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newsClaimed 2TB USB SSD is only 128GB
Initial report on this drive here:
https://bkhome.org/news/202110/ultra-cheap-usb-4tb-flash-drives.html
Thanks to Jon, who found some information on the chips, including this:
29F — Intel NAND flash memory
64B — 512 Gbits MLC / 768 Gbits (?) TLC
2a — 2 channel
L — # of Die 1, # of CE 1, I/O common
c — 3.3V Vcc
T — TLC — three-bit-per-cell
H — 3d gen2 (64 Levels)
1 — Product Generation 1
*200827 is the year and week of manufacture*
*listed code of the chip shows chipset is either chinese or russian origin ZB is mostly chinese, but can't see the chipcode listing back to 2008 in russia. Was it the USSR back then?
And thanks David T., who informed me about 'f3probe':
http://oss.digirati.com.br/f3/
https://fight-flash-fraud.readthedocs.io/en/stable/introduction.html
Running it on the "2TB" drive:
# ./f3probe --destructive --time-ops /dev/sda
F3 probe 8.0
Copyright (C) 2010 Digirati Internet LTDA.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.
WARNING: Probing normally takes from a few seconds to 15 minutes, but
it can take longer. Please be patient.
Bad news: The device `/dev/sda' is a counterfeit of type limbo
You can "fix" this device using the following command:
f3fix --last-sec=2147483647 /dev/sda
Device geometry:
*Usable* size: 1.00 TB (2147483648 blocks)
Announced size: 1.91 TB (4096000000 blocks)
Module: 2.00 TB (2^41 Bytes)
Approximate cache size: 1.00 MB (2048 blocks), need-reset=no
Physical block size: 512.00 Byte (2^9 Bytes)
Probe time: 9.55s
Operation: total time / count = avg time
Read: 248.4ms / 4213 = 58us
Write: 9.28s / 22706 = 408us
Reset: 0us / 1 = 0us
#
# ./f3fix --last-sec=2147483647 /dev/sda
F3 fix 8.0
Copyright (C) 2010 Digirati Internet LTDA.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.
Drive `/dev/sda' was successfully fixed
#
...unfortunately, 'f3probe' has got it wrong. I found that the drive
is only 128GB. As per the specs on the chip, 512Gbits per chip. So, 512
divide by 8 gives 64GiB.
The "fix" shown above also does not work, Gparted still shows the drive to be 1.91TiB.
The way to determine the correct size of the drive is to create ext4
partitions of different sizes. The ext4 filesystem creates "marks" over
the entire partition, and there will be an error if unable to do this.
So, using Gparted, created a 244GiB ext4 partition:
...notice the inverted triangle symbol with exclamation mark in the
middle, indicating something wrong. Running a filesystem check:
In Gparted, deleted that partition and created a 122GiB partition:
...notice, no inverted-triangle symbol. Also, a filesystem check passes OK.
I am accustomed to Chinese vendors exaggerating, expected it, but this is taking exaggeration to a whole new level.
It is really bad news for users. If someone thinks of archiving their
family photos, once they exceed the 128GB actual capacity, the
filesystem will be corrupted, and they might not be able to recover
their files.
I will be asking for my money back. Had to scratch it somewhat,
opening it up, so cannot return it (and have them sell it to another
sucker). It's an AU vendor, so they have legal obligations in this
country.
Next up, will test the "4TB" drive.
EDIT 2021-10-03:
Wow, it gets worse: the 4TB drive has only 128GB.
I mentioned in the previous blog post, that it
is two separate "2TB" drives internally. There is a very good reason for
this -- they have msdos partition tables, that cannot handle drives any
bigger than 2TB. These drives cannot have a GUID partition table (GPT),
which can handle drives over 2TB, because that creates a backup GPT at
the physical end of the drive, and this causes an error with these
drives, due to them not being the reported size. Also, only msdos fat,
exfat and f2fs filesystems can be used, that do not mark out the entire
partition.
So, the "4TB" drive is actually two "2TB" drives. I ran 'f3probe' on one of them:
# ./f3probe --destructive --time-ops /dev/sdb
F3 probe 8.0
Copyright (C) 2010 Digirati Internet LTDA.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.
WARNING: Probing normally takes from a few seconds to 15 minutes, but
it can take longer. Please be patient.
