[gentoo-user] Re: xorg 1.9
On 01/20/2011 06:57 AM, dan blum wrote: Nikos, Thanks for the help. My system is looking for the i915 module. Would you know where the module needs to be? Not sure what you mean with "system." Do you mean X.Org tells you it can't find the kernel module for i915 graphics? Enable it in the kernel menuconfig: Device Drivers -> Graphics support -> Direct Rendering Manager There's an entry: "Intel 830M, 845G, 852GM, 855GM, 865G (i915 driver)". Make sure it's not build as a module and mark it with a "<*>". Enter that submenu and select "i915 driver". Also select the "Enable modesetting on intel by default" option. --- On *Tue, 1/18/11, Nikos Chantziaras //* wrote: From: Nikos Chantziaras Subject: [gentoo-user] Re: xorg 1.9 To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Date: Tuesday, January 18, 2011, 10:58 PM On 01/19/2011 06:46 AM, dan blum wrote: > I upgraded my xorg from 1.76 to 1.9 yesterday, including downloading the > most recent drivers. When the new system did not work, I checked the > xorg log (attached) and I thought that the problem was the mode setting. > So in the kernel, I "enabled the modesetting by default" and now the > card does not send any signals to the screen at all. > > I can go back to the old kernel settings. But does anyone know what was > the initial problem, and what needs to be done to correct this. > > Thanks for any advice. You seem to be using kernel 2.6.32. That *might* be the problem. Try 2.6.36. Other than that, the usual stuff applies: Delete your xorg.conf (so that X.Org can automatically configure everything) and make sure you don't have VESAFB enabled in the kernel.
Re: [gentoo-user] Re: xorg 1.9
dan blum wrote: Nikos, Thanks for the help. My system is looking for the i915 module. Would you know where the module needs to be? Thanks. Dan - I think it is in the kernel and you just have to built it in. Dale :-) :-)
Re: [gentoo-user] Re: xorg 1.9
Nikos, Thanks for the help. My system is looking for the i915 module. Would you know where the module needs to be? Thanks. Dan --- On Tue, 1/18/11, Nikos Chantziaras wrote: From: Nikos Chantziaras Subject: [gentoo-user] Re: xorg 1.9 To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Date: Tuesday, January 18, 2011, 10:58 PM On 01/19/2011 06:46 AM, dan blum wrote: > I upgraded my xorg from 1.76 to 1.9 yesterday, including downloading the > most recent drivers. When the new system did not work, I checked the > xorg log (attached) and I thought that the problem was the mode setting. > So in the kernel, I "enabled the modesetting by default" and now the > card does not send any signals to the screen at all. > > I can go back to the old kernel settings. But does anyone know what was > the initial problem, and what needs to be done to correct this. > > Thanks for any advice. You seem to be using kernel 2.6.32. That *might* be the problem. Try 2.6.36. Other than that, the usual stuff applies: Delete your xorg.conf (so that X.Org can automatically configure everything) and make sure you don't have VESAFB enabled in the kernel.
Re: [gentoo-user] Find root partition
On 01/20/2011 08:02 AM, Matthias Fechner wrote: > Dear list, > > I switched now to a new mainboard and it seems that the drive numbering > changed or my kernel does not detect any hard disks... > If I try to boot my gentoo the kernel panic because it cannot find the > root partition. > > After the panic I cannot scroll up to check what drives are detected and > which numbering is used. What must I do to be able to scroll up to see > what is logged to the screen? > (is there maybe a special key available, the shift+page-up and scroll is > not working) You didn't mention whether you were using lilo or grub to boot. If you're using grub you can use the grub shell to figure that out. At least to the which are detected and numbering phase. I had that problem or something similar some time ago when updating to the new, at the time, pata drivers. I ended up using a brute force technique... I booted grub to it's built in shell and used it's limited tools to figure out which partition/drive was which and editing the kernel/initrd lines to get the system to boot to init level 1 and then make the changes permanent in grub and fstab. Probably an easier method would be to use a livecd. Just edit the grub menu.lst file and fstab to match your new layout. Or change the device.map to match the old layout.
