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Linux
shikitohno:
--- Quote from: datora on February 06, 2012, 12:27:29 AM ---.
Funny rant from drawn-reality blog about getting an anime batch together. Oh, and a large segment of it will give you an idea of what "fun" you can have with linux. It's always a learning experience. ;) ;D
- http://drawn-reality.org/?p=565
--- End quote ---
I don't know what the deal is with the company that was hosting that site, but if they offer Arch as an option, it's pretty dumb for them to insist that the kernel be held back to 2.6. Arch can be pretty damn stable (my desktop has had one issue in the last year, due to an upstream bug in the kernel), but the whole point of the distro is pretty much staying on the bleeding edge, as they put it. If the company wanted to restrict things to only use the 2.6 kernels or older, they should have stuck to just offering something like Debian for it. Every package in the Arch repos will pretty much break rather quick if you hold back the kernel from updating for any appreciable amount of time. That could have been avoided by not updating pacman, but sooner or later other packages would require pacman be updated. Unless those guys got the server with nothing running on it, and just installed Arch themselves remotely, that just seems stupid on the hosting company's part.
datora:
.
Ah, you misread a bit. Notice:
--- Quote from: drawn-reality ---archlinux distros on VM’s that have linux 2.6 kernels after linux 3.0 comes out
--- End quote ---
The server was using some Very Stable linux distro, specifically to be Very Stable for hosting purposes. drawn-reality had created a virtual machine within that distro upon which they run ran archlinux.
archlinux proceeded to (auto-)update to the bleeding edge kernel 3+ something while remaining inside a VM ... and the distro hosting the VM remained somewhere in the kernel 2.6.* ... at which point, archlinux proceeded to vomit all over itself while performing an auto-lobotomy with a rusty screwdriver.
And, as we all know (or, should know), mucking a rusty screwdriver around the internals of server is a sure-fired way to pooch any database or other processes that might happen to be running.
It wasn't archlinux that had its kernel held back, but it was living inside its own virtual reality, which proceeded to evaporate when kernel 3.* tried to rip its way outside of its 2.6.* container.
The VM served its exact purpose in that scenario: it shredded & imploded itself harmlessly while leaving the host's server distro untouched. The company providing the hosting service has a very admirable grasp their duty and of how to prevent one customer from blowing up everything for all their other clients.
shikitohno:
Not quite. I've just done that update not too long myself, arch didn't proceed to auto-update anything. When pacman 4 got pushed to the core (the version which requires a 3.x kernel), the next time you updated it would say "before this transaction, you should upgrade pacman first [yes/no]" or something similar. So, basically it was their (the sub group's) own fault, assuming they choose to install themselves on that VM. Whoever updated either answer yes to the prompt, or ran something like "pacman Syu --no-confirm" to answer yes to all the questions. They could have simply answered no, and the upgrade would have proceeded fine, barring any programs that required pacman 4.
So I was wrong about who was at fault, but the point stands that Arch was a stupid choice in this particular situation. It's not like people didn't know 3.x kernels were coming, and it was a bad decision to install a distro which lists having bleeding edge software as an advantage in an environment that is obviously not suitable for such a distro.
Probably would have been a better choice for them to go with Debian or something that doesn't mind having a kernel that's a few versions behind, rather than Arch. Even if they'd installed Arch on this a while ago, based on the situation they described this sort of incident sounds practically inevitable. Arch can run a server fairly well, though the forums don't recommend it for anything that you need to have near 100% uptime on, and it's hardly advisable to run it in an environment that doesn't allow you to stay current on updates. If you're going to have to hold back on updates for a fair amount of time, you may as well use a system that takes its time getting the updates out anyway.
datora:
.
Take a look at this utility:
- http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/
UNetbootin is licensed under GNU/GPL, so free use. You can install quite a number of linux distros to a USB drive (or Windows, for that matter). Also to a hard drive partition if you wish.
I just picked up three of these 8 GB Patriot flash drives for $7 each on a newegg special:
- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220301
You could, of course, go for a larger drive, but 8 GB is pretty generous. They are USB 2, so they will have some speed issues, but I'm not in this for speed (right now). Besides, don't want to deal with any USB 3 config hassles at the moment (apart from the price premium, also). USB 2 is exceptionally stable & supported.
These patriot drives have top notch reviews for stability & long life. I plugged theminto my WinXP system and am quite impressed that 1) they are completely clean of all software; they are just blank chips waiting for you to do as you please with and 2) when they are detected, they are detected as HDD devices both in Windows and in the BIOS, not USB drives or devices. This bodes very well for stable & supported boot from USB port behavior.
USB drives can get worn out by excessive file read/writes on them, so you don't want to runan OS on them for thousands of hours. However, to play around with numerous linux distros and finally create/settle on one as a boot/utility drive ... these should rock hard.
My intention is to use these 8GB drives to experiment until I get a nice stable boot configuration, including all the little utilities that make system analysis/recovery & repair a merely semi-suicidal endeavor. Once I get something I really like, then if more space is needed I'll look for a 16 GB drive that has high reliability & speed, perhaps even move up to USB 3. I've seen a lot of remarks that USB 3 drives have quite a performance edge over USB 2 drives when used in USB 2 ports.
But, really, click through on that UNetbootin link and look at the distros it supports natively. You can also configure it for others once you get used to it.
Just reiterating my previous suggestion that a few cheap USB drives could give you an extremely flexible range of options to safely experiment with. It might be a some time before I can play with these in some detail, but when I do I'll check in on this topic again & report. I REALLY need one or two USB boot drives for the various system analysis & recovery that I get called on, including the safety factor of being able to recovery/repair my own systems when needed.
meancrayon:
My boyfriend SWEARS by Linux, but you really have to know what you're doing because there's not much keeping you from wrecking havoc all over the parts of the system Windows tries to hide from you. You also have to jump through some hoops for compatibility, especially if you don't do a side-by-side install. Linux can be amazing and it can accomplish things Windows never could, but if you don't know what you're doing... well, good luck.
Though now that I've seen this, I kind of want to try it out, just because it's based on Hikaru no Go, one of the best series of ALL TIME. <3
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