Subject: Tips for prolonging solid state drives?
To: None <netbsd-users@netbsd.org>
From: None <chriswareham@chriswareham.demon.co.uk>
List: netbsd-users
Date: 12/17/2007 14:18:37
I now have an Asus Eee PC running NetBSD 4.0 (a releng netbsd-4 snapshot dated
the 15th December). Someone suggested off list that I should try dd'ing boot
floppies to a memory stick to kick start an installation, and that worked
perfectly after I'd failed to get a bootable memory stick going. XFree86 works,
but neither the wired or wireless ethernet appear to, so I'll be reinstalling
with -current shortly in the hope that Quentin Garnier has been able to commit
some appropriate changes.

I tried to find a guide with tips for running NetBSD on hardware that includes
a solid state drive, but didn't come across anything useful. I think the drive
included in the Eee has built in wear leveling, but would like to be sure that
I've done everything else I can to extend the life of the drive. I have added
the "noatime" option to my /etc/fstab entry for /, as well as adding tmpfs
entries for /tmp and /var/run. I have set a maximum size for tmp to 128M, and
will monitor usage to see if it needs to be raised.

I'm now wondering whether there are any other tweaks I should make to prolong
the SSD life. I'm thinking of adding a third tmpfs entry for /var/log, but I'm
worried I'll run out of memory pretty quickly with X and a few apps such as
Firefox running. SO, I'm wondering if anyone has got any tips and tricks for
these neat little machines!

Regards,

Chris