Low-Power SSD for amtm, Diversion, Entware and Tailscale on the USB 2.0 Port (USB 3.0 configured as USB 2.0)

[glens]

Some mechanism is needed to map what was placed where in the swap space - a lookup table - and this takes RAM which will not be swapped out. The larger the swap the larger the table.

2x RAM is a rule of thumb which ensures enough room to hibernate the system.

 

[sfx2000]

Obviously, you ignore the vibrant coder community hereabouts. And the features the routers come with - by Asus and @RMerlin

No, I acknowledge and appreciate the creativity of the scripting community here on the SNBForums

I also point out that AsusWRT is not a general purpose computer - it's a router, as such, things should be kept as simple as possible for the sake of security and stability...

 

[elorimer]

The absolute, #1, paramount and essential thing is that if the USB fails in any way, the router recovers its functionality, including VPN access. No key function can be dependent on the USB. The add-ons are delightful and useful but not mission critical.

 

[HorseCalledHorse]

I have recommended this and many people are using same or similar with no issues.

Thanks for this, Tech9. Your recommendations made this too cheap and too easy not to do. Two Amazon searches was all it took.

 

[glens]

2x RAM is a rule of thumb which ensures enough room to hibernate the system.

This part was "tongue in cheek" since, well, if I have to explain it, it's no longer funny.

 

[HorseCalledHorse]

Looks like my new SSD and enclosure will be delivered today, which leads to this follow up: what's the best way to make the switch from using a USB stick to the SSD?

I don't want to mess around with cloning the drive, so my plan is simply to uninstall Skynet and Diversion (which should also uninstall entware, right?) from the USB and then start over with fresh installs on the SSD. I do have some manual whitelist entries in Diversion I'd like to bring over, but I can't see a way of finding and copying those so again, will probably start from scratch.

Anything else I should know?

 

[jksmurf]

Looks like my new SSD and enclosure will be delivered today, which leads to this follow up: what's the best way to make the switch from using a USB stick to the SSD?

I don't want to mess around with cloning the drive, so my plan is simply to uninstall Skynet and Diversion (which should also uninstall entware, right?) from the USB and then start over with fresh installs on the SSD.

I do have some manual whitelist entries in Diversion I'd like to bring over, but I can't see a way of finding and copying those so again, will probably start from scratch.

Anything else I should know?

If you look at post 1, relevant part reproduced below, I’d recommend doing it that way. It utilises simple tools in amtm, properly formats the things as ext4 (journaled if you wish) and is relatively simple as Colin’s instructions are normally very clear (note the reboot). No sheep were hurt in the process.

So I formatted the new SSD as EXT4 using the amtm "fd" utility, copied all the files across from the USB to the SSD across using Colin Taylor's excellent advice here (although you must also reboot after step 9) and now I have a fully running SSD (which essentially 'cloned' my Diversion and Tailscale setup, albeit I did not use any specific cloning commands or 3rd-party software). The SSD is (hopefully) more reliable than (and will last longer than) my trusty USB stick, which is now a backup!

As regards the whitelist entries, I am sure someone can tell you where they are in a dir, and you can copy them out and back using WinSCP. I am pretty sure I saw that file when I was poking around inside Diversion folder structure once. I actually saved them from the Diversion Whitelist Tab to notepad just to be sure.

 

[thelonelycoder]

As regards the whitelist entries, I am sure someone can tell you where they are in a dir, and you can copy them out and back using WinSCP. I am pretty sure I saw that file when I was poking around inside Diversion folder structure once. I actually saved them from the Diversion Whitelist Tab to notepad just to be sure.

@HorseCalledHorse it‘s /opt/share/diversion/list

For both Diversion 4.x and 5.x istallations, only copy the whitelist and blacklist files. Ignore the ones ending in *conf, these are auto generated off of the two files.

 

[HorseCalledHorse]

@HorseCalledHorse it‘s /opt/share/diversion/list

For both Diversion 4.x and 5.x istallations, only copy the whitelist and blacklist files. Ignore the ones ending in *conf, these are auto generated off of the two files.

