On 03/08/2026 15:45, Chris Green wrote:

I have a Pi Zero 2 W logging data once an hour, it's a 1Mb database
that gets updated each hour. It has killed its SD card twice in less
than a year and I'm wondering why.

I have a similar logging system using a venerable Pi 2 that's been
running for much longer and writing somewhat more data without any
problems.

The Pi Zero 2 W replaced a Beaglebone Black that had run for several
years without any problems.

Is the Pi Zero 2 W more fussy about its SD card, does it work the card harder. or have I just been unlucky?

I'd welcome any recommendations for cards that last well.

Samsung and Sandisk sell high endurance SD cards intended for
security camera and dashcam applications. These are not
particularly fast, but are designed to survive continuous
writing of data.
John


--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

John R Walliker <jrwalliker@gmail.com> wrote:

On 03/08/2026 15:45, Chris Green wrote:

I have a Pi Zero 2 W logging data once an hour, it's a 1Mb database
that gets updated each hour. It has killed its SD card twice in less
than a year and I'm wondering why.

I have a similar logging system using a venerable Pi 2 that's been
running for much longer and writing somewhat more data without any problems.

The Pi Zero 2 W replaced a Beaglebone Black that had run for several
years without any problems.

Is the Pi Zero 2 W more fussy about its SD card, does it work the card harder. or have I just been unlucky?

I'd welcome any recommendations for cards that last well.

Samsung and Sandisk sell high endurance SD cards intended for
security camera and dashcam applications. These are not
particularly fast, but are designed to survive continuous
writing of data.

+1. There are also 'industrial' grade cards which are a step above 'high endurance' - better designed to handle things like power glitches or
unplanned power outages. I think they use more robust flash (MLC not TLC,
or TLC not QLC) which makes them more expensive per GB - but if you can get
by with 4 or 8GB then it doesn't matter.

Theo

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Mon, 3 Aug 2026 18:05:37 +0100, John R Walliker wrote:

Samsung and Sandisk sell high endurance SD cards intended for
security camera and dashcam applications. These are not
particularly fast, but are designed to survive continuous
writing of data.

+1 on SanDisk and Samsung. I use the SanDisk High Endurance microsd*,
same as in my dashcam. Funny thing Theo mentioning industrial, because I
just checked the dashcam's manufacturer, Viofo, and they now sell (what
they call) industrial microsd cards.

<https://www.viofo.com/products/viofo-industrial-grade-microsd-card-u3-a2-v30-high-speed-memory-card-with-adapter-support-ultra-hd-4k-video-recording32-64-128-256>

I haven't tried these myself, but these cards are meant to go on and on
since the dashcam is recording in time slots of 5 mins and it loops when
the card is full.




* <https://www.sandisk.com/en-ie/products/memory-cards/microsd-cards/sandisk-high-endurance-uhs-i-microsd?sku=SDSQQNR-064G-GN6IA>

--
s|b

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

I have a Pi Zero 2 W logging data once an hour, it's a 1Mb database
that gets updated each hour. It has killed its SD card twice in less
than a year and I'm wondering why.

I have a similar logging system using a venerable Pi 2 that's been
running for much longer and writing somewhat more data without any
problems.

The Pi Zero 2 W replaced a Beaglebone Black that had run for several
years without any problems.

Is the Pi Zero 2 W more fussy about its SD card, does it work the card
harder. or have I just been unlucky?

I'd welcome any recommendations for cards that last well.

--
Chris Green
·

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Mon, 3 Aug 2026 18:29:55 +0100, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

in the true 'if i wanted to go there i wouldn't be starting from here' tradition if its a 2W why not send its data to somewhere more
interesting and secure?

My Pi zero W never writes to its SD car at all unless i change configurations,. Everything that writes is either stopped from writing
or writes to ram discs.

Some SD cards are better than others, I am not interested in finding out which

This is helpful.

--
s|b

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 03/08/2026 15:45, Chris Green wrote:

I have a Pi Zero 2 W logging data once an hour, it's a 1Mb database
that gets updated each hour. It has killed its SD card twice in less
than a year and I'm wondering why.