Bad news: The device `/dev/sdb' is a counterfeit of type limbo
You can "fix" this device using the following command:
f3fix --last-sec=124084223 /dev/sdb
Device geometry:
*Usable* size: 59.17 GB (124084224 blocks)
Announced size: 1.91 TB (4096000000 blocks)
Module: 2.00 TB (2^41 Bytes)
Approximate cache size: 31.00 MB (63488 blocks), need-reset=no
Physical block size: 512.00 Byte (2^9 Bytes)
Probe time: 15'14"
Operation: total time / count = avg time
Read: 2.62s / 131442 = 19us
Write: 15'11" / 702863 = 1.2ms
Reset: 1us / 2 = 0us
...very interesting, it is saying the real size is only 59GB!!!
So, tested creating ext4 partitions with Gparted, first, a 122GB partition:
...notice the inverted-triangle symbol. ran a filesystem check:
...fail! Then created a 61GB ext4 partition:
...success. Also a filesystem check was OK.
For this drive, 'f3probe' got it right. I will be contacting the vendor and asking for a refund.
EDIT 2021-10-07:
Both vendors have refunded in full, without requiring return of the
drives. This is not something that they want to go to eBay's
arbitration!
I do not intend to contact eBay and report
these fake drives. There are lots of vendors selling them on eBay and
Aliexpress. Also, there are other products, such as smartphones, that
are also fake products (or at least, highly misleading specifications).
This is going on in such a massive scale, and for so long, eBay and
Aliexpress must be aware that it is happening. They are not policing
their vendors, so I am not going to raise one small voice just targeting
a couple of vendors.
Tags: tech
Ultra-cheap USB 4TB flash drives
WARNING:
I have become suspicious about the memory capacity. I changed the
filesystem to ext4 and the 'mount' utility crashed when tried to mount
the partition. In theory, it is possible to hardwire a smaller block of
memory so that it repeats over the 2TB -- need to find out if this has
been done. ext4 marks out the entire partition, and that would explain
its failure. Doing some more tests.
A 4TB (4 terrabyte, 4,000GB) SSD flash drive for AU$51.88 including
postage, too good to be true? That's about US$30. These cheap "SSDs" are
being sold all over the place, on eBay, Aliexpress and Amazon. Most
intrigued, I had to buy a couple, to test and find out whether they are
telling porkies ("telling porkies" is British slang, meaning telling
lies).
Found a couple of vendors on ebay with AU stock, bought these two, first one claimed 2TB, second 4TB:
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/353667413462
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/284436751673
The 2TB drive cost me AU$36.66 and the 4TB drive AU$51.88 including
postage. They are even cheaper if bought from Aliexpress, from China.
Here is the "2TB" drive:
And here is the "4TB" drive that I purchased:
...370MB/s write speed, surely they jest!
Note about that second one: they packed the wrong USB cable. Minor annoyance.
I did see some feedback on Amazon, can't find it now, that they are cheating on capacity claim. First, tested the 2TB drive...
The 'fdisk' and 'gparted' utilities do show size as 1.91TiB, single
exfat partition. I wondered if they were fudging capacity somehow, so
decided to use 'dd' to write zeroes, until it ran out of drive:
# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=1M conv=fsync status=progress oflag=sync
470956376064 bytes (471 GB, 439 GiB) copied, 81754 s, 5.8 MB/s
449139+0 records in
449139+0 records out
470956376064 bytes (471 GB, 439 GiB) copied, 81755.5 s, 5.8 MB/s
...notice that time, 81755.5 seconds -- that's 22 hours and 42
minutes. I just left it running overnight, but then realised how long it
was going to take to get through all the 2TB. So, skipped ahead:
# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=4M conv=fsync status=progress oflag=sync,seek_bytes seek=1950G
3351248896 bytes (3.4 GB, 3.1 GiB) copied, 663 s, 5.1 MB/s
dd: error writing '/dev/sda': No space left on device
801+0 records in
800+0 records out
3355443200 bytes (3.4 GB, 3.1 GiB) copied, 664.265 s, 5.1 MB/s
...seems like it is 2TB, but using 'dd' does not really confirm that
it is 2TB. If a small memory is just mapped repeatedly at higher
addresses, to fill the entire 2TB address-space, 'dd' won't know that.
That sustained write speed, 5.1MB/s, is down amongst the cheapest flash sticks that you might buy in the bargain-bin at your local supermarket.
