micro SDs card for Pinebook Pro
#1
I want to buy 2 micro SD cards for running of alternative OSes.

The faster the more expensive Smile. What speed class may be a sensible tradeoff?
#2
I use SanDisk Ultras to boot a lot of things, including Manjaro on my PBP, they all work great and are very well priced. (Best Buy price matches SanDisk's Amazon listings, too.)
#3
If you really want to know how fast a uSD (or any storage) is

iozone -e -I -a -s 100M -r 4k -r 16k -r 512k -r 1024k -r 16384k -i 0 -i 1 -i 2

Pay attention to the 4K and 16K speeds, esp random writes
You will be SHOCKED until you have done a few
It's hard to beat samsung evo (any version), don't get 16GB, they are slower
They are NOT marked A1 or A2
The high speeds shown are probably bogus, cached (too high to be believable)
But I suspect the PBP uSD slot is 50 mHz so top speed is limited to ~23MB/s
(for test, in a usb3 dongle, in usb3 slot, I think most usb3 dongles do uhs104)
#4
OK, I am glad to say I was wrong, the  uSD slot is 200? mHZ
For your edification,, this with iozone on PBP (debian iozone does not want -l, BTW)
This, I think, is the fastest uSD I have ever tested, most will have 4k <10000,,,
crap cards 1000 or less (numbers are K/s)

Samsung EVO Select 64G
                                                                                   random    random  
    kB  reclen    write  rewrite    read    reread    read     write  
102400          4    17313    17328   649082   704138   651892    17466  
102400        16    25964    17453   974273   810781   712337    18438  
102400      512    20166    30826   921817   916929  1070827    18496  
102400    1024    16714    29684   900426   891031   836840    30842

Oops, damn forum SW messed up my table formating, when I try to edit looks fine, sorry
#5
Here on the forum you can probably find what works best with the different Pine devices.

but I think most class 10 will do a satisfactory job of "loading" an OS, but if you are "running" from an SD card, some may perform better.
      LINUX = CHOICES
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#6
you know (or maybe you don't) that armbian has been making images for
SBC for maybe 4? years now? All of these SBC run and boot from uSD
There is a reason (hard won experience) that they say.... Is the card crap?
Have you tested it? Lots of speed 10 cards are inadequate to run an OS,
If the card does poorly with iozone, it won't work very well at all
A1 or A2 is a much better indicator of quality for OS use
Oh, BTW, I have run iozone on maybe 30-40 different cards, FWIW
#7
@wdt
  Perhaps you could share/post those some where on this site,  share your experiences with those cards.. ?
      LINUX = CHOICES
         **BCnAZ**
               Idea
   Donate to $upport
your favorite OS Team
#8
Well, this seems to be a good spot, labeled and all
All the tests are from 1-2 years ago, I can summarize
This is from my own research and following armbian/tkaiser,
and trying to find out how to use flash "best"
The people who really test the longevity are those using dash-cams
Rare for a card to last a year, but that is a single threaded job
The cards controller is doing all kinds of things, "behind your back"
and web browser keep a cache, just checked ,, 400M, gets really laggy
waiting to write updates,  also apt-get dist-upgrade can take hours with a crap card
Anyway, the #1 rule,ALWAYS check for fakes, the first time it is in your hand (f3 or h2testw)
Even amazon has sold fakes
Cards were originally made for cameras, a simple job, 1 write, 1 read
Try taking 3 photos quickly, doesn't work so well does it?
anyway, no name cards always have poor 4k and 16k speeds ~ or< 1000
Brand name (sandisk, kingston, lexar, etc) are often OK, but not exceptional (1000-3000)
Generally  evo are better, sometimes only a bit, sometimes 50% (not the 16G,,only OK)
I have stopped buying "crap" cards unless they are REALLY cheap,
those I ALWAYS test right away (well, I always test), and I wouldn't use them for an OS