I have a similar logging system using a venerable Pi 2 that's been
running for much longer and writing somewhat more data without any
problems.

The Pi Zero 2 W replaced a Beaglebone Black that had run for several
years without any problems.

Is the Pi Zero 2 W more fussy about its SD card, does it work the card harder. or have I just been unlucky?

I'd welcome any recommendations for cards that last well.

in the true 'if i wanted to go there i wouldn't be starting from here' tradition if its a 2W why not send its data to somewhere more
interesting and secure?

My Pi zero W never writes to its SD car at all unless i change configurations,. Everything that writes is either stopped from writing
or writes to ram discs.

Some SD cards are better than others, I am not interested in finding out
which

--
The higher up the mountainside
The greener grows the grass.
The higher up the monkey climbs
The more he shows his arse.

Traditional


--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 04/08/2026 10:15, Chris Green wrote:

s|b <me@privacy.invalid> wrote:

On Mon, 3 Aug 2026 18:29:55 +0100, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

in the true 'if i wanted to go there i wouldn't be starting from here'
tradition if its a 2W why not send its data to somewhere more
interesting and secure?

My Pi zero W never writes to its SD car at all unless i change
configurations,. Everything that writes is either stopped from writing
or writes to ram discs.

Some SD cards are better than others, I am not interested in finding out >>> which

This is helpful.

What would be more helpful would be some guidance on how to implement
it! :-)

E.g. how do you stop systemd's logging from writing to 'hard' disk?
It would need a **lot** of reconfiguration before it would use a
reasonable amount of space such as is available on a RAM drive.

Maybe there are versions of the OS that are optimised for minimal disk writing, if so I'd like to know about them.

Here is my 'if I ever have to reproduce this' cheat file
HEATING CONTROLLER
==================
user: admin
password: fuckU
file /etc/dhcpcd.conf
---------------------
set static IP address 192.168.0.201
set gateway 192.168.0.254
set name-server 192.168.0.100

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade -y

# web server
#============
apt-get install apache2
chown -R www-data /var/www
chgrp -R www-data /var/www
chmod -R 775 /var/www/
chmod g+s /var/www
usermod -aG www-data me
usermod -aG www-data admin
mkdir /var/www/data
chmod 775 /var/www/data
# create an area to share data between processes...
mkdir /var/www/data/volatile
chmod 777 /var/www/data/volatile
# create ram disks
echo "tmpfs /var/www/data/volatile tmpfs nodev,nosuid,noexec,nodiratime,size=1M 0 0" >> /etc/fstab
echo "tmpfs /var/ramlog tmpfs nodev,nosuid,noexec,nodiratime,size=25M,mode=0755 0 0" >> /etc/fstab




## fuck with shitsemd
sed -i "s/#Storage=auto/Storage=volatile/" /etc/systemd/journald.conf
sed -i "s/#RuntimeMaxUse=/RuntimeMaxUse=25M/" /etc/systemd/journald.conf
sed -i "s/#ForwardToConsole=yes/ForwardToConsole=no/" /etc/systemd/journald.conf
sed -i "s/#ForwardToWall=yes/ForwardToWall=no/" //etc/systemd/journald.conf


Then it is a question of making sure the SD card filesystem is mounted
with minimal write
more /etc/fstab

proc /proc proc defaults 0 0 PARTUUID=b8c9fbb7-01 /boot vfat defaults 0 2 PARTUUID=b8c9fbb7-02 / ext4 defaults,noatime 0 1
# a swapfile is not a swap partition, no line here
# use dphys-swapfile swap[on|off] for that
tmpfs /var/www/data/volatile tmpfs
nodev,nosuid,noexec,nodiratime,size=1M 0 0
tmpfs /var/ramlog tmpfs
nodev,nosuid,noexec,nodiratime,size=25M,mode=0755 0 0

