Linux-Hardware Digest #277, Volume #14 Tue, 30 Jan 01 23:13:10 EST
Contents:
Modem Compatibility Problem (Martin Longbottom)
memory dimm (Jeff Moore)
Re: Video Card Advice ("lobotomy")
test ("Super Man")
test ("Super Man")
Re: o/s installation trouble ("Joshua Lee")
test ("Super Man")
Re: Modem Compatibility Problem (Dances With Crows)
Re: High Class PC and Linux (Dances With Crows)
Re: Determining identity of Yamaha sound card (Dances With Crows)
Re: Modem Compatibility Problem (Josh Stern)
Re: suitable backup hardware? (Rod Roark)
Re: Help me build a Monster Machine ("D. Stimits")
Re: Help me build a Monster Machine ("D. Stimits")
Re: Help: Floppy and CD on laptop ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
Re: o/s installation trouble (Julie Brandon)
Re: ASUS A7V ATA 100 problems (hac)
Re: Athlon motherboard suggestions (with RH 7.0) (hac)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Martin Longbottom <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Modem Compatibility Problem
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2001 00:16:59 GMT
I bought an internal pci modem ( i think it is an ambient) from a=20
computer fair because it was
marked as a hardware modem. Linux ( Mandrake 7.1) didn't pick it up and=
i'm not sure where to go, any body know what sort of modems are
compatible?
Could it just have been a problem that could be fixed not
compatibility?
I thougt that hardware ones were the ones that worked because you didn't=
need any extra software?
Any body help or have any suggestions
Martin Longbottom, Linux Newbie
------------------------------
From: Jeff Moore <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: memory dimm
Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2001 18:40:12 +0000
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
I have a shuttle hot motherboard from 1997 set up for 75mhz with Cyrix
200mmx cpu. I have installed a smart 32mb dimm on this board and it is
reading it as 8mb. I put the dimm on another board from 1997 and it also
read it as 8mb. Is there some setting that I can change to make this
32mb dimm read properly?
Jeff Moore
------------------------------
From: "lobotomy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Video Card Advice
Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2001 00:54:07 GMT
You can probably find a Matrox G450 for under $100. There is no better
card for 2d, and it does have OpenGL support in XFree86 4.0.2. Of course
the 3d is slower than the Geforce2 MX, but unless your sole purpose is
building a gaming machine,
2d quality is more important.
One other comment on the machine: If you are going to run only Linux, the
SB Live is probably overkill, because most of its more interesting
features are only supported in the Windows drivers. You can get something
like a low-end sb pci, or a cheap ESS or yamaha card, for less that will
do everything in linux that the live will.
In article <956opb$7lh$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> I am planning on building a Linux machine using the Redhat 7
> distribution.
> My question is: What video card would you recommend, for around $90 to
> $100? I do a little of everything, my main
> concerns with a video card are compatibility, stability and
> resolution/refresh rate. (BSD compatibility would be nice too) I am not
> a big gamer so performance isn’t a big deal, but I run my desktop at
> least at 1280 by 1040, so resolution may be an issue. I was thinking
> about the Matrox 400, but it seems to be rather pricey, for what appears
> to be an older card.
>
> So far this is what I have planned: Redhat Linux 7.0 ASUS A7Pro No Audio
> AMD T-Bird 1.0GHz
> 128MB PC133 RAM
> IBM Deskstar 75GXP 30GB HD
> ???Video Card???
> SB Live Value Toshiba 48x IDE CDRom Linksys NIC
>
> What do you think? Is this going to work?
