Linux/Mac Integration Insults
There isn't a decent file system they share
(UPDATE: I had a nasty recto-cranial inversion here. The HPFS/NTFS/exFAT format used by Ventoy is fine for Linux and Mac.)
I have been working on how I’m going to use VeraCrypt devices on both Linux and Mac. Both operating systems have advanced file systems with long file names, journaling, and other niceties.
This conversation with ChatGPT neatly summarizes the problem - Linux can mount APFS read only, Mac can mount EXT4 read only. The only common format seems to be the elderly, nasty Microsoft FAT, which is going to misbehave with long file names. They can’t even agree on ExFAT, the default format that Ventoy boot devices use for storing ISO files.
So instead of being able to use our handy friend rsync, the only solution is making a tarball or zip of a 50GB+ tree I want to back up, store that in a short filename, and copy the whole darned thing off and back on every time I want to do something with it.
Regular readers may recall Requiem For A Trusted Companion, when I laid my long serving HP Z420 to rest and brought out its backup. That backup machine is now showing the same sort of vices - USB ports not working on the front panel, onboard ethernet bouncing like a baby goat on a trampoline. I’m not turning it off, it’s obvious these vices will immediately get worse with a couple power cycles, but I don’t care for having a hundred watt space heater in this tiny cabin during the summer.
I have two fine Apple laptops. Brain has 8 performance cores and 16GB of memory. I’ve been meaning to disconnect the Z420 and spend a day using it as my desktop, driving my 4k monitor. I was pure Mac when I was mobile between 2012 and 2017, the change came because I needed more cores, ram, and storage. Now that I’ve got the Proxmox cluster … can I really retire this HP and resume a Mac only lifestyle?
If the HP must be replaced, a Dell Precision 7540 is the most likely candidate for that role. Very specifically, the E-2286M eight core mobile Xeon, and I’d boost ram to 64GB with the leftovers from the Scraptop.
But …
And if I accept that there’s going to be some heat, all the Z420 parts would move right over to this.
I expelled the last 3.5” drive from my local setup earlier this year. There is a single 5TB Seagate Barracuda here and I stand to collect another pair of low hours drives of the same type from the retired Dell R610, but that’s been a slow process. I have two external 2.5” enclosures, one USB-A, one USB-C.
A final previously unmentioned piece of the puzzle - there’s been a Dell Optiplex 9020 lounging in the corner for most of this year. I could install a PCIe NVMe carrier and use the single drive bay for one of the 5TB. This little 32GB quad core isn’t going to do any heavy lifting, but it could run Pi-hole, Tailscale, and provide an rsync destination for work done on the Macs.
I’m ambivalent here - I had a plan at the start of the year - GrapheneOS phone and Qubes workstations. Here I sit at the halfway mark with a couple iPhones, a couple Mac laptops, and the last vestige of that original plan is starting to flake out on me.
I guess it beats the heck out of most of the last seventeen years, when there was never enough equipment, or money, or time …