• Quickie Report - Installing Fedora on BMAX Mini-PC

    From 186283@ud0s4.net@21:1/5 to All on Fri Aug 9 23:20:18 2024
    BMAX (almost identical to BeeLink) boxes are mostly
    about 6 inches square an maybe two inches thick.
    A large variety of CPUs/configs can be hand. The
    prices are VERY good. Typically two 4k HDMI plugs
    (cable included !). 2xUSB2 + 2xUSB3 is typical.
    They have space in the bottom for an 8mm thick
    SATA laptop drive/SSD. They run off a wall-wart.

    A few months ago I attempted to install Fedora-40
    (which was brand new at the time) on a BMAX N95
    box (LXDE spin). As I'd mentioned here it was NOT
    particularly successful. Wound up using Manjaro
    on two such units (I'm OFF debians since Worm).

    THIS time however things went quite well (with the
    XFCE spin) on an N100 box (N95/N100 are almost
    identical - low-end Celeron range laptop chips ...
    search "amazon laptop N100"). 16gb RAM + 512gb
    NVRam chip - perfect for Linux. This unit was
    $149 USD. It DOES come with Win11 ... which I
    did not want to run for even a microsecond
    for reasons of pride :-)

    Procedure : Insert USB drive with Fedora ISO.
    Power-up and tap Del and F10 (not sure which
    works, so tap 'em both). This brings up the
    BIOS menus. Change the default boot drive to
    the USB. DO turn on the "last state" option
    for restarts (it's easier to find in newer
    units - BURIED on older ones) while you're
    in there. Set the date/time and such.

    Reboot. The Fedora Live should come up automagically.
    Like since forever it IS the Anaconda installer
    utility you want.

    In the drives setup part, choose 'custom' and
    manually DELETE everything on the internal SSD.
    DIE WINDERS DIE !!!

    Then add an EFI partition (maybe 100mb) and
    then a "/" partition. EFI should be "sda1" and
    the system part "sda2". A variety of partition
    types can be had, but for MY uses plain old
    EXT4 was the most straight-up by far. Note
    Anaconda has a "delete existing partitions
    AS NEEDED" default but there's no obvious
    "Use Entire Disk" like you see in many other
    installers. So, 'custom' is best to get
    exactly what you want.

    All the other settings were pretty strightforward,
    box net name, user/root setup, the usual. Then
    you can proceed to the install. I'd suggest
    having a live hardwired ethernet connection, but
    with Fedora Live MOST of the setup requiring
    such seems to be in the immediate post-install
    reboot.

    Anyway, once installed, reboot and deal with
    the typical crap. Then use 'dnfdragora' to
    get all the updates. Note the "apply" button
    MAY be hidden down at the bottom of your
    display (mine was small).

    Reboot once more and you're ready. Install
    what you will. I'm using TigerVNC for remote
    access (or ssh, on alt port). Also installed
    SAMBA since I might use this box attached to
    some external USB drives as a local storage
    center.

    Note that in Fedora your 'regular
    user' is NOT in /etc/sudoers - you have
    to edit and add (and yes you CAN use nano
    or whatever, just be careful). Sudo CAN
    be adjusted to use the ROOT pw instead
    of the 'regular users' - which seems smarter.

    Odd bit - in TigerVNC - POP-UP notices,
    like password queries, do NOT show up
    on the vitual console. Run dnfdragora as
    root to get around this. This XFCE also
    does not have right-click options like
    "add to desktop" on the main menu items,
    you have to use 'create shortcut' from
    the main screen. Put Tiger into the
    'autostart' - works best there and
    you can add the '-geometry' and screen
    number params. Auto-Login is in a
    /etc/lightdm config file - uncomment
    and fill in user and grace time.

    Finally, note the default (RHEL-type) firewall
    is a pain in the ass to figure out how to let
    SSH/VNC/etc ports through from the outside.
    I *never* use the defaults since that's what
    all the bots look for.

