Preclear - which one? And...need some hand-holding for my first preclear.

[flambot]

I was about to start setting up my first preclear. As I've never done one of these I thought I'd post first to get some pointers. Also, I just found there is another preclear (faster) by bjp999. Where do you get this one? I like the idea you can monitor the progress via mymain in unmenu. I'm running 5.0.5 unraid. Thx.

[trurl]

See search tips in my sig.

[RobJ]

flambot, you're one of the old-timers around here, from May of 2007!  Hard to believe you've never done a Preclear! 

 

I hope you'll consider upgrading to v6 soon, see the Upgrading to UnRAID v6 guide.  Then you can use the Preclear plugin, with bjp999's faster script.

[flambot]

flambot, you're one of the old-timers around here, from May of 2007!  Hard to believe you've never done a Preclear! 

 

I hope you'll consider upgrading to v6 soon, see the Upgrading to UnRAID v6 guide.  Then you can use the Preclear plugin, with bjp999's faster script.

 

Yeah...I might be an old timer but not that great with puters. Started too late on them. Yep...and never done a preclear as I never had a spare port in the puter until recently, or a spare puter.

 

As for V6?? Not sure I want to mess with the system. If it aint broke... Still, I like the sound of the plugin bit.

 

Getting my head around preclear though. Lot to learn (and forget as the memory isn't that great )

 

One thing...my server isn't on at present. How do I know if my version of unraid is 32bit or 64bit? There is no x64 folder on the flash drive. (I did find a post about seeing if my system is 64bit capable, which I'll check once its up.)

 

[Squid]

One thing...my server isn't on at present. How do I know if my version of unraid is 32bit or 64bit? There is no x64 folder on the flash drive. (I did find a post about seeing if my system is 64bit capable, which I'll check once its up.)

http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php/Upgrading_to_UnRAID_v6#Basic_hardware_requirements

 

Instructions within the link

[trurl]

... There is no x64 folder on the flash drive...

And there won't be because unRAID v6 is 64bit only. No backwards compatibility for 32bit stuff such as old plugins. Which is a good thing.

[flambot]

Fired the server up and did the flag command thingee and found that it returns with several red lm flags in the post. So that must mean my cpu is capable of 64bit.

 

I also added bjp999's preclear script to the flash and asked it to list unassigned drives. There were none as expected (new drive hasn't arrive yet). I plan to use this command

preclear_bjp.sh -f -A /dev/sd?

 

I also added "screen" to my plugin list and gave it a whirl. Seemed to work.

 

Now I have to wait for my new drive. Should be here tomorrow - just in time for a weekend play session.

 

I want to get my next upgrade done and settle before I consider V6.

 

Thanks muchly for the comments

[flambot]

I've been thinking about this "Screen" plugin. Do I need to use it when I have a monitor attached to my server?

[wolferl99]

I've been thinking about this "Screen" plugin. Do I need to use it when I have a monitor attached to my server?

 

no, you can run your preclears on the command line on one of the terminal windows. actually that's how I did it pre V6 and before the great plugin.

[flambot]

I've been thinking about this "Screen" plugin. Do I need to use it when I have a monitor attached to my server?

 

no, you can run your preclears on the command line on one of the terminal windows. actually that's how I did it pre V6 and before the great plugin.

 

Great. I just started my first preclear without using screen. It's still doing the pre-read at approx 100mb/s. Not sure if that is good or bad. In this case, the HDD is running off a TX4 expansion card (PCI) which I will assume will slow it down - although it is the only drive on that card. Don't have any on-board ports free. This new drive will allow me to get the last drive off the TX4 cards (I have two of them). I'll only need the cards then for expansion and running preclears. Thx

[itimpi]

I've been thinking about this "Screen" plugin. Do I need to use it when I have a monitor attached to my server?

 

no, you can run your preclears on the command line on one of the terminal windows. actually that's how I did it pre V6 and before the great plugin.

 

Great. I just started my first preclear without using screen. It's still doing the pre-read at approx 100mb/s. Not sure if that is good or bad. In this case, the HDD is running off a TX4 expansion card (PCI) which I will assume will slow it down - although it is the only drive on that card. Don't have any on-board ports free. This new drive will allow me to get the last drive off the TX4 cards (I have two of them). I'll only need the cards then for expansion and running preclears. Thx

just in case you do not know, you can get up to 6 sessions on a physical console by using ALT-Fn to switch between sessions where n is in the range 1-6 for the appropriate session

[flambot]

itimpi - thx for the above info.

