Hello:

Yes, I know.

What I meant to say was that what I thought was an issue ie: usb-storage.ko not being present was not the problem as it was part of the kernel.
The problem actually being a power supply one.

Thanks for your input.

Cheers,

A.

Hello:

... it dawned on me that I was being obtuse.  =^ 7

After thinking about it a while longer I realised that I had missed an obvious test.

The charger I have seems to be well built, relabeled for local sale so I don't know who makes it.
It is not a switching PS, just 220V Chinese made design, good quality plastic and not at all shoddy like some I others have seen.

But like I mentioned, it is obviously made for the smartphone market.
And one thing that many of these chargers have in common is the rather long cable.

This one in particular has a ~1.00 meter cable hard wired from the charger to the mini USB plug.
On the charger's back, an additional three illuminated USB ports can be found.

Suspecting a voltage drop on the charger's cable I ran one last test.

Raspberry Pi
RPi plugged into charger's USB1  <----- using a different/shorter cable instead of the PS hard wired one.
Drive plugged into RPi's USB1
Power plugged into RPi's USB2
Result: works

So there it is ...
Not the RPi or the charger but the long cable causing a voltage drop.

Conclusion
The RPi on can run a HDD with a 700mA draw (using two USB ports) provided the charger is working properly.
I have not added anything else yet (keyboard, mouse, HDMI cable) but I still have two free USB ports on the charger.

This charger was evidently hindered by the long/small gauge cable.

I'll see if I can figure out how to take it apart without destroying the case to eliminate/shorten the long cable by 60% or replace it with a heavier gauge USB cable.

Yes, I have seen that disk start up can be 1.5 to 2.0 x the stated draw on the label.
Usually not advertised in the brochure unless expensive server stuff for IBM, Sun, Dell.

Have a look at the link to the RPi power stats.
I've read that the RPi does not follow the power spec too closely if at all.

The RPi3+ has a default 600mA global but can be used at 1200mA global with the proper setting in the /boot/config.txt file.

The Kingston 120Gb SSD I have my workstation's system on draws 1.0A.

I once heard of a Western Digital HDD specially made for the RPi.
It had a USB3.0 port instead of the usual SATA but it seems to have been discontinued.

All the 2.5" SATA drives I have come across have a peak draw of 1.0A.

I'm set on using these Samsung HDD because they are just 40Gb and are just short of indestructible.
I used them for years to back up my office/maintenance files and as my storage needs grew, ended up in a drawer.
Now I can use them again as they are perfect for the use I'll give the RPi.

Thanks a lot for your input.

Cheers,

A.

Hello tux:

Let's see:

groucho@rpidevuan:~$ dmesg
[ 1562.439264] usb 1-1.3: new high-speed USB device number 5 using dwc_otg
[ 1562.647134] usb 1-1.3: New USB device found, idVendor=0951, idProduct=1665
[ 1562.647349] usb 1-1.3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[ 1562.647541] usb 1-1.3: Product: DataTraveler 2.0
[ 1562.647665] usb 1-1.3: Manufacturer: Kingston
[ 1562.647782] usb 1-1.3: SerialNumber: 50E549C693551F61991E1D42
[ 1562.649518] usb-storage 1-1.3:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
[ 1562.653027] scsi host0: usb-storage 1-1.3:1.0
[ 1563.699699] scsi 0:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Kingston DataTraveler 2.0 0000 PQ: 0 ANSI: 4
[ 1563.701152] sd 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 0
[ 1563.703372] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 15151168 512-byte logical blocks: (7.76 GB/7.22 GiB)
[ 1563.705501] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
[ 1563.705667] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 23 00 00 00
[ 1563.707595] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: disabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
[ 1563.718191]  sda: sda1 sda2
[ 1563.726191] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI removable disk
groucho@rpidevuan:~$ 

root@rpidevuan:/home/groucho# sg_map -sd
/dev/sg0  /dev/sda
root@rpidevuan:/home/groucho# 

It does.

groucho@rpidevuan:~$ zgrep -Ei "_USB_STORAGE|_BLK_DEV_SD" /proc/config.gz
gzip: /proc/config.gz: No such file or directory
groucho@rpidevuan:~$ 

Quite so.

See above.

What to do now?

Thanks a lot for your help.

Cheers,

A.

Hello:

I have to check again, see below.

Yes, I think you're right.
Support was not compiled into the kernel.

