From owner-freebsd-arm@freebsd.org Sun Jul 1 11:31:44 2018 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-arm@mailman.ysv.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2610:1c1:1:606c::19:1]) by mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 77014FF4180 for ; Sun, 1 Jul 2018 11:31:44 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd-arm@sentry.org) Received: from shadow.sentry.org (shadow.sentry.org [210.8.237.106]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256/256 bits)) (Client CN "shadow.sentry.org", Issuer "COMODO RSA Domain Validation Secure Server CA" (verified OK)) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id AF3EB8C7F9 for ; Sun, 1 Jul 2018 11:31:43 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd-arm@sentry.org) Received: from shadow.sentry.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by shadow.sentry.org (8.15.2/8.15.2) with ESMTP id w61BVd7n062835 for ; Sun, 1 Jul 2018 21:31:39 +1000 (AEST) (envelope-from freebsd-arm@sentry.org) Subject: Re: RPI3 swap experiments To: freebsd-arm@freebsd.org References: <20180627054027.GA22144@www.zefox.net> <20180627194217.GA27793@www.zefox.net> <20180628022457.GA30110@www.zefox.net> <7B9D272D-3EDE-46FA-8A1C-AEE65047167C@yahoo.com> <20180628163328.GA33408@www.zefox.net> <51e208b4-9f14-58f7-1e70-6ef8db2c0bed@sentry.org> <20180629155131.GA35717@www.zefox.net> <20180701025354.GA49303@www.zefox.net> <5202FC09-B76A-4E03-BC2F-8144B505E0BA@yahoo.com> From: Trev Message-ID: <8d9e3204-4975-435e-04eb-0fdecfbdcb6c@sentry.org> Date: Sun, 1 Jul 2018 21:31:39 +1000 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; FreeBSD amd64; rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/52.0 SeaMonkey/2.49.3 MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: <5202FC09-B76A-4E03-BC2F-8144B505E0BA@yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Greylist: Sender IP whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-4.6.2 (shadow.sentry.org [0.0.0.0]); Sun, 01 Jul 2018 21:31:39 +1000 (AEST) X-BeenThere: freebsd-arm@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.27 Precedence: list List-Id: "Porting FreeBSD to ARM processors." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 01 Jul 2018 11:31:44 -0000 > Mark Millard wrote on 01/07/2018 16:42: > > On 2018-Jun-30, at 7:53 PM, bob prohaska wrote: [...] >> It just crossed my mind that the successful -j4 buildworlds that used >> USB swap (both mechanical and flash) separate from /usr and /var placed >> the swap on a powered USB hub. It would be exceeding strange if that >> proved helpful, but as things are going.... > Power issues have been mentioned before in this exchange, but it can be > more like what one might notice with a oscilloscope than with a Digital > Multi-Meter. If the device sometimes (even very briefly) requires more > than the rpi3 provides (voltage or current) the device will likely > fail sometimes despite a DMM not showing anything interesting. The > same device might work fine on a powered hub that always provides > sufficient voltage and current (on all time scales involved). > > I've had these sorts of situations before. Without a proper set of > instruments to monitor for power problems with, it is a pain to > figure out for sure if such is what is going on. > > So I tend to use a powered hub for USB storage. My RPi2B is connected to a pocket router via ethernet and USB for power, and thence wirelessly to the wifi router at the fibre NTD. The pocket router kept getting corrupted settings and losing connectivity. So I replaced it. Same thing with the new one. I finally figured out that it was a USB power issue - adding `max_usb_current=1` in the config.txt file to double the current from 600mA to 1.2A fixed it. I hadn't considered power to be an issue for the RPi3B+ - it has a 3A PSU (limited to 2.5A by the RPi's polyfuse) and does not need the config.txt tweak as it already supplies up to 1.2A by default according to an RPi Engineer: https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=930695#p930695 Admittedly, I haven't been watching when "out of swap" occurs to see if the red power LED goes out momentarily. However, since replacing the 2.5A PSU with the 3A one I've not seen any red LED fade outs which used to randomly occur with the 2.5A PSU. I'm currently -j4 compiling with an external USB hard drive connected to a powered hub, so when that finishes, I'll add the USB memory key for swap to the hub and see if it makes a difference.