I put an f2fs filesystem onto it, and wrote a file to it:
# dd if=/dev/zero of=/mnt/sda1/dummyfile bs=4M count=256 conv=fsync status=progress oflag=sync
1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB, 1.0 GiB) copied, 213 s, 5.0 MB/s
256+0 records in
256+0 records out
1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB, 1.0 GiB) copied, 213.047 s, 5.0 MB/s
For the record, 'fdisk' reports:
# fdisk -l /dev/sda
Disk /dev/sda: 1.9 TiB, 2097152000000 bytes, 4096000000 sectors
Disk model: SSD
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0xedc4bd24
Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sda1 32768 4095967231 4095934464 1.9T 83 Linux
I did the same for the 4TB drive, that is the red one in above photo, put f2fs onto it, and did a file write test:
# dd if=/dev/zero of=/mnt/sda1/dummyfile bs=4M count=256 conv=fsync status=progress oflag=sync
1061158912 bytes (1.1 GB, 1012 MiB) copied, 105 s, 10.1 MB/s
256+0 records in
256+0 records out
1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB, 1.0 GiB) copied, 105.965 s, 10.1 MB/s
Interesting, the 4TB drive is internally two separate 2TB drives, so shows up as sda and sdb:
# disktype /dev/sda
--- /dev/sda
Block device, size 1.907 TiB (2097152000000 bytes)
DOS/MBR partition map
Partition 1: 1.907 TiB (2097118445568 bytes, 4095934464 sectors from 32768)
Type 0x83 (Linux)
# disktype /dev/sdb
--- /dev/sdb
Block device, size 1.907 TiB (2097152000000 bytes)
DOS/MBR partition map
Partition 1: 1.907 TiB (2097118445568 bytes, 4095934464 sectors from 32768)
Type 0x83 (Linux)
The write speed of 10.1MB/s is
much better! This is getting above the bargain-bin flash drives. My
SanDisk Ultra drives give about 15MB/s sustained write speed, and my
SanDisk Extreme is up around 90MB/s. SanDisk do sell cheaper ranges.
Notice from the photo, they are claiming up to 370MB/s write speed.
It may be true, because this is where they are being sneaky. Flash
drives usually have an internal cache, and a small number of bytes
written to the drive will first go into the cache, then it will fill,
and then writing to the flash media will occur, much slower. So, the
"sustained write speed" that I have measured, is more accurate.
So, were they worthwhile purchasing, did I waste my money?
UPDATE PENDING!
I have opened up the "2TB" drive to see what chips are
inside. Two chips, no way is that 2TB! Can't find a datasheet, the chip
has a "i" on it, pretending to be an Intel chip. I found a photo of the
chip elsewhere with "AMD" on it. Numbers on each chip:
29F64B2ALCTH1 200827 ZB170528
I am conducting a test to find out just how much memory there actually is.
Will do the same to the "4TB" drive. Stay tuned.
EDIT 20211002:
The actual capacity of the "2TB" drive is only 128GB, see test here:
https://bkhome.org/news/202110/claimed-2tb-usb-ssd-is-only-128gb.html
Tags: tech
7 inch tablet with 4G LTE
Strangely, such a tablet is very hard to find these days, a 7 inch tablet with 4G LTE bands that suit Australia.
I own a 7 inch tablet with 3G support, brand name OrientPhone, think
was purchased in 2014, from China. Wonderful phone, drew admirers
whenever I used it in public, due to its large proportions compared with
normal phones. Problem was, the 3G bands no longer work, and besides,
the phone died a few years ago -- just stopped working.
Ever since then, I have sometimes browsed online looking for a
replacement. However, the 7 inch tablet market has also died. Yes, there
are modern phones up to about 7 inches, but they are skinny things,
with screen ratio not suited to playing 720p or 1080p videos -- such
videos do not fill the screen.
I travel often by train, and like to browse the Internet. Also when
hiking want to watch videos at night. A 7 inch tablet is ideal, as good
screen area, and can still fit in a pants pocket. Also, they are very
light.
Just now did a search for information on my OrientPhone, can only find information on a later model:
https://www.gsmdome.com/orientphone-mega-pro-7-0-exotic-phone-feels-like-lg-optimus-vu
...looks like mine, except has a higher screen resolution, mine is 1280x800. The OrientPhone brand is no longer available.
https://www.kimovil.com/en/tablets
...the level of detail is amazing, and it automatically knows that I
am in Australia and filters the 3G, 4G and 5G bands on a device for
suitability for Telstra, Optus and Vodafone.