[gentoo-user] Keymap used for bttv (dvbt) ???
Hi, while searching for these damned hickups with my Avermedia dvb-t card I found this in the kernel log: bttv: driver version 0.9.18 loaded bttv: using 8 buffers with 2080k (520 pages) each for capture bttv: Bt8xx card found (0). bttv :01:06.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 21 (level, low) -> IRQ 21 bttv0: Bt878 (rev 17) at :01:06.0, irq: 21, latency: 64, mmio: 0xd5fff000 bttv0: detected: AVermedia AverTV DVB-T 771 [card=123], PCI subsystem ID is 1461:0771 bttv0: using: AVerMedia AVerTV DVB-T 771 [card=123,autodetected] bttv0: gpio: en=, out= in=00d7710f [init] bttv0: tuner absent bttv0: registered device video0 bttv0: registered device vbi0 bttv0: PLL: 28636363 => 35468950 . serial :03:00.1: PCI INT A -> GSI 40 (level, low) -> IRQ 40 Couldn't register serial port :03:00.1: -28 . ok bttv0: add subdevice "dvb0" *** IR keymap rc-avermedia-dvbt not found *** Registered IR keymap rc-empty input: bttv IR (card=123) as /devices/pci:00/:00:14.4/:01:06.0/rc/rc0/input6 rc0: bttv IR (card=123) as /devices/pci:00/:00:14.4/:01:06.0/rc/rc0 bt878: AUDIO driver version 0.0.0 loaded bt878: Bt878 AUDIO function found (0). bt878 :01:06.1: PCI INT A -> GSI 21 (level, low) -> IRQ 21 bt878_probe: card id=[0x7711461],[ AVermedia AverTV DVB-T 771 ] has DVB functions. bt878(0): Bt878 (rev 17) at 01:06.1, irq: 21, latency: 64, memory: 0xd5ffe000 What the heck is this? I have no IR remote control with my dvb-t card ... I am using vlc/mplayer and my keyboard... And...if this is missing...where can I get it and what will it cost? ;) Best regards, mcc
[gentoo-user] Re: Microcode update AMD
On 01/19/2011 04:53 PM, walt wrote: On 01/17/2011 11:12 AM, Volker Armin Hemmann wrote: alsmost all bios load the microcode automatically. I've known for years what microcode is and what it does, but the idea of updating it is a complete surprise to me. From where does the bios get the microcode that it loads? Oops, please disregard. Your link to flameyes's blog answers my question.
[gentoo-user] Re: Microcode update AMD
On 01/17/2011 11:12 AM, Volker Armin Hemmann wrote: alsmost all bios load the microcode automatically. I've known for years what microcode is and what it does, but the idea of updating it is a complete surprise to me. From where does the bios get the microcode that it loads?
Re: [gentoo-user] Re: No HW acceleraton on radeon Mobility X300 with linux-2.6.36-r5, mesa-7.9, xorg-server-1.9.2 and video-ati-6.13.2
On Wednesday 19 January 2011 16:05:11 Mark Knecht wrote: > On Wed, Jan 19, 2011 at 7:45 AM, Mick wrote: > > > > I have seen some seriously spurious results from glxgears over the > > years. I recall reading somewhere that if your fps is less that 100, > > it may be caused by your screen refresh rate being out of keel with > > your card or something like that. glxgears is good for one thing - > > showing you by means of a GUI that 3D graphics work on your set up. > > > > http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Glxgears_is_not_a_Benchmark > > > > -- > > Regards, > > Mick > > I COMPLETELY agree! However I know of no other graphics benchmarking > app that's likely to be on a list member's machine and is easy to run. > > I'd be really interested in a common Gentoo way of measuring graphics > performance but I don't know of one. I have used gtkperf when I was benchmarking different settings on a box: $ eix -l gtkperf * app-benchmarks/gtkperf Available versions: (~) 0.40 "~amd64 ~ppc ~x86" [nls] Homepage:http://gtkperf.sourceforge.net/ Description: Application designed to test GTK+ performance Alternatively, most people who are interested in gaming use demos from the games they play. -- Regards, Mick signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part.
