I will start this reply with the following sweeping statement: If you buy hardware that's so new that kernel support is only just appearing, then you should expect some things not to work to full potential in a distro that's now 4 months old (and counting).
You obviously are very experienced with Linux in general, so I don't intend this to be condescending, but it's good dialogue for others who might want to provide perspective. Darren King wrote on Thu, Jul 11, 2002 at 09:42:45AM +1000 : > I just upgraded my machine from a k6-2 400 with a super 7 board to a > ahtlon 1700xp with a kt333 board and now my system is mucho unstable. Familiar with that one. Go look in /proc/ide/via and make sure that it's getting the full transfer rate on your drives. If not, the answer will probably be in /proc/ide/hda/settings. Look at the following edited output: [root@fiji /home/todd/RPM/SPECS]# cat /proc/ide/hda/settings name value min max mode ---- ----- --- --- ---- ide_scsi 0 0 1 rw io_32bit 1 0 3 rw pio_mode write-only 0 255 w slow 0 0 1 rw using_dma 1 0 1 rw The absolute most important one in is the last line. If you have using_dma showing up as zero, that means that the kernel doesn't recognize your IDE Chipset as an IDE chipset that's capable of doing UDMA modes, so it just treats it like regular IDE. Another way to tell this is using hdparm -t /dev/hda (use whatever device letter is required for your system). The only solution is to get a newer kernel. In Mandrake, your only real option is to install a Cooker kernel. > It's gotten to the point where I am very frustrated with Mandrake and > even wondering about how good Linux really is. After years (I started > before the kernel was up to 1.0) of supporting Linux, I have watched > windows become easier to use and more stable. Windows XP installs new > drivers for me without even asking me for anything. It just works. But > I love the power of Linux and the applications. > > Here's the list of my problems. > > 1. When I shutdown, it goes through the normal routine and then tells me > to power the machine down. Before the upgrade, it would power down the > machine for me....now I have manually use the power button. Try a Cooker kernel. Get it from the Cooker mirrors. > 2. No sound. I am still working on this one. sndconfig is useless. It > finds my sound card and then tries to play a sound. It cant so it just > hangs there and I never get to actually configure the sound card to fix > the problem. That's pretty pathetic for a real os....the config tool > wont config! Try a Cooker kernel. Get it from the Cooker mirrors. The sound configuration utilties in 8.2 are 4 months old now, so you'll have to configure it by hand. Try both OSS and ALSA. > 3. CD burning on my scsi plextor is now very unstable. I have to burn > at 1x or the burn fails. The burner is the only device in the scsi > chain. The scsi card is sharing an IRQ with 2 ethernet cards and the > sound card but of source I cant configure the sound card (see above) to > change the IRQ. Install the updates that are on the update mirrors. The version of cdrecord that shipped with 8.2 had a problem that is fixed in the updates. > These are not the problems users should put up with from a real > operating system. This is mickey mouse stuff. Like I said before, I > run windows XP on my other system...I add new hardware, it configures it > for me, no problem. I don't mind configuring hardware myself but as you > can see above, I would if I could. I do agree that "it just works" applies in many cases with Windows. If we could get those same manufacturers to either write their own open source support for their products just like the windows drivers they do write OR provide the specs to the hardware and let the community write the drivers. Usually it has to be reverse engineered. > In conclusion, I think the lesson learned here is: > When upgrading major hardware components such as motherboards, REINSTALL > the operating system. It's sad but at least with Mandrake 8.2, it's > true. And are you claiming this is not true for Windows? It is, so why are you listing that as a detraction for Linux and not for Windows? Second, you do not need to reinstall the OS, you need only rerun your configuration programs. "I can't login because I have a different graphic card" is not wholly accurate. Use lilo to boot to runlevel 3 or runlevel 1 and run your configuration utilities (or use failsafe). Blue skies... Todd -- Todd Lyons -- MandrakeSoft, Inc. http://www.mandrakesoft.com/ UNIX was not designed to stop you from doing stupid things, because that would also stop you from doing clever things. -- Doug Gwyn Cooker Version mandrake-release-8.3-0.2mdk Kernel 2.4.18-21mdk
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