    Anyway - MUCH better experience this time.
    I think the XFCE spin gets more attention
    than old LXDE plus the whole system has
    had a few months to get past those post-
    release bugs. F40 now seems GOOD.

    If you don't need all the I/O pins found on
    a PI then these cheap little boxes are the
    cat's meow for practical Linux uses. The
    "low end" CPUs (for Winders concerns) are
    "plenty fast" for Linux - an N100 is over
    twice as fast as a Pi5. You CAN get BMax/Link
    with up to i7's or AMD equivs - but it all
    depends on what YOU plan to do.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From rbowman@21:1/5 to 186282@ud0s4.net on Sat Aug 10 04:49:53 2024
    On Fri, 9 Aug 2024 23:20:18 -0400, 186282@ud0s4.net wrote:

    BMAX (almost identical to BeeLink) boxes are mostly about 6 inches
    square an maybe two inches thick.
    A large variety of CPUs/configs can be hand. The prices are VERY good. Typically two 4k HDMI plugs (cable included !). 2xUSB2 + 2xUSB3 is
    typical. They have space in the bottom for an 8mm thick SATA laptop drive/SSD. They run off a wall-wart.

    I've been running Ubuntu 22.04 on a BeeLink for a couple of years and am
    very happy with it. It is a little upscale from your BMAX with a Ryzen 7
    4700U. It was an experiment that worked out well.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From D@21:1/5 to 186282@ud0s4.net on Sat Aug 10 11:11:16 2024
    On Sat, 10 Aug 2024, 186282@ud0s4.net wrote:

    On 8/10/24 12:49 AM, rbowman wrote:
    On Fri, 9 Aug 2024 23:20:18 -0400, 186282@ud0s4.net wrote:

    BMAX (almost identical to BeeLink) boxes are mostly about 6 inches
    square an maybe two inches thick.
    A large variety of CPUs/configs can be hand. The prices are VERY good.
    Typically two 4k HDMI plugs (cable included !). 2xUSB2 + 2xUSB3 is
    typical. They have space in the bottom for an 8mm thick SATA laptop
    drive/SSD. They run off a wall-wart.

    I've been running Ubuntu 22.04 on a BeeLink for a couple of years and am
    very happy with it. It is a little upscale from your BMAX with a Ryzen 7
    4700U. It was an experiment that worked out well.

    I have both brands - and they're mostly identical hardware.
    As said, there are a LOT of configs to be had - from very
    low-performance on up. Real i3's and above DO need a cooling
    fan however. The "laptop" chips seem to work OK without fans.

    In any case, if you really don't need a PI and all the
    I/O pins then THESE seem to be THE way to go - compact,
    cheap, good performance. Anything you need for a very
    good price.

    Still have some PIs ... and DO need those I/O pins for
    certain needs. NICE to have such a broad selection of
    boards these days - something perfect for each need.

    As reported, my current experience with Fedora is now GOOD.
    I've had weird problems with Deb WORM and have just abandoned
    that whole line for now. Manjaro and other Arch derivs ARE
    pretty good - but Fedora is just more "general consumer".
    I'm too old now to put up with big fights making an OS
    work. If you want WORK ... well ... there's always SlackWare :-)

    Oddly, I accidentally ordered TWO BMax ... must have pushed
    the "order again" button but seen no effect. Now I have to
    figure out what to DO with the extra unit. I've got an ISO
    of FreeBSD ... so maybe ........ if so I'll post a little
    summary of that experience.


    A NAS and off site backup solution?

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From 186283@ud0s4.net@21:1/5 to rbowman on Sat Aug 10 04:51:37 2024
    On 8/10/24 12:49 AM, rbowman wrote:
    On Fri, 9 Aug 2024 23:20:18 -0400, 186282@ud0s4.net wrote:

    BMAX (almost identical to BeeLink) boxes are mostly about 6 inches
    square an maybe two inches thick.
    A large variety of CPUs/configs can be hand. The prices are VERY good.
    Typically two 4k HDMI plugs (cable included !). 2xUSB2 + 2xUSB3 is
    typical. They have space in the bottom for an 8mm thick SATA laptop
    drive/SSD. They run off a wall-wart.

