NextcloudPi Install on Debian Stretch (AMD64): Installation of a swap file while a swap file/swap partition already exists

[LittleAlf]

System information

• VM with VirtualBox 5.2.22r:

  4 GB RAM 29 GB hard disk network bridge connection EFI setup

This is a little issue combined with a feature request: I installed NextCloudPi on Debian using a fresh Debian Stretch install on the above virtual machine. I used 'debian-9.5.0-amd64-DVD-1.iso' with minimal installation and no graphical interface. I followed the guided install, with one major exception: I changed the root filesystem to btrfs! The guided install proposed the following partitioning:

• 512 MB EFI partition (vfat)
• 23.5 GB root partition (btrfs)
• 4 GB swap partition (swap)

which I accepted and continued with the installation.

After the installation I did apt-update, apt-upgrade, and apt-dist-upgrade.

Then I ran curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nextcloud/nextcloudpi/master/install.sh | bash. This installed well without errors. (Thank you, Nachoparker!) The only additional message was:

swap file has holes

NextCloupPi-Install installed the package dphys-swapfile and created a new swap file on the root partition. This does not work well on a btrfs partition. Therefore this message. So I had to manually change swapon back to the swap partition, clear the swap file, and deinstall the dphys-swapfile package.

Feature request Before the installation of dphys-swapfile package incorporate a check, if a swap file or a swap partition already exists, and is active.

Only, if no active swap file/partition is found, install dphys-swapfile and create the swap file.

[nachoparker]

good idea. The code was originally written for the Pi, so that wasn't an issue.

I added in part because BTRFS doesn't support swap.

By the way, you could have just installed the NCP VM and saved yourself some time. It comes with BTRFS.

[LittleAlf]

Dear Nachoparker,

thanks for your answer. I use the VM because I am thinking about installing NCP on a more powerful Intel-based hardware (Zotac ZBOX Pico PI335), and want to make sure, that I get it up and running properly. So I am testing the installation procedure on the VM.

I saw your new VM (thank you!) and did already a try - but I did not get it running with Virtualbox on Windows yet. If I will not suceed I will ask a question in the Nextcloud forum.

[bmbeverst]

Good day,

I have found that in a LXC container hosted on Proxmox the update.sh script fails when it tries to install the nc-swapfile.sh script due to dphys-swapfile usage of fallocate failing since the "operation is not supported". This can be fixed with adding the -x arg to fallocate but swapon seems to skip the swap file due to "it appears to have holes" which also causes update.sh to fail.

Steps to duplicate:

• Create an LXC container
• apt install dphys-swapfile

At this point I don't need nc-swapfile and am just going to remove it before the install.

Will report back about how well that goes.

It did not work, the install script starts the apps install, which does an ncp-update which then calls update.sh which pulls down the latest git version.

P.S. I did not use the NCP VM due to not wanting a fat VM. I did not use docker since it is missing most of the features of NCP.

[bmbeverst]

Managed to remove the nc-swapfile.sh with this command, while true; do find / -type f -name "nc-swapfile.sh" -print -exec rm -f {} \; 2>/dev/null; sleep 5; done

But now I get a failure trying to setup nc-static-IP:

Installing nc-static-IP
/usr/local/etc/library.sh: line 216: : No such file or directory

Which is this line source "$script"

[nartahn]

@bmbeverst Did you manage to get it installed in Proxmox LXC? I wasn't able to get the network up with the VM either. Looks like I will reinstall on my pi.

[bmbeverst]

Unluckily no.

I tried again with touch /.ncp-image which causes the setup to act differently see, ncp-update, update.sh

It did get me to a nextcloudpi motd, but pretty sure the rest of the install failed.

Either I am going to play with this more or just try with a VM next.

[bmbeverst]

I found and got the VM image working!

1. Go to the download site. It was hard to find this is the only docs of it
2. Download the 1.1 GB file, or torrent but only one person seeding.
3. Extract the img file and upload it (Probably better to copy the compress file 1.1 GB to your Proxmox host and extract there, a 3.5 GB file)
4. Run these command pve source

   qm create 120 --bootdisk scsi0
   qm importdisk 120 NextCloudPi_VM_03-29-20.img someStorage
   qm set 120 --scsi0 someStorage:vm-120-disk-0.raw

Some notes,

• The importdisk command seems to ignore the someStorage so just run it with the path to the file or from the same directory as the file, cd /someStorage/templates/iso then run it.
• The VM is created with no network, 1 CPU and only 512 RAM! So add some more resources once it is ready to go.
• To get the IP for the VM login as root on the console, no password, and run ip addr
• Did not document any thing since it is late, let me know if you need any help!

[nartahn]

I got it working, thanks for your help. FYI... If you scroll down a bit further under templates of LXC containers you will find turnkeylinux-nextcloud. Might be worth a look if you have spare time.

[hockey6611]

Hoping to re-awaken the topic. I am still seeing the above issues with current issues with dphys-swapfile, on 1.29.8 of ncp. I am also trying to get NCP working in an LXC container on proxmox.

I got it working, thanks for your help. FYI... If you scroll down a bit further under templates of LXC containers you will find turnkeylinux-nextcloud. Might be worth a look if you have spare time.

I have managed to get the turnkey linux container working, however, it is pretty out of date and needs a good amount of updating. I would still prefer the convenience and features of NCP in an LXC.

Edit: I also would add I have had these errors in an updated Debian Buster container.

[nachoparker]

Unfortunately NCP expects a clean debian filesystem, you will have to remove swap and dphys-swapfile before installing.

[bmbeverst]

NCP installs dphys-swapfile even if you remove it. See this line here. It would be great if we could disable nc-swapfile.sh some how.

Please reopen this issue, I can't, or should I create a new one?

[hockey6611]

Hopefully you'll consider re-opening issue as compatibility with a container would be a great feature.

[nachoparker]

added experimental support for LXC/LXD

https://github.com/nextcloud/nextcloudpi/commit/212f4e01325978b9bd937171814e564164c5f4af

there will be an image next release