and picking through everything that might write to the logs to make it
send data to the ramdisk...I though that I had included that in this
guide, but looks like I didnt,. E.g. Apache log files go to the ram disk


ls -l /var/ramlog
total 944
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 119044 Aug 4 10:55 auth.log
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 55711 Aug 1 23:59 auth.log.1
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 118243 Aug 4 10:47 daemon.log
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 86611 Aug 2 00:00 daemon.log.1
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 0 Aug 2 00:00 debug
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 3111 Jul 31 20:41 debug.1
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 241 Aug 4 00:00 error.log
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 528 Aug 4 00:00 error.log.1
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 81192 Aug 3 00:00 error.log.2.gz
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 446 Aug 2 00:00 error.log.3.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 347 Aug 1 00:00 error.log.4.gz
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 0 Aug 2 00:00 kern.log
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 31371 Jul 31 20:40 kern.log.1
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 5111 Aug 2 13:02 mail.info
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 14189 Aug 1 23:02 mail.info.1
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 5111 Aug 2 13:02 mail.log
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 14189 Aug 1 23:02 mail.log.1
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 159 Aug 2 00:10 messages
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 30557 Jul 31 20:40 messages.1
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 190719 Aug 4 10:55 syslog
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 163421 Aug 2 00:00 syslog.1


Its not 100% complete, but its very close

I've still got data going to /var/log that I ought to symlink to files
in /var/ramlog

ls -l /var/log
total 288
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 653 Sep 6 2023 alternatives.log
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Nov 18 2025 apt
-rw-rw---- 1 root utmp 8832 Jun 10 12:00 btmp
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Nov 19 2025 dpkg.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2400 Nov 18 2025 dpkg.log.1
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 464 Oct 16 2025 dpkg.log.2.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 778 Sep 6 2023 dpkg.log.3.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 584 Aug 11 2023 dpkg.log.4.gz
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root utmp 292292 Aug 4 10:47 lastlog
drwx------ 2 root root 4096 May 3 2023 private
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Aug 4 2023 runit
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Feb 2 2021 sysstat
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root utmp 230016 Aug 4 10:47 wtmp


... lastlog and wtmp. I dont mind upgrade history being there tho
A lazy way might be to just mount the ramdisk on /var/log, but I wasn't
sure what I wanted volatile and what needed to be written to the SD card

To date this has been utterly reliable for nearly 3 years now. Always
reboots after a power cut.

In practice various (Pi PICO W) units talk to it via its wifi TCP/IP connection - thermostats, the oil sensor.. and it controls the central
heating system via some mains relays. Information and configuration is
via a custom web interface.

If I wanted to store a lot of changing data I would (probably) NFS mount
the house server and stream data to that instead of locally. Or write
some proprietary network code.



--
Microsoft : the best reason to go to Linux that ever existed.


--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

s|b <me@privacy.invalid> wrote:

On Mon, 3 Aug 2026 18:29:55 +0100, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

in the true 'if i wanted to go there i wouldn't be starting from here' tradition if its a 2W why not send its data to somewhere more
interesting and secure?

My Pi zero W never writes to its SD car at all unless i change configurations,. Everything that writes is either stopped from writing
or writes to ram discs.

Some SD cards are better than others, I am not interested in finding out which

This is helpful.

What would be more helpful would be some guidance on how to implement
it! :-)

E.g. how do you stop systemd's logging from writing to 'hard' disk?
It would need a **lot** of reconfiguration before it would use a
reasonable amount of space such as is available on a RAM drive.

Maybe there are versions of the OS that are optimised for minimal disk
writing, if so I'd like to know about them.

--
Chris Green
·

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 2026-08-04, Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> wrote:

s|b <me@privacy.invalid> wrote:

On Mon, 3 Aug 2026 18:29:55 +0100, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

in the true 'if i wanted to go there i wouldn't be starting from here'
tradition if its a 2W why not send its data to somewhere more
interesting and secure?

My Pi zero W never writes to its SD car at all unless i change
configurations,. Everything that writes is either stopped from writing
or writes to ram discs.

