NAS Optimizations for RockPro64

[MNtinkerer]

Oooh, the magic of new Linux experiences is back! While the RPro64 install is stalled until the Slackware ARM people figure out the broken directory/link, I tried the the PineBook Pro installation and yeah! The Slackware U-boot didn't break my Armbian SD card boot, and it is interactive! Doing an install to the NVME right now. Hopefully the RPro64 thing is fixed soon but the PBP working is nice!

[enorbet2]

CONGRATS! (saw your post in LQN Arm Slackware.) You can bank on solid support there. You're on your way!

[MNtinkerer]

I was surprised how responsive dmozes is, very rare in open-source for developers to be so involved on low-level issues! I have a bunch of SBCs, and would like to keep FreeBSD on a couple and run 1 Linux distro on all of the rest, including my Pinebook Pro. My workstation is currently FreeBSD however it will likely go back to just MX Linux or dual-boot MX Linux and Xubuntu. Right now it hosts my main fileserver, a ZFSz1 3 disk 17TB array. Something that can be offloaded into a VM. Enter Slackware. I've been hungry to get away from having different Linux distros on all of my machines however I handle change as well as Debian-stable does so finding the motivation to learn something new has been limited. I don't need 2 running fileservers and 2 offline backups but it is fun. Don't want all of my eggs in one basket either, so a mix of FreeBSD and possibly Slackware now is preferred.

Debian forks were my goto for over a decade however their official releases supporting the RockPro64 and Pinebook Pro require tweaks to get a working OS, and you have to dig around to find the information. Slackware has an excellent installation tutorial, provides all of the software, including the SPI boot software, to make sure a user can install. As a matter of fact Slackware has been the easiest OS to install to my PBP because all of the necessary software and knowledge is in one place.

I look forward to spending some time soon playing with Slackware as a server too. I have several different SATA to PCIe adapters based on either Marvell 88SE92XX or JMB 585 chipsets, and one that is a hybrid with both Marvell and JMB on the board, a bunch of different old HDDs and SDDs, and an old 650W PSU that I modified to use as a powersource for a RockPro64 NAS.

There was a company that had built a NAS on the same ARM CPU the RockPro64 uses, RK3399, and Armbian supported it, however the company folded last year and the NAS are hard to come by. It was essentially a RK3399, memory, and with the SATA to PCIe built into the main board. Helios was their name. There were some reliability issues people reported having, and I wondered if it were a heat think like the Raspberry Pi 3s had. The boards on the Raspberry Pi 3's did not dissipate heat uniformly so the CPUs were very hot and components were known to break. They fixed it for the 3B+, thermo scans of both boards showed how much more evenly the heat was conducted across the main board. Curious if anyone has looked at a RockPro64 or the Helios under load through an IR camera and seen if the issue is present. It certainly feels like the LAN component gets hot during heavy data transfers.

In my Pine64 NAS cases I had installed special aluminum fins to force air through the 30mm high heatsink, and also another path between/above/below the HDDs then through the rear fan. Since the SATA to PCIe adapter forms a sort of duct from the one vent mesh to the vent mesh in front of the fan, and the Pine64 supplied heatsink fins are rotated 90 degrees, it is important to get that air snaking around the SATA to PCIe adapter, over the front of the RockPro64 board, through the CPU heatsink, and-and-AND between the SATA to PCIe adapter and heatsink, over the LAN module then back towards the exhaust fan. Even with the low-profile CPU heatsink/fan combo, or the 20mm high heatsink with a fan, the air needs to be duct through there or you can get a situation were it creates a sort of air damn between the fresh cool air coming in and exhuasting out, and the hot air around the CPU. Ducting the air around in an S-like shape also helps cool the SATA to PCIe adapter, which can get very warm and then performance decreases. I've gone so far as to also install a bathroom exhaust fan in the room that hosts my SBCs and servers, venting the warm air outside in the summer, and into our large room in the basement in the winter. Though in confined places an open door and box fan work well too.

[enorbet2]

Hello again, MNtinkerer
I'm wondering if you are using the Pine64/Ameridroid NAS Case? I re-purposed an old Cool Gear Drive bay for mine partly because I already had it and eSATA has become all but useless, but also because of the PSU that delivers just a bit less than 100 watts, more than enough for 2x full-sized 3.5 inch spinners, a 2.5 inch SATA SSD and a massive fan as well as the SBC.

It works quite well providing ample space, power and excellent cooling for my NAS but it's width is too wide making access to ports a PITA generally meaning I have to leave the cover off. Not only is it somewhat vulnerable w/o the cover but it substantially diminishes the wind tunnel effect I was after that keeps the spinners cool.

