Loving the preclear plugin.. However..

 

I do not seem to be able to -start- a preclear with the plugin.. I now start it in screen tru commandline and the gui will show progress.. What could be at fault ?

 

Two things to try if the GUI is not responding

 

Turn off add blockers as they block the popup screen

Us a different browser. Google Chrome is sometimes unresponsive

 

It gives me something to start bit clicking does not do anything..

Ad blocker is a good thing... That could be it.. I will not ditch chrome however..

It gives me something to start bit clicking does not do anything..

 

How long are you waiting?  I seem to recall that it takes a bit of time for the various processes to actually start running.  I have also observed that it sometimes takes a number of clicks to get into the progress page after it is started.  But, even with all of idiosyncrasies, I really love this plugin as it makes preclearing disks so straight forward.  (I first used the command line in about 1978 (but not much in the past twenty years) so I am reasonably comfort with it.  (And I hate vi with a passion....        )

Ad blocker is a good thing... That could be it.. I will not ditch chrome however..

No need to ditch Chrome. Whenever you run Preclear open the GUI with a different browser.

You can also try multiple clicks on the button

I'm currently running a 3 cycle faster preclear on a Seagate 8TB drive using this plugin, and it's in the middle of the 2nd cycle but I noticed that it skipped the pre-read step and went straight to zeroing the disk as step 1, is this normal? I didn't tick the skip pre-read option box in the plugin and it ran pre-read for the 1st cycle.

 

================================================================== 1.15b
=                unRAID server Pre-Clear disk /dev/sdi
=               cycle 2 of 3, partition start on sector 1
=
= Step 1 of 10 - Copying zeros to first 2048k bytes             DONE
= Step 2 of 10 - Copying zeros to remainder of disk to clear it
=  **** This will take a while... you can follow progress below:
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
Disk Temperature: 32C, Elapsed Time:  63:39:26
1838795+7 records in
1838795+7 records out
3856240254976 bytes (3.9 TB) copied, 23631 s, 163 MB/s
Wrote  3,856,240,254,976  bytes out of  8,001,563,222,016  bytes (48% Done)

I'm currently running a 3 cycle faster preclear on a Seagate 8TB drive using this plugin, and it's in the middle of the 2nd cycle ....

 

I'm in the middle of it also.  almost done with the second cycle.  Mine quickly passes step 1 also.  I think it's normal as its not a very large amount of data in step 1.

 

================================================================== 1.15
=                unRAID server Pre-Clear disk /dev/sdc
=               cycle 2 of 3, partition start on sector 1
=
= Step 1 of 10 - Copying zeros to first 2048k bytes             DONE
= Step 2 of 10 - Copying zeros to remainder of disk to clear it DONE
= Step 3 of 10 - Disk is now cleared from MBR onward.           DONE
= Step 4 of 10 - Clearing MBR bytes for partition 2,3 & 4       DONE
= Step 5 of 10 - Clearing MBR code area                         DONE
= Step 6 of 10 - Setting MBR signature bytes                    DONE
= Step 7 of 10 - Setting partition 1 to precleared state        DONE
= Step 8 of 10 - Notifying kernel we changed the partitioning   DONE
= Step 9 of 10 - Creating the /dev/disk/by* entries             DONE
= Step 10 of 10 - Verifying if the MBR is cleared.              DONE
= Post-Read in progress: 48% complete.
(  3,847,322,828,800  of  8,001,563,222,016  bytes read ) 200.1 MB/sec
Disk Temperature: 28C, Elapsed Time:  88:15:36

I'm in the middle of it also.  almost done with the second cycle.  Mine quickly passes step 1 also.  I think it's normal as its not a very large amount of data in step 1.

Sorry, I guess I wasn't entirely clear in my previous question. There are 3 big steps to a preclear: 1) Pre-read 2) Zero 3) Post-read. For the first cycle it went through all 3 steps and took ~19 hours per step. However on the 2nd cycle it completely skipped the pre-read step and went straight to the zeroing step. Is that normal behavior when running multiple cycles? (I don't know because I've never run more than 1 preclear cycle at a time)

I don't often run multiple cycles either but I think the pre-read phase is skipped on the second and subsequent passes because it serves no purpose, all the necessary information being gleaned on the first cycle.