Re: [gentoo-user] disk error, where?
Am 19.01.2011 18:14, schrieb Volker Armin Hemmann: > no, > 1. badblocks -wv /dev/sdb6 > 2. badblocks -wv -o /whateveryouwant/badblocks.out /dev/sdb6 > > and set something like -b 512 or -b 4096 and blocks-at-once accordingly. ok, running that right now. We'll see thanks a lot.
Re: [gentoo-user] Near freezes during large emerges
On 1/19/2011 12:07 AM, William Kenworthy wrote: Do you have a verifiable (as in from a knowledgeable source) reference for this? - it goes against a lot of what I found googling a year ago where swap size was dependent on CPU architecture (i.e., zeon/opteron/athlon etc), not 32/64bit.) You know the more I look into this the weirder it gets. Number of swap devices with later kernels included http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/online/pages/man2/swapon.2.html#NOTES However because the man page mkswap is waay out of date I'm not inclined to trust swapon's man page either. Starting in 2003 we see that mkswap actually had the 2GB limit whereas the kernel already had much higher limits. http://lkml.indiana.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0306.0/1725.html The same character revist the issues two years later in 2005. http://lkml.indiana.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0506.0/0136.html As far as I can tell it comes down to cluster size, bitness of your OS, and amount of RAM you're willing to dedicate to managing swap. kashani
Re: [gentoo-user] Find root partition
Matthias Fechner writes: I switched now to a new mainboard and it seems that the drive numbering changed or my kernel does not detect any hard disks... If I try to boot my gentoo the kernel panic because it cannot find the root partition. Did you recompile kernel to support your new mobo? After the panic I cannot scroll up to check what drives are detected and which numbering is used. What must I do to be able to scroll up to see what is logged to the screen? I tell you what I did in similar situation: I simply recoreded screen during boot-up with a camera. After that, I played the video-file on different computer, checking for messages. It is not "clean" solution, but it worked for me... :-) Jarry -- ___ This mailbox accepts e-mails only from selected mailing-lists! Everything else is considered to be spam and therefore deleted.
Re: [gentoo-user] Find root partition
Matthias Fechner writes: > I switched now to a new mainboard and it seems that the drive numbering > changed or my kernel does not detect any hard disks... > If I try to boot my gentoo the kernel panic because it cannot find the > root partition. > > After the panic I cannot scroll up to check what drives are detected and > which numbering is used. What must I do to be able to scroll up to see > what is logged to the screen? > (is there maybe a special key available, the shift+page-up and scroll is > not working) I don't think that's possible. But maybe adding a 'vga=ask' to the boot parameters gives you enough lines without need to scroll? Wonko
Re: [gentoo-user] disk error, where?
On Tuesday 18 January 2011 22:44:52 Stefan G. Weichinger wrote: > Am 18.01.2011 16:30, schrieb Volker Armin Hemmann: > > yes, rerun badblocks in destructive write mode. Twice. The second time > > create a badblocks file and use it with mkfs - that way bad blocks > > should be skipped. > > Like in: > > # badblocks -p2 -wv /dev/sdb6 > > ? no, 1. badblocks -wv /dev/sdb6 2. badblocks -wv -o /whateveryouwant/badblocks.out /dev/sdb6 and set something like -b 512 or -b 4096 and blocks-at-once accordingly.
Re: [gentoo-user] Microcode update AMD
btw, very related: http://blog.flameeyes.eu/2011/01/17/microupdates-for-microcodes
Re: [gentoo-user] BIOS flash safe with dosemu ?