Here another,,samsung evo plus 64G (not sure if same as evo+)
                                                                               random random
             kB  reclen    write  rewrite    read    reread    read     write    
         102400         4     3927     4100     10320    10313    10165     2640                                                                
         102400       16     6460    10519    25852    25728    25699    10796                                                                
         102400     512    25605    20796    82719    82950    76700    27167                                                                
         102400    1024    23151    22794    84709    84991    81562    20229                                                                
         102400   16384    23476    25132    85421    86309    86470    26595  
These are "typical" good speeds, anything 1/2 (or<)the 4k and 16k speed is not fit for an OS

And something different, a 32G eMMC module, all usb3
(sandisk,, from amerdroid?) I don't know why so slow
                                                                             random    random                                      
             kB  reclen    write  rewrite    read    reread    read     write    
         102400        4     4247      4289      6256      6290      5368     4205                                                                
         102400      16    11641    11937    19502    19549    11819    11961                                                                
         102400     512    40563    43955    47143    47122    36640    38861                                                                
         102400    1024    40829    44497    47316    47248    41644    41384                                                                
         102400   16384    40857    44390    47338    47354    46975    44020

Really you have to test yourself, a slow card will give disappointing results
The last 2 columns should have 'random' over them
#9
(01-15-2020, 04:14 PM)wdt Wrote: OK, I am glad to say I was wrong, the  uSD slot is 200? mHZ
For your edification,, this with iozone on PBP (debian iozone does not want -l, BTW)
This, I think, is the fastest uSD I have ever tested, most will have 4k <10000,,,
crap cards 1000 or less (numbers are K/s)

Samsung EVO Select 64G
Code:
                                                                                   random    random  
    kB  reclen    write  rewrite    read    reread    read     write  
102400          4    17313    17328   649082   704138   651892    17466  
102400        16    25964    17453   974273   810781   712337    18438  
102400      512    20166    30826   921817   916929  1070827    18496  
102400    1024    16714    29684   900426   891031   836840    30842
Oops, damn forum SW messed up my table formating, when I try to edit looks fine, sorry
wow, 900MB/s, what's the mode of operation it is? looks like the freshly invented SDe. Big Grin you probably forgot to assign the flag for the direct operation to the storage. and I forgot it too, and cannot check now. anyway, Rockchip makes the input frequency for the SDMMC controllers at 150MHz, so when possible, even SDR104 will be SDR75 only. Smile which is not that bad.
and honestly, while I don't insist, I can't get the hype about A1/A2 classes. that often are promoted almost like panacea. first, it's just markings without too much of explanation on what's behind it (the whole IOPS magic is pretty obscure) and second, flash based storages don't have such a drastic difference between sequential and random IO (tests kind of prove that). it's random inside anyway. also, for boot/start up time speed up, high sequential read speed is important too. it's advantageous not only for "taking selfies and filming stupid instastories", as A1/A2 believers often tell. but of course, if one has the the will to spend a little bit more, than the more expensive the better. if not fake. Big Grin
ANT - my hobby OS for x86 and ARM.
#10
(01-15-2020, 06:31 PM)wdt Wrote: you know (or maybe you don't) that armbian has been making images for
SBC for maybe 4? years now? All of these SBC run and boot from uSD
...

The mass-market use of SD-card for linux root started with Raspberry Pi nearly 8 years ago. One of the guys who has done a lot of work to understand their performance is Jeff Geerling. I have put a link to him in the Resources section of the PinePhone software page as well.

TL;DR - Samung Evo+ (and  my 64G is faster than my 32G is faster than my 128G IIRC at 4k writes!)
  • ROCKPro64 v2.1 2GB, 16Gb eMMC for rootfs, SX8200Pro 512GB NVMe for /home, HDMI video & sound, Bluetooth keyboard & mouse. Arch (6.2 kernel, Openbox desktop) for general purpose daily PC.
  • PinePhone Pro Explorer Edition, daily driver, rk2aw & U-boot on SPI, Arch/SXMO & Arch/phosh on eMMC
  • PinePhone BraveHeart now v1.2b 3/32Gb, Tow-boot with Arch/SXMO on eMMC


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