Brilliant, I was able to find one tablet that is just like my old
OrientPhone, but with 4G LTE, and even supports the Telstra B28 band,
which is very hard to find. It is the Alldocube iPlay 7T. And, it is
available from the Alldocube factory outlet via Aliexpress:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002719377055.html
...yes, very old specifications! But, will do what I want. And, it
weighs only 224g, about the same as my Huawei smartphone (216g).
Only 103 Australian Dollars including postage (+GST), cheap, but I wouldn't want to pay big bucks for such modest specs.
Also noticed the 8T, 8 inch:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002719301935.html
...not much higher cost, and also supports all the Australian 4G frequencies. Ha ha, imagine answering calls with this:
The 7T is smaller, but still a big thing to hold in the hand. Found
this video made by "Friendly Horse", of the 7T showing it being held:
...but why is he wearing a mask in his own home? I like eccentric characters!
Friendly Horse also owns the 8T, and here is a snapshot from another of his videos, showing them alongside:
...immediate impression, the 7T looks OK for holding in the hand,
slipping into a pocket, etc. Not so for the 8 inch -- you would need a
handbag, backpack, or something like that to carry it in.
The 7T is what I have been looking for, ordered it. Will probably do a write-up, suitability for
carrying around on train, etc., and using instead of a phone, and
practicality on a hike.
Tags: tech
Passive heatsink for Pi4
As reported recently, I bought a plastic case with fan for my new Pi4:
https://bkhome.org/news/202101/raspberry-pi-4-first-impressions.html
Which is fine, it runs very cool, but I would rather not have the noise.
Right now. the Pi4 is compiling SeaMonkey, with "make -J2", and the
tray temperature applet is showing 45 degC. Even though it is mid-summer
here, ambient temperature today is very low, I would guess about 20
degC.
However, there is a passive heatsink that does a pretty good job, as this guy on YouTube has reported:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zF6vyZlw0Bc
It has an opening for the wifi signal, but how well that works remains to be seen.
Anyway, ordered one off eBay:
These are available locally, from Altronics and others, but at twice
the price. I don't mind waiting while it comes from China.
Tags: tech
Raspberry Pi 4 first impressions
Yesterday posted a proposed purchase-list of Raspberry Pi4 and support items:
https://bkhome.org/news/202101/oe-compile-for-raspberry-pi-4.html
Today bought them. I mentioned yesterday that had ordered a
barrel-socket to USB Type-C plug adapter from China, so that I can use
my 5V @ 6A power supply with the Pi4:
https://bkhome.org/news/202101/ordered-usb-type-c-to-55x21mm-adapter.html
But today bought the official 5V @ 3A supply, so as to get up and
running straight away. Surprised how small it is, wonder if it can
really deliver 3A.
This post is just a quick report on setting up the Pi. I thought that
it would just be a few minutes, plug everything together and power-on,
however, took a bit longer...
That laminated acrylic case was a bit of a headache, quite poorly
designed. Here is an end-on photo, note the bend of the top laminate:
The phone wide-angle lens does distort images a bit, but apart from
that, there is a definite curve on the top laminate. This is due to the
USB sockets being higher than the ethernet socket. Also along the
bottom, the USB sockets are not in a straight line with the bottom of
the ethernet socket.
I am wondering if the board layout changed a bit since the case was
designed. Anyway, I fixed it with a bit of surgery on the clear layer on
the bottom of the USB and ethernet sockets. Used a file so that the
ethernet socket can sit a bit lower:
...actually, filed it a bit more after taking that photo, almost
halfway through. Also chamfered the front edge -- notice that the USB
sockets have a little lip on top and bottom -- the top lips were able to
sit just on the outside, however, the bottom lips needed the chamfer.
Due to this messing around, cannot recommend this case.
Another thing that I did not like, and I know that this is just
aesthetics, but didn't like the power plug for the fan sticking up out
of the case. Just now reminded of my Hardkernel ARM board, that has
dedicated socket for the fan power, and also mounting holes on the board
for the fan, and spring-loaded screws to attach the fan -- so
professional.
Photo shows the "aesthetically unpleasing" wiring for the fan:
Plugged everything together, works great, snappy performance running Raspberry Pi OS (Raspian):
The fan is a little bit noisy. As it sits only a few millimetres
above the chips, there is no room for heatsinks, but that closeness does
ensure good airflow over the chips.
I would like to thank Michael, David, Paul, Feodor and Sage, for hardware suggestions.