Some SD cards are better than others, I am not interested in finding out >> > which

This is helpful.

What would be more helpful would be some guidance on how to implement
it! :-)

E.g. how do you stop systemd's logging from writing to 'hard' disk?
It would need a **lot** of reconfiguration before it would use a
reasonable amount of space such as is available on a RAM drive.

Maybe there are versions of the OS that are optimised for minimal disk writing, if so I'd like to know about them.

Wot I do:

Replace /sbin/init with a shell script that sets up the minimal necessary
for the application. That script runs with the root filesystem mounted read-only, so the SD card is never written to in noral operation. To
modify the config:

mount -o remount,rw /dev/root /

It also means you can safely "pull the plug" at any time without risk of corruption (useful for PoE devices).


Here's an example for debian 9.4 (stretch):

----------------------------------------------------------------------- #!/bin/bash

clear
echo "Running ${0}..."


#
# Config...
#

source /etc/ro-config

export OUR_BC="${OUR_IP%.*}.255"
export OUR_GW="${OUR_IP%.*}.1"


#
# Need to set these so we can prime PS1 for bash...
# (see nonsense in /etc/bash.bashrc)...
#

export SUDO_USER=0
export SUDO_PS1="-"


#
# Mount tmpfs filesystems on /run and /tmp,
# as these need to be rw...
#

mount -t tmpfs -o size=256m tmpfs /run
mount -t tmpfs -o size=10m tmpfs /tmp

mkdir /run/lock
mkdir /run/log


#
# Need /dev/pts for ssh...
#

mkdir /dev/pts
mount -t devpts devpts /dev/pts


#
# Need loopback...
#

ifconfig lo up


#
# Need /proc...
#

mount -t proc none /proc


#
# Pop a shell here while we set up the network...
#

#PS1="TEMP-SHELL% " /bin/bash


#
# Set host name and domain name...
#

hostname "${OUR_HOSTNAME}"
domainname "${OUR_HOSTNAME#*.}"


#
# If wifi, set up the wireless interface...
#

[ "${WIRED}" != "1" ] && /ro/init-wifi


#
# Wait for interface to appear before
# configuring it...
#

while [ ! -d "/proc/sys/net/ipv4/conf/${OUR_IF}/" ]
do
echo "Waiting for interface \"${OUR_IF}\"..."
sleep 1
done


#
# Bring the interface up...
#

ip link set "${OUR_IF}" up


#
# Check if the MAC address matches the config. If not, don't
# bring up the network, just pop up a shell to allow the config
# to be updated (allows cloning of the image)...
#

real_eth="$(ip addr list ${OUR_IF} | awk '/link\/ether/ {print $2}')"

if [ "${real_eth^^}" != "${OUR_ETH^^}" ]
then
echo "This MAC address (${real_eth^^}) doesn't match config (${OUR_ETH^^})"
echo ""
echo "Please edit config and reboot..."
echo ""

cd /ro
./rw

PS1="RW-SHELL \h:\w# " /bin/bash

reboot -f
fi


#
# Set the IP address and default route...
#

echo "Setting IP address for ${OUR_IF}: ${OUR_IP}/24, gw: ${OUR_GW}"

ip addr add "${OUR_IP}/24" brd "${OUR_BC}" dev "${OUR_IF}"
ip route add 0/0 via "${OUR_GW}"


#
# Wait for network, check by pinging our default gateway...
#

while ! ping -c 1 -q -w 1 "${OUR_GW}" > /dev/null 2>&1
do
echo "Waiting for network, ping gw (${OUR_GW})..."
sleep 1
done


#
# Pop up a shell here before we start the applications
# while debugging...
#

#PS1="TEMP-SHELL% " /bin/bash


#
# Start ntpd to get the time...
#

echo "Starting ntpd..."