On Tuesday 18 January 2011 17:41:52 Helmut Jarausch wrote: > Hi, > > does anybody if it's safe to flash the BIOS using a DOS emulator like > app-emulation/dosemu ? > > Thanks for sharing your experience, > Helmut. it is not considered safe. Get an usb stick with freedos or systemrescue cd or use the builtin flashtool of you mobos bios. dosemu is not a good idea. Even if it may work - are you really willing to brick your board?
Re: [gentoo-user] Find root partition
On Thu, Jan 20, 2011 at 11:02 AM, Matthias Fechner wrote: > Dear list, > > I switched now to a new mainboard and it seems that the drive numbering > changed or my kernel does not detect any hard disks... > If I try to boot my gentoo the kernel panic because it cannot find the > root partition. > > After the panic I cannot scroll up to check what drives are detected and > which numbering is used. What must I do to be able to scroll up to see > what is logged to the screen? > (is there maybe a special key available, the shift+page-up and scroll is > not working) > > Thanks > Matthias > > -- > > "Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to > build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the universe trying to > produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the universe is winning." -- > Rich Cook > > Your best bet is to boot from a livecd or gentoo minimal, and run fdisk -l to show the disk/partition listing. Also, as Neil stated, make sure your new SATA chipset drivers are compiled into the kernel and not as a module; however, it you switched from say, for example, and nvidia-based motherboard to another nvidia-based motherboard, then you don't need to worry about that.
Re: [gentoo-user] No HW acceleraton on radeon Mobility X300 with linux-2.6.36-r5, mesa-7.9, xorg-server-1.9.2 and video-ati-6.13.2
Hallo Mick. Thank you very much - it helped. Removing 'video=vesafb:ywrap,mtrr:3 vga=792' from kernel boot options, and framebuffer-related stuff in kernel config, especially: # CONFIG_FB_DDC is not set # CONFIG_FB_BOOT_VESA_SUPPORT is not set # CONFIG_FB_BACKLIGHT is not set # CONFIG_FB_MODE_HELPERS is not set # CONFIG_FB_TILEBLITTING is not set # CONFIG_FB_VESA is not set # CONFIG_FB_RADEON is not set # CONFIG_DISPLAY_SUPPORT is not set # CONFIG_VGACON_SOFT_SCROLLBACK is not set # CONFIG_FRAMEBUFFER_CONSOLE_DETECT_PRIMARY is not set (not all the options were removed by hand, it is just diff of the configs, and maybe, some of them could be enabled without causing problems). Now, there are much more 'drm'-related messages in 'dmesg', and also X.org uses the drm correctly. The 'glxinfo' returns: ... OpenGL vendor string: X.Org R300 Project OpenGL renderer string: Gallium 0.4 on RV370 OpenGL version string: 2.1 Mesa 7.9 OpenGL shading language version string: 1.20 ... It looks good now. Thank you very much for your advice again. Dan On Sunday 16 January 2011 16:52:30 Mick wrote: > On Sunday 16 January 2011 15:18:50 Daniel Tihelka wrote: > > And the kernel seems to use them (when started with boot options > > > 'video=vesafb:ywrap,mtrr:3 vga=792'): > Dan, try removing uvesa/vesa/radeon/etc. framebuffer modules from your > kernel and the above line too from grub when you boot and see if your KMS > radeon driver can now work on its own.
