mergerfs combines all those drives/mounts/etc into one. so if you have e.g. "Movies" folders on two drives, the new one has one "Movies" folder with the combined contents of those two drives. when writing to this array, the files are stored where there's (more) space. so searching stuff recursively is simple.
needless to say, there is no redundancy so if a drive dies, its conent is gone from the array.
I'm really sorry for reiterating this, but what you wrote also implies that movies that weren't on any list will also be deleted (don't want that), along with the movies that were on a list and now aren't (do want that). do you have first-hand experience with this?
it is, that's why I'm looking to linux to overcome the fault; like GRUB can cut out a piece of faulty RAM and work without issues.
tried a bunch of those, did modinfo i915 and then tried all that looked power management related, and in both directions. here's one of those attempts:
just wish I could somehow do a snapshot of all kernel and other settings when with and without battery and deduce the difference, but I'm coming up short.
I'll try to rephrase this and post again, as people assume I'm looking for hardware troubleshooting help.
thanks for chiming in. yeah, some surface models are prone to have these issues as well, I remember trying that in windows but with no results. in linux, the i915 driver doesn't have that option any more, or I suck at reading comprehension... anyhow, not sure that's the same issue, as my device has these spells also when on AC power but with battery installed. the only times it's functioning properly is when it's on AC and with battery removed. but this looks like a promising lead to research further.
sure, it's a decade old device worth like $100, if that. of course this is a tinkering exercise. but I'm referring to the fact that it works perfectly without battery, it obviously has some power limiting then (no speedstep, no turbo). so I was looking to recreate that behavior with the battery.
thanks for the input. so no amount of tweaking and kernel switches and MSRs and what not can be utilized to lower or alter the performance so that it behaves? the repair route isn't likely unfortunately
hmm, there's an idea. I'll try to shield the cable from the battery with cardboard and aluminium foil.
edit: nah.
nah, tried that when I had windows on it. that and a bunch of other stuff from the unhelpfulest site on the webz - dell.com. screen rates and resolutions and auto brightness as well. the battery contacts are way too tiny for me to do anything meaningful there. besides, I'm thinking that if the battery is the problem, then there shouldn't be any issues when running the thing on external power; it's not like the battery is powering the laptop when connected to external power, it's running on external power and using the surplus to charge the battery.
naturally, it began again after waking from sleep. that's why it's so darn tiresome diagnosing it, you never know if the tweak you've made has any effect, sometimes it works for hours, sometimes it freaks out after seconds.
if the battery is the culprit, shouldn't it stop being a problem when running the device on external power? it's not like it's constantly charging the battery and simultaneously draining it; at least, no laptop I know of does that. and if the display cable is faulty, then it should also have those flickers when running it without battery. that never happens.
there are no good linux tablets, for any price; by "good" I mean it works as good as an Android or iOS tablet. everything is from not-as-good to way worse and there are things that are downright unusable.
whichever platform you choose (Gnome, Plasma or any of the derivatives like Phosh, Plasma Mobile, etc.) the experience beyond the first 15 minutes (hey, this actually works!) is pretty bad. it's certainly not usable as a main device that you depend on and use for actual work; as a dicking-around kinda project, sure, have at it.
before you spend that kind of money, my recommendation is to get an older Surface Pro or Dell Latitude 2-in-1 in the $150-200 range and see if that functionality is something you can live with. those can be had with up to 16 GB on-board and the SSDs are replaceable (Dells are more serviceable). kernel support is spotty, not all of the features work for all devices, mainly cameras and such; consult the linux-surface github.
edit: just saw this comment, my experiences are similar. the rest of the comments where people think what a device might work like you should disregard.