It confirms that usb-storage is not in the system:

groucho@rpidevuan:~$ sudo modinfo usb-stotage 
[sudo] password for groucho: 
modinfo: ERROR: Module usb-stotage not found.

groucho@rpidevuan:~$ find /lib/modules -name \*usb-storage\*.ko
groucho@rpidevuan:~$

This si a config for sub-storage, on kernel 5.4.x:
[

#
# NOTE: USB_STORAGE depends on SCSI but BLK_DEV_SD may
#
# also be needed; see USB_STORAGE Help for more info
#
CONFIG_USB_STORAGE=y
# CONFIG_USB_STORAGE_DEBUG is not set
CONFIG_USB_STORAGE_REALTEK=m
CONFIG_REALTEK_AUTOPM=y
CONFIG_USB_STORAGE_DATAFAB=m
CONFIG_USB_STORAGE_FREECOM=m
CONFIG_USB_STORAGE_ISD200=m
CONFIG_USB_STORAGE_USBAT=m
CONFIG_USB_STORAGE_SDDR09=m
CONFIG_USB_STORAGE_SDDR55=m
CONFIG_USB_STORAGE_JUMPSHOT=m
CONFIG_USB_STORAGE_ALAUDA=m
CONFIG_USB_STORAGE_ONETOUCH=m
CONFIG_USB_STORAGE_KARMA=m
CONFIG_USB_STORAGE_CYPRESS_ATACB=m
CONFIG_USB_STORAGE_ENE_UB6250=m
CONFIG_USB_UAS=m

It is part of sg3_utils
Just installed it.

--- snip ---
The following NEW packages will be installed:
libsgutils2-2 sg3-utils
--- snip ---

Added it to /etc/modules and rebooted:

groucho@rpidevuan:~$ lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
ipv6                  516096  24
sg                     36864  0
brcmfmac              274432  0
brcmutil               16384  1 brcmfmac
sha256_generic         20480  0
cfg80211              741376  1 brcmfmac
rfkill                 32768  1 cfg80211
snd_bcm2835            40960  0
snd_pcm               126976  1 snd_bcm2835
snd_timer              36864  1 snd_pcm
snd                    90112  3 snd_timer,snd_bcm2835,snd_pcm
sdhci_iproc            16384  0
vchiq                 352256  1 snd_bcm2835
uio_pdrv_genirq        16384  0
uio                    24576  1 uio_pdrv_genirq
groucho@rpidevuan:~$ 

This is dmesg with the sg module loaded:

groucho@rpidevuan:~$ dmesg | grep -i "error\|warning\|fail\|segfault\|fatal"
[    0.812942] Error: Driver 'sdhost-bcm2835' is already registered, aborting...
[    2.421514] random: 3 urandom warning(s) missed due to ratelimiting
[    2.846463] platform regulatory.0: Direct firmware load for regulatory.db failed with error -2
[    2.852017] cfg80211: failed to load regulatory.db
groucho@rpidevuan:~$

groucho@rpidevuan:~$ dmesg | grep -i usb
[    0.104319] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbfs
[    0.104417] usbcore: registered new interface driver hub
[    0.104568] usbcore: registered new device driver usb
[    0.303073] usbcore: registered new interface driver lan78xx
[    0.305142] usbcore: registered new interface driver smsc95xx
[    0.770854] dwc_otg 3f980000.usb: DWC OTG Controller
[    0.772811] dwc_otg 3f980000.usb: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
[    0.774815] dwc_otg 3f980000.usb: irq 9, io mem 0x00000000
[    0.780952] usb usb1: New USB device found, idVendor=1d6b, idProduct=0002
[    0.782967] usb usb1: New USB device strings: Mfr=3, Product=2, SerialNumber=1
[    0.784977] usb usb1: Product: DWC OTG Controller
[    0.786941] usb usb1: Manufacturer: Linux 4.16.14-v8+ dwc_otg_hcd
[    0.788925] usb usb1: SerialNumber: 3f980000.usb
[    0.791621] hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found
[    0.796676] usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
[    0.823327] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbhid
[    0.825439] usbhid: USB HID core driver
[    1.203380] usb 1-1: new high-speed USB device number 2 using dwc_otg
[    1.394850] usb 1-1: New USB device found, idVendor=0424, idProduct=2514
[    1.397220] usb 1-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=0, SerialNumber=0
[    1.400429] hub 1-1:1.0: USB hub found
[    1.687369] usb 1-1.1: new high-speed USB device number 3 using dwc_otg
[    1.777885] usb 1-1.1: New USB device found, idVendor=0424, idProduct=2514
[    1.780230] usb 1-1.1: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=0, SerialNumber=0
[    1.783450] hub 1-1.1:1.0: USB hub found
[    2.663363] usb 1-1.1.1: new high-speed USB device number 4 using dwc_otg
[    2.754116] usb 1-1.1.1: New USB device found, idVendor=0424, idProduct=7800
[    2.756640] usb 1-1.1.1: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=0, SerialNumber=0
[    2.971360] usbcore: registered new interface driver brcmfmac
groucho@rpidevuan:~$ 

No USB related errors and drive not detected/recognised.
ie: idVendor=05e3, idProduct=0702

Thanks in advance,

A.

Hello:

While looking around for information regarding Alpine Linux, I came across this.

Alpine Raspberry PI

This is a system install of Alpine linux for Raspberry Pi 3B, 3B+ and 4 image ready to burn to an SD card via balenaEtcher
(there's no need to gunzip image).

The image automatically setup and configures:

    root user [pwd: raspberry]
    pi user [pwd: raspberry]
    ethernet
    wifi (edit wpa_supplicant.conf in the boot partition, on first boot it will be copied)
    bluetooth
    avahi
    swap
    openssh server
    root partition auto-expand on first boot

I'll give it a try as it seems to be quite straightforward.

