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    New Feature: /tmp and /var RAM disks on Full installs; /tmp and /var resizing

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved 2.1 Snapshot Feedback and Problems - RETIRED
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    • M
      mdima
      last edited by

      Nice! Does the content of the ramdisk gets committed to the hard disk during a regular reboot/update?

      Thanks,
      ย  ย  Michele

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      • jimpJ
        jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
        last edited by

        @MaxPF:

        Would it make sense to use to use this feature on a Alix box with 256MB of ram?

        Only if you need to slightly tweak the /tmp and /var slice sizes. There isn't much wiggle room on ALIX for that.

        @mdima:

        Nice! Does the content of the ramdisk gets committed to the hard disk during a regular reboot/update?

        It works identically to NanoBSD. The RRD data and DHCP lease data are backed up on shutdown/reboot and restored at bootup. The options for periodic backup of those items also works on here. Also like NanoBSD, the pbi/pkg info is held in /root rather than /var/db/pkg

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        • P
          phil.davis
          last edited by

          On Alix, on the console during boot, I get:

          Mounting filesystems...
          [: -gt: unexpected operator
          [: -gt: unexpected operator
          Setting up memory disks... done.[/code]
          I think that spits out of rc.embedded when use_mfs_tmp_size and use_mfs_var_size have not been set in the config.
          It still falls through the tests somehow and ends up with the default 40MB and 60MB memory disks.
          

          As the Greek philosopher Isosceles used to say, "There are 3 sides to every triangle."
          If I helped you, then help someone else - buy someone a gift from the INF catalog http://secure.inf.org/gifts/usd/

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          • jimpJ
            jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
            last edited by

            @phil.davis:

            On Alix, on the console during boot, I get:

            Mounting filesystems...
            [: -gt: unexpected operator
            [: -gt: unexpected operator
            Setting up memory disks... done.[/code]
            I think that spits out of rc.embedded when use_mfs_tmp_size and use_mfs_var_size have not been set in the config.
            It still falls through the tests somehow and ends up with the default 40MB and 60MB memory disks.
            
            I think that's the bug I fixed with the commit I linked, make sure you've got that one (or try another snap after)
            
            The problem was the config slice wasn't mounted when it tried to read the config, so the file wasn't there. The command should always get a number back from grep -c so long as the file exists, but I could add some extra protections just in case.
            

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            • P
              phil.davis
              last edited by

              It needs a bit fancier checking for null values in rc.embedded - I just submitted a pull request. You might have a neater way of making it do the "-gt 0" check against a possibly empty variable.

              As the Greek philosopher Isosceles used to say, "There are 3 sides to every triangle."
              If I helped you, then help someone else - buy someone a gift from the INF catalog http://secure.inf.org/gifts/usd/

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              • jimpJ
                jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
                last edited by

                Nah your check is fine, I merged it. Thanks!

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                • A
                  athurdent
                  last edited by

                  Great feature, thanks! Works fine so far.

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                  • A
                    asterix
                    last edited by

                    Installed the latest snapshot, turned on this feature. Left blank for default space. Installed Squid3 and after reboot it gives me the below error on the login page and I am locked out as I cannot log into the system. The pfSense is a remote box and I don't have physical access to it. Darn !

                    Warning: session_start(): open(/var/tmp//sess_a5f98c219d39beb8a18480d9a81a2024, O_RDWR) failed: No space left on device (28) in /etc/inc/auth.inc on line 1316

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                    • jimpJ
                      jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
                      last edited by

                      Well what did you expect when you gave it a pittance for space in /tmp and /var and tried to install a package that used it all up?

                      Unfortunately there is no way to prevent foot-shooting there, but I suppose I could add even more stern warnings to the page.

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                      • A
                        asterix
                        last edited by

                        I realized about the setting just the second after I clicked reboot. Any backdoor method to gain access to the system?

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                        • jimpJ
                          jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
                          last edited by

                          Hard to say for sure, if you can get it to the console menu at all you might be able to go back to an older version of the config, assuming any are there. It very well could have wiped out quite a bit if /tmp and/or /var filled up.

