swap_pager indefinite wait buffer - question - SOLVED

[PeerCorps Trust Fund]

Really? Would have been nice to meet up for a chat, although I am only there for part of the year.

All of the BSD's, hmm. The results we came up with in our testing were as follows (I'm summarizing).

OpenBSD - having the ability to suspend and resume is extremely useful for both a server device and workstations in this environment, and it does this flawlessly on Thinkpads (which we are focused on using). It is easy to install and everything was very very well laid-out, including getting a nice simple desktop environment for the workstations. Unfortunately both on the server and client side, NFS is just not there in terms of speed or reliability no matter what configuration its in. Apart from NFS, everything just works.

NetBSD - couldn't get anything to work.

FreeBSD - worked very well. Rich selection of packages. NFS is fast and easy to configure on both client and server machines. ZFS is very useful, but am not sure if it is a long term solution for low-end set-ups.

DragonflyBSD - Works! Rich selection of packages (Dports). NFS is extremely robust and ridiculously fast. Never seen anything like it before. HAMMER offers quite a number of very useful benefits and we are learning to put these features to good use. 


On 12/27/2014 06:12 AM, Matthew Dillon wrote:
> That's an excellent use of a free OS.  I was in Tanzania at the beginning
> of the year on vacation.  You can do a lot with 1GB and a lean UI.  All the
> BSDs should do quite well in that configuration.
> 
> -Matt
> 
> On Fri, Dec 26, 2014 at 4:05 AM, PeerCorps Trust Fund <
> ipc at peercorpstrust.org> wrote:
> 
>> It certainly is, although the machines are actually running stock FreeBSD
>> 10.1.
>>
>> PC-BSD was an option in the beginning, but because these were older
>> computers it was easier to build a low-resource install enabling only basic
>> services such as NFS rather than trying to pare down a PC-BSD install to
>> suit the needs of the project (which is a basic KDE-based workstation).
>>
>> Most of those desktops had only one gigabyte of RAM ad PC-BSD uses a lot
>> of resources. We learned a lot in the process and will be implementing
>> modified libraries in the coming year using donated computer equipment.
>>
>> I think many underestimate the enormous value that such projects have in
>> these communities. Just having access to books and educational material is
>> tremendously beneficial from a development perspective.
>>
>> On 12/26/2014 01:12 PM, Carsten Mattner wrote:
>>> On Fri, Dec 26, 2014 at 12:43 AM, PeerCorps Trust Fund
>>> <ipc at peercorpstrust.org> wrote:
>>>> Indeed in Tanzania :) we have a couple of technology initiatives taking
>> place at the
>>>> moment and *BSD is at the center in many ways. The delivery of
>> educational
>>>> materials and books to resource-limited communities is an important aim
>> of
>>>> these initiatives.
>>>>
>>>> We actually used FreeBSD in our first effort, but want to experiment
>> with some
>>>> of the capabilities of DragonflyBSD and HAMMER in the next one. In our
>>>> estimation we can possibly stretch our hardware and funds a bit further
>> with
>>>> DragonflyBSD/HAMMER owing to its low resource requirements.
>>>
>>> Ah nice. Is it the same project we heard recently of with photos of a
>> library
>>> room running PCBSD machines with a video and document library?
>>>
>>>
>>>> On 12/25/2014 11:20 PM, Carsten Mattner wrote:
>>>>> On Thu, Dec 25, 2014 at 7:08 PM, PeerCorps Trust Fund
>>>>> <ipc at peercorpstrust.org> wrote:
>>>>>> I just wanted to take the opportunity update a previous post that I
>> made to the
>>>>>> list concerning a swap_pager concern. It isn't an issue at all but
>> the fault of my
>>>>>> own ignorance and hardware limits.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The external drive in question was simply not pulling enough power
>> from the
>>>>>> USB port of the laptop. This was likely resulting in a stalled drive
>> when anything
>>>>>> substantial was being copied to it.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> This has since been solved by connecting the drive first to an
>> externally powered
>>>>>> USB hub. So, if there is anyone else out there having a similar
>> issue, trying this
>>>>>> seems to do the trick. Alternatively, just use a drive that is
>> powered externally.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Everything works beautifully now and this low cost experiment for a
>> simple file
>>>>>> server will find a home in a school classroom next year.
>>>>>
>>>>> In Tanzania?
>>>>>
>>>>> FreeBSD had a writeup about a set of PCBSD machines installed in
>> Nigeria IIRC.
>>>>>
>>>>> A blog post or other writeup to link on dragonflybsd.org would surely
>> be nice.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>
>> --
>> Michael L. Wilson
>> International Project Coordinator
>> PeerCorps Trust Fund - Tanzania
>>
>>
>>
> 

-- 
Michael L. Wilson
International Project Coordinator
PeerCorps Trust Fund - Tanzania