2. Would I have been able to install and use preclear on the Manjaro (Arch fork) desktop, or any other Linux system for that matter?

 

I don't mind a bit of adventure, but randomly running commands in a linux terminal is a little off the mark.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

 

 

[itimpi]

Portioning a disk is not needed before running pre-clear (in fact pre-clear will wipe out the current partitioning).  You should have been able to just plug in the new 5TB drive.  If it was not being seen then either it was not plugged in correctly or there is a problem with the drive.

[gundamguy]

Hi, Everyone.

 

I have another couple of quick(ish) linux questions. I recently received a Samsung 5T drive from Amazon and proceeded to preclear it; with the intendtion of it being my new parity drive. It crashed. Trying to re-preclear it didn't work because it wasn't "assignable" (even with preclear_disk.sh -l). I ended up swapping it with a disk out of my desktop, using GParted to Create a Partion Table and a Partition (my desktop has a copy of Manjaro on it), adding it back to the unRaid server, and re-running preclear. Its currently spinning happily along. Now the nOOb questions:

1. Couldn't I have used Slackware's (or some other) package manager/tool to install GParted (or any other common Linux program) onto unRaid?

2. Would I have been able to install and use preclear on the Manjaro (Arch fork) desktop, or any other Linux system for that matter?

 

I don't mind a bit of adventure, but randomly running commands in a linux terminal is a little off the mark.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

1) unRAID doesn't come with a package manager installed. This is partially to protect people from themselves I imagine. You can install packages but it's a more manual process of finding the proper package and dropping it into the proper folder (sorry don't know this off the top of my head, but I think it's /boot/packages) to be installed upon boot.

2) I think you could do this. I've not tried it but in theory it should work. In fact now that I'm nearly filled all my drive bays, I'd love to know the answer to this as well. Having an external pre-clear tool (perhaps powered by a raspberry pi... though it would be super slow due to the lack of SATA) could be nice. 

 

The larger issue here is I don't know that I would trust a disk that crashes during a pre-clear. I think you should be very careful to verify that your disk is in good shape before adding it to the array, pay close attention to the smart reports that the pre-clear runs before and after. 

[trurl]

Hi, Everyone.

 

I have another couple of quick(ish) linux questions. I recently received a Samsung 5T drive from Amazon and proceeded to preclear it; with the intendtion of it being my new parity drive. It crashed. Trying to re-preclear it didn't work because it wasn't "assignable" (even with preclear_disk.sh -l). I ended up swapping it with a disk out of my desktop, using GParted to Create a Partion Table and a Partition (my desktop has a copy of Manjaro on it), adding it back to the unRaid server, and re-running preclear. Its currently spinning happily along. Now the nOOb questions:

1. Couldn't I have used Slackware's (or some other) package manager/tool to install GParted (or any other common Linux program) onto unRaid?

2. Would I have been able to install and use preclear on the Manjaro (Arch fork) desktop, or any other Linux system for that matter?

 

I don't mind a bit of adventure, but randomly running commands in a linux terminal is a little off the mark.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

1) unRAID doesn't come with a package manager installed. This is partially to protect people from themselves I imagine. You can install packages but it's a more manual process of finding the proper package and dropping it into the proper folder (sorry don't know this off the top of my head, but I think it's /boot/packages) to be installed upon boot.

2) I think you could do this. I've not tried it but in theory it should work. In fact now that I'm nearly filled all my drive bays, I'd love to know the answer to this as well. Having an external pre-clear tool (perhaps powered by a raspberry pi... though it would be super slow due to the lack of SATA) could be nice. 

 

The larger issue here is I don't know that I would trust a disk that crashes during a pre-clear. I think you should be very careful to verify that your disk is in good shape before adding it to the array, pay close attention to the smart reports that the pre-clear runs before and after.

1) Not relevant since as itimpi said, partitioning is pointless before preclear. But OT, the correct answer to where you can put packages to have them automatically installed on boot is /boot/extra. If you have things in /boot/packages, then something else is installing them for you, such as plugins or unMenu.

 

2) You can run preclear on any machine you can boot unRAID on. Don't even need a license. Just make a flash with unRAID on it, put preclear script on there, and boot it up. I would advise disconnecting any drives you don't intend to preclear so you don't have an accident.

[TonyTheTiger]

Thanks everyone for commenting.

