linux experts

enfield_freddy

yup


"There are no plans to support software RAID. It's something that <1% of users would benefit from and the project deliberately wants to avoid features that only a handful of people will ever use. It's a policy that keeps the OS size the maintenance overhead manageable. If you really need software RAID you need to stick with a full-OS distro like Ubuntu"


that is what I have been reading for the last few days


hence hoping that someone might have used a distro , to run XBMC (auto start) and know that raid is easily set up in that distro


however (as stated above) most links for setting up raid on Ubuntu , etc , refer to the OS being raided , not extra drives

Ximian

I have a Linux desktop running OpenSUSE 13.2 that boots from SSD and I have a RAID 5 with 3 drives (/home partition), it's software RAID though (mdadm) and was easily configurable during installation. I did have XBMC installed on the same machine using an older version of OpenSUSE.
There are instructions available online on how to configure XBMC/Kodi on various Linux distros and will also auto login.

enfield_freddy

thank you , I will look at OpenSUSE 13.2 and experiment from there , will also read up on the autostart , now I have a base system to run from

Ximian

No worries. I'm sure that there are other distros that will allow you to boot from SSD and set up a RAID on a different partition such as /home. I prefer OpenSUSE as I've been using it for a few years. On most distros, It should be fairly straightforward when you start the installation, you can specify the partitions to be created on the specific device. On my system I have /boot and root (/) on the SSD and then select the RAID system and add the drives to the RAID for /home where I have all my data. I believe that I disabled the RAID configuration in the BIOS as well, can confirm my set up tomorrow if you need more details.

enfield_freddy wrote: »

thank you , I will look at OpenSUSE 13.2 and experiment from there , will also read up on the autostart , now I have a base system to run from

esuhl

If performance is important to you, and you don't mind spending a little time getting it set up, Arch Linux would be my choice.

It requires some basic Linux knowledge, and the ability to read the wiki and look up anything you don't understand. But it will give you a minimalist system that runs really quickly. You can install pretty much anything that's available in any other distro, and set everything up how you want.

Despite being daunting for a non-techie, Arch tries to be as "simple" as possible. And there's nothing you can't learn with a quick web search if you get stuck.

It certainly works with XBMC (now re-branded Kodi):
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Kodi

And it works with both software RAID and FakeRAID:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/RAID
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Installing_with_Fake_RAID

And some tips on SSD usage here:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Solid_State_Drives

You either love it or hate it, I guess. But it's the only Linux distro I've ever been able to tame! I always break the others. :-/

https://www.archlinux.org/

prowla

enfield_freddy wrote: »

I don,t , but as stated in my first post , this machine (h81 chipset / g3240 cpu / 8g ddr3 ) allows access to files (as well as music/vid) at speeds greater than 3 times that of a dlink dns 320s , so as its sat there running all day (streaming radio or TV in an evening) it might as well be used as a NAS


starting a film or accessing music on the cabled dlink typically took a second or two , with onboard drive(s) it is instant

Thanks - it certainly is over-spec for a HTPC, so why not! :-)

However, the noise of the drives might be noticeable.

Is LVM an option?

enfield_freddy

lvm ??? Linux newbee here ,


seems a shame not to make this thing work


PS h81 motherboards (asus) can be got for as little as £13.99 (new) on ebay http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Asus-H81M-E-Motherboard-Sockat-1150-DDR3-Micro-ATX-No-I-O-Shield-/281490154176?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item418a1ee2c0


g3220 cpu,s are less than £50 on amazon , and memory (4g) is less than £30


so its actually as cheap to build a good system , than pig about with a chineeze droid box

Ximian

LVM - Logical Volume Manager

You can use LVM to manage your drives, set up RAID, resize logical volumes etc..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logical_Volume_Manager_%28Linux%29

bluesnake

enfield_freddy wrote: »

... home theatre system based on the xbmc programme . ...

I have the machine set to boot from a ssd drive , and have added a 2t wd drive for storage (mapped and readable/writable from a PC) this drive is in ext4 ,

because of the motherboard and CPU , this is proving to be a blistering quick NAS drive , speeds in/out well in excess of my dlink nas drive.


I would like to ditch the dlink and use the 2 x 4t (red) drives in a raid format (4t showing) .


all the forums state that openelec was never designed to cater for raid drives.

as a "windows user" , I would like to set up a Linux base with the XBMC on it as a programme (only programme)

I would build a nas drive possibly using those cheap hp cube servers, and use this http://mymediaexperience.com/raspberry-pi-xbmc-with-raspbmc/ or something PI type object or Banana etc.

Or just the cube server with XBMC, or only the Pi on its own?

Your method sounds like it will consume three-ish (or more?) times the power of a 75" monitor.
http://www.rtings.com/info/lcd-vs-led-vs-plasma/power-consumption-and-electricity-cost

enfield_freddy

umm , I don,t get that last statement , you refer to raspberry Pis ? they only have USB access , so will be very slow.


I am in fact using a version of raspbmc , yup the version written before the slow pi came about , its called openelec. and works with x86 computers




PS we have a intel n2820 (2830 actually) NUC sat in the daughters bedroom , (running openelec) she just streams files/music directly via its built in wifi




when you add up the cost of a pi , with wifi and remote it gets expensive