Merlin Installed - Looking To Add amtm Items. Swap and partition questions

[tebtengri]

I installed the latest beta on my BE98 Pro, full reset. Dual WAN load balancing working great(sorta sucks that AiProtection is lost, but it is what it is).

I used diskpart on windows to clean, convert to GPT and make 2 partitions on a 32GB thumb drive. 4GB for swap /dev/sda1 and the remainder as /dev/sda2. I formatted the second partition via mke2fs to ext4. I labeled it data but am not sure if I need to labet it something else.

My questions are how do I get swapon to auto use /dev/sda1 and get amtm items installed on /dev/sda2 by default? I'm not new to linux(used since '96). I'm more familiar with apt from debian/ubuntu and their mount points. Any and all advice is appreciated.

I also realize there is a swap file option, but I'm old school and usually prefer partitions. If that's not possible at all I can use a swap file, just would prefer not to.

 

[bbunge]

Best to use the router AMTM to format the drive and create a swap file. Use one partition onthe thumb drive.
I used to use a swap partition on USB drives on Merlin but the AMTM is a whole lot less trouble. If you insist on using a swap partition search some of my early posts.

 

[Tech9]

I also realize there is a swap file option

The swap file for AMTM scripts on your 2GB RAM router most likely won't be used at all. It's there for compatibility reasons. The recommended 2GB size is all you need. If the router runs out or RAM and gets to swapping - it's practically dead. Your USB stick is dead slow compared to the RAM speed. This embedded OS is not exactly like Linux on PC you are familiar with. The USB port will also never reach USB 3.x speeds. What you have as hardware is similar to RPi with enough for the purpose RAM.

 

[bennor]

.... on a 32GB thumb drive.

While one "can" use a USB thumb drive, most here will recommend instead that one use a USB SSD drive (or other non USB thumb drive storage device) due to USB thumb drives (particularly cheap poor quality ones) becoming corrupted under heavy read/write and or just up and dying due to the heat they generate under heavy usage.

 

[tebtengri]

While one "can" use a USB thumb drive, most here will recommend instead that one use a USB SSD drive (or other non USB thumb drive storage device) due to USB thumb drives (particularly cheap poor quality ones) becoming corrupted under heavy read/write and or just up and dying due to the heat they generate under heavy usage.

This is mostly to see how I like it. I will ultimately get an m.2 to USB adapter.

Obviously performance isn't a huge issue but what is the USB 3 port? 3.1g2 or 3.2 2x2?

I really can't wait to see USB 4 on 4 2.0.C ports. Especially as it would stop 2.4GHz interference.

Has anyone done a teardown of the BE98 Pro? Is there an exposed or at least pads for a serial port? I can SSL in but I also like having serial access

 

[bennor]

Obviously performance isn't a huge issue but what is the USB 3 port? 3.1g2 or 3.2 2x2?

May not matter what the USB port specifications (or speed) are when it is typically the router hardware (processor, RAM, etc.) ends up being the limiting factor when people try to use the router's USB port and attached USB hard drive as a file server/NAS/media server.

 

[Tarek Yag]

I really can't wait to see USB 4 on 4 2.0.C ports. Especially as it would stop 2.4GHz interference.

Would you please provide more info about what are you eager to see?
I mean just use standard numbers/terms that I can comprehend what would stop the 2.4GHz interference
I know you meant USB4 standard, but the following weren't clear enough for me, as standards are piling up faster than we see them implemented in wide-available products!!

 

[Tarek Yag]

I also realize there is a swap file option, but I'm old school and usually prefer partitions. If that's not possible at all I can use a swap file, just would prefer not to.

While all other comments here about not needing a swap are totally true, you might still need a swap file/partition only if you want to install Merlin addons that require a swap, spdMerlin for example.
Anyway, for Merlin firmware, just like @bbunge mentioned, it's always best to depend on AMTM alone, for formatting, creating the swap file, and installing all of the stuff made by the developers here.