Flash Memory Plugin

sweetbb · May 22nd 2019

I've been running OMV for under a week, as I discovered it late last week. I need to install the flash memory plug-in, but am having no success. I am running OMV 4.1.22.1 (Arrakis) on an Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU G1820 @ 2.70GHz, with the Linux 4.19.0-0.bpo.4.amd64 kernel. The system has 4GB of ram installed, with 4 X 8TB drives installed. It currently boots and runs from a 32 GB flash drive.

I get an error message which I cannot copy to post here, but basically it says:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
openmediavault-flashmemory : Depens: folder2ram (>=0.3.1) but it is not installable
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.
<<< ****************************************

Any help in getting this installed will be welcome.

Thank you.

Adoby · May 22nd 2019

I searched the internet for your error message and up came these suggested commands to attempt to fix problems of this type. Try each separately in order until your problem is fixed. None should cause problems except to make already existing problems more appearant.

sudo dpkg --configure -a

sudo apt-get install -f

sudo apt-get clean && sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get upgrade

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

tkaiser · May 22nd 2019

Quote from sweetbb

openmediavault-flashmemory : Depens: folder2ram (>=0.3.1) but it is not installable

@ryecoaaron did you update the repo recently?

sweetbb · May 22nd 2019

Thank you Adoby.

I am not quite confident with OMV or Linux, but will have to see if I can do these commands. Would I need to log into the OMV computer itself locally to do these commands?

Adoby · May 22nd 2019

Yes. You need to have console access and login. I would connect to the OMV server via SSH and try the commands. If you have shell in a box or direct console access that would work as well.

sweetbb · May 22nd 2019

Thank you Adoby, the server is standing in my study, so I can log into it. I will try it today.

sweetbb · May 22nd 2019

I logged in and entered those commands, and no errors showed up. I then tried installing the flash drive plug in again, with the same unsuccessful result.

Adoby · May 22nd 2019

Then there seems to be some more serious problem. Perhaps some upgrade/update that went wrong in the past?

It might also be something with the repositories, but I doubt that. Then there would most likely have been many more that report the problem.

I suppose it would be possible to do things like check and update update the /etc/sources.list file. But that takes time and effort.

Personally I would just restore the rootfs using a backup that is known to work fine. And if even that didn't help reinstall from scratch. It would be much faster. At least for me. I have a very simple setup.

ryecoaaron · May 22nd 2019

Quote from tkaiser

did you update the repo recently?

Nope.

sweetbb · May 22nd 2019

I don't quite know how, but I've got it installed, but not sure if it is running at all.

geaves · May 22nd 2019

Quote from sweetbb

but not sure if it is running at all.

It displays under Storage select it and follow the instructions.

ryecoaaron · May 22nd 2019

Quote from sweetbb

I don't quite know how, but I've got it installed, but not sure if it is running at all.

If it is installed, it should be working.

Quote from geaves

It displays under Storage select it and follow the instructions.

They are optional instructions especially for noobs.

tkaiser · May 22nd 2019

Quote from sweetbb

but I've got it installed, but not sure if it is running at all

As @geaves said if there's a 'Flash Memory' entry under Storage then it works. Though to really confirm you need to login via CLI/SSH and check df output.

Also there's no need to 'follow the instructions' since this is outright dangerous for people not familiar with the Linux command line, the benefits of fiddling around with /etc/fstab are minimal and hopefully this will change soon anyway and will be replaced with no 'optional instructions' and a simple adjustment of a kernel parameter. For details: Repair grub on sdcard

sweetbb · May 22nd 2019

Thank you tkaiser. I appreciate your time.

Adoby · May 22nd 2019

One way to see the flashplugin in action is to issue the command iostat.

Then you should see a pretty low number of kB written/s to the drive with the rootfs. I get something like 1.4 - 1.8 kB/s written to the SD card per second on my HC2 ARM OMV computers. In comparision, on my laptop I get 300-400 kB/s witten to the SSD with the rootfs.

macom · May 22nd 2019

df will show some (9) folder2ram entries, if the plugin is installed

sweetbb · May 22nd 2019

I've noticed that suddenly the flash memory drive is red and almost full in the dashboard. Is this normal? I also notice that SSH is really slow to respond?

getName() · May 22nd 2019

Just a friendly reminder, forcing ( -f) apt may break a lot, if you dont know the dependencies I would not do that.

tkaiser · May 22nd 2019

Quote from sweetbb

I've noticed that suddenly the flash memory drive is red and almost full in the dashboard. Is this normal?

Hard to tell from here Since already mentioned you might want to provide the output of df -h.

Quote from sweetbb

I also notice that SSH is really slow to respond?

Only when logging in (potential DNS problem) or also when typing?

sweetbb · May 22nd 2019

SSH is slow, when loggin in and when typing commands. Also, the OMV web interface is almost dead now, it is so slow. I've rebooted the server and there seems to be no change after the reboot.

Participate now!