Re: [gentoo-user] Find root partition
On Thu, 20 Jan 2011 17:02:41 +0100, Matthias Fechner wrote: > I switched now to a new mainboard and it seems that the drive numbering > changed or my kernel does not detect any hard disks... > If I try to boot my gentoo the kernel panic because it cannot find the > root partition. Have you included the drivers for your new SATA chipset in the kernel? -- Neil Bothwick DCE seeks DTE for mutual exchange of data. signature.asc Description: PGP signature
Re: [gentoo-user] Re: No HW acceleraton on radeon Mobility X300 with linux-2.6.36-r5, mesa-7.9, xorg-server-1.9.2 and video-ati-6.13.2
On Wed, Jan 19, 2011 at 7:45 AM, Mick wrote: > > I have seen some seriously spurious results from glxgears over the > years. I recall reading somewhere that if your fps is less that 100, > it may be caused by your screen refresh rate being out of keel with > your card or something like that. glxgears is good for one thing - > showing you by means of a GUI that 3D graphics work on your set up. > > http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Glxgears_is_not_a_Benchmark > > -- > Regards, > Mick > > I COMPLETELY agree! However I know of no other graphics benchmarking app that's likely to be on a list member's machine and is easy to run. I'd be really interested in a common Gentoo way of measuring graphics performance but I don't know of one. We need a Wiki with some results so people know if they are working correctly or not. My Intel i5-661 box used to get 950FPS. No it gets 60FPS. I didn't intentionally change anything but it ain't working like it used to. You're link is technically better than mine, but mine makes me laugh more. ;-) http://isglxgearsabenchmark.com/ Cheers, Mark
[gentoo-user] Find root partition
Dear list, I switched now to a new mainboard and it seems that the drive numbering changed or my kernel does not detect any hard disks... If I try to boot my gentoo the kernel panic because it cannot find the root partition. After the panic I cannot scroll up to check what drives are detected and which numbering is used. What must I do to be able to scroll up to see what is logged to the screen? (is there maybe a special key available, the shift+page-up and scroll is not working) Thanks Matthias -- "Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the universe is winning." -- Rich Cook
Re: [gentoo-user] Re: No HW acceleraton on radeon Mobility X300 with linux-2.6.36-r5, mesa-7.9, xorg-server-1.9.2 and video-ati-6.13.2
On 19 January 2011 14:28, Mark Knecht wrote: > On Wed, Jan 19, 2011 at 6:19 AM, Daniel Tihelka wrote: >> >> >> On Tue, Jan 18, 2011 at 1:57 AM, Mark Knecht wrote: > >>> >>> What do you see in glxgears? >>> >> I see this: >> Running synchronized to the vertical refresh. The framerate should be >> approximately the same as the monitor refresh rate. > > > I get this same message on my Intel graphics machine, and I get the > same frame rates which is what the message says... > >> 273 frames in 5.0 seconds = 54.532 FPS >> 299 frames in 5.0 seconds = 59.634 FPS >> 301 frames in 5.0 seconds = 60.037 FPS >> 288 frames in 5.1 seconds = 56.852 FPS >> 212 frames in 5.0 seconds = 42.366 FPS <-- window maximized from here >> 222 frames in 5.0 seconds = 44.352 FPS >> 216 frames in 5.0 seconds = 43.021 FPS >> 205 frames in 5.0 seconds = 40.716 FPS >> >> It is not so much and I don't know if it is the top performance of the >> gallium driver (btw, I really believe it has large potential), or if it >> could be improved further more (e.g. by compilling lvm into it), but it is >> not critical for me now. >> Dan >> > > My ATI doesn't have the 'Running synchronized to the vertical refresh' > message. It does about 200FPS. On my wife's box I used the closed > source nvidia driver and get about 2500 FPS. I have seen some seriously spurious results from glxgears over the years. I recall reading somewhere that if your fps is less that 100, it may be caused by your screen refresh rate being out of keel with your card or something like that. glxgears is good for one thing - showing you by means of a GUI that 3D graphics work on your set up. http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Glxgears_is_not_a_Benchmark -- Regards, Mick
