Running a node on a low spec notebook computer.

[nemgun]

I've got Ubuntu running with everything working, including the WiFi.

I can't use a convential HDD because of the power requirements. If I added one, I'd be no better off than with the other notebook, that has got a 2Tb drive in it. I've got a 128Gb Sandisk stick, and I used that to do the installation. I was going to use that for the blockchain, but I think it's too small. and wouldn't give me any room for growth. I'm interested to see how I get on with the SSD, and how much power it will need.

i found some informations that may help you decide :
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/ssd-vs-hdd-power-usage.645232/
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/ssd-charts-2014/benchmarks,129.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/hdd-charts-2013/benchmarks,134.html

Benchmarks for power consumption about HDD and SSD

I think that you can't use the stick as the blockchain size is 105gb, i run a full node. unless you have a 256gb stick to have an idea about the price

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[Jet Cash]

Well this was going well, and I bought the Samsung SSD drive. It's preformatted for exfat, and I gather that is the best format for an external ssd. Ubuntu didn't like that, but a quick run of a sudo command soon fixed it, and now it likes the drive. Windows 10 is a different matter - it wants to reformat the drive. I gather that I may be able to get windows to recognise it if I reformat under Ubuntu, and set a partition flag (I forget which one). I'm inclined to forget the idea of using the drive to switch machines, and I'll just use it with the Linux book. Already I prefer the Ubuntu, and I haven't started to customise anything.

The plan now is to copy the blockchain onto a memory stick, and to copy that onto the SSD. Then I can install the Bitcoin core. I'll just check to see if I need to move anything else with the blockchain.

[nemgun]

Well this was going well, and I bought the Samsung SSD drive. It's preformatted for exfat, and I gather that is the best format for an external ssd. Ubuntu didn't like that, but a quick run of a sudo command soon fixed it, and now it likes the drive. Windows 10 is a different matter - it wants to reformat the drive. I gather that I may be able to get windows to recognise it if I reformat under Ubuntu, and set a partition flag (I forget which one). I'm inclined to forget the idea of using the drive to switch machines, and I'll just use it with the Linux book. Already I prefer the Ubuntu, and I haven't started to customise anything.

The plan now is to copy the blockchain onto a memory stick, and to copy that onto the SSD. Then I can install the Bitcoin core. I'll just check to see if I need to move anything else with the blockchain.

It shouldn't be that hard to make a drive to work with a ubuntu distro, have you tried to boot on it ? if so, why not installing ubuntu natively on the laptop ?

[Jet Cash]

It isn't the Ubuntu that's the problem. It took about a minute to run the sudo to install the drivers. I'm not sure why they aren't in the basic installation, but they are easy to add, and they seem to work perfectly. Windows 10 is a different matter. It seems to be deliberately difficult if you want to communicate with a different world. I might dump it from the main computer when this one is stable.

[nemgun]

It isn't the Ubuntu that's the problem. It took about a minute to run the sudo to install the drivers. I'm not sure why they aren't in the basic installation, but they are easy to add, and they seem to work perfectly. Windows 10 is a different matter. It seems to be deliberately difficult if you want to communicate with a different world. I might dump it from the main computer when this one is stable.

As i expected the problems never come from ubuntu or linux, but i think you are totally true about the possibles problems comming from windows when you want to use several OSs in the same computer, it acts like jealous and generates random bugs, every time i use a VM of ubuntu i get random errors, and even the error logs are bugged !

I seriously believe that you will end up dumping windows to trash, and leave the place to ubuntu.

Yet i still don't understand what you want to achieve exactly.

[Jet Cash]

It's fairly simple.
I want to run a full node over public wifi on this cheap notebook.
I've removed windows 10 and replaced it with Ubuntu. As it's only got a small internal ssd, I've added an external 256Gb SSD, and I want to copy the blockchain from my other computer onto the external SSD a pain in the exit port, so I'm looking for an easy way to copy the blockchain without introducing Windows restrictiuons on the SSd. I might give up the transfer to the USB stick, and try using Bluetooth tomorrow. The problem with Bluetoth is that it will only transfer files and not directories.

Actually, I've just had another thought. I might use ftp to put it on a server, and pull it back from there.

