March 27, 2007
KuroBox PRO - The new improved kuro
I've been waiting for thw new improved kuro box since summer.
After having 4 of them for various backup and redundant uses, I've been waiting for the next generation.
I believe they will be released here in America around April.
http://www.geekstuff4u.com/product_info.phpmanufacturers_id=&products_id=498
I'm a bit disappointed. Although they've upgraded the hard drive interface to SATA, The box still only fits one.
This is where I thought the Thecus did better allowing two drives so you could mirror them.
Also, the second SATA port is not available externally. Dam. I was hoping to mirror two drives. Sigh.
Well hopefully the USB performs better with the later kernel.
Pics Here
http://www.ch1.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/
http://forum.linkstationwiki.net/index.php?action=vthread&forum=18&topic=2477&page=1
Posted by Me at 10:00 AM | Comments (0)
May 22, 2006
Tentative Kurobox Specs
There's talk about a new Kurobox III.
The tenative specs are not too shabby.
Just when I was thinking of jumping ship for something with 2 in board drives for mirroring.
* Kuro 3 Update: Tentitive HW specs:
o PPC proc TDB (400-667Mhz)
o 16 (maybe Cool MB FLASH
o 1X MiniPCI slot
o 1X internal SATA
o 3X external ESATA
o 2X USB
o 2X Network (probably Gigabit)
o 1X SODIMM slot (memory not included)
o Universal Power Supply like HG-WR
o U-Boot bootloader
http://www.kurobox.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=951
Posted by Me at 11:00 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
February 28, 2006
Kurobox tweaks - using hdparm to squeeze out speed
So.. My mp3 archive got corrupted on hercules.. again!!!
Dunno what happened, but when I powered off the external USB hard drive the machine went bonkers.
I've always felt Linux and USB do not mix well. At least in the 2.4.20ish tree.
Even USB on the Kuro is pretty dam slow.
Never thought it would affect the other scsi subsystems though..
Lo and behold my 300GB mp3 archive filesystem ended up being 1 large 300GB file.
No system. wtf!
So I break down, format and get down to rsyncing the files back from the Kurobox. (kuro 1 of 2).
The throughput is about 4MB/s and will take ages to move the 300GB of files.
So I logon to the Kuro and start tweaking vm and hdparm.
The magical settings for hdparm bumped up the rsync from 4Mb/s to a peak of 6-7Mb/s.
My init script follows.
#!/bin/sh
# set stop time for hdd spindle moter
if [ -x /sbin/hdparm ] ; then
/sbin/hdparm -S 241 /dev/hda
/sbin/hdparm -c 1 -d 1 -a 16 -m 16 /dev/hda
fi
Normally the drives are already enabled for DMA. (-d 1).
I added -c 1 for 32 bit i/o on the pci buss.
-m 16 for multicount transfers (i.e. 16 sectors are transfered at a time from drive to ide bus)
-a 16 for readahead buffering internal to the drive's cache.
I think it was the -a 16 that did it as the other settings were already present.
I doubt I'll be able to improve write performance without turning on write caching.
When I get a chance I'll redo some benchmarks on the 1GB network to see how much I can squeeze out of the kuro.
Right now hercules is still on the operating table and not hooked up to the 1GB switch.
Posted by Me at 09:35 AM | Comments (5)
February 27, 2006
WOW, snagged a Kurobox on eBay
Funny how things work out.
Here I go and have Larry order one for him and one for me at the new price, and one pops up on eBay for less ($150.00 what a deal) and WITH a 200GB hard drive!!
You know what I did!
So now I'll have 4.
Hey, you can never have enough backup.
I plan to get rid of all my tape drives and tapes.
I have a nice SCSI Mammoth and over 100 of the 20/40GB Mammoth AME tapes.
It just doesn't make sense to use these anymore.
rsync'ing to an external USB or FIREWIRE drive works the best.
With HDUP (thanks Tom) I can have incrementals automated.
Posted by Me at 01:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 25, 2006
Kurobox Price reduction
Just noticed this on the Kurobox.Com Forum this weekend. Not a bad price if I do say so myself. I'm planning to pick up my third unit. These are very handy little boxes that have saved my ass a couple of times due to recent filesystem corruption with Linux/USB and IDE/RAID.
Here's the announcement from the forum.
Starting Feb. 21, 2006 for 2 weeks prices of Kurobox have been slashed on http://revogear.com
Standard Kurbox: $109.00 US
Kurobox HG : $179.00 US
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Posted by Me at 10:30 AM | Comments (0)