Cheers,

A.

Hello:

No problem.
From what I have read, it's well over my head at the moment.

Thanks.
No hurry.

The local postal service is usually quite lacking and the CV quarantine has only made things worse.
As a result, the whole of my RPi3B+ kit has been stuck for almost a week at the city's mail distribution centre.
All three packages.

That would be great.
Thanks a lot.

Q: Would this one be different than the one available here?

ie:

devuan_ascii_2.0.0_arm64_raspi3.img.xz   06-Jun-2018 11:28   153M

If it is more or less the same, I would not want you to bother if that *.img works just as well. 

I have been reading some posts here regarding Devuan ascii on the RPi+B+ and it seems that (save the image files) there's no other option at the moment.
We'll just have to wait and see if there's interest in generating an installer.
In the meantime we have parazyd's great work uploading the RPi images.

All Devuan/RPi users owe him a big Thank You.

My RPi3B+ will be (almost) exclusively dedicated to running a 64-bit coffee roasting application (Artisan-Scope v2.12) for which 32-bit support was ended at v1.1.
My Asus 2Gb 1000HE (Atom N280) struggles with it and although the souce is available, it would not make sense to build a v2.12 32-bit as it would probably run much slower than v1.1.

Only maintenance, networking or WiFi printing, some basic image viewer + basic OpenBox would be installed so that all the RPi's remaining resources go to running the roasting software.

I'll most probably have to use the Raspbian downloaded from raspberripi.org, put up with systemd and see how to streamline it as much as possible till someone builds an ARM64 installer.

Thanks a lot for your input.

Cheers,

A.

Hello:

Yes.
That is how it is done if you want to install Devuan/Raspbian.

And there are Raspbian image files available in the downloads section at Dev1.

Yes, they are a mirror of the above.

But as I mentioned, I would like to install Devuan ascii ARM64 (not Raspbian) in my RPi 3B+ but I don't know how to use the files I found in the link mentioned in my OP.

ie:

../
cdrom/                                             08-May-2019 16:37                   -
device-tree/                                       08-May-2019 16:37                   -
netboot/                                           08-May-2019 16:37                   -
MANIFEST                                           08-May-2019 16:37                3947
MANIFEST.udebs                                     08-May-2019 16:37               11424
MD5SUMS                                            08-May-2019 16:37               22425
SHA256SUMS                                         08-May-2019 16:37               30533
udeb.list                                          08-May-2019 16:37                3390

Thanks for your input.

Cheers,

A.

Hello:

To trust Devuan?
A mistake?
Surely you jest ...

Devuan is as trustworthy as any OS can possibly get, there are absolutely no trust issues with Devuan.
Why should you not trust Devuan?

What you have is an issue with a set of applications which have been/are being crippled by the growing divergence between Debian & Devuan.
Which, like the OP noted, we owe to " ... the last debian resolution whether it is interpreted by maintainers in various ways wrongly or on purpose".

To this we must add that the Debian packager for the application you use understands that the systemd issue is a purely ideological one.

And acts according to his ideology: systemd is the way to go.
ie: the only one.

This growing trend means that Devuan developers/packagers have to work more and harder.
Which I am sure you understand, takes time and resources.
Both human and monetary.

I think that are so used to it that it is possible you have lost sight of a very important fact: that you have a first class OS running your boxes free of charge.

IMHO

Cheers,

A.

Hello:

Should?
There are a great many more reasons to go systemd-free.
I confess that I was not aware of (but suspected) "... much faster / less RAM usage".

Evidently it is something the people/developers at raspberripi.org don't care about or just cannot be bothered with.
The answer I got to my post exudes the shortsighted pragmatism often seen in some forums on the web regarding systemd and I'm really at odds as to how to question it successfully.

But I cannot shake the suspicion that there could well be a dyed-in-the-wool pro systemd stance behind such pragmatism.

eg:
... It's not supported on here.
... (and any quirks it may possess) ... <--- any quirks?

Cheers,

A.

Hello:

Right ...

Thanks a lot ..  =-)

I had to tailor it a bit ...

${execpi 5 sensors | awk 'NR==3{print $1 $2 $3} NR==4{print $1 $2 $3} NR==5 {print $1 $2 $3} NR==6 {print $1 $2 $3}' | fmt -24}

... gets me this:

But I have not found a way to separate the readouts.

eg:

It seems that spaces do not count and I don't see a tab or any other argument to use.

How do I separate them?

Thanks in advance,

A.

Hello:

Which one?
HoaS's windup or systemd?   8^D!

The won'tfix issues is my main and probably only issue with Linux/Linux maintenance.

They are the stuff problems down the line are made of, that end up festering in dark and unvisited corners of a distribution.
Till one day everything goes titsup because things that were not fixed in time because it seemed they did not matter were not properly evaluated.
And came back to bite, hard.

And then it is either too late or a real bitch to fix and get things back on track again.

Cheers,

A.