-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 At some point hitherto, Ken D'Ambrosio hath spake thusly: > On Tue, 2002-01-15 at 08:30, Benjamin Scott wrote: > Okay, okay -- so I picked an "interesting" example. I was using it to > illustrate, though, and I think I made the point. Other vendors have > either been dropped from the kernel, or never been well supported, for > lack of docs -- just like Adaptec. Ask me how often the embeded ATA-66 > controller on my BP-6 motherboard (under 2.2, no less) caused my system > to crash.
Well, I believe that if your system was freezing up (i.e. not panicing), that the cause was something else. That's a well-documented BIOS problem, not a kernel problem. There ARE BIOS updates for the BP-6 that fix this problem. I know, because I have one too, and went through this. But, BTW, I never used the ATA-66 interfaces on the motherboard. > Enough that I finally had to go out and buy a different card (and > this was after I did something I'd never done before, or since: I > e-mailed Alan, and that was his official opinion). These things (a > la the Adaptec fiasco) happen. Sometimes they get fixed, sometimes > they don't. I talked to Alan about this problem as well, and also posted stuff on LKML. At the time, the consensus was a BIOS problem, and sure enough flashing the BIOS fixed it. I got my BP-6 quite some time after they'd been out, so it may be that you contacted Alan before the problem was well understood. Various people reported different symptoms, and it seems that different configurations tweak the problem differently. > > > Ask me how I felt when XFree86 4.0 dropped support for my spiffy > > > SGI flatpanel digital display video card... > > > > Which begs the question: Then why did you run XFree 4.0? :-) > > Because various DVD-playing software required it, and I wasn't about to > back-port. Not to mention that, once it was dropped from 4.0, I'd > assumed (incorrectly, thankfully) that it would never be seen again, and > figured I'd have to have some sort of solution to go forward with. This really has nothing to do with the debate about the kernel... But when X4.0 was released, the XFree86 team was quite clear that a LOT of drivers weren't done, others weren't even started, but would eventually be gotten to. > > > ... rather the fact that for the vast majority of users, it's likely to > > > be pretty much as stable as 2.2... > > > > Perhaps the new VM will help in that department, but prior to the new VM, > > I can say that 2.4 was *not* suitable for the vast majority of users. It > > would randomly go into swap storms that left the system unusable for > > minutes at a time. > > If so, I am yet to see this happen. I have. I've had it happen to me every time I've used my systems running a 2.4 kernel for any lenght of time without rebooting. Usually takes about 3-5 days of uptime before it becomes a problem. But once it does, pretty much only a reboot will fix it, IME. > Of course, I am using RH kernels, which have been heavily massaged > by AC (who was a strong proponent of stabilizing the VM) Yep, RH kernels are much different from the standard kernel, and I personally won't run them, because they're much less well-understood than the standard kernel. If you're not a kernel hacker, and don't know any, the only way you can get support on RH kernels is to pay someone (most likely Red Hat). For that reason, I don't consider that they count for this discussion. > , which might explain why. Perhaps I should have been more explicit > -- I don't really trust the Linus/Marcello non-Alan-ized > kernels... leastwise, not yet, though apparently .14 and above is > doing much better. Well, that's basically what Ben and I have been saying! - -- Derek Martin [EMAIL PROTECTED] - --------------------------------------------- I prefer mail encrypted with PGP/GPG! GnuPG Key ID: 0x81CFE75D Retrieve my public key at http://pgp.mit.edu Learn more about it at http://www.gnupg.org -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.0.6 (GNU/Linux) Comment: For info see http://www.gnupg.org iD8DBQE8RHXpdjdlQoHP510RAgJaAJ4iSsGmmWh29Qn80VtRT0tRVoWwwACeNjpb rCnM/IF++WrGg/Ek8rj/KQQ= =Qo79 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ***************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the text 'unsubscribe gnhlug' in the message body. *****************************************************************
