What partitions should I have on my SDcard

[MartiniGM]

Hi,
I need some Asuswrt-Merlin specific recommendations for partitioning a SD-card. The dd-wrt faq for RT-N66U linked to this article recommending one partition for optware/entware, a swap partition, a jffs partion and a data partition.
This guide on the entware-repo site recommends only three partitions (no jffs partition).

And this thread here at Asuswrt-merlin recommends no swap file at all.

I'm need some expertise, please.. What partitions do you recommend for a SDcard inside a RT-N66U?

 

[joegreat]

I'm need some expertise, please.. What partitions do you recommend for a SDcard inside a RT-N66U?

Hi,

I have only one partition on the sdcard for Entware and the configration backup.
Data and swap file goes onto a USB harddisk, to avoid wearing out the sdcard with to man swap and data writes.
By using Merlin's firmware you have JFFS internal in the router flash memory - no need for it externally.

Listing of the Partition, Mount Points and Used/Free Space on my sdcard:

chief@ASUS_RT-N66U:/tmp/home/root# [B]fdisk -l /dev/sdb[/B]

Disk /dev/sdb: 1018 MB, 1018691584 bytes
30 heads, 29 sectors/track, 2286 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 870 * 512 = 445440 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks  Id System
[B]/dev/sdb1               1        2287      994691+  6 FAT16[/B]

chief@ASUS_RT-N66U:/tmp/home/root# [B]df -h[/B]
Filesystem                Size      Used Available Use% Mounted on
[B]/dev/sdb1               956.1M     43.9M    863.6M   5% /tmp/mnt/sdcard
/dev/sdb1               956.1M     43.9M    863.6M   5% /tmp/opt[/B]

I store the data on a external USB harddisk which also holds a swap area:

chief@ASUS_RT-N66U:/tmp/home/root# [B]fdisk -l /dev/sda[/B]

Disk /dev/sda: 750.1 GB, 750156374016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 91201 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks  Id System
[B]/dev/sda2              66          73       64260  82 Linux swap
/dev/sda4             139       91201   731463547+ 83 Linux
[/B]
chief@ASUS_RT-N66U:/tmp/home/root# [B]df -h[/B]
Filesystem                Size      Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/root                25.1M     25.1M         0 100% /
tmpfs                   117.1M      2.2M    114.9M   2% /tmp
devfs                   117.1M         0    117.1M   0% /dev
/dev/mtdblock4            5.1M    392.0K      4.7M   7% /jffs
[B]/dev/sda4               686.6G    157.8G    494.0G  24% /tmp/mnt/Data[/B]

chief@ASUS_RT-N66U:/tmp/home/root# [B]free[/B]
             total         used         free       shared      buffers
Mem:        239844       173816        66028            0        13492
-/+ buffers:             160324        79520
[B]Swap:        64252         2172        62080[/B]

With kind regards
Joe

 

[krabs]

Hi,
I need some Asuswrt-Merlin specific recommendations for partitioning a SD-card. The dd-wrt faq for RT-N66U linked to this article recommending one partition for optware/entware, a swap partition, a jffs partion and a data partition.
This guide on the entware-repo site recommends only three partitions (no jffs partition).

And this thread here at Asuswrt-merlin recommends no swap file at all.

I'm need some expertise, please.. What partitions do you recommend for a SDcard inside a RT-N66U?

If you have an SD card it's best to format it as an ext2,fat32,ntfs filesystem and not to create a swap partion because this reduce lifesspan of your SDcard. like joegreat said

Also if you want entware/optware you need an ext2/ext3 filesystem and ext3 is not as good for flash devices because of journaling = more writes

You don't have to create a JFFS partion on your SDcard, you can enable JFFS under administration -> system. like joegreat said
Also enable format JFFS partion at next boot

I would only install a entware and data partion on your SD card

 

[Nerre]

Depending on the size I'd suggest two partitions, mainly because your opt/entware installation won't need several gigabytes.

I have a 2 GB USB stick but use less than 200 MB of it. So if your card is larger than 2 GB I'd suggest using 1 GB for opt/entware and the rest as a "data" partition (you can always configure your opt/entware programs to store their data on that "data" partition, since it will be available in the file system).

