On Fri, 2003-04-04 at 15:22, Olaf Marzocchi wrote:
> [I sent this message some days ago but I did not see it in the ML. I send 
> it again.]
> 
> I downloaded two days ago the ISOs and yesterday I installed them in the 
> following PC:
> 
> Mobo PCChips 748lmrt, 128+64+32 ram, chipset sis620 (with onboard audio 
> cmi8738, lan davicom 901a, video sis 620 agp shared memory, modem pctel 
> AMR), celeron 400, video card 3dfx Banshee 16 mb PCI. hda IBM 60GXP 40 GB 
> (hda1 ReiserFS 5 GB, swap 400 MB and /home about 32 GB, ReiserFS).
> 
> I noticed the install process was noticeably slower than mdk 9.0 one, a 
> trend started with mdk 8.1 (as far as I can remember). For example, in mdk 
> 9.0 I click a button and I get the next page, this time when I click the 
> "Next" button I have to wait from 3 to ***30*** seconds (gaussian 
> distribution of delays: mostly 13-18 second). I also noticed that packages 
> installation slowed only a bit, but it was much faster (same PC, obviously) 
> with mdk 8.X or 9.0.

it was very slow for me as well (net install over 100Base-TX LAN),
eventually failing entirely. I completed install with urpmi.

> 
> Suggestion: you cleaned up the list with the install steps (on the left), 
> but I think this time is too small :-(
> One or two more steps are welcome in the first part, before packages 
> installation.
> 
> Very good the idea of removing the "Expert" install, I always thought it 
> was confusing.
> 

no real comments on the installer, I don't particularly like it but then
I don't particularly care either.

> I had a "problem" during X configuration: I saw "Voodoo Banshee generic" as 
> video card set automatically, so I simply changed the resolution: from 1024 
> to 800. I then tested the configuration and ... EVERYTHING freezed. 
> Control-Alt-Fx did not work and I had to reinstall everything from the 
> beginning (I didn't know the x configuration was the LAST step! :-\. Hard 
> reboot and installation from the beginning. After about one hour and half, 
> at the same point of the previous freeze, I simply ignored the test button 
> and I accepted the configuration.
> 
> When I rebooted (with much expectations, honestly) I found linux booting 
> without graphics (I was really suprised: I have seen the graphic boot for 
> at least 3 MDKs!) and **really slow**, especially in the "Finding modules 
> dependencies" (or similar, I'm writing from another pc because the pctel 
> modem is not recognized, as expected: not only it's a softmodem, it's also 
> AMR).

looks like it's running depmod -a every boot now -- I've seen this too.

> 
> Unfortunately, when the login manager should have appeared, everything 
> locked up again. I could hear the HD reading something, but I wasn't able 
> to kill xfree because I could not access the terminals. Hard reboot AGAIN.
> I booted into runlevel 3 and executed XFdrake, this time trying to use a 
> different driver for the video card. I didn't find one, but I discovered I 
> could select xfree 4.3 wirthout 3d support or even xfree 3.3.6. I don't 
> know why but the problem was 3D support: the Banshee card has 3d support 
> with xfree, but who knows...

Glad I saw this before trying to upgrade either of my servers -- they
both have Voodoo3 AGP cards in them. Have you tried using 3.3.6? It was
always pretty solid with the Voodoo.
...
> Another strange thing: not only kde and gnome are slower than mdk 9.0, but 
> even the whole system: for example, window maker or a simple "./configure" 
> executed in a separate shell outside xfree (runlevel 5). Could it depends 
> on the kernel? I don't know, but I find this situation very strange and 
> unacceptable (I mean: I will come back to mdk 9.0 and I'll try to upgrade 
> manually as much as I can).
> 

X stuff being slow could be an xserver problem, but this sounds like
something different... I don't know what though.
/etc/sysconfig/harddisks? Was the system responsive before?

> A question: why did you choose a -pre kernel? was it really necessary?
> 

I'll hazard a guess that it's ACPI -- those of us with new laptops and
desktops don't get working systems without good ACPI support, and 2.4.21
is definitely a lot better.

> Comments about my report and suggestions about how to speed up things are 
> welcome, I need them!
> 
> Good luck (this time it's really necessary... ;-)
> 
> Olaf Marzocchi
> 
> 
> 
> ______________________________________________________________________
> 
> Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? 
> Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
-- 
Jack Coates
Monkeynoodle: A Scientific Venture...
Are you compliant yet? ftp://ftp.rfc-editor.org/in-notes/rfc3514.txt


Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? 
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