I would assume that the post-read for a cycle also acts as the pre-read for the next one?

Is the latest version of the faster post-read script still 1.15b?  Since I know the script has to be manually added I want to be sure I have the most up to date version before running a preclear.

I just copy it on my system ? Will it overwrite the "regular" preclear ?

 

Currently my 8TB preclear is taken between 1 and 2 weeks te complete in 3 passes, that is just a to long a process for me, I need to choose between run less cycles or use the faster preclear...

I just copy it on my system ? Will it overwrite the "regular" preclear ?

 

Currently my 8TB preclear is taken between 1 and 2 weeks te complete in 3 passes, that is just a to long a process for me, I need to choose between run less cycles or use the faster preclear...

Assuming you have re-named both files correctly then it's likely that you'll get an option to overwrite. You should check the file after you transfer it to flash though IMO. There are some protocols that will change file names on duplicates rather than overwriting.

I take it that the author of this plugin is not the author of the preclear bash script.

First, thanks for making these.

 

 

But please for the love of whatever is holy, consider adding the explanation from the 1st post of the preclear_disk.sh topic to the plugin UI. There is a minimal " dont do this " and a few " for that, do it in this order " explanations that you really cant do without, especially if the UI allows for doing these things wrong!

 

 

As a newcomer to unraid, i really dont get why all the information is dispersed along this forum, but not actually shown on the relevant place. IMHO, each plugin and docker should have a CHANGELOG and a HELP link, and the forum link comes third.

 

At the least, add a link to the script download and help location, so that people can help themselves.

As a newcomer to unraid, i really dont get why all the information is dispersed along this forum, but not actually shown on the relevant place. IMHO, each plugin and docker should have a CHANGELOG and a HELP link, and the forum link comes third.

By and large, most docker containers and plugins have that when viewed through CA (which makes the whole docker and plugin experience far more user friendly)

 

when i tries to run the plug in i get this error,

 

/boot/config/plugins/preclear.disk/preclear_disk.sh  -c 3 /dev/sdb
root@Tower:/usr/local/emhttp# /boot/config/plugins/preclear.disk/preclear_disk.sh  -c 3 /dev/sdb
grep: /boot/config/disk.cfg: No such file or directory
/boot/config/plugins/preclear.disk/preclear_disk.sh: line 1268: /boot/config/disk.cfg: No such file or directory

 

Note the drives are not added to the array because i want to pre-clear them before i add them, also this system is just a test system using a trial key.

when i tries to run the plug in i get this error,

 

/boot/config/plugins/preclear.disk/preclear_disk.sh  -c 3 /dev/sdb
root@Tower:/usr/local/emhttp# /boot/config/plugins/preclear.disk/preclear_disk.sh  -c 3 /dev/sdb
grep: /boot/config/disk.cfg: No such file or directory
/boot/config/plugins/preclear.disk/preclear_disk.sh: line 1268: /boot/config/disk.cfg: No such file or directory

 

Note the drives are not added to the array because i want to pre-clear them before i add them, also this system is just a test system using a trial key.

here

Tools > new config

thank you, damn you folks are on point

I've started a preclear via the plugin, but after a few hours i cant see any progress.

The CPU

top

command shows two

dd

processes at 100% each, but there is no disk activity..

 

I decided to start a new subject to not hijack this thread.

https://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=46303.0

 

I'm using a fairly virgin Unraid system, which makes me think this is a bug.

 

I've started a preclear via the plugin, but after a few hours i cant see any progress.

The CPU

top

command shows two

dd

processes at 100% each, but there is no disk activity..

 

I descided to start a new subject to not hijack this thread.

https://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=46303.0

 

I'm using a fairly virgin Unraid system, which makes me think this is a bug.

 

One quick thing.  Double checked that you do not have an ad blocker running or some other software/browser-setting to prevent pop-ups.  You may have to whitelist your unRAID server. 