    I've been running Ubuntu 22.04 on a BeeLink for a couple of years and am
    very happy with it. It is a little upscale from your BMAX with a Ryzen 7 4700U. It was an experiment that worked out well.

    I have both brands - and they're mostly identical hardware.
    As said, there are a LOT of configs to be had - from very
    low-performance on up. Real i3's and above DO need a cooling
    fan however. The "laptop" chips seem to work OK without fans.

    In any case, if you really don't need a PI and all the
    I/O pins then THESE seem to be THE way to go - compact,
    cheap, good performance. Anything you need for a very
    good price.

    Still have some PIs ... and DO need those I/O pins for
    certain needs. NICE to have such a broad selection of
    boards these days - something perfect for each need.

    As reported, my current experience with Fedora is now GOOD.
    I've had weird problems with Deb WORM and have just abandoned
    that whole line for now. Manjaro and other Arch derivs ARE
    pretty good - but Fedora is just more "general consumer".
    I'm too old now to put up with big fights making an OS
    work. If you want WORK ... well ... there's always SlackWare :-)

    Oddly, I accidentally ordered TWO BMax ... must have pushed
    the "order again" button but seen no effect. Now I have to
    figure out what to DO with the extra unit. I've got an ISO
    of FreeBSD ... so maybe ........ if so I'll post a little
    summary of that experience.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From 186283@ud0s4.net@21:1/5 to All on Sat Aug 10 05:16:43 2024
    On 8/10/24 5:11 AM, D wrote:


    On Sat, 10 Aug 2024, 186282@ud0s4.net wrote:

    On 8/10/24 12:49 AM, rbowman wrote:
    On Fri, 9 Aug 2024 23:20:18 -0400, 186282@ud0s4.net wrote:

    BMAX (almost identical to BeeLink) boxes are mostly about 6 inches
    square an maybe two inches thick.
    A large variety of CPUs/configs can be hand. The prices are VERY good. >>>> Typically two 4k HDMI plugs (cable included !). 2xUSB2 + 2xUSB3 is
    typical. They have space in the bottom for an 8mm thick SATA laptop
    drive/SSD. They run off a wall-wart.

    I've been running Ubuntu 22.04 on a BeeLink for a couple of years and am >>> very happy with it. It is a little upscale from your BMAX with a Ryzen 7 >>> 4700U. It was an experiment that worked out well.

     I have both brands - and they're mostly identical hardware.
     As said, there are a LOT of configs to be had - from very
     low-performance on up. Real i3's and above DO need a cooling
     fan however. The "laptop" chips seem to work OK without fans.

     In any case, if you really don't need a PI and all the
     I/O pins then THESE seem to be THE way to go - compact,
     cheap, good performance. Anything you need for a very
     good price.

     Still have some PIs ... and DO need those I/O pins for
     certain needs. NICE to have such a broad selection of
     boards these days - something perfect for each need.

     As reported, my current experience with Fedora is now GOOD.
     I've had weird problems with Deb WORM and have just abandoned
     that whole line for now. Manjaro and other Arch derivs ARE
     pretty good - but Fedora is just more "general consumer".
     I'm too old now to put up with big fights making an OS
     work. If you want WORK ... well ... there's always SlackWare  :-)

     Oddly, I accidentally ordered TWO BMax ... must have pushed
     the "order again" button but seen no effect. Now I have to
     figure out what to DO with the extra unit. I've got an ISO
     of FreeBSD ... so maybe ........ if so I'll post a little
     summary of that experience.


    A NAS and off site backup solution?

    Possibly ... I'll have to get creative :-)

    I've got a 4-bay external USB-3 unit ... some
    12gb Gold drives and ....