>
> Thanks, Tim
>
>
> Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
--
PC Chips actually goes by many names. PCChips = Ability = Alton = Amptron =
Aristo = Asia Gate = Asiatech = Assa = Atrend = Elpina = Eurone = Fugu =
Fugutech = Hi Sing = Houston = Hsing Tech = H Tech = Matsonic = Minstaple =
PCWare = Pine = Protac = QDI = Warpspeed
------------------------------
From: "Super Man" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: test
Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2001 01:12:01 GMT
test
------------------------------
From: "Super Man" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: test
Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2001 01:18:30 GMT
test
------------------------------
Reply-To: "Joshua Lee" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
From: "Joshua Lee" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To:
alt.comp.periphs.mainboard,alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.epox,alt.os.linux.redhat,comp.os.linux.questions
Subject: Re: o/s installation trouble
Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2001 01:34:41 GMT
I've tried installing RedHat 7 without success, but Mandrake 7.2 went
perfect.
"B. Borg" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:957hrf$hq3$[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> Hey there-
>
> I'm trying to install linux on a box I just built, and the installation
> hangs at "Uncompressing Linux..."
>
> Hardware:
> EPoX 7KXA Mobo
> Athlon 800 mhz cpu
> 256MB pc-133 ram
> seagate 30gb udma hdd
> cdrw
> fdd
> soundblaster pci
> 3c509b isa nic
>
> O/S:
> RH 7 (I've also tried 5.2)
>
> I've booted from floppy and cd, with the same results:
> 1. Installation menu appears
> 2. Choose option 1
> 3. Installation script loads initrd.img
> 4. Script loads vmlinuz.
> 5. Script begins to uncompress linux, then hangs ofter about 3 seconds.
>
> Any ideas?
>
> TIA,
>
> Brent
>
>
>
>
>
>
------------------------------
From: "Super Man" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: test
Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2001 01:51:34 GMT
test
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Dances With Crows)
Subject: Re: Modem Compatibility Problem
Date: 31 Jan 2001 01:51:50 GMT
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
On Wed, 31 Jan 2001 00:16:59 GMT, Martin Longbottom staggered into the
Black Sun and said:
>I bought an internal pci modem ( i think it is an ambient) from a
>computer fair because it was marked as a hardware modem. Linux (
>Mandrake 7.1) didn't pick it up and i'm not sure where to go, any body
>know what sort of modems are compatible? Could it just have been a
>problem that could be fixed not compatibility?
>I thougt that hardware ones were the ones that worked because you
>didn't need any extra software?
http://www.o2.net/~gromitkc/winmodem.html and see if it's on the list as
"OK". Those are modems that are known to be hardware modems which work
with Linux. However, you will have to know the make and model of the
modem for this page to help you--find that out!
If it does turn out to be a hardware modem, check out the HOWTO at
http://linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/Modem-HOWTO.html since internal modems are
often more complex to set up than external ones. External modems use
the serial ports, which have well-defined and standardized settings for
things like I/O and IRQ used. Internal modems are under no such
restrictions, so we have the "setserial" command. HTH,
--
Matt G|There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to see
Brainbench MVP for Linux Admin / Workin' in a code mine, hittin' Ctrl-Alt
http://www.brainbench.com / Workin' in a code mine, whoops!
=============================/ I hit a seg fault....
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Dances With Crows)
Subject: Re: High Class PC and Linux
Date: 31 Jan 2001 01:51:51 GMT
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
On 30 Jan 2001 01:02:25 -0500, Eric P. McCoy staggered into the Black
Sun and said:
>Dragan Colak <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>> AFAIK the IA32 architecture supports only up to 4 GByte of RAM,
>No.
Sheesh, if you make the effort to post, you should make the effort to
post the whole story!
The PPro, PII, PIII, PIV, Athlon, T-Bird, and Duron can use a 36-bit
address space, potentially 64G of memory. This requires some hacks at
the kernel level, since so many other registers are 32-bit and many
things are assumed to be 32-bit by default. Plus, RAM in such
quantities is not cheap, there are hardly any consumer-level
motherboards that can cache more than 2G of RAM, etc.
--
Matt G|There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to see
Brainbench MVP for Linux Admin / Workin' in a code mine, hittin' Ctrl-Alt
http://www.brainbench.com / Workin' in a code mine, whoops!
=============================/ I hit a seg fault....
