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Posted

What to do to switch from ext4 to F2FS (one big caveat: Partition/filesystem resizing doesn't work with F2FS so this is only for you if you know the size of your SD card prior to building the image)? I tried the following so far:

But the Banana Pro I test with doesn't boot. I would assume that I have to modify boot.cmd (and exchange /boot/ with /)?

 

Thx

Posted

You probably only need to define where is root, customizing boot.cmd + recompile will be necessary.

 

from

root=/dev/mmcblk0p1 

to

root=/dev/mmcblk0p2 

Posted

Made some progress:

 

I ended up with this boot.cmd:

setenv bootargs console=tty1 root=/dev/mmcblk0p2 rootwait rootfstype=f2fs sunxi_ve_mem_reserve=0 sunxi_g2d_mem_reserve=0 sunxi_no_mali_mem_reserve sunxi_fb_mem_reserve=16 hdmi.audio=EDID:0 disp.screen0_output_mode=1920x1080p60 panic=10 consoleblank=0 enforcing=0 loglevel=1
#--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Boot loader script to boot with different boot methods for old and new kernel
#--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
if ext4load mmc 0 0x00000000 /.next
then
# sunxi mainline kernel
#--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ext4load mmc 0 0x49000000 /dtb/${fdtfile} 
ext4load mmc 0 0x46000000 /zImage
env set fdt_high ffffffff
bootz 0x46000000 - 0x49000000
#--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
else
# sunxi android kernel
#--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ext4load mmc 0 0x43000000 /boot/script.bin
ext4load mmc 0 0x48000000 /boot/zImage
bootz 0x48000000
#--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
fi

 

And I had to relink the kernel (since pointing to /boot/ does not work when /dev/mmcblk0p1 is / from U-boot's point of view:

zImage -> vmlinuz-4.1.1-bananapipro

But now I'm stuck at this point:

Debian GNU/Linux 7 bananapipro ttyS0

bananapipro login: root
Password: 
You are required to change your password immediately (root enforced)
Changing password for root.
(current) UNIX password: 
Enter new UNIX password: 
Retype new UNIX password: 

Authentication token manipulation error

Debian GNU/Linux 7 bananapipro ttyS0

bananapipro login: 

Looks like for whatever reasons / is mounted read-only. 

Posted

I removed 'errors=remount-ro' from fstab that now looks like:

/dev/mmcblk0p2  /           f2fs    defaults,noatime,nodiratime       0       0
/dev/mmcblk0p1  /boot   ext4    defaults,noatime,nodiratime     0       0

And now I'm in:

root@bananapipro:/bonnie# cat /etc/mtab 
/dev/root / f2fs rw,noatime,nodiratime,background_gc=off,nouser_xattr,noacl,noinline_data,active_logs=6 0 0
devtmpfs /dev devtmpfs rw,relatime,size=514128k,nr_inodes=128532,mode=755 0 0
tmpfs /run tmpfs rw,nosuid,noexec,relatime,size=131072k,mode=755 0 0
tmpfs /run/lock tmpfs rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,size=5120k 0 0
proc /proc proc rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime 0 0
tmpfs /run/shm tmpfs rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,size=131072k 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts rw,nosuid,noexec,relatime,gid=5,mode=620,ptmxmode=000 0 0
/dev/mmcblk0p1 /boot ext4 rw,noatime,nodiratime,data=ordered 0 0
tmpfs /tmp tmpfs rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,size=1048576k 0 0
Posted

Some results (tested using "bonnie++ -u nobody" on a Banana Pro with kernel 4.1.1 and default settings):

 

ext4 on slow Intenso TF card:

Version  1.96       ------Sequential Output------ --Sequential Input- --Random-
Concurrency   1     -Per Chr- --Block-- -Rewrite- -Per Chr- --Block-- --Seeks--
Machine        Size K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP  /sec %CP
bananapipro      2G    93  95  9875  19  6020  12   650  99 19163  13  38.5   3
Latency               236ms   27892us    6445ms   49584us     134ms   29474us
Version  1.96       ------Sequential Create------ --------Random Create--------
bananapipro         -Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- -Create-- --Read--- -Delete--
              files  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP
                 16  2059  20 +++++ +++   932  10  1661  16 +++++ +++   605  10
Latency              1632ms   10146us    4828ms    5130ms   10087us    5125ms
 