    I trust the BSDs more for 'security' these days.

    OpenBSD is probably the MOST secure, but as a
    result it's harder to work with and the DRIVERS
    are years behind the hardware curve. That may
    or may not be relevant, depending on your app.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From rbowman@21:1/5 to 186282@ud0s4.net on Sat Aug 10 18:41:52 2024
    On Sat, 10 Aug 2024 04:51:37 -0400, 186282@ud0s4.net wrote:

    In any case, if you really don't need a PI and all the I/O pins then
    THESE seem to be THE way to go - compact,
    cheap, good performance. Anything you need for a very good price.

    I've been putting off getting a Pi 5. However I have a couple of Pico Ws
    that have all the IO pins I need. The new Pico 2 in intriguing. The RP2350 ucintroller has 2 Cortex M0+ cores and two RISC-V cores. I know you can
    selelct either the Arm or RISC-V set but I don't know if you can do 1 Arm
    and one RISV-V. I wonder if the next gen Pi will be similar. There are
    several distros that will run on RISC-V processors. Canonical has recently
    been working with PIC to put it on their 64 bit development board.

    As far as I'm concerned small is beautiful.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From D@21:1/5 to 186282@ud0s4.net on Sat Aug 10 23:19:24 2024
    This message is in MIME format. The first part should be readable text,
    while the remaining parts are likely unreadable without MIME-aware tools.

    On Sat, 10 Aug 2024, 186282@ud0s4.net wrote:

    On 8/10/24 5:11 AM, D wrote:


    On Sat, 10 Aug 2024, 186282@ud0s4.net wrote:

    On 8/10/24 12:49 AM, rbowman wrote:
    On Fri, 9 Aug 2024 23:20:18 -0400, 186282@ud0s4.net wrote:

    BMAX (almost identical to BeeLink) boxes are mostly about 6 inches
    square an maybe two inches thick.
    A large variety of CPUs/configs can be hand. The prices are VERY good. >>>>> Typically two 4k HDMI plugs (cable included !). 2xUSB2 + 2xUSB3 is
    typical. They have space in the bottom for an 8mm thick SATA laptop
    drive/SSD. They run off a wall-wart.

    I've been running Ubuntu 22.04 on a BeeLink for a couple of years and am >>>> very happy with it. It is a little upscale from your BMAX with a Ryzen 7 >>>> 4700U. It was an experiment that worked out well.

     I have both brands - and they're mostly identical hardware.
     As said, there are a LOT of configs to be had - from very
     low-performance on up. Real i3's and above DO need a cooling
     fan however. The "laptop" chips seem to work OK without fans.

     In any case, if you really don't need a PI and all the
     I/O pins then THESE seem to be THE way to go - compact,
     cheap, good performance. Anything you need for a very
     good price.

     Still have some PIs ... and DO need those I/O pins for
     certain needs. NICE to have such a broad selection of
     boards these days - something perfect for each need.

     As reported, my current experience with Fedora is now GOOD.
     I've had weird problems with Deb WORM and have just abandoned
     that whole line for now. Manjaro and other Arch derivs ARE
     pretty good - but Fedora is just more "general consumer".
     I'm too old now to put up with big fights making an OS
     work. If you want WORK ... well ... there's always SlackWare  :-)

     Oddly, I accidentally ordered TWO BMax ... must have pushed
     the "order again" button but seen no effect. Now I have to
     figure out what to DO with the extra unit. I've got an ISO
     of FreeBSD ... so maybe ........ if so I'll post a little
     summary of that experience.


    A NAS and off site backup solution?

    Possibly ... I'll have to get creative :-)

    I've got a 4-bay external USB-3 unit ... some
    12gb Gold drives and ....

    I trust the BSDs more for 'security' these days.

    OpenBSD is probably the MOST secure, but as a
    result it's harder to work with and the DRIVERS
    are years behind the hardware curve. That may
    or may not be relevant, depending on your app.