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Dances With Crows)
Subject: Re: Determining identity of Yamaha sound card
Date: 31 Jan 2001 01:51:53 GMT
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
On Tue, 30 Jan 2001 04:57:12 GMT, Sean McAfee staggered into the Black
Sun and said:
>I've been experiencing a definite lack of progress getting my system's
>sound card to work under Linux, based largely on the fact that I am unable
>to determine the card's identity. The local sysadmins can only tell me
[snip]
>I'm feeling rather at the end of my rope now. Can anyone offer
>a suggestion for where I might go from here?
"cat /proc/pci" ? This assumes that it's a PCI card, of course. If
you're still stumped, download a free trial version of the OSS
commercial drivers from http://4front.com/ and try those out. Those
come with a reasonable autodetection program that should get you close
to where you want to go if you look at its output. It may be that your
card is only supported via OSS-Commercial; there are a few Yamaha cards
like that, but you can hope, eh?
--
Matt G|There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to see
Brainbench MVP for Linux Admin / Workin' in a code mine, hittin' Ctrl-Alt
http://www.brainbench.com / Workin' in a code mine, whoops!
=============================/ I hit a seg fault....
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Modem Compatibility Problem
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Josh Stern)
Date: 31 Jan 2001 02:07:49 GMT
In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
Martin Longbottom <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>I bought an internal pci modem ( i think it is an ambient) from a=20
>computer fair because it was
>marked as a hardware modem. Linux ( Mandrake 7.1) didn't pick it up and=
>
>i'm not sure where to go, any body know what sort of modems are
>compatible?
>Could it just have been a problem that could be fixed not
>compatibility?
>
>I thougt that hardware ones were the ones that worked because you didn't=
>
>need any extra software?
>
>Any body help or have any suggestions
You can try looking at this page to see what other people
say about the model you have:
http://www.kcdata.com/~gromitkc/20010124a.html
If it really is a hardware modem, it would likely say something
about Dos compatibility on the package. In order to
setup a PCI hardware modem in Linux, you need to
look at /proc/pci after you boot up and then configure
a serial port to use the irq and port address that
are identified there. One way to do that is to use
setserial command, but typically you want to do it
somewhere in your initialization scripts so it
happens every time you boot.
-= Josh
------------------------------
From: Rod Roark <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: suitable backup hardware?
Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2001 18:06:32 -0800
How about an extra hard drive? Fast, cheap and reliable. You can even
get removable carriers for them.
-- Rod
http://www.sunsetsystems.com/
Florian v. Savigny wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> I need advice on what hardware is suitable for Linux to back up my
> stuff sequentially (here I want to say that I do not want to burn
> CD-ROMs because I would like to update the backups frequently - say
> every other week or so).
>
> I use an ordinary PC architecture, with an IDE controller. I do use an
> old QIC-80 tape drive now (with a capacity of about 120 MB) which has
> given me the chills each time I had decided to repartition my
> computer because all my valuable data were on those tapes then... I
> frequently have problems with this device, the characteristic of which
> is that I never can figure out what the exact reason is: the ftape
> driver, the distro (strangely, things don't work under SuSE 6.4 but
> under 6.0), the tar program, the tape - a restore from one tape seems
> to have damaged the filesystem, the next one works out: I think I
> would like to have something I can feel more comfortable with.
>
> The SuSE manual states that "since these devices [floppy tapes] are
> critical to access with regard to timing, problems with saving or
> restoring may often turn up." [hope I got the translation right]
>
> Maybe this is the reason. Can anyone confirm that? Do you have any
> advice what you think may be suitable for me: reliable, for a moderate
> amount of data to backup (the size of the media may be under 1
> GB). And - you guess it - affordable?
>
> Is it more reliable to use a streamer which is directly connected to
> the IDE controller? Or buy an SCSI adapter and an SCSI streamer?