                          If you can get to a prompt, check /conf/backup/ and see if there are any old configs there, if there are, then copy one to /conf/config.xml, rm /tmp/config.cache, and reboot

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                          • A
                            asterix
                            last edited by

                            Can't do much remotely. Only access I had to it was over WAN https.

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                            • w0wW
                              w0w
                              last edited by

                              Updated to the latest snapshot via automatic update. No option in System-Advanced-Mics.
                              What am I doing wrong?

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                              • O
                                Oliver_
                                last edited by

                                is it possible to create a option for a third RamDisk?
                                So we can choose Squid/HAVP/etc for using this space for caching!
                                so the normal usage ofย  /tmp and /var is not affected?!

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                                • P
                                  phil.davis
                                  last edited by

                                  @w0w:

                                  Updated to the latest snapshot via automatic update. No option in System-Advanced-Mics.
                                  What am I doing wrong?

                                  Which option is not there?
                                  On nanobsd, the checkbox "Use memory file system for /tmp and /var" does not appear, because it is not optional - it always "Uses memory file system for /tmp and /var".

                                  As the Greek philosopher Isosceles used to say, "There are 3 sides to every triangle."
                                  If I helped you, then help someone else - buy someone a gift from the INF catalog http://secure.inf.org/gifts/usd/

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                                  • jimpJ
                                    jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
                                    last edited by

                                    @Oliver_:

                                    is it possible to create a option for a third RamDisk?
                                    So we can choose Squid/HAVP/etc for using this space for caching!
                                    so the normal usage ofย  /tmp and /var is not affected?!

                                    No, there is no option for that, and probably won't be. Not something common enough to warrant doing. Just config squid to use more memory cache and not a disk cache in a RAM disk. That's a discussion for a different thread though.

                                    Remember: Upvote with the ๐Ÿ‘ button for any user/post you find to be helpful, informative, or deserving of recognition!

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                                    • w0wW
                                      w0w
                                      last edited by

                                      @phil.davis:

                                      @w0w:

                                      Updated to the latest snapshot via automatic update. No option in System-Advanced-Mics.
                                      What am I doing wrong?

                                      Which option is not there?
                                      On nanobsd, the checkbox "Use memory file system for /tmp and /var" does not appear, because it is not optional - it always "Uses memory file system for /tmp and /var".

                                      I have full install done on ssd disk about a half of year ago
                                      Now it shows
                                      2.1-BETA1 (i386)
                                      built on Wed Apr 3 04:19:20 EDT 2013
                                      FreeBSD 8.3-RELEASE-p7

                                      This what I have in System: Advanced: Miscellaneous ย (see attached image)

                                      mics.gif
                                      mics.gif_thumb

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                                      • jimpJ
                                        jimp Rebel Alliance Developer Netgate
                                        last edited by

                                        You must have some other issue preventing that page from getting updated, but it's not relevant to this thread. Start a fresh thread and someone can help you investigate why a firmware update isn't updating that file.

                                        Remember: Upvote with the ๐Ÿ‘ button for any user/post you find to be helpful, informative, or deserving of recognition!

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                                        • P
                                          phil.davis
                                          last edited by

                                          The missing items are all down the end and are all items that have been added in March 2013. My nanobsd system shows them all - Skip rules when gateway is down, /tmp RAM Disk Size, /var RAM Disk Size, Periodic RRD Backup, Periodic DHCP Leases Backup.
                                          It is just as if your /usr/local/www/system_advanced_misc.php was never updated. On your system, check if that file actually contains code for any of these items. Then as JimP recommends, start another thread to try and sort out what happened during updating.

                                          As the Greek philosopher Isosceles used to say, "There are 3 sides to every triangle."
                                          If I helped you, then help someone else - buy someone a gift from the INF catalog http://secure.inf.org/gifts/usd/

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                                          • w0wW
                                            w0w
                                            last edited by

                                            OK. Now I got this option activated. On reboot I see next (see image)
                                            Any comments?

                                            next_gen.jpg
                                            next_gen.jpg_thumb

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