    Add to that a sub par filesystem which affects performance as well. But
    perhaps it might be possible to compile in suppor for something better?

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From 186283@ud0s4.net@21:1/5 to rbowman on Sat Aug 10 18:09:00 2024
    On 8/10/24 2:41 PM, rbowman wrote:
    On Sat, 10 Aug 2024 04:51:37 -0400, 186282@ud0s4.net wrote:

    In any case, if you really don't need a PI and all the I/O pins then
    THESE seem to be THE way to go - compact,
    cheap, good performance. Anything you need for a very good price.

    I've been putting off getting a Pi 5. However I have a couple of Pico Ws
    that have all the IO pins I need. The new Pico 2 in intriguing. The RP2350 ucintroller has 2 Cortex M0+ cores and two RISC-V cores. I know you can selelct either the Arm or RISC-V set but I don't know if you can do 1 Arm
    and one RISV-V. I wonder if the next gen Pi will be similar. There are several distros that will run on RISC-V processors. Canonical has recently been working with PIC to put it on their 64 bit development board.

    As far as I'm concerned small is beautiful.


    I bought a couple of P5's ... which is when I first
    encountered the numerous annoyances of WORM - the
    older Debs won't boot, you just get a nasty message.

    I think they CAN be good - seem at least half again
    as snappy as the P4's which is more than enough for
    a LOT of projects. Waiting on the compatible Fedora,
    but it looks like it'll be maybe the end of the year.

    NOT sure about running ARM and RISC at the same time.
    Arduino "Yun ?" has a uC and something that'll run
    Linux and in that case you CAN run 'em both. Not
    sure what happens when there's a contention for
    some device or I/O .....

    Long back they made a chip called a "Transputer".
    Each chip (this was 80s tech) communicated with
    a bunch of others via some ultraspeed serial-type
    links. This left each chip kinda independent,
    but not entirely isolated. Parallelism was the goal.
    Parallax has its "Propeller" multiprocessor chip as
    well that achieves sort of the same effect for those
    interested in multiprocessing solutions. In some
    respects the NVidia chips are the same idea,
    though each "processor" is kinda limited.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transputer
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallax_Propeller

    I wonder what could be done with a backplane holding
    64 CM4s ? :-)

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From The Natural Philosopher@21:1/5 to rbowman on Sun Aug 11 10:28:42 2024
    On 10/08/2024 19:41, rbowman wrote:
    On Sat, 10 Aug 2024 04:51:37 -0400, 186282@ud0s4.net wrote:

    In any case, if you really don't need a PI and all the I/O pins then
    THESE seem to be THE way to go - compact,
    cheap, good performance. Anything you need for a very good price.

    I've been putting off getting a Pi 5. However I have a couple of Pico Ws
    that have all the IO pins I need. The new Pico 2 in intriguing. The RP2350 ucintroller has 2 Cortex M0+ cores and two RISC-V cores. I know you can selelct either the Arm or RISC-V set but I don't know if you can do 1 Arm
    and one RISV-V.

    No, according to what I read, this is not possible.

    I wonder if the next gen Pi will be similar. There are
    several distros that will run on RISC-V processors. Canonical has recently been working with PIC to put it on their 64 bit development board.

    As far as I'm concerned small is beautiful.

    --
    "It is an established fact to 97% confidence limits that left wing
    conspirators see right wing conspiracies everywhere"

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From 186283@ud0s4.net@21:1/5 to All on Mon Aug 12 00:07:51 2024
    On 8/10/24 5:19 PM, D wrote:


    On Sat, 10 Aug 2024, 186282@ud0s4.net wrote:

    On 8/10/24 5:11 AM, D wrote:


    On Sat, 10 Aug 2024, 186282@ud0s4.net wrote:

    On 8/10/24 12:49 AM, rbowman wrote:
    On Fri, 9 Aug 2024 23:20:18 -0400, 186282@ud0s4.net wrote:

    BMAX (almost identical to BeeLink) boxes are mostly about 6 inches >>>>>> square an maybe two inches thick.
    A large variety of CPUs/configs can be hand. The prices are VERY
    good.
    Typically two 4k HDMI plugs (cable included !). 2xUSB2 + 2xUSB3 is >>>>>> typical. They have space in the bottom for an 8mm thick SATA laptop >>>>>> drive/SSD. They run off a wall-wart.

