Large HDD >2TB

[matzi]

Hi FVDW,

i am using your software since version 5 on a SPD8020 and it is really great!

Now i bought a used nwsp 2 lite housing and a new WD 2,5TB HDD. I Used the setup instructions that are linked in the firmware download section with FW 11. After some time i found out that fdisk cannot handle partitions >2TB. So i went on parted under the actual ubuntu distribution. Then i found that parted can handle partitions >2TB but only when using the gpt partition table. I tried this and found that the actual version 12.0 of your firmware apparently does not run from this partition type. So in the end I partitioned everything again with fdisk. But this way I am wasting some 100GB because I have all the system partitions plus the 2TB general purpose partition which is alltogether something like 2,2TB. Is there a way to use all the space on a large disk with gpt?

Remark: I kept the block align thing satisfied by setting the last cylinder of every pertition dividable by 8 plus 1. This way it wastes some cylinders but that is minor loss.

Matthias

[fvdw]

To my knowledge this will be possible as the bootloader is not capable to handle disks bigger then 2.2 TB
Maybe the nwsp2 "light" can do it. That mentions something on gpt in the line displayed by the boot loader

[matzi]

I see, it is not a question of fvdw firmware, rather it's a question of the bootloader. How can I find out which bootloader I have? You say there is a message. How can I see it? (Hopefully no need to populate serial connectors on the PCB)

[fvdw]

No it has nothing to do with the firmware

You can see the line I was referring to when using the command dmesg at the linux command line

My nwsp2 classic gives in the output that dmesg command generates a line with this output

Code: Select all

Kernel command line: console=ttyS0,115200 root=/dev/sda7 ro reset=0 productType=ASTON_KW

while my nwsp2 lite gives on that position this output

Code: Select all

Kernel command line: console=ttyS0,115200 root=/dev/sda7 ro reset=0 productType=ASTON_KW cap=gpt,lba64

until today I never tried if the nwsp2 Lite accepts a 2.5 or 3TB HDD, so if that bootloader will be able to use these bigger disk is still a question mark

ps there is connector for serial port present on the PCB. But be aware that if you make an error with flashing the boot loader that your nwsp2 will probably dead forever.
And although the nwsp2 Lite might have a more recent bootloader I rather prefer the classic as it has twice the amount of RAM compared to the Lite version (256 MB versus 128 MB)

[matzi]

It took awhile but now I have some new experience.

I tried gpt partiotioned 2,5TB HDD as main HDD and as secondary HDD through USB port on spd8020 and on Lacie NWSP2 lite. All 4 combinations do not work. If it is as main HDD the system just does not boot. As external HDD the system just does not recognize this volume. For the trials as external HDD I have been usig an external SATA to USB housing that is working under Win 7 and under Ubunutu Linux.

A working version is to partition the HDD as MBR partition table but then the biggest possible partition size is limited to 2TB. This way the space bigger than 2TB (public) + some GB for the system partitions is unusable

Another subject for everyone looking for big HDD here is a partition table that satisfies the alignment thing


Disk /dev/sda: 2000.3 GB, 2000398934016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243201 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 64 513056 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 65 128 514080 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 129 192 514080 82 Linux swap
/dev/sda4 193 243201 1951969792+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 193 292 802226 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 297 297 8032+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 305 368 514080 83 Linux
/dev/sda8 369 243201 1950555048+ 83 Linux

in this table the end block of sda4 and sda8 is variable to the maximum possible. The gaps between 5-6 and 6-7 are there for alignment.

Now finally do you it it is possible to use gpt somehow? :please :please

Maybe move this thread and open a general topic?

[fvdw]

:scratch mmm...it could be a problem from the kernel that it does not have a sata driver that supports gpt partitioned disks

It would be helpful if someone could connect a gpt partitoned disk and see the output of the serial console during boot. To see where it fails. if it loads the kernel but hangs when trying to boot the rest of linux it could be a problem with the disk driver as present in the kernel not able to read form such a disk. Need to do some reading

--edit
yep the kernel must be compile with CONFIG_EFI_PARTITION=y to support GPT partioned disks

see for instance here http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux ... index.html

In the current kernel it is not set. We can compile a trial kernel to see if then GPT partioned disks can be used on the nwsp Lite.
PS On the normal nwsp2 it will not work as the bootloader doesn't support gpt so to see when looking at boot output.

I will move this topic to development

[fvdw]

I compiled a trial kernel that should be able to handle GPT partitons , please check your pm box

[matzi]

Thanks for the kernel - Good news!

I can confirm this kernel is running on a gpt partitioned disk. At least on a 2.0TB WD HDD, most likely it will work on bigger HDDs as well. But there are two things left. The externel USB HDD (GPT partitioned as well) is still not recognized. Maybe you know another trick ?

For partititoning I did the following with gparted:

sda1 504MB
sda2 503MB
sda3 503MB
sda4 1MB
sda5 784MB
sda6 8MB
sda7 503 MB
sda8 the rest

These sizes are taken from gparted on the prior installation.

Now, is there something to optimize? What are the required sizes? What about partition 4 which is not necessary now because there is no extended partition in gpt and part 4 was just providing the frame for part 5-8. I just set up a minimum partition 4 to provide the ususal parttion numbers.

[fvdw]

Thats good news, it would be intersted to sknow if t now supports a fisk bigger then 2.2 TB but very likely it will be the case.
No, unfortunate I do not know a trick for gpt partioned usb disks. Probably it is a driver issue.
If GPT does not use extended partitions then you did the right thing to get the correct partition numbers.
The boot loader search for the kernel in sda6 and a linux system on sda7. sda1,2,3,5,7 and 8 are needed by the firmware

[matzi]

More good news:

The kernel is also running on a WD 2,5TB HDD with a "public" share bigger than 2TB! That's what I was looking for. I kept the partition scheme mentioned two post above, just changed sda8 to max. Again gparted of Ubuntu 12.04 was used because the lacie inbuilt fdisk cannot handle this and parted or gparted is not available there.

So my wish for future developement is to keep the gpt enabled in future releases. And please, could you check if there is a driver available to use gpt disks also on the USB port? This way we would have a perfect "Raid" large volume system.