# Is there a guide for SSD install procedures?



## horseflesh (Aug 30, 2010)

I have found a lot of discussion on the best practices for installing FreeBSD on a SSD--use gpart, align boundaries, use noatime--but not a real hand-holding guide. If such a thing exists I'd love to see a link. 

The closest I have found is this guide to installing with gpart:

http://www.b0rken.org/freebsd/gpt.html

In combination with this helpful script to calculate boundaries:

http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?t=12594 (post 12)

Though a poster in this thread suggests just sticking good boundary values in fdisk, in regular sysinstall:

http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?t=7011

If there is some new thinking out there, or a more polished guide I would appreciate a pointer.


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## da1 (Aug 30, 2010)

maybe this -> http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/articles/solid-state/ will help.


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## horseflesh (Sep 10, 2010)

There is some interesting stuff there but it's focused on compact flash cards, and is arguably needlessly conservative with protecting the volume from writes. A more modern SATA solid state disk doesn't need to be babied in quite the same way and seems to have some unique needs in performance tuning.


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## UNIXgod (Sep 10, 2010)

If you can offload /var/log somewhere else it would help. for laptops I've see some people use sd card reader for that. if you have an old hd laying around would also suit fine for a desktop or even a server. if you want to use tmpfs (never used it in bsd) you can put /tmp /var/tmp and /usr/ports/distfiles there. I used md but noticed the ram isn't returned as quickly. swap is another area to offload onto a scratch drive. /var/run should also be thrown inside one of the memory disks. 

Here is a guide I wrote last year which is linux specific but may give you some hints especially if your doing desktop apps. Also ssd complete reset info is there as well.

I've been planning on creating a freebsd specific guide but have been busy with other activities. Hope this info translates a bit:

http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/showthread.php?t=333059


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## horseflesh (Sep 10, 2010)

Thanks, there is some good stuff there!

The way I procrastinate, your FreeBSD guide may be ready by the time I get around to my build. 

It's too bad sysinstall isn't educated about SSDs yet.


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## aragon (Sep 11, 2010)

With SSDs one needs to know the erase boundary.  It differs from SSD to SSD, and it's not always stated in specifications.  I _think_ a safe number to assume is 1 MB though...

As for the script I posted a few months ago, sadly I found errors in its formula.  I've updated my posts with a fixed version.  To make sure it is working you need to take the corrected _byte_ boundaries it spits out and divide them by the _byte_ erase boundary.  Their quotient should be a whole number.  Additionally, fdisk should not complain about track boundaries.


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## horseflesh (Sep 11, 2010)

Thank you for the followup.


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## cuq (Sep 11, 2010)

hi, i want to share my two experiences with ssd. 
1.-last year i bought a ssd (ide, 2.5, 32G, multi layer, ~$400) for my notebook.
i formated (gpart ufs aligned, etc.) and installed fresh freebsd on it...
the system booted fast and was very responsive, everything was faster: applications, X Windows, etc. 
after a couple of days however the system freeze and after a hard restart it didnt boot at all, nothing , nada, cero. 
i repeated this procedure (format, install, etc) at least five times and each time after a couple of weeks the thing died. 
finally i give up with ssd as my system disk... 
later on i found  that the base station on my desk was not electrically insulated and i think that this was probably what trashed the disk each time (they are very sensitive to electrical disturbances) but anyway, my old spinning disk lived and carried on with the same base station and it didnt freezes at all... 
2.-before the events in 1. i had bought an usb-ssd from a very respectable company, i used it to move things between my notebook and other pcs because of the speed; really fast... 
until the last month when it died... now i cant see anything on it, i lost all of the info that was there, i cant even format it now, it didnt respond to anything, windows, mac or freebsd... it become to be a total and complete red-and-black brick...

may be all was my fault in 1., with the electrical base station, but in 2. the thing died from nothing and now i canot even format it... 
so,
i think that ssd is not ready at all to replace a good and old spinning magnetic disk...

cheers


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