 

 

I completely agree with itimpi.

 

 

Partitioning isn't needed. I don't usually partition as preclear will wipe it all clear. The crash happened 35% into "Copying zeros to the remainder of the disk to clear it". I apparently needed to [Re]Create a Partition Table. I also assume it needed to be a GPT. I say "apparently" and "assume" because niether the unRaid webgui, nor preclear (from the console) could "find it" again - it wasn't even assigned/mapped a sdX designatioin; but seems to be preclearing correctly, now. It is 16% into "zeroing". I'm guessing that using Gparted to Create a Partion Table seems to have given the server something to latch-onto. Really I have no idea why. At 2:00 in the morning, with no data to worry about, it was worth a try.

 

 

1. I was less concerned about Gparted, as such; but curious installing packages. I don't think I'd even do it on an otherwise working system without a LOT of guidance. I understand that unRaid is stripped-down to just what is needed; but the forums are filled with users who have some problem or another, and the repositories are a cornucopia of tools. (spoken as someone from the cheap n00b seats). I assume someone has to make sure they gather all the dependencies as well and put everything in /boot/extra.

 

 

 

2. gundamguy hit the nail on the head. I have also nearly filled my drive bays. Thank you trurl for clarifying that you I still need unRaid. I was hoping to do this from Manjaro; but I have an currently unused Zotac ZBox that I could turn into a preclear machine (probably a slow one, though).

 

 

I'll  post the logs after the Samsung disk finishes (or RMA it back to Amazon if it doesn't).

 

 

Thanks again.

[itimpi]

Partitioning isn't needed. I don't usually partition as preclear will wipe it all clear. The crash happened 35% into "Copying zeros to the remainder of the disk to clear it". I apparently needed to [Re]Create a Partition Table. I also assume it needed to be a GPT. I say "apparently" and "assume" because niether the unRaid webgui, nor preclear (from the console) could "find it" again - it wasn't even assigned/mapped a sdX designatioin; but seems to be preclearing correctly, now. It is 16% into "zeroing". I'm guessing that using Gparted to Create a Partion Table seems to have given the server something to latch-onto. Really I have no idea why. At 2:00 in the morning, with no data to worry about, it was worth a try.

I have no idea why trying to partition the disk should have had any effect.  The sdX designation assigned to a drive happens if it is physically recognized by the system regardless of its contents.  If that is not happening the drive is either defective, or not plugged in correctly.  Since it seems to have been recognized since then it suggests that it was a connection issue.  Another point to note is that if the power supply is underpowered for the number of drives connected you can get random disconnects as the power draw varies with drives being spun up/down.

 

1. I was less concerned about Gparted, as such; but curious installing packages. I don't think I'd even do it on an otherwise working system without a LOT of guidance. I understand that unRaid is stripped-down to just what is needed; but the forums are filled with users who have some problem or another, and the repositories are a cornucopia of tools. (spoken as someone from the cheap n00b seats). I assume someone has to make sure they gather all the dependencies as well and put everything in /boot/extra.

That is one of the key reasons why v6 is moving to docker for adding apps.  Each docker container manages its own dependencies, and containers are isolated both from each other and from the host OS.  Moving forward probably only LimeTech should be using plugins (as their way of maintaining/updating core bits of the unRAID OS.

 

Docker containers are in fact portable across Linux variants.    The one thing that is added for unRAID purposes is an XML template so that the docker can be instantiated and configured via the unRAID GUI.

If you are happy to use docker at the command line then you can use containers for which no one has prepared a suitable unRAID XML template.

[TonyTheTiger]

Well that was no fun.

 

 

The drive crashed again. It got stuck around 1.89T each time. I've just had Amazon RMA it.

 

 

Thank you everyone. I'll mark this post as solved (!?).

 

 

BTW.

 

 

@ itimpi

I've going through a Docker tutorial. Fascinating! I can hardly wait to upgrade to v.6 (Though I'll probably on the forum more, too). MAL

[trurl]

... Thank you trurl for clarifying that you I still need unRaid. I was hoping to do this from Manjaro; but I have an currently unused Zotac ZBox that I could turn into a preclear machine (probably a slow one, though)...

Thought I would clarify my clarification. I don't actually know whether preclear can be run from Manjaro or not. I wouldn't be surprised. It is just a bash script.