 

The preclear has been running all night and the zeroing stage is at 3%. Unfortunately, the GUI no longer refreshes (nor does mymain fully) but the preclear progress in mymain seems to update with a refresh, but some items on that page are not refreshing. I have 2gb Ram, not not sure what is happening. The log shows nothing.

[trurl]

itimpi - thx for the above info.

 

The preclear has been running all night and the zeroing stage is at 3%. Unfortunately, the GUI no longer refreshes (nor does mymain fully) but the preclear progress in mymain seems to update with a refresh, but some items on that page are not refreshing. I have 2gb Ram, not not sure what is happening. The log shows nothing.

Instead of MyMain, which is part of unMenu, does the normal webUI work?

[flambot]

itimpi - thx for the above info.

 

The preclear has been running all night and the zeroing stage is at 3%. Unfortunately, the GUI no longer refreshes (nor does mymain fully) but the preclear progress in mymain seems to update with a refresh, but some items on that page are not refreshing. I have 2gb Ram, not not sure what is happening. The log shows nothing.

Instead of MyMain, which is part of unMenu, does the normal webUI work?

 

NO...the normal GUI does not load. Even mymain only refreshes part of itself. I am still getting the preclear info in mymain update if I hit the refresh button - but only part of that page is loading.

 

Currently, I am at stage 10 of the preclear - Post-read at 22%. Must be nearly done. Hopefully the GUI will come back then. Pretty much my biggest bug-bear with unraid - something happens and the GUI dies. I gave up running a headless system. Too many times I've needed a monitor. 

[trurl]

Since you're still on 32bit v5 and only have 2GB RAM, probably the webUI has been oom-killed. See the script thread starting here and continuing for a few posts after that.

 

[garycase]

As long as the status on the server's console is continuing to update, just let the pre-clear finish.

 

If the GUI doesn't respond after that, then - assuming you've got the Clean Powerdown plugin installed in MyMenu -- you should be able to simply push the power button briefly (don't hold it) and the system should do a clean shutdown.

 

I think you'll notice a nice performance bump once you're off the TX4's.    Haven't used one of those in YEARS, but my original UnRAID system was notably more reliable and quicker once I moved everything off of PCI-based cards.

 

[flambot]

As long as the status on the server's console is continuing to update, just let the pre-clear finish.

 

If the GUI doesn't respond after that, then - assuming you've got the Clean Powerdown plugin installed in MyMenu -- you should be able to simply push the power button briefly (don't hold it) and the system should do a clean shutdown.

 

I think you'll notice a nice performance bump once you're off the TX4's.    Haven't used one of those in YEARS, but my original UnRAID system was notably more reliable and quicker once I moved everything off of PCI-based cards.

 

That is my hope as well. This latest drive upgrade will get me off the last card, but I'll leave them in. That gives me a connection for a preclear slot.

 

My preclear has completed this morning. Took 52 hours approx for 1 cycle. There are no flags and none of the attributes changed during the sequence. Hate to think how long 3 cycles would take. One day perhaps I'll get a new system where the spare drive port is MB based.

 

The GUI hasn't returned with the completion of the preclear. Unmenu us still only partially refreshing. A reboot of the server should fix this.

 

Thx for all the support. Much appreciated. 

[garycase]

...  Unmenu us still only partially refreshing.

 

You've probably already shut down one way or another and rebooted ... but just in case => if UnMenu will show the User Scripts page, there's a direct link to PowerDown on that page that should do a clean shutdown.    Of course if the power button worked, you don't need this.

 

 

[flambot]

...  Unmenu us still only partially refreshing.

 

You've probably already shut down one way or another and rebooted ... but just in case => if UnMenu will show the User Scripts page, there's a direct link to PowerDown on that page that should do a clean shutdown.    Of course if the power button worked, you don't need this.

 

I used powerdown via the crtl/alt/dlt on the keyboard. Should be back to normal when I turn it on this evening. Thx