Re: [gentoo-user] Re: No HW acceleraton on radeon Mobility X300 with linux-2.6.36-r5, mesa-7.9, xorg-server-1.9.2 and video-ati-6.13.2
On Wed, Jan 19, 2011 at 6:19 AM, Daniel Tihelka wrote: > > > On Tue, Jan 18, 2011 at 1:57 AM, Mark Knecht wrote: >> >> What do you see in glxgears? >> > I see this: > Running synchronized to the vertical refresh. The framerate should be > approximately the same as the monitor refresh rate. I get this same message on my Intel graphics machine, and I get the same frame rates which is what the message says... > 273 frames in 5.0 seconds = 54.532 FPS > 299 frames in 5.0 seconds = 59.634 FPS > 301 frames in 5.0 seconds = 60.037 FPS > 288 frames in 5.1 seconds = 56.852 FPS > 212 frames in 5.0 seconds = 42.366 FPS <-- window maximized from here > 222 frames in 5.0 seconds = 44.352 FPS > 216 frames in 5.0 seconds = 43.021 FPS > 205 frames in 5.0 seconds = 40.716 FPS > > It is not so much and I don't know if it is the top performance of the > gallium driver (btw, I really believe it has large potential), or if it > could be improved further more (e.g. by compilling lvm into it), but it is > not critical for me now. > Dan > My ATI doesn't have the 'Running synchronized to the vertical refresh' message. It does about 200FPS. On my wife's box I used the closed source nvidia driver and get about 2500 FPS. - Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] Re: No HW acceleraton on radeon Mobility X300 with linux-2.6.36-r5, mesa-7.9, xorg-server-1.9.2 and video-ati-6.13.2
On Tue, Jan 18, 2011 at 1:57 AM, Mark Knecht wrote: > On Mon, Jan 17, 2011 at 2:31 PM, Daniel Tihelka > wrote: > > Hallo Mick. > > Thank you very much - it helped. Removing 'video=vesafb:ywrap,mtrr:3 > > vga=792' > > from kernel boot options, and framebuffer-related stuff in kernel config, > > especially: > > > > # CONFIG_FB_DDC is not set > > # CONFIG_FB_BOOT_VESA_SUPPORT is not set > > # CONFIG_FB_BACKLIGHT is not set > > # CONFIG_FB_MODE_HELPERS is not set > > # CONFIG_FB_TILEBLITTING is not set > > # CONFIG_FB_VESA is not set > > # CONFIG_FB_RADEON is not set > > # CONFIG_DISPLAY_SUPPORT is not set > > # CONFIG_VGACON_SOFT_SCROLLBACK is not set > > # CONFIG_FRAMEBUFFER_CONSOLE_DETECT_PRIMARY is not set > > > > (not all the options were removed by hand, it is just diff of the > configs, > > and > > maybe, some of them could be enabled without causing problems). > > > > Now, there are much more 'drm'-related messages in 'dmesg', and also > X.org > > uses the drm correctly. The 'glxinfo' returns: > > ... > > OpenGL vendor string: X.Org R300 Project > > OpenGL renderer string: Gallium 0.4 on RV370 > > OpenGL version string: 2.1 Mesa 7.9 > > OpenGL shading language version string: 1.20 > > ... > > > > It looks good now. Thank you very much for your advice again. > > Dan > > > > On Sunday 16 January 2011 16:52:30 Mick wrote: > >> On Sunday 16 January 2011 15:18:50 Daniel Tihelka wrote: > >> > And the kernel seems to use them (when started with boot options > >> > >> > 'video=vesafb:ywrap,mtrr:3 vga=792'): > >> Dan, try removing uvesa/vesa/radeon/etc. framebuffer modules from your > >> kernel and the above line too from grub when you boot and see if your > KMS > >> radeon driver can now work on its own. > > > > Daniel, > I'm seeing the same problem here and trying to follow my way > through your kernel config changes. I don't think I have it yet on > this box as I'm seeing a message about rendering being disabled in > Xorg.log.0 > > c2stable ~ # cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep render > [29.017] (WW) RADEON(0): Direct rendering disabled > c2stable ~ # > > even though glxinfo says it's enabled: > > c2stable ~ # glxinfo | grep render > direct rendering: Yes > OpenGL renderer string: Gallium 0.4 on softpipe >GL_NV_blend_square, GL_NV_conditional_render, GL_NV_light_max_exponent, > c2stable ~ # > > I have the following now: $cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep render [28.531] (II) RADEON(0): Direct