ext4 on fast SanDisk "Extreme Pro" TF card:
Version  1.96       ------Sequential Output------ --Sequential Input- --Random-
Concurrency   1     -Per Chr- --Block-- -Rewrite- -Per Chr- --Block-- --Seeks--
Machine        Size K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP  /sec %CP
bananapipro      2G    96  99 21209  15 10929   8   675  99 28457   8  1737  63
Latency             92653us   18445us    2968ms   15123us   25312us   11677us
Version  1.96       ------Sequential Create------ --------Random Create--------
bananapipro         -Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- -Create-- --Read--- -Delete--
              files  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP
                 16  6862  60 +++++ +++  2151  14  5815  49 +++++ +++  1545  10
Latency               137ms    2480us    1429ms     670ms      97us    1671ms
 
f2fs on the same fast SanDisk "Extreme Pro" TF card:
Version  1.96       ------Sequential Output------ --Sequential Input- --Random-
Concurrency   1     -Per Chr- --Block-- -Rewrite- -Per Chr- --Block-- --Seeks--
Machine        Size K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP  /sec %CP
bananapipro      2G   116  99 20736  22 10241  18   664  99 27806  20  2012 147
Latency               196ms    5023ms    4332ms   41126us     119ms   36883us
Version  1.96       ------Sequential Create------ --------Random Create--------
bananapipro         -Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- -Create-- --Read--- -Delete--
              files  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP
                 16  2446  35 +++++ +++ 12308  87  2778  38 +++++ +++  6677  83
Latency             13341us    1319us    9974us   10020us     154us   10824us

 

 
Posted

And now with cpufreq settings changed to "performance" (the cpufreq defaults starting with kernel 4.0 are somewhat problematic if you're after storage performance since defaults means: ondemand without io_is_busy)

 

f2fs with performance cpufreq governor on the same fast SanDisk "Extreme Pro" TF card:

Version  1.96       ------Sequential Output------ --Sequential Input- --Random-
Concurrency   1     -Per Chr- --Block-- -Rewrite- -Per Chr- --Block-- --Seeks--
Machine        Size K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP  /sec %CP
bananapipro      2G   117  99 18831  12  9967   8   675 100 28788   9  2037  75
Latency             70771us   29371us    5436ms   14823us   38940us   20005us
Version  1.96       ------Sequential Create------ --------Random Create--------
bananapipro         -Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- -Create-- --Read--- -Delete--
              files  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP  /sec %CP
                 16  2446  31 +++++ +++ 12839  87  2762  37 +++++ +++  6759  82
Latency               782us     847us    3372us     753us      85us    2021us
Posted

I made a few other tests and noticed that using a very slow SD card the system behaved 'snappier' (at least this was my feeling maybe only driven by 'it has to be more snappy after hours of fiddling around'). But I wasn't able to get the performance gains others reported (eg. Phoronix). Maybe just a matter of methodogloy and more time (but I've enough)

 

Anyway I patched your build system 'statically' and made a diff of the changes: http://pastebin.com/hidkugaG

 

Would be better to make this stuff optional, eg. introducing ROOTFS=ext4|btrfs|f2fs -- but the main problem is that neither f2fs nor btrfs are resizeable and therefore an $SDSIZE value chosen too large will result in an image not able to write to SD card or NAND. So if $ROOTFS isn't set as ext4 the user should be asked for the size of his SD card (2, 4, 8, 16, ...) and then $SDSIZE should be set appropriately.

 

Anyway. You/we have to fix the build system since setting $BOOTSIZE greater than 0 currently fails (wrong entries in boot.cmd/boot.scr, wrong symlink creation in patch/packaging-next.patch, wrong fstab contents). And since you're using mainline u-boot I would suggest switching from VFAT to ext4 in deboostrap.sh (line 66).

 

BTW: In configuration.sh $CPUMAX should be set to "1080000" otherwise a fallback to 960MHz will happen (or maybe this is intended since with mainline 960000 is the maximum without patching arch/arm/boot/dts/sun7i-a20.dtsi?)

Posted

This FAT boot partition is solved half way - scripts need to be adjusted manually, the rest works. I thought I left a note in configuration but I didn't :)

 

Nice job.

 

btrfs should be resizeable but not with resize2fs so this part is solvable. f2fs probably too. 

 

On the other hand I manage to write a script manual v1.0 :)

 

I'll fix this asap.