    I've been running Ubuntu 22.04 on a BeeLink for a couple of years
    and am
    very happy with it. It is a little upscale from your BMAX with a
    Ryzen 7
    4700U. It was an experiment that worked out well.

     I have both brands - and they're mostly identical hardware.
     As said, there are a LOT of configs to be had - from very
     low-performance on up. Real i3's and above DO need a cooling
     fan however. The "laptop" chips seem to work OK without fans.

     In any case, if you really don't need a PI and all the
     I/O pins then THESE seem to be THE way to go - compact,
     cheap, good performance. Anything you need for a very
     good price.

     Still have some PIs ... and DO need those I/O pins for
     certain needs. NICE to have such a broad selection of
     boards these days - something perfect for each need.

     As reported, my current experience with Fedora is now GOOD.
     I've had weird problems with Deb WORM and have just abandoned
     that whole line for now. Manjaro and other Arch derivs ARE
     pretty good - but Fedora is just more "general consumer".
     I'm too old now to put up with big fights making an OS
     work. If you want WORK ... well ... there's always SlackWare  :-)

     Oddly, I accidentally ordered TWO BMax ... must have pushed
     the "order again" button but seen no effect. Now I have to
     figure out what to DO with the extra unit. I've got an ISO
     of FreeBSD ... so maybe ........ if so I'll post a little
     summary of that experience.


    A NAS and off site backup solution?

     Possibly ... I'll have to get creative  :-)

     I've got a 4-bay external USB-3 unit ... some
     12gb Gold drives and ....

     I trust the BSDs more for 'security' these days.

     OpenBSD is probably the MOST secure, but as a
     result it's harder to work with and the DRIVERS
     are years behind the hardware curve. That may
     or may not be relevant, depending on your app.

    Add to that a sub par filesystem which affects performance as well. But perhaps it might be possible to compile in support for something better?

    If I were younger I might give it a shot ... but .....

    Unix filesystems ... well, they're "fair" but not
    really "high performance". Note though that if we
    are dealing with external storage/cloud then it
    is THEY which are I/O-bound, so any Unix performance
    issues become irrelevant. 'Security/solidity' replaces
    'performance' as the #1 priority
    .
    Hey, I spent many years with SS/SD floppies ...
    anything faster than those seems "speedy" to me :-)

    For Joe User ... stick with EXT4. BtrFS/ZFS have
    some nice features, but that comes with a LOT
    more complexity and thus undiscovered bugs. For
    Unix ... perhaps good old UFS is all you need.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From D@21:1/5 to 186282@ud0s4.net on Mon Aug 12 10:19:00 2024
    This message is in MIME format. The first part should be readable text,
    while the remaining parts are likely unreadable without MIME-aware tools.

    On Mon, 12 Aug 2024, 186282@ud0s4.net wrote:

    On 8/10/24 5:19 PM, D wrote:


    On Sat, 10 Aug 2024, 186282@ud0s4.net wrote:

    On 8/10/24 5:11 AM, D wrote:


    On Sat, 10 Aug 2024, 186282@ud0s4.net wrote:

    On 8/10/24 12:49 AM, rbowman wrote:
    On Fri, 9 Aug 2024 23:20:18 -0400, 186282@ud0s4.net wrote:

    BMAX (almost identical to BeeLink) boxes are mostly about 6 inches >>>>>>> square an maybe two inches thick.
    A large variety of CPUs/configs can be hand. The prices are VERY good. >>>>>>> Typically two 4k HDMI plugs (cable included !). 2xUSB2 + 2xUSB3 is >>>>>>> typical. They have space in the bottom for an 8mm thick SATA laptop >>>>>>> drive/SSD. They run off a wall-wart.