/usr/sbin/ntpd -g

echo "Waiting for time sync..."
ntp-wait -n 30 -s 1
date


#
# Start sshd
#

echo "Starting sshd..."

mkdir /run/sshd
/usr/sbin/sshd


#
# Now start application screen sessions...
#

echo "Starting applications..."

cd /ro

./start-screens


#
# Shell for testing...
#

while true
do
PS1="RO-SHELL \h:\w# " /bin/bash
done


#
# We can't exit from init (causes kernel panic), so force a reboot if we get here...
#

reboot -f

-----------------------------------------------------------------------


Wifi requires some kernel modules, this is init-wifi:

----------------------------------------------------------------------- #!/bin/bash

#
# Start wifi...
#

echo "Loading modules for WiFi..."

kernel="$(uname -r)"

for module in net/rfkill/rfkill.ko \
net/wireless/cfg80211.ko \
drivers/net/wireless/broadcom/brcm80211/brcmutil/brcmutil.ko \
drivers/net/wireless/broadcom/brcm80211/brcmfmac/brcmfmac.ko \
drivers/input/touchscreen/rpi-ft5406.ko \
drivers/input/evdev.ko
do
insmod /lib/modules/${kernel}/kernel/${module}
done

echo "Starting wpa_supplicant..."

find /usr > /dev/null # Generate some entropy

/sbin/wpa_supplicant -B -dd -c/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf -iwlan0

-----------------------------------------------------------------------



--
Ian

"Tamahome!!!" - "Miaka!!!"

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 04/08/2026 13:56, s|b wrote:

On Tue, 4 Aug 2026 10:15:29 +0100, Chris Green wrote:

s|b <me@privacy.invalid> wrote:

This is helpful.

What would be more helpful would be some guidance on how to implement
it! :-)

Exactly my point.

E.g. how do you stop systemd's logging from writing to 'hard' disk?
It would need a **lot** of reconfiguration before it would use a
reasonable amount of space such as is available on a RAM drive.

Maybe there are versions of the OS that are optimised for minimal disk
writing, if so I'd like to know about them.

Maybe he's just 'not interested' in explaining.

I already did

--
The difference bweteen a psychopath and a saint is that the psychpoath
takes what he can and gives only what he must, but the saint gives
everything he can and takes only what he needs.




--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Tue, 4 Aug 2026 10:15:29 +0100, Chris Green wrote:

s|b <me@privacy.invalid> wrote:

This is helpful.

What would be more helpful would be some guidance on how to implement
it! :-)

Exactly my point.

E.g. how do you stop systemd's logging from writing to 'hard' disk?
It would need a **lot** of reconfiguration before it would use a
reasonable amount of space such as is available on a RAM drive.

Maybe there are versions of the OS that are optimised for minimal disk writing, if so I'd like to know about them.

Maybe he's just 'not interested' in explaining.

--
s|b

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Ian <${send-direct-email-to-news1021-at-jusme-dot-com-if-you-must}@jusme.com> wrote:

On 2026-08-04, Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> wrote:

s|b <me@privacy.invalid> wrote:

On Mon, 3 Aug 2026 18:29:55 +0100, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

in the true 'if i wanted to go there i wouldn't be starting from here' >> > tradition if its a 2W why not send its data to somewhere more
interesting and secure?

My Pi zero W never writes to its SD car at all unless i change
configurations,. Everything that writes is either stopped from writing >> > or writes to ram discs.

Some SD cards are better than others, I am not interested in finding out
which

This is helpful.

What would be more helpful would be some guidance on how to implement
it! :-)

E.g. how do you stop systemd's logging from writing to 'hard' disk?
It would need a **lot** of reconfiguration before it would use a
reasonable amount of space such as is available on a RAM drive.

Maybe there are versions of the OS that are optimised for minimal disk writing, if so I'd like to know about them.

Wot I do:

Replace /sbin/init with a shell script that sets up the minimal necessary

So you don't run systemd? While that may be a 'good idea' in some ways
it does require a **lot** of customisation.

