sg3-utils and NVMe disks

sg3-utils, version 1.44, was recently uploaded to Debian. This new upstream release has happened almost 2.5 years after the last release. One important feature to emphasize about is some support for NVMe disks, which are now getting more common on latest range of laptops. rrs@priyasi:~$ sudo sg_inq /dev/nvme0 [sudo] password for rrs: Identify controller for /dev/nvme0: Model number: PC401 NVMe SK hynix 512GB Serial number: ES82N092210402J4U Firmware revision: 80003E00 Version: 1. [Read More]

LIO -fb in Debian

LIO -fb is the new SCSI Target for Debian. Previously, we maintained the LIO tools from the pre-fork upstream branch. But, with good reasons, we’ve now moved to the newer -fb (Free Branch). As the maintainer for those pacakges, I have a local LIO setup. Overy the years, I’ve been tuning and using this setup with a bunch of SCSI clients. Now with the new -fb packages it was worrisome for me, on how to migrate (Note: migration is not supported by the Debian packages) my old setup to the new one. [Read More]

SAN Updates for Debian Stretch

Now that we prepare for the next Debian Stable release (Stretch), it is time to provide some updates on what the current state of some of the (storage related) packages in Debian is. This is not an update on the complete list of packages related to storage, but it does cover some of them. REMOVALS iscsitarget - The iscsitarget stood as a great SCSI target for the Linux kernel. It seems to have had a good user base not just in Linux but also with VMWare users. [Read More]

Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex

I recently purchased a Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex 1 TB hard drive. It is a 2.5" compact disk that you connect over USB. It draws its power from the USB controller. My previous Extern HDDs were all 2.5" laptop drives, for which I bought a USB enclosure. Those devices always worked perfect, as in: They were automatically detected Partitions/File Systems understood Desktop systems would prompt for actions The typical kernel messages I got for these devices were: [Read More]