    I've been running Ubuntu 22.04 on a BeeLink for a couple of years and >>>>>> am
    very happy with it. It is a little upscale from your BMAX with a Ryzen >>>>>> 7
    4700U. It was an experiment that worked out well.

     I have both brands - and they're mostly identical hardware.
     As said, there are a LOT of configs to be had - from very
     low-performance on up. Real i3's and above DO need a cooling
     fan however. The "laptop" chips seem to work OK without fans.

     In any case, if you really don't need a PI and all the
     I/O pins then THESE seem to be THE way to go - compact,
     cheap, good performance. Anything you need for a very
     good price.

     Still have some PIs ... and DO need those I/O pins for
     certain needs. NICE to have such a broad selection of
     boards these days - something perfect for each need.

     As reported, my current experience with Fedora is now GOOD.
     I've had weird problems with Deb WORM and have just abandoned
     that whole line for now. Manjaro and other Arch derivs ARE
     pretty good - but Fedora is just more "general consumer".
     I'm too old now to put up with big fights making an OS
     work. If you want WORK ... well ... there's always SlackWare  :-) >>>>>
     Oddly, I accidentally ordered TWO BMax ... must have pushed
     the "order again" button but seen no effect. Now I have to
     figure out what to DO with the extra unit. I've got an ISO
     of FreeBSD ... so maybe ........ if so I'll post a little
     summary of that experience.


    A NAS and off site backup solution?

     Possibly ... I'll have to get creative  :-)

     I've got a 4-bay external USB-3 unit ... some
     12gb Gold drives and ....

     I trust the BSDs more for 'security' these days.

     OpenBSD is probably the MOST secure, but as a
     result it's harder to work with and the DRIVERS
     are years behind the hardware curve. That may
     or may not be relevant, depending on your app.

    Add to that a sub par filesystem which affects performance as well. But
    perhaps it might be possible to compile in support for something better?

    If I were younger I might give it a shot ... but .....

    Unix filesystems ... well, they're "fair" but not
    really "high performance". Note though that if we
    are dealing with external storage/cloud then it
    is THEY which are I/O-bound, so any Unix performance
    issues become irrelevant. 'Security/solidity' replaces
    'performance' as the #1 priority

    Oh yes... if you insist on using your BSD for slow, micro service/cloud application, then as you say it makes little difference.

    Hey, I spent many years with SS/SD floppies ...
    anything faster than those seems "speedy" to me :-)

    You're a lucky man! That's a nice perspective to have. ;)

    For Joe User ... stick with EXT4. BtrFS/ZFS have
    some nice features, but that comes with a LOT
    more complexity and thus undiscovered bugs. For
    Unix ... perhaps good old UFS is all you need.

    I've used UFS in production with good results, ext4 and btrfs as well. In
    fact, I do use btrfs on my laptop and only once did I bite myself in the
    foot, and once snapshots ate up free space, but apart from those two, I've
    had many happy years with btrfs. I even have used the boot from snapshot functionality once or twice. Most often though, I prefer to do a restore
    from my backup server if something goes wrong.

    Oh, and just to make sure no one gets the wrong impression, I've never
    worked at giga-scale FAANG companies optimizing for every single ns, but
    mostly the use cases were simple web/application/database servers.

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  • From Lawrence D'Oliveiro@21:1/5 to 186282@ud0s4.net on Mon Aug 12 23:04:54 2024
    On Mon, 12 Aug 2024 00:07:51 -0400, 186282@ud0s4.net wrote:

    For Unix ... perhaps good old UFS is all you need.

    Except when UFS isn’t UFS. Seems the different BSDs each have their own, slightly incompatible version of UFS.

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