Just for the record, the Hardkernel board that I was referring to is this one, that I bought in 2016:
https://bkhome.org/news/201609/bought-the-odroid-xu4.html
...pity it is only a 32-bit CPU.
Tags: tech
Ordered USB Type-C to 5.5x2.1mm adapter
I have posted about possibly buying a rpi4:
https://bkhome.org/news/202101/oe-compile-for-raspberry-pi-4.html
I own a 5V at 6A power supply with a 5.5x2.1mm male plug. Also, a
short 5.5x2.1mm female barrel socket to micro-USB male plug, that I used
to power my rpi3.
Problem is, the rpi4 has USB type-C power input. Hunted online, could
not find an adapter in Australia. Started with the local stores, Jaycar
and Altronics, no joy, then searched online.
Eventually ordered from China:
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/402153703702
...expected delivery by end of month.
Tags: tech
The PinePhone continues to evolve
I have been watching this project with interest, also Purism's
Librem 5 phone, and have posted about them a few times, for example:
https://bkhome.org/news/201902/pinephone-development-kit.html
https://bkhome.org/news/201910/librem-5-and-pinephone-assembly.html
https://bkhome.org/news/201911/librem-5-hardware-evaluation.html
...that last link is a rather harsh evaluation by a hardware
engineer, and it has proved to be true that the Librem 5 has struggled
with battery life.
Manufacturers put a huge effort into extending battery life, and my
Huawei phone is a prime example. Even after all-day usage, it
still has 70-80% charge left, and if just idle will last for -- well I
don't know, probably weeks.
The PinePhone has enormous advantages for me, very cheap, and the modem has frequencies supported by the telcos in Australia.
A third advantage is the popularity of the PinePhone and the
development going on in multiple fronts. See this blog post for recent
development highlights:
https://www.pine64.org/2020/12/15/december-update-the-longest-one-yet/
...two items in that blog post stand out for me. Improvements to the
modem power consumption, and the enthusiastic take-up of the i2c
interface on the back of the phone.
Phones have the modem builtin to the SoC, and the Librem 5 and
Pinephone separate modem, done for security reasons, has made reduction
of power consumption a major challenge. So, the breakthrough with the
PinePhone modem is very good news. Though, that new modem firmware might
not be in shipped phones for awhile.
There is no other phone that I know of, that has an interface in the
back, for adding custom devices. The i2c interface in the PinePhone has
proved to be very popular and some great products are coming out.
Then there's the docking station. The phone is designed from scratch
to work with the docking station, and this has always been one of the
dreams of "convergence" -- have a docking station at home, with USB
keyboard and mouse connected, and TV or monitor, plug in the phone, and
you have a regular Linux-based PC.
So, you might have picked up from my positive statements that I like
the PinePhone. Yeah, it is on the cards that I will buy one, but might
wait until mid-2021 or thereabouts, to get the more refined iteration of
the hardware design and more fully-functional software.
Tags: tech
Googled has tightened restrictions for login
I discovered this a couple of days ago, went to login to my Gmail
account, and got a message that my browser does not have javascript
enabled or is an incompatible browser.
This is on my laptop, which has SeaMonkey 2.53.3. I just checked, The latest EasyOS has SM 2.53.4, and can login to Gmail OK.
What I did with SM 2.53.3, is go to "about:config" then search for "useragent", then there is this parameter:
general.useragent.compatMode.strict-firefox
Which is set to "false". Right-click on it and choose "toggle", so it then becomes "true". Then login to Google works.
I think that it is really dumb that some companies will bar a browser
based on the user agent string, given how easy it is to change it.
You can check your browser user agent string here:
https://www.whatismybrowser.com/detect/what-is-my-user-agent
Running 2.53.4 right now, and without the above parameter toggled to "true", this is what I get:
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:60.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/60.0 SeaMonkey/2.53.4
If I were to toggle that parameter to true, the user agent is the same except doesn't have the "SeaMonkey/2.53.4" on the end.
I am wondering whether I should set that parameter as "true" by default? It is simply an entry in /root/.mozilla/*/prefs.js:
user_pref("general.useragent.compatMode.strict-firefox", true);
If anyone reports this login problem with latest SM, then will do.
EDIT 2020-10-22:
How about that, yesterday was able to login to Google with my 2.53.4 SM,
this morning can't. Setting "strict-firefox" user agent has fixed
it, so that will be the default for next release of EasyOS.
Tags: tech