rendering enabled $ glxinfo | grep render direct rendering: Yes OpenGL renderer string: Gallium 0.4 on RV370 GL_NV_blend_square, GL_NV_conditional_render, GL_NV_light_max_exponent, The key issue was to exclude "classic" framebuffer drivers from the kernel. Since that, everything started to work automatically. > Anyway, I'm sure I'll figure it out but I'm curious how you measure > that it's working up to it's potential. I'm getting less than 200FPS > in glxgears. I get >2500 on a cheaper nvidia card so I'm certain this > Radeon 300 can do better. > > What do you see in glxgears? > > I see this: Running synchronized to the vertical refresh. The framerate should be approximately the same as the monitor refresh rate. 273 frames in 5.0 seconds = 54.532 FPS 299 frames in 5.0 seconds = 59.634 FPS 301 frames in 5.0 seconds = 60.037 FPS 288 frames in 5.1 seconds = 56.852 FPS 212 frames in 5.0 seconds = 42.366 FPS <-- window maximized from here 222 frames in 5.0 seconds = 44.352 FPS 216 frames in 5.0 seconds = 43.021 FPS 205 frames in 5.0 seconds = 40.716 FPS It is not so much and I don't know if it is the top performance of the gallium driver (btw, I really believe it has large potential), or if it could be improved further more (e.g. by compilling lvm into it), but it is not critical for me now. Dan
Re: [gentoo-user] Near freezes during large emerges
Do you have a verifiable (as in from a knowledgeable source) reference for this? - it goes against a lot of what I found googling a year ago where swap size was dependent on CPU architecture (i.e., zeon/opteron/athlon etc), not 32/64bit.) e.g., see "How large can my swap space be?" at "http://lissot.net/partition/partition-04.html#SwapSize"; "Currently, the maximum size of a swap partition is architecture-dependent. For i386, m68k, ARM and PowerPC, it is "officially" 2Gb. It is 128Gb on alpha, 1Gb on sparc, and 3Tb on sparc64. An opteron on the 2.6 kernel can write to a 16 Tb swap partition. For linux kernels 2.1 and earlier, the limit is 128Mb. The partition may be larger than 128 MB, but excess space is never used. If you want more than 128 MB of swap for a 2.1 and earlier kernel, you have to create multiple swap partitions (8 max). After 2.4, 32 swap areas are "officially" possible. See setting up swap for details." I think this is out of date but its repeated at a number of sites, however there does not seem to be anything other than rumour elsewhere for the latest info (i.e., somebody said ..." I can confirm that on my 32bit intel and amd systems I can create large, multigigabyte single swapfiles, but they will not use more than just under 2GB of them. Will have to revisit and test 64bit systems I think. BillK On Tue, 2011-01-18 at 11:05 -0800, kashani wrote: > On 1/17/2011 8:42 PM, William Kenworthy wrote: > > > > No swap contains pages from memory that have not been accessed for > > awhile so they can be stored elsewhere freeing ram for actual active > > pages. When they need to be accessed, they have to be swapped back in, > > and often something swapped back out to make room for it. > > > > And for those with gigabytes of swap, keep in mind that the majority of > > processors can only access up to 32 x 2G swapfiles under linux, so 4G is > > only going to be half used. Some processors are only able to handle > > very small swapfiles, whilst amd opterons can handle very large ones. > > > > It does appear however that some distros (redhat and suse ?) have > > modified something to allow larger swap sizes on 64bit systems, but via > > google it seems very muddy at the moment. > > > > On my mostly 32bit systems its only the opterons (which are running > > 64bit systems) that can access more than 2G swap using gentoo-sources > > kernels when I tested late last year. > > > > BillK > > On a 32bit x86 Linux OS your swap file or swap partitions can have a > max size of 2GB. If you're using a kernel later than 2.4.10 you can have > 32 swap device and previous to that it was 8. With a 64bit Linux OS you > can have swap devices of 64GB each. > > kashani > -- William Kenworthy Home in Perth!
