4 ms·

> The next best thing is to use the laptop docked but closed That's what I do, combined with a 64-thread/128GB build machine. In fact, I'm so happy with my di

by Snild 3y ago

> The next best thing is to use the laptop docked but closed That's what I do, combined with a 64-thread/128GB build machine. In fact, I'm so happy with my discontinued HP UltraSlim docks mounted vertically on the side of my desk/divider that I went to IT and special-ordered the last model that fit those docks. My new laptop is five years old. Worth it! :)

jrib 3y ago
As someone whose desktop is showing its age and no longer games much, I'm curious about your build machine. Do you have a physical build machine? Or in the cloud? And did you build it or order it from somewhere?
- inconceivable 3y ago
  i have a similar setup with an amd threadripper thinkstation.
- plq 3y ago
  It's just a guess but this sounds like a physical machine with threadripper 3970x (128gb memory is the max it can handle without memory bandwidth contention) though I'm also curious about the details.
- Snild 3y ago
  Physical machine, in a server room at Sony's Lund office. Custom order of several machines from Compliq, a small local shop. It's a Threadripper-something, 128GB RAM, and nvme disks totaling 9-10 TB (plus a sata SSD for the OS, and maybe a big HDD for the mirror). I use btrfs' raid to join the repo disks, while others use other solutions (e.g. ext4 on top of mdraid). I also run btrfs compression, which saves a lot of space for very little cost (iirc, something like 1% extra time for a full Android build, but ymmv). Most of us share the build machine with 1-3 other engineers, which is fine because we rarely need to make (big) builds at the same time. Android is not small, and having multiple copies of the complete history for multiple people would be impractical, so we have a custom git/repo mirroring solution that keeps our various checkouts from growing out of hand. People use whatever tool they like to connect to the machine. I've seen remote desktop of some sort, xpra, mosh... Personally, I'm using ssh and screen, with some ssh_config aliases for quick access to specific product branches. When it's time to flash a build to a device, rsync is great. I believe AOSP aims for hermetic/reproducible builds, which enables big speedups from rsync.
tempest_ 3y ago
These port replicators are easily replaced by a monitor with a high-speed usb c hub now a days. I have not needed one in years, power, peripherals, and networking all go through the single usb-c connection.
- Snild 3y ago
  But I can't hang my laptop from a USB cable. :)
  - mook 3y ago
    FWIW, I'm happy with IKEA Skådis pegboard (vertical, clamped to the desk surface) + magazine rack, holding laptop & thunderbolt dock. The dock means it's a single cable to unplug to take the laptop out. It's probably cheaper to get something off AliExpress, but being able to see the products in store to have a better idea if it would work was worth it for me.

by Snild 3y ago

jrib 3y ago

As someone whose desktop is showing its age and no longer games much, I'm curious about your build machine. Do you have a physical build machine? Or in the cloud? And did you build it or order it from somewhere?

inconceivable 3y ago
i have a similar setup with an amd threadripper thinkstation.
plq 3y ago
It's just a guess but this sounds like a physical machine with threadripper 3970x (128gb memory is the max it can handle without memory bandwidth contention) though I'm also curious about the details.
Snild 3y ago
Physical machine, in a server room at Sony's Lund office. Custom order of several machines from Compliq, a small local shop. It's a Threadripper-something, 128GB RAM, and nvme disks totaling 9-10 TB (plus a sata SSD for the OS, and maybe a big HDD for the mirror). I use btrfs' raid to join the repo disks, while others use other solutions (e.g. ext4 on top of mdraid). I also run btrfs compression, which saves a lot of space for very little cost (iirc, something like 1% extra time for a full Android build, but ymmv). Most of us share the build machine with 1-3 other engineers, which is fine because we rarely need to make (big) builds at the same time. Android is not small, and having multiple copies of the complete history for multiple people would be impractical, so we have a custom git/repo mirroring solution that keeps our various checkouts from growing out of hand. People use whatever tool they like to connect to the machine. I've seen remote desktop of some sort, xpra, mosh... Personally, I'm using ssh and screen, with some ssh_config aliases for quick access to specific product branches. When it's time to flash a build to a device, rsync is great. I believe AOSP aims for hermetic/reproducible builds, which enables big speedups from rsync.

tempest_ 3y ago

These port replicators are easily replaced by a monitor with a high-speed usb c hub now a days. I have not needed one in years, power, peripherals, and networking all go through the single usb-c connection.

Snild 3y ago
But I can't hang my laptop from a USB cable. :)
- mook 3y ago
  FWIW, I'm happy with IKEA Skådis pegboard (vertical, clamped to the desk surface) + magazine rack, holding laptop & thunderbolt dock. The dock means it's a single cable to unplug to take the laptop out. It's probably cheaper to get something off AliExpress, but being able to see the products in store to have a better idea if it would work was worth it for me.