>
>
>
> Florian von Savigny
> ______________________________________________________________________
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2001 19:49:25 -0700
From: "D. Stimits" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Help me build a Monster Machine
Ted Weldon wrote:
>
> "D. Stimits" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> > Ted Weldon wrote:
> > >
> > > Hallo folks,
> > >
> > > I have been tasked with putting together a server box for our local work
> > > group here. The prime purpose of this box will be for serious number
> > > crunching (astrophysics analysis), with lots of room for data. It will
> also
> > > serve as a desktop (desk-side) machine for me, so I want a decent video
> card
> > > for XFee86 4.0. I have around $15k to build a system with a 200 GB
> RAID.
> > >
> > > IT MUST RUN WELL WITH LINUX, without constant tinkering.
> > > Here are my present choices with ROUGH prices.
> > > Please comment:
> > >
> > > Case: SuperMicro SC830-W $600
> > You'll probably find the SC850 with its 10 bay hot-swappable easier to
> > deal with (extra cooling, one cable for 10 drives on a nice backplane)
>
> Thanks for all the info. One thing, though: Wouldn't it be better to
> split the 10 drives across more than 1 RAID channel? I was hoping to
> to have 2 channels and split 4/4, or even 4 channels and split 2/2/2/2.
> Isn't this impossible with one cable in, or am I missing something?
>
> Thanks again for the help!
The backplane in the SC-850W is a dual channel backplane. You can daisy
chain it as one channel if you want, but the default is dual. If a 36
Gbyte drive has a continuous throughput of about 34 Mbyte/sec (my
Seagate 36 gigs on this backplane do), it would require 180 Mbyte/sec,
more than the 160 available...but in reality it would be unusual for it
to require the 180, each scsi device detaches during its reading, then
bursts the data. If you ran 8 drives, with 4 on each backplane, using 2
channels, you'd never saturate. Keep in mind if the 10 hot-swappable
slots of the SC-850W are not enough, you can still use other enclosures,
although there isn't a lot of room for more. You might be able to fit
one of those removable sca bays in, and have available after that only 2
3.5" bays (no cd rom), so I wouldn't advise 15 internal hot-swappables.
If I were doing it, I'd use 8 or 10 internals, then expect to add
another external controller for external drive towers (the motherboard
you mention has only 2 channels anyway). Simply use two cables to the
two planes within the dual independent bays.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2001 19:56:07 -0700
From: "D. Stimits" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Help me build a Monster Machine
Steve Wolfe wrote:
>
> > I have been tasked with putting together a server box for our local work
> > group here. The prime purpose of this box will be for serious number
> > crunching (astrophysics analysis), with lots of room for data. It will
> also
> > serve as a desktop (desk-side) machine for me, so I want a decent video
> card
> > for XFee86 4.0. I have around $15k to build a system with a 200 GB RAID.
> >
> > IT MUST RUN WELL WITH LINUX, without constant tinkering.
> > Here are my present choices with ROUGH prices.
> > Please comment:
>
> If you want to do serious number crunching, here's my suggestion. I use a
> very similar machine for database work, and it's very spiffy.
>
> SuperMicro 8050 chassis/motherboard: $4000
> 4 700 MHz Xeons: $2800
> 1/2 gig RAM: 250
> Video: Your choice, PCI: $50
>
> RAID controller: AMI 1300 (3 channel RAID, from scsistuff.com): $200
>
> Your choice of networking and drives.
>
> The 8050 chassis/mobo combo is truly a class act. It also has 10
> hot-swappable SCSI bays on it, and you can connect the backplanes to the
> RAID card instead of the Adaptec SCSI controller on the motherboard - but
> the onboard SCSI is great for running to your backup drive.
>
> Other than the model of the RAID controller, the above configuration is
> pretty much exactly what we use, and it's a screaming database machine. We
> put about $12,000 into it, and it keeps up with a $25,000 Alpha machine that
> a Compaq rep left with us to test, at least for database work.