... and current stable Debian is 13, I don't think I want to go back
as far as you are! :-)

--
Chris Green
·

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Tue, 4 Aug 2026 17:53:57 +0100, Chris Green wrote:

Ian
<${send-direct-email-to-news1021-at-jusme-dot-com-if-you-must}@jusme.com> wrote:

Replace /sbin/init with a shell script that sets up the minimal
necessary

So you don't run systemd? While that may be a 'good idea' in some
ways it does require a **lot** of customisation.

Not really. Mount the right filesystems, make sure you can find the
right executables on your $PATH and that those executables can find
the right shared libraries ... what more do you need?

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 2026-08-04, Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> wrote:

Ian <${send-direct-email-to-news1021-at-jusme-dot-com-if-you-must}@jusme.com> wrote:

On 2026-08-04, Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> wrote:

s|b <me@privacy.invalid> wrote:

On Mon, 3 Aug 2026 18:29:55 +0100, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

in the true 'if i wanted to go there i wouldn't be starting from here' >> >> > tradition if its a 2W why not send its data to somewhere more
interesting and secure?

My Pi zero W never writes to its SD car at all unless i change
configurations,. Everything that writes is either stopped from writing >> >> > or writes to ram discs.

Some SD cards are better than others, I am not interested in finding out
which

This is helpful.

What would be more helpful would be some guidance on how to implement
it! :-)

E.g. how do you stop systemd's logging from writing to 'hard' disk?
It would need a **lot** of reconfiguration before it would use a
reasonable amount of space such as is available on a RAM drive.

Maybe there are versions of the OS that are optimised for minimal disk
writing, if so I'd like to know about them.

Wot I do:

Replace /sbin/init with a shell script that sets up the minimal necessary

So you don't run systemd? While that may be a 'good idea' in some ways
it does require a **lot** of customisation.

Absolutely not :)

It's not a general-purpose computer, it's a device that runs a single program (wot I wrote), and it isn't going to change, ever. Yes, figuring out how to
get things like wifi and sshd to run took a few iterations, but now that's a solved problem.

... and current stable Debian is 13, I don't think I want to go back
as far as you are! :-)

This was created many moons ago. It works, it isn't accessible from any public network, and I have no reason to keep chasing the dragon updating it "just because".
Ultimately it may be replaced, but that will be a complete replacement with something else, not an update.

Something very similar should be possible with later versions, unless they've finally integreted systemd into the kernel!


--
Ian

"Tamahome!!!" - "Miaka!!!"

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 05/08/2026 09:30, Ian wrote:

On 2026-08-04, Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> wrote:

Ian <${send-direct-email-to-news1021-at-jusme-dot-com-if-you-must}@jusme.com> wrote:

On 2026-08-04, Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> wrote:

s|b <me@privacy.invalid> wrote:

On Mon, 3 Aug 2026 18:29:55 +0100, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

in the true 'if i wanted to go there i wouldn't be starting from here' >>>>>> tradition if its a 2W why not send its data to somewhere more
interesting and secure?

My Pi zero W never writes to its SD car at all unless i change
configurations,. Everything that writes is either stopped from writing >>>>>> or writes to ram discs.

Some SD cards are better than others, I am not interested in finding out >>>>>> which

This is helpful.

What would be more helpful would be some guidance on how to implement
it! :-)

E.g. how do you stop systemd's logging from writing to 'hard' disk?
It would need a **lot** of reconfiguration before it would use a
reasonable amount of space such as is available on a RAM drive.

Maybe there are versions of the OS that are optimised for minimal disk >>>> writing, if so I'd like to know about them.

Wot I do:

Replace /sbin/init with a shell script that sets up the minimal necessary >>

So you don't run systemd? While that may be a 'good idea' in some ways
it does require a **lot** of customisation.

Absolutely not :)

It's not a general-purpose computer, it's a device that runs a single program (wot I wrote), and it isn't going to change, ever. Yes, figuring out how to get things like wifi and sshd to run took a few iterations, but now that's a solved problem.

... and current stable Debian is 13, I don't think I want to go back
as far as you are! :-)

This was created many moons ago. It works, it isn't accessible from any public
network, and I have no reason to keep chasing the dragon updating it "just because".
Ultimately it may be replaced, but that will be a complete replacement with something else, not an update.

