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How to add swap space to a roboRIO

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3620programming edited this page Jan 21, 2025 · 4 revisions

Preparing a thumb drive

This only need to be done once for a thumb drive, unless the drive is reformatted.

  1. Use putty to connect to the roboRIO (address 172.11.22.1 if connected via USB, 10.36.20.2 if connected via wireless or Ethernet). The userid is 'admin', and there is no password.

  2. Insert the thumb drive you will use as swap space in the roboRIO. All contents of the thumb drive will be destroyed. Doug recommends using the low profile black thumb drives for swap files, and saving the red ones for log files.

  3. Use the df command to see if there are any mounted partitions on the thumb drive. If so, use umount to unmount them.

admin@roboRIO-3620-FRC:~# df
Filesystem           1K-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
ubi1:rootfs             395580    141628    249116  36% /
devtmpfs                124564         4    124560   0% /dev
tmpfs                   125076       152    124924   0% /run
tmpfs                    65040       128     64912   0% /var/volatile
ubi0:bootfs              50128     46876      3252  94% /boot
ubi0:config               2012        84      1792   4% /etc/natinst/share
/dev/sda2              3937324      7832   3729480   0% /media/sda2
/dev/sda3              1762160         4   1762156   0% /media/sda3
admin@roboRIO-3620-FRC:~# umount /dev/sda2
admin@roboRIO-3620-FRC:~# umount /dev/sda3
admin@roboRIO-3620-FRC:~# df
Filesystem           1K-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
ubi1:rootfs             395580    141624    249120  36% /
devtmpfs                124564         4    124560   0% /dev
tmpfs                   125076       152    124924   0% /run
tmpfs                    65040       128     64912   0% /var/volatile
ubi0:bootfs              50128     46876      3252  94% /boot
ubi0:config               2012        84      1792   4% /etc/natinst/share
admin@roboRIO-3620-FRC:~#
  1. Make sure you have one and only one sd* device. If you have more than one, stop and get a mentor.
admin@roboRIO-3620-FRC:~# lsblk
NAME      MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda         8:0    1  29.3G  0 disk
mtdblock0  31:0    0   128K  1 disk
mtdblock1  31:1    0    11M  1 disk
mtdblock2  31:2    0    70M  0 disk
mtdblock3  31:3    0 430.4M  0 disk
mtdblock4  31:4    0   252K  0 disk
mtdblock5  31:5    0   252K  0 disk
mtdblock6  31:6    0    54M  0 disk
mtdblock7  31:7    0   4.1M  0 disk
mtdblock8  31:8    0 413.3M  0 disk
admin@roboRIO-3620-FRC:~#
  1. Put a fresh label and swap partition on the disk, using the sd device you found in the lsblk command.
admin@roboRIO-3620-FRC:~# parted /dev/sda
GNU Parted 3.2
Using /dev/sda
Welcome to GNU Parted! Type 'help' to view a list of commands.
(parted) unit MB
(parted) mklabel msdos
Warning: The existing disk label on /dev/sda will be destroyed and all data on
this disk will be lost. Do you want to continue?
Yes/No? y
(parted) p
Model: SanDisk Cruzer Blade (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 31407MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags:

Number  Start  End  Size  Type  File system  Flags

(parted) mkpart pri linux-swap 0% 4096
(parted) p
Model: SanDisk Cruzer Blade (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 31407MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags:

Number  Start   End     Size    Type     File system     Flags
 1      1.05MB  4096MB  4095MB  primary  linux-swap(v1)  lba

(parted) <control-D>
Information: You may need to update /etc/fstab.

admin@roboRIO-3620-FRC:~#
  1. Format the swap partition you just created (using the correct sd device; note the '1' at the end).
admin@roboRIO-3620-FRC:~# mkswap /dev/sda1
mkswap: /dev/sda1: warning: wiping old swap signature.
Setting up swapspace version 1, size = 3.8 GiB (4094685184 bytes)
no label, UUID=d6b07ecd-abf1-40cd-9b05-af6770987831
admin@roboRIO-3620-FRC:~#
  1. Test to see if the new swap partition works. The swapon -s command shows all active swap files and partitions.
admin@roboRIO-3620-FRC:~# swapon -s
admin@roboRIO-3620-FRC:~# swapon /dev/sda1
admin@roboRIO-3620-FRC:~# swapon -s
Filename                                Type            Size    Used    Priority
/dev/sda1                               partition       3998716 0       -2
admin@roboRIO-3620-FRC:~#

Changing the startup scripts on the roboRIO

This needs to be redone if swap space is necessary, and the roboRIO has been reformatted since the last time the scripts were changed.

  1. Use putty to connect to the roboRIO (address 172.11.22.1 if connected via USB, 10.36.20.2 if connected via wireless or Ethernet). The userid is 'admin', and there is no password.

  2. Create the addswap.sh. You can copy-and-paste from here; right clicking in putty does a paste.

admin@roboRIO-3620-FRC:~# cat > /etc/init.d/addswap.sh
#!/bin/sh
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides:          swap
# Required-Start:    udev
# Required-Stop:
# Default-Start:     S
# Default-Stop:
# Short-Description: Add swap space
# Description:
### END INIT INFO

[ -x /sbin/swapon ] && swapon --summary
echo "Adding Swap"
[ -x /sbin/swapon ] && swapon --verbose /dev/sda1
[ -x /sbin/swapon ] && swapon --summary

: exit 0
<control-d>
admin@roboRIO-3620-FRC:~#
  1. Make the script executable.
admin@roboRIO-3620-FRC:~# chmod +x /etc/init.d/addswap.sh
admin@roboRIO-3620-FRC:~#
  1. Set the system up to run the script when the system is started.
admin@roboRIO-3620-FRC:~# update-rc.d addswap.sh defaults
 Adding system startup for /etc/init.d/addswap.sh.
admin@roboRIO-3620-FRC:~#

  1. Reboot the roboRIO (using the reset button).

  2. Wait for the roboRIO to reboot.

  3. Use putty to connect again to the roboRIO (address 172.11.22.1 if connected via USB, 10.36.20.2 if connected via wireless or Ethernet). The userid is 'admin', and there is no password. Issue a swapon -s command to confirm that there is swap. If none, get a mentor.

login as: admin
Pre-authentication banner message from server:
| NI Linux Real-Time (run mode)
|
| Log in with your NI-Auth credentials.
|
End of banner message from server
admin@roboRIO-3620-FRC:~# swapon -s
Filename                                Type            Size    Used    Priority
/dev/sda1                               partition       3998716 0       -2
admin@roboRIO-3620-FRC:~#



              


          



  
          

            


            
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