>
> steve
The one problem I can see there is that he might also be using it for
graphics at times. It has no AGP slots whatsoever, so the best video
choice would be limited (probably the PCI Oxygen VX-1 on a commercial X
server). FYI, this chassis is the same as the SC-850W, which is really
nice. If you happen to buy an SC-850W for non-quad-Xeon boards, it is
helpful to know that the mounting points inside are removable for
non-Xeon forms. A single 40 pin (20x2 standard .1" spacing) cable
connects any of the SuperMicro m/b's to a header inside the chassis,
which is very convenient if you use that brand combo.
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Help: Floppy and CD on laptop
Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2001 14:05:01 GMT
H Dziardziel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
: On Fri, 26 Jan 2001 16:14:21 -0500, Chen Luo <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
: wrote:
: The bios-hardware would need to support such hot swaps firstly.
What do you mean by "bios-hardware" ?
Guy, you have to make a decission here!
Is it the BIOS *or* the hardware, that needs to support it?
If you don't know, what you're talking about, it is better to say
nothing at all.
Regards,
Friedhelm
--
Microsoft is NOT the answer. Microsoft is the Question.
The answer is: "NO!"
===================================================================
Friedhelm Mehnert, Berliner Allee 42, 22850 Norderstedt, Germany
phone + fax: +49-40-5236562 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
===================================================================
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Julie Brandon)
Crossposted-To:
alt.comp.periphs.mainboard,alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.epox,alt.os.linux.redhat,comp.os.linux.questions
Subject: Re: o/s installation trouble
Date: 31 Jan 2001 02:29:37 GMT
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
On Wed, 31 Jan 2001 01:34:41 GMT, Joshua Lee ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) said:
>I've tried installing RedHat 7 without success, but Mandrake 7.2 went
>perfect.
Eeeeek. Ummmm... [guessing] Perhaps the RH Kernel was built a-la bzImage,
and the Mandrake one zImage, and your system can't handle the memory
organisation that bzImage-style-decompression uses?
Ta-ra,
--
Julie Brandon, Derby, UK
<URL:http://www.computergeeks.co.uk/>
Homepage now includes a cheap 'n' cheerful pointless LIVE WebCam
------------------------------
From: hac <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: ASUS A7V ATA 100 problems
Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2001 03:28:42 GMT
Keith Wheeler wrote:
>
> Dennis,
>
> Cool. How 'bout the A7V-Pro? Same M/B without the Promise ATA100 controller.
>
On Sunday, I purchased a new A7V133. Using the KT133A chipset instead
of the KT133 chipset. On Monday, it showed up on the ASUS web site.
The 'A' version chipset supports a 133MHz FSB in addition to the
previous 100MHz. The VIA ATA interfaces now support ATA100. My board
also has the Promise controller, but the manual seems to imply that
this is now optional.
I installed this board in place of my old one, plugging in a Maxtor
ATA66 drive in the primary channel of the VIA chipset. It detected it
properly and booted, in ATA66 mode, without any Promise drivers
installed. I don't have any ATA100 drives.
I have since installed the backported patches to 2.2.18, and compiled
a new kernel with appropriate choices. Two VIA ATA100 channels, and
two Promise ATA100 channels. And AC97 audio. The same is true for
2.4.1, as of this morning (and that's what I'm running right now).
Sure does compile fast!
I like this board.
--
Howard Christeller Irvine, CA [EMAIL PROTECTED]
------------------------------
From: hac <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Athlon motherboard suggestions (with RH 7.0)
Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2001 03:30:30 GMT
Keith Wheeler wrote:
>
> Serge,
>
> Suggest you go to www.google.com and do a search on A7V, ATA100, and Linux.
> I've been prodded by some of my Linux friends to write a mini HowTo on my
> success with RH 7, the Asus A7V, and the 2.2.18 kernel. I may do that
> shortly, when I have a free moment. ;-)
>
If you haven't purchased yet, the new A7V133 uses the KT133A chipset,
with ATA100 support in the VIA chipset.
--
Howard Christeller Irvine, CA [EMAIL PROTECTED]
------------------------------
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End of Linux-Hardware Digest
******************************