I've started a preclear via the plugin, but after a few hours i cant see any progress.

The CPU

top

command shows two

dd

processes at 100% each, but there is no disk activity..

 

I descided to start a new subject to not hijack this thread.

https://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=46303.0

 

I'm using a fairly virgin Unraid system, which makes me think this is a bug.

 

One quick thing.  Double checked that you do not have an ad blocker running or some other software/browser-setting to prevent pop-ups.  You may have to whitelist your unRAID server.

 

Of course, that's probably the problem.  I put my server in the exceptions list and will give that a try...  It does not take an IP address (tried :80 and :8080 too) that I can figure...

 

 

My array is NOT started (I have some problems) and I have four 5Tb drives running preclear via the plugin and I am out of memory (on 32Gb system).... I have 99% in use!

 

                  total      used      free    shared    buffers    cached

Mem:        31939      31773        165          0      30078        322

-/+ buffers/cache:      1372      30566

Swap:            0          0          0

Total:      31939      31773        165

 

Do I have to stop pre-clear and do them one at a time? The command below seems to NOT show Preclear doing all the memory hogging??? Any ideas? I'm already over 2 days in and rather kill it now and start again than waste even more time??!

 

ps -eo size,pid,time,args --sort -size

  SZ  PID    TIME COMMAND

204004 1359 00:00:02 /usr/sbin/rsyslogd -i /var/run/rsyslogd.pid

69464 13821 00:01:33 /usr/local/sbin/emhttp

68412  1686 00:00:03 /usr/sbin/ntpd -g -p /var/run/ntpd.pid

5096 15228 00:06:42 /usr/bin/tmux new-session -d -x 140 -y 200 -s preclear_disk_sdb

4996  4759 01:21:59 /bin/bash /boot/config/plugins/preclear.disk/preclear_disk.sh -c 3 -r 65536 -b 128 -w 65536 -b 128 -f -J /dev/sdf

4996 15238 01:22:51 /bin/bash /boot/config/plugins/preclear.disk/preclear_disk.sh -c 3 -r 65536 -b 128 -w 65536 -b 128 -f -J /dev/sdb

4996 15424 01:21:34 /bin/bash /boot/config/plugins/preclear.disk/preclear_disk.sh -c 3 -r 65536 -b 128 -w 65536 -b 128 -f -J /dev/sde

4996 18537 00:00:00 /bin/bash /boot/config/plugins/preclear.disk/preclear_disk.sh -c 3 -r 65536 -b 128 -w 65536 -b 128 -f -J /dev/sde

4996 18538 00:00:00 /bin/bash /boot/config/plugins/preclear.disk/preclear_disk.sh -c 3 -r 65536 -b 128 -w 65536 -b 128 -f -J /dev/sde

4996 19849 01:22:12 /bin/bash /boot/config/plugins/preclear.disk/preclear_disk.sh -c 3 -r 65536 -b 128 -w 65536 -b 128 -f -J /dev/sdc

4432 13938 00:00:00 /usr/local/emhttp/plugins/unbalance/unbalance -port 6237

 

My array is NOT started (I have some problems) and I have four 5Tb drives running preclear via the plugin and I am out of memory (on 32Gb system).... I have 99% in use!

 

 

Google is your friend.  A quick search found this site:

 

    http://www.binarytides.com/linux-command-check-memory-usage/

 

As I read it, you have quite a bit of overhead available.

 

My array is NOT started (I have some problems) and I have four 5Tb drives running preclear via the plugin and I am out of memory (on 32Gb system).... I have 99% in use!

 

 

Google is your friend.  A quick search found this site:

 

    http://www.binarytides.com/linux-command-check-memory-usage/

 

As I read it, you have quite a bit of overhead available.

 

I had done free and cat /proc/meminfo (hence info above)... but I also found the caches didnt clear. Have cleared them and have free memory now but the web interface is still very sluggish. Maybe best to let this 1st pre-clear finish and then stop. Reboot server and do passes 2 & 3 ...