Thanks so much. I'll grab those and back them up just in case.

 

[glens]

Looks like my new SSD and enclosure will be delivered today

I recall seeing at least one thread recently where the SSD was "going to sleep" even though that option was disabled in the GUI for the USB port. It would seem the controller chip in the enclosure was doing that with no visible means to opt for the behavior. In that case it was hosting a Samba share and causing minor grief, as I recall. Just a heads' up about something to check. I don't recall the make/model in particular.

 

[HorseCalledHorse]

I recall seeing at least one thread recently where the SSD was "going to sleep" even though that option was disabled in the GUI for the USB port. It would seem the controller chip in the enclosure was doing that with no visible means to opt for the behavior. In that case it was hosting a Samba share and causing minor grief, as I recall. Just a heads' up about something to check. I don't recall the make/model in particular.

Just got the package. The ORICO enclosure @Tech9 recommended has an ASMedia controller, so it shouldn't be an issue.

 

[Tech9]

The ORICO enclosure @Tech9 recommended

Hey, if this thing explodes and burns down your house... I have nothing to do with it.

 

[HorseCalledHorse]

Hey, if this thing explodes and burns down your house... I have nothing to do with it.

Now you tell me…

(Typed from the smouldering ashes of what used to be my home office.)

 

[glens]

A while ago I picked up a Sabrent enclosure. It's evidently got a realtek chipset. It does well what I got it for, though haven't used it for anything like what's under discussion. Maybe I oughta plug it in and see if it goes to sleep.

 

[Kingp1n]

The router will crash long before the swap is filled up. This is what happens regardless of the swap file size.

I've been using the 10GB swap file for the longest time without issues. I doubt my swap hasn't been used at all. I guess it's useless to have these different swap file size options (basically only use default one) if the end result will always be the same correct?

 

[glens]

The end result how? If it takes X bytes of RAM-which-CANNOT-be-swapped-out to map out Y bytes of swap space, how much will it be for 2x swap, for 10x swap, etc.? Enabling a ridiculous amount of swap is, well, a little ridiculous. Take it far enough and you can /ensure/ swap will be needed.

For these not-really-general-purpose GNU/Linux boxes I'd only consider swap space (and starting small) if an issue actually arose. Hasn't yet for me to my knowledge.

 

[Viktor Jaep]

A while ago I picked up a Sabrent enclosure. It's evidently got a realtek chipset. It does well what I got it for, though haven't used it for anything like what's under discussion. Maybe I oughta plug it in and see if it goes to sleep.

I've got a Sabrent enclosure with a Samsung SSD, and does not go to sleep on me.

 

[Tech9]

I guess it's useless to have these different swap file size options

In my opinion - yes. I remember Skynet complaining with swap <2GB and this was some compatibility issue. I don't know if this is still the case or not. Nothing else needs 2GB swap. Nothing else can get to 2GB swap use. I've never seen swap used on 1GB RAM models and rarely on 512MB RAM models and only when some blocklist update is going on. This is with normal use. I tried few times to reach swap use point by running almost everything available in AMTM plus hit the router hard with thousands of files transfers at the same time... got to about 0.5GB and the router needed restart. Services crashing at random due to OOM, lost WAN, lost Wi-Fi, TrendMicro restarting, etc.

I've been using the 10GB swap

You never used 10GB swap. You have 10GB swap file size. It's the same like Windows automatically assigned page file 2-3GB, but you make it custom 16GB just in case.

 

[Ripshod]

I have seen my swapfile being used, but so far less than 10MB at any time (3-4MB would be normal).Right now it's not being used, but it's only 3hrs since reboot. And this is with Skynet.

 

[elorimer]

I've never seen swap used on 1GB RAM models

AX88U here with 1GB, 2GB swap, because I gave up talking about it. 18mb swap in use. Scribe is the real memory hog, using in my case 375mb but with other models I've seen it at 975mb. I don't really believe it.