Those 2 problems have me considering getting the Pine64 case but ideally I wouldn't want their PSU and it says it only accommodates 2 x drives. Also I can't see in the pics if one has easy access to the MicroSD slot. I suppose I could gut the drive cage and PSU and it looks like it might possibly fit but it does look very close.

I'd love to hear about your experiences, uses (like number of drives), if you are using that case or what you do use if you are not.

Thanks

... and yeah mralk3 is especially helpful and expert

[MNtinkerer]

Hello again, MNtinkerer
I'm wondering if you are using the Pine64/Ameridroid NAS Case?

...

I'd love to hear about your experiences, uses (like number of drives), if you are using that case or what you do use if you are not.

I am using a variety of cases. I do have a couple of the official Pine64 NAS case. Mine have easy access to the SD card, however I've read others who reported a misaligned slot. I have modified both NAS cases to add switches for controlling the case fan speed with resistors, added a switch to close the eMMC/SD card header from the outside of the case when the cover is on, and have made my own 3.5" HDD 3 bay drive holder allowing for the drives to fit within the NAS case with the cover on.

I also have a couple of the premium cases, PVC cases, and the open acrylic case. Being a tinkerer the open-acrylic case is my favorite followed by the PVC case since both allow easy access to the RPro64. In order to utilize a PCIe to SATA adapter I use PCIe extenders. They work well with the small "L" shaped brackets available at any hardware store to fasten the PCIe to SATA adapters down. I also have a 5 bay 3.5" w/fan mount bracket drive holder and a couple of power supplies. One supply is 250w and the other is the modified PSU with many of the leads crimped into dupont connectors except for the SATA power connectors which I plug directly into the drives.

Made some UART jacks that work with the Pine64 serial console adapter for the Pinephone/Pinephone Pro/Pinebook Pro out of 1/8" stereo jacks soldered to female dupont plugs, that plug into the Ground, TX, and RX (pins 6, 8, 10 respectively) of the GPIO header on the RPro64. It makes for a clean way to debug the system with the case on.

I like the look of circuit boards and computer hardware so in the future I will likely just use a couple of bigger acrylic sheets and pcboard stand offs, keeping the sides open, or make an all acrylic enclosure with a fan at one end and an easily removed rear panel for ease of access. I work in fabrication so metal work isn't hard for me, though anyone can do the modifications that I have if they are willing to use a drill, x-acto blade, and learning to solder.

Finally, the PVC cases use a metal insert for the front panel, so if you'd like to make an enclosure, keep it clean looking, but don't have the skill for fine metal work, it is worth buying the PVC case to save hours of pain.

[enorbet2]

Wow! That's quite impressive. I will order the metal NAS case and give it a shot. Since I had to buy a good "nibbler" to rework my Drive Bay case, I can do a pretty clean job modding metal. I can't help but lust after a decent 3D Printer though. Also, I want to try an old laptop display with the RockPro64 EDP but so far no luck on getting a pinout schematic

[MNtinkerer]

... I want to try an old laptop display with the RockPro64 EDP but so far no luck on getting a pinout schematic

The EDP on the RockPro64 is page 31 of this pdf link. If you were referring to the laptop display, tracking those down can be impossible unless someone in an obscure hacking forum has done it. The YouTuber Ben Heck Hack's did a tear down of a Menards Android Tablet, and if I remember correctly he demonstrates how he manually figured it out. Does require an oscilloscope.

A 3D printer would be nice but that is really just a lure into a bottomless pit of projects. Please do share your NAS case once configured. It is neat seeing what others do with their machines!

[enorbet2]

Thanks again. I will be glad to show the finished Pine64 NAS case but I'm afraid I won't be showing my re-purposed Drive Bay case to anyone since I bought the nibbler AFTER I made a mess with drill and tin snips. It's pretty ugly... well the case cover is. The base frame is decent and it works a treat.

I have a very nice Techtronix scope so I will indeed check that out. Many thanks!

[enorbet2]

So... I'm curious... have you gotten Aarch64Slackware working... and do you like it so far?

[MNtinkerer]

Thank you for the suggestion to try Slackware, this is a fun OS to tinker with! I am replying on a RPro64 2G hosting XFCE on Slackware right now. Got it working as far back as my last post, but have been distracted playing with BSDs and Armbian on my Quartz64. I tried installing Slackware to a PBP but the image isn't pointing to the new installation on reboot, but it didn't break Armbian on an SD card. Not a huge priority since there is a working OS of something on it.

For the RPro64 I installed to eMMC because that works best for me. Adjusting to the nuances of the slackpkg manager is not painful! Haven't gotten into trying different PCIe devices with Slackware yet.

Have you ordered your NAS case yet?