[nemgun]

It's fairly simple.
I want to run a full node over public wifi on this cheap notebook.
I've removed windows 10 and replaced it with Ubuntu. As it's only got a small internal ssd, I've added an external 256Gb SSD, and I want to copy the blockchain from my other computer onto the external SSD a pain in the exit port, so I'm looking for an easy way to copy the blockchain without introducing Windows restrictiuons on the SSd. I might give up the transfer to the USB stick, and try using Bluetooth tomorrow. The problem with Bluetoth is that it will only transfer files and not directories.

Actually, I've just had another thought. I might use ftp to put it on a server, and pull it back from there.

what do you mean by windows restrictions ? because normally you shouldn't have a problem.
Your best bet is to use your other computer and the notebook in the same LAN or WLAN and transfer files, i don't think there is a difference in .bitcoin

Send them from your other computer (if on windows) to ubuntu using winscp after downloading it :

Code:

winscp C:\path\to\bitcoin\blockchain user@hostname:/home/user/.bitcoin

Send from your other computer (if on ubuntu) to ubuntu notebook :

Code:

scp /path/to/.bitcoin user@hostname:/home/user/.bitcoin

[Jet Cash]

Well this has certainly been an interesting experiment. I started the ftp, but that looked as if it was going to take too long over public wifi, and, of course, it's a double operation.

I decided to do a bit of research into the ssd recognition problem in Windows, and I've now got it transferring files. I'll wait to see if Ubuntu can read them, but hopefully it shouldn't be a problem as the drive was set up by Ubuntu.

[Jet Cash]

On the face of it, I seem to have got this working.
I had a bit of a hiccup because I didn't build the blockchain in a sub-directory, but I moved it, and re-started core specifying the new directory structure. It now running after a bit of thinking, and it's synchronising with the network. It says it is 23 hours behind, and that's probably about right.

Lets see if that moves before the end of my coffee.

[PremiumCodeX]

May I ask how much experience you have with Ubuntu? Because Windows 10 may be slower and less secure than a well-configured Linux, but "getting" the right configuration is not an easy task. Due to my occupation, I met alot of cases where Linux servers got hacked because of insufficient configuration and Windows XP that was running for 10+ years without a single successful hacking attempt. So, Ubuntu is better if you know what you are doing, but Windows is the safer if you have doubts. That is my experience, at least and a little warning.

[Jet Cash]

No experience with Ubuntu, but my first Microsoft OS was PC-DOS. I actually wrote an OS for an 8085 based system. My Linux experience goes back to SuSe over 20 years ago.

I've had enough experience with Windows to know that it's bloated and insecure, and the latest Windows 10 brought home to me the influence that globalists like Soros are having on our computing. As Bitcoiners, I would have thought that members would be aware of this.

I suspect it will be less work for me to optimise Ubuntu, than constantly having to check Windows to see what Microsoft has done in their latest ( and over-frequent) update. I don't want Cortana, One-drive or Defender. If you stop and think about it, if Microsoft wanted to stop viruses, they would build protection into the basic operating system. I'm amazed that they can still have buffer overrun vulnerabilities - I fixed those back in the 1970s when I was a systems programmer working on some multi-threaded real time systems.

[nemgun]

No experience with Ubuntu, but my first Microsoft OS was PC-DOS. I actually wrote an OS for an 8085 based system. My Linux experience goes back to SuSe over 20 years ago.

I've had enough experience with Windows to know that it's bloated and insecure, and the latest Windows 10 brought home to me the influence that globalists like Soros are having on our computing. As Bitcoiners, I would have thought that members would be aware of this.

I suspect it will be less work for me to optimise Ubuntu, than constantly having to check Windows to see what Microsoft has done in their latest ( and over-frequent) update. I don't want Cortana, One-drive or Defender. If you stop and think about it, if Microsoft wanted to stop viruses, they would build protection into the basic operating system. I'm amazed that they can still have buffer overrun vulnerabilities - I fixed those back in the 1970s when I was a systems programmer working on some multi-threaded real time systems.

You are totally true, the problem is that microsoft is too big to fall, and they will deliver such crapy programs for decades.
How is the experiment ? is the node syncing ?

By the way cortana is the best spy i ever saw, and it is known by many people that windows sends screens, audio, and other data, haven't you noticed that sometimes the internet i slow for shady reasons on windows, plus you don't have the possibility to set some params.