 

[sitecom]

I want to use sdcard for just transferring files and videos, not running any apps or scripts from it.

I used MiniTool Partition Wizard to create a ext2 format for a 16gb microsd card I have lying around. Does there need to be a partiton where some of it needs to be FAT or NTFS and the rest ext2 or the whole card can be ext2? The only guides I found are for Linux which I dont have access to right now

Right now the whole card is ext2, Primary partitition and cluster size 4KB

 

[netware5]

I want to use sdcard for just transferring files and videos, not running any apps or scripts from it.

I used MiniTool Partition Wizard to create a ext2 format for a 16gb microsd card I have lying around. Does there need to be a partiton where some of it needs to be FAT or NTFS and the rest ext2 or the whole card can be ext2? The only guides I found are for Linux which I dont have access to right now

Right now the whole card is ext2, Primary partitition and cluster size 4KB

Just keep the things simple. You already done everything you needed. You don't need NTFS or FAT32 partition in order to "see" the card from PC or Android device. There is no problem to share this single ext2 partition as samba share. You may create a directory structure there suitable for your needs.

As other people already said do not use flash card for swap, as the extensive write activity may damage it. You don't need a jffs partition as it is provided by the FW - just play with router's WEB GUI to enable it.

 

[sitecom]

Just keep the things simple. You already done everything you needed. You don't need NTFS or FAT32 partition in order to "see" the card from PC or Android device. There is no problem to share this single ext2 partition as samba share. You may create a directory structure there suitable for your needs.

As other people already said do not use flash card for swap, as the extensive write activity may damage it. You don't need a jffs partition as it is provided by the FW - just play with router's WEB GUI to enable it.

Ok I've got it plugged in, heard the click but not seeing it in the web GUI

Edit: just tried NTFS but its still not seeing it

 

[ColinTaylor]

Ok I've got it plugged in, heard the click but not seeing it in the web GUI

Edit: just tried NTFS but its still not seeing it

Do you see any devices under USB Application - FTP Share ?

Otherwise look for messages in the system log.

 

[sitecom]

Ok so when I went to USB application it showed the sd card and allowed me to install the download manager. It was NTFS so I wanted to use ext2 an used telnet, and got stuck when creating the ext2, said device mounted and it wouldnt unmount. I followed this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kVAzxTwy5Q

Now it doesnt recognise the card, so I formatted back to NTFS and it says no USB disk. I can see it there with telnet as NTFS

Also the card was very hot, is this normal?

 

[RocketJSquirrel]

For those worried about flash wearing out because of swapping, you can set the swappiness of the embeded Linux to a lower than default value. The default is 60, but I set mine all the way down to 10. So it can swap if it really needs to, but it rarely does. You can even set it to 0 and it will only swap in an emergency.

echo 10 > /proc/sys/vm/swappiness

 

[sitecom]

So after making it NTFS, rebooting rooter, everything went well and was able to convert it to ext2 with telnet. I read that ext3 does more writing because of journal so I assume ext2 is the best way to go.

@RocketJSquirrel I followed this video by following this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kVAzxTwy5Q and I dont think I set it any swap unless it automatically does that?

And does anyone know if UHS Micro SD Cards are working fine with this router? I think its better than class 10 and price difference is small so might be worth getting it

 

[RocketJSquirrel]

@RocketJSquirrel I followed this video by following this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kVAzxTwy5Q and I dont think I set it any swap unless it automatically does that?

It doesn't set up swap automatically. You have to do it in your pre-mount script. Search the forum, instructions are here somewhere.

 

[Marko Polo]

After all, what is the best practice for entware setup? Should I install it on the separate SD-card or is it enough to make separate partition on USB SSD? Or maybe it's also redundant and I can leave the data and the entware on the single SSD partition?

 

[sfx2000]

After all, what is the best practice for entware setup? Should I install it on the separate SD-card or is it enough to make separate partition on USB SSD? Or maybe it's also redundant and I can leave the data and the entware on the single SSD partition?

Put it on a single partition - ext3 works fine - the larger the drive (let's say 32GB), the FTL will do the wear leveling and keep things ok.