Something very similar should be possible with later versions, unless they've finally integreted systemd into the kernel!

I think this is very clear and relevant info: you don't need to install
a whole distros cruft just to get an IOT working. Neither does it need upgrading for 'security reasons' if its inside a private network

Plenty of people just use a busybox superstructure...


--
No Apple devices were knowingly used in the preparation of this post.


--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Ian <${send-direct-email-to-news1021-at-jusme-dot-com-if-you-must}@jusme.com> wrote:

On 2026-08-04, Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> wrote:

Ian <${send-direct-email-to-news1021-at-jusme-dot-com-if-you-must}@jusme.com> wrote:

On 2026-08-04, Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> wrote:

s|b <me@privacy.invalid> wrote:

On Mon, 3 Aug 2026 18:29:55 +0100, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

in the true 'if i wanted to go there i wouldn't be starting from here'
tradition if its a 2W why not send its data to somewhere more
interesting and secure?

My Pi zero W never writes to its SD car at all unless i change
configurations,. Everything that writes is either stopped from writing
or writes to ram discs.

Some SD cards are better than others, I am not interested in finding out
which

This is helpful.

What would be more helpful would be some guidance on how to implement
it! :-)

E.g. how do you stop systemd's logging from writing to 'hard' disk?
It would need a **lot** of reconfiguration before it would use a
reasonable amount of space such as is available on a RAM drive.

Maybe there are versions of the OS that are optimised for minimal disk >> > writing, if so I'd like to know about them.

Wot I do:

Replace /sbin/init with a shell script that sets up the minimal necessary

So you don't run systemd? While that may be a 'good idea' in some ways
it does require a **lot** of customisation.

Absolutely not :)

It's not a general-purpose computer, it's a device that runs a single program (wot I wrote), and it isn't going to change, ever. Yes, figuring out how to get things like wifi and sshd to run took a few iterations, but now that's a solved problem.

Ah, that's a bit different from my situation, I need a familiar OS on
the system in question.

--
Chris Green
·

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 05/08/2026 12:45, Chris Green wrote:

Ian <${send-direct-email-to-news1021-at-jusme-dot-com-if-you-must}@jusme.com> wrote:

On 2026-08-04, Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> wrote:

Ian <${send-direct-email-to-news1021-at-jusme-dot-com-if-you-must}@jusme.com> wrote:

On 2026-08-04, Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> wrote:

s|b <me@privacy.invalid> wrote:

On Mon, 3 Aug 2026 18:29:55 +0100, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

in the true 'if i wanted to go there i wouldn't be starting from here' >>>>>>> tradition if its a 2W why not send its data to somewhere more
interesting and secure?

My Pi zero W never writes to its SD car at all unless i change
configurations,. Everything that writes is either stopped from writing >>>>>>> or writes to ram discs.

Some SD cards are better than others, I am not interested in finding out
which

This is helpful.

What would be more helpful would be some guidance on how to implement >>>>> it! :-)

E.g. how do you stop systemd's logging from writing to 'hard' disk? >>>>> It would need a **lot** of reconfiguration before it would use a
reasonable amount of space such as is available on a RAM drive.

Maybe there are versions of the OS that are optimised for minimal disk >>>>> writing, if so I'd like to know about them.

Wot I do:

Replace /sbin/init with a shell script that sets up the minimal necessary >>>

So you don't run systemd? While that may be a 'good idea' in some ways
it does require a **lot** of customisation.

Absolutely not :)

It's not a general-purpose computer, it's a device that runs a single program
(wot I wrote), and it isn't going to change, ever. Yes, figuring out how to >> get things like wifi and sshd to run took a few iterations, but now that's a >> solved problem.

Ah, that's a bit different from my situation, I need a familiar OS on
the system in question.

Yes. having e.g,. Apache and PHP on my zeros is essential. Those ware
wheels I dont want to reinvent

--
When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over
the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that
authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.

Frédéric Bastiat


--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)