pei-ollllo
November 26th, 2014, 05:42 PM
Hi folks and yes to let you know, this is my first post.
I'm looking for a cheap Ultrabook for non-work based travel. I spotted a used ASUS S46C for sale. It has a 500GB HD and an 24Gb SSD. The SSD is used by the MB as a cache drive. Ultimately, I would want Ubuntu 14.04 (or Kubuntu for a change) on this device. Dual booting is not essential but 'might' be done just for a technicality, see below.
I'm new to SSD caching and most of what I can find relates to the Intel SRT version but I'm assuming Asus's version is much the same. It 'appears' to be a function of the chipset/BIOS and software in the current Windows 8 OS is only present to enable & tweak the caching feature, although I have not verified that.
So the first obvious question for anyone who may be familiar with the scenario.....
1. Once enabled, will the caching functionality continue to function after booting into a Linux environment or are there further hooks into the OS? (If so and Ubuntu did not have a breakdown from it, I would consider leaving it as is and do a dual boot only to retain the Windows tweak tool.)
2. If native Asus SSD caching is not friendly with the Linux kernal, then I'm wondering about two other options.
a.) If SSD caching is disabled via the Windows tool, is there any reason I could not blow away all partitions and use the SSD strictly as a Boot drive for Ubuntu. (/home /tmp and swap would go to the HD. Anything else get written to a lot?)
or
b.) I've never used it but could bcache be utilized in a similar fashion to replicate the Asus version SSD caching in a more Linux friendly way?
Any shared experience or even predictions would be appreciated before I contact the owner of the used device. I don't want to have even a small SSD siting there going to waste.
Thanks all,
Murph
[Edit]
For anyone actually interested in my oddball question.....I found this thread on enabling caching in a very similar hardware platform using Flashcache. He appears to be using it to just selectively cache his /Home folder but it provides some anecdotal evidence that it can be done. Although, I'm more interested in a scenario that improves boot times and/or general OS speed than improving access to data, it was still a good find.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2179297
I'd still appreciate further advice please.
I'm looking for a cheap Ultrabook for non-work based travel. I spotted a used ASUS S46C for sale. It has a 500GB HD and an 24Gb SSD. The SSD is used by the MB as a cache drive. Ultimately, I would want Ubuntu 14.04 (or Kubuntu for a change) on this device. Dual booting is not essential but 'might' be done just for a technicality, see below.
I'm new to SSD caching and most of what I can find relates to the Intel SRT version but I'm assuming Asus's version is much the same. It 'appears' to be a function of the chipset/BIOS and software in the current Windows 8 OS is only present to enable & tweak the caching feature, although I have not verified that.
So the first obvious question for anyone who may be familiar with the scenario.....
1. Once enabled, will the caching functionality continue to function after booting into a Linux environment or are there further hooks into the OS? (If so and Ubuntu did not have a breakdown from it, I would consider leaving it as is and do a dual boot only to retain the Windows tweak tool.)
2. If native Asus SSD caching is not friendly with the Linux kernal, then I'm wondering about two other options.
a.) If SSD caching is disabled via the Windows tool, is there any reason I could not blow away all partitions and use the SSD strictly as a Boot drive for Ubuntu. (/home /tmp and swap would go to the HD. Anything else get written to a lot?)
or
b.) I've never used it but could bcache be utilized in a similar fashion to replicate the Asus version SSD caching in a more Linux friendly way?
Any shared experience or even predictions would be appreciated before I contact the owner of the used device. I don't want to have even a small SSD siting there going to waste.
Thanks all,
Murph
[Edit]
For anyone actually interested in my oddball question.....I found this thread on enabling caching in a very similar hardware platform using Flashcache. He appears to be using it to just selectively cache his /Home folder but it provides some anecdotal evidence that it can be done. Although, I'm more interested in a scenario that improves boot times and/or general OS speed than improving access to data, it was still a good find.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2179297
I'd still appreciate further advice please.