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[MARTINS]

Hello everybody!
As i very much love the original system, but the space on the 1 GB internal nand-drive is very spare, I'm looking for an alternative to boot the system from an external SD-card or USB-stick where i can install more packages and have everything in one place.

Any experiences?

I've searched through wiki.laptop.org but couldn't find anything...

[mavrothal]

See here http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OS_images_for_USB_disks
It also works with SDcards
The lzma file for the latest official release are here http://download.laptop.org/xo-1/os/official/883/

[why]

Mavrothal,

Hello Again!  I've a couple of questions that may be more appropriate for the "Hardware" Topic/thread but they ARE related to the SD card issue.

Is there a maximum card size that the XO1 can boot from?  Or even simple file access maximum capability?

Noticed that some devices (pads, Samsung Satellite tabs) have a maximum 32G recommendation for external micro-SD cards, is the XO1 limited in that respect?

Secondly, I've noticed that the suspend/resume capability DOES support SD cards, if I access my 32G using Audacious or Mplayer from your XOPuppy distro the resume function will retain settings for the card, the XO1 retains previously assigned media status (sda1) and playback functions aren't interrupted when resuming from suspend.

HOWEVER, USB key/dongle format isn't supported for suspend, neither are USB based WD high capacity drives (160G).

Power up functions are apparently related, when I "Resume" after suspend I notice that the X01 seeks those drives immediately and assigns them NEW drive allocations (sdb1, etc.) which disallows continued media playback.

Is there a means of adjustment for this?  Could I (for instance) write the drive settings into the FSTAB or MTAB and retain those settings thru the boot process, keep them after suspend?  I've actually tried this (and failed) but drive allocations are re-assigned after suspend REGARDLESS of FSTAB settings.

Or am I missing something?

This isn't critical, I've lately read an email distribution from a developer (David Cameron) noting that power save on the XO1 is designed to diminish the SD card voltage over time to save/extend battery life, suppose that could be the limiting factor for USB media as well ;-)

Thanks for the great support, as always, Mavrothal!

[mavrothal]

Is there a maximum card size that the XO1 can boot from?  Or even simple file access maximum capability?

Noticed that some devices (pads, Samsung Satellite tabs) have a maximum 32G recommendation for external micro-SD cards, is the XO1 limited in that respect?

Not that I know of. However, bigger cards have the tendency to misbehave as they are designed for other purposes (video recording mostly)

Secondly, I've noticed that the suspend/resume capability DOES support SD cards, if I access my 32G using Audacious or Mplayer from your XOPuppy distro the resume function will retain settings for the card, the XO1 retains previously assigned media status (sda1) and playback functions aren't interrupted when resuming from suspend.

HOWEVER, USB key/dongle format isn't supported for suspend, neither are USB based WD high capacity drives (160G).

The XO is powering off the USB ports when it suspends. When it resumes sees them as a new device (unless you have booted from it).
Though usually it assigns the same device (eg sdb1) unless the device is used by an app. Then the puppy device manager does not have the chance to delete the device after the power off of the USB thus when the USB reappears it assigns a new device to it since the original one appear as taken.
You may want to add a script in the /etc/powerd/presuspend folder to quite your player before suspend (and maybe restart it on postresume)

[why]

Thanks for the review, verifies what seemed apparent.  Only concern I've got for this particular  use of my SD card is continued wear and tear when I write new media onto it, not all that often regardless.

Won't mess with writing a script under current conditions of use, the SD card serves the purpose fine.  These cards are much less expensive now too.  $99 for an off-the-shelf 64G SD card without shopping around, which I've not been interested enough to do yet.

Did wonder whether format (the USB key I was using is Linux EXT3) might be of concern for purposes of suspend/resume, particularly concerning the high capacity WD drive I've got which is vanilla VFAT, either 16 or 32 bit.

But it's interesting that I can boot from USB media and use the SD card slot for storage with suspend/resume intact, that's one possible future use.  

May eventually set up the WD 160G drive for boot which would exclude needing more storage ;-)  But would suspend/resume be supported?

Thanks again.

[mavrothal]

Thanks for the review, verifies what seemed apparent.  Only concern I've got for this particular  use of my SD card is continued wear and tear when I write new media onto it, not all that often regardless.

Modern cards are pretty good in wear leveling. I have one for more than 3 years that also has the XO's swap. Find in a good one that will play nice with the XO, is a different story though  

Did wonder whether format (the USB key I was using is Linux EXT3) might be of concern for purposes of suspend/resume, particularly concerning the high capacity WD drive I've got which is vanilla VFAT, either 16 or 32 bit.

The suspend/resume mechanism is file system agnostic AFAIK.
I have used both Ext2/3 and VFAT sticks and work fine with suspend.

PS: I think we are highjacking this thread with XOpup stuff though...

[why]

OK, that's the extent of my inquiries except for resume/suspend functionality of a high capacity 160G Western Digital USB drive.

If I boot from it, would the suspend/resume functionality be maintained?  No changes to drive assignment?

Thought I'd try to get in this last one but again appreciate the thread.

We COULD move this to the Puppy support section if you'd prefer, or I can copy my questions and your replies to that subject/forum.

Thanks again, Mav.

[mavrothal]

OK, that's the extent of my inquiries except for resume/suspend functionality of a high capacity 160G Western Digital USB drive.

If I boot from it, would the suspend/resume functionality be maintained?  No changes to drive assignment?

I do not know since I do not have such a drive.
I would think would be OK. Power drain however may be a concern regardless of suspend/resume
Is simple enough to try it though (and let us know in the puppy thread )