 

And since you're using mainline u-boot I would suggest switching from VFAT to ext4 in deboostrap.sh (line 66).

 

Oh, this is intentionally. Some people want to have fat boot partition to be windows accessible. I'll rather do it configurable then. 

 

BTW: In configuration.sh $CPUMAX should be set to "1080000" otherwise a fallback to 960MHz will happen (or maybe this is intended since with mainline 960000 is the maximum without patching arch/arm/boot/dts/sun7i-a20.dtsi?)

Not sure out of my head how is this on mainline.

Posted

On the other hand I manage to write a script manual v1.0 :)

 

Thx, great job. I hope the URL remains since I will link often to it  :)

 

Regarding the filesystems. In my opinion btrfs is only interesting for disk storage (SATA, USB) and for people who know what they do (creating snapshots, transferring these snapshots incrementally using 'btrfs send/receive' to other disks/machines and so on -- all this has drawbacks, for example getting a clue how much space is really available on the disk in question).

 

So regarding btfrs this is more a candidate for nand-sata-install: Allowing to use btrfs for sda1 and recommending to partition the disk prior to that and to use a separate partition for / and for other/media data (since using snapshots this makes backing up everything way more easy).

 

Regarding F2FS: It should be superiour compared to ext4 when used on NAND/SD Cards or other flash based media. But I'm still not convinced whether it's worth the efforts since the resizing problem remains. Would be great to be able to choose it optionally but I doubt that it's ready for your normal OS images.

 

Regarding cpufreq stuff: This remains the same in mainline: You can adjust the sysfs values as you want but all values will be rounded down in 48 MHz steps.

 

BTW: I will try to add a few additional operating points in arch/arm/boot/dts/sun7i-a20.dtsi to slightly 'overclock' some A20 boards:

                        operating-points = <
                                /* kHz    uV */
                                1200000 1600000
                                1152000 1550000
                                1104000 1500000
                                1056000 1450000
                                1008000 1450000
                                960000  1400000
                                912000  1400000
                                864000  1300000
                                720000  1200000
                                528000  1100000
                                312000  1000000
                                144000  900000
                                >;

I'll report back if I find anything interesting (A20 specs say that 1.4V is max.)

Posted

What to do to switch from ext4 to F2FS

 

One solution that's perhaps easier, that doesn't require as much edits to the build environment, is to simply go through the usual compile.sh process (using the default ext4 for root) and convert post installation. This way you don't need to worry about partition resizing, and it gives you the option to encrypt root as well.

 

You'll only want to ensure that the BOOTSIZE parameter is not 0, so that separate /boot and / partitions are created in the image. For the BananaPi, I used 16MB as you did.

 

Once you've put the image on an SD card and gone through the initial boot, use a USB flash drive (or SATA drive) to temporarily mount as root. To do this, create a single ext4 partition on the USB drive, mount it (e.g. mount -t ext4 /dev/sda1 /mnt/usbdrv) and copy the contents of root to it (e.g. rsync -arx / /mnt/usbdrv). Now edit /boot/boot.cmd and set the root device as /dev/sda1 (assuming that's the partition you just copied root to). Rebuild the boot.scr (i.e. mkimage -C none -A arm -T script -d /boot/boot.cmd /boot/boot.scr) and reboot.

 

You'll notice that the USB drive (or SATA) is now mounted as /root. This allows you to easily re-format the former root partition on the SD card (e.g. /dev/mmcblk0p2) as f2fs, with the ability to optionally encrypt the root partition using cryptsetup before you format it as f2fs. And it will preserve the size of the former ext4 partition, so no need to worry about the possible lack of f2fs resizing. Once you've mounted (e.g. to /mnt/sdcard) and copied the root files back over to the newly formatted /dev/mmcblk0p2 (e.g. rsync -arx / /mnt/sdcard) edit the /etc/fstab file on the sdcard to properly mount root using f2fs (e.g. /mnt/sdcard/etc/fstab) then you can just edit the /boot/bboot.cmd file to point back to /dev/mmcblk0p2, recreate boot.scr, take out the UBS flash drive, and reboot. If you do opt for encryption, you'll need to also edit crypttab (e.g. /mnt/sdcard/etc/crypttab) and edit the boot.cmd to reflect the use of an encrypted root (e.g. root=/dev/mapper/cryptroot cryptdevice=/dev/mmcblk0p2:cryptroot).

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