Linux-Hardware Digest #312, Volume #10 Mon, 24 May 99 11:13:23 EDT
Contents:
Hard drive flipping bits! (Andy Bianchi)
Re: How do you know if you have a WinModem? (Rob Clark)
Re: How to mount a mo drive? (andy standley)
Adaptec timeout revisited (Carsten Krebs)
Re: Will a SupraExpress 56i modem run under linux? (Rob Clark)
Re: sb16 & fullduplex � (Carlos Rodrigues)
Re: Zoom 56K PCI Faxmodem (Carlos Rodrigues)
data acquisition, please help me run away from windows ("aZZa amarela")
Re: recognizing all my RAM (Johan Kullstam)
Re: Configuring hardware for X (Johan Kullstam)
Re: Recommend video board? (Johan Kullstam)
Solved SCSI problem (aha152x) (Kjell Petersen)
newbie: install suse6.0 on HD connected to Promise ATA/66 contoller (Frank)
toshiba portege IDE (Stephen Tickell)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Andy Bianchi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.setup,comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: Hard drive flipping bits!
Date: Mon, 24 May 1999 12:40:55 +0100
Really annoying problem:
I have the following setup:
- PCChips TXProII (with built in VGA/Sound, I use neither of
these at the moment) motherboard
- Pentium P90
- 32Mb memory, 2.1Gb Quantum Hard drive
- RedHat5.2
[ This is just a cheapo system that I cobbled togther as a
compliment to the old trusty 486 running linux (I wanted
more HDD space and something with PCI for more extras!) ]
Unfortunately the system appears to be suffering from
an intermittent problem where a few bits (it is usually
just one or two) in a file can become corrupted.
To make this fault appear I'm running a shell script
which repeatedly compiles the kernel (in fact I have two
of these running concurrently).
After about 5hours or so one of the compiles will fail due
to some parse error or something similar. Then it may
compile the whole kernel successfully for a few times and
then fail again (each compile is less than an hour).
I'm logging all errors and normal compile output to text
files so the fact that one compile has gone wrong can
easily be identified by comparing the size of the logs.
=======================================================
I've been looking into this problem for a while now and
I've tried the following things:
* On the above system I've tried different cables and also
making the cable shorter (down to 12").
* I've changed the PIO mode in the BIOS to 2 (I don't care
about UDMA or anything fancy).
I've also changed various bits of hardware:
* I changed motherboard, CPU, and memory (all at the same time,
I was testing a new base system) so the only things that
were common were the case/PSU and HDD (and cable).
The new motherboard was a Gigabyte 5AA (Uses the Aladdin V
chipset I believe) with a P120 and 32Mb RAM
This gave the same errors but more of them. I tried to change
PIO mode in the BIOS but there doesn't appear to be a way to
do that.
* I've now gone back to the TXPro and got a new HDD from the
shop since I was convinced that the HDD was faulty - well
I tried changing everything else in the system!
None of the above have erradicated the problem completely
although some may have lessened it - specifically dropping
PIO mode I *think* had some effect (it was a while since
I tried that and I've been running at PIO mode every since).
===============================================================
My only remaining theory now is that the Linux/BIOS/chipset
combination does work due to the ide driver not setting up
some timing or other such parameters correctly, hence I
get weird intermittent faults:
* The Gigabyte definitely uses Aladdin V chipset (M1543). The
TXPro reports it's using an SiS 85C5513 although, if my
memory serves me correctly I've seen posts saying that
"... can't use UDMA on TXPro ... it uses Aladdin chipset ..."
* Reading some FAQs about ATA/IDE etc it appears that these new
fancy chipsets have all sorts of config registers to change
timing params. Something must set these up and I can't see
any evidence that Linux is doing this.
* Looking at the kernel source there is a ali14xx.c file which
claims to setup the ide drivers for Aladdin 14xx chipsets and
appears to do some tuning, like setting timing registers.
Since there is no ali15xx.c file and I see no messages saying
that anything special has been done for my IDE I've got to
assume that Linux is just using some default IDE driver.
* I notice that the 2.0.37preXX and also some others aimed at
getting UDMA working mention Aladdin chipsets etc and I'm
going to have a look at these at some point - I assume that
there will be an ali15xx.c file which may help.
Anyone got any ideas/suggestions/comments etc?
Any kernel/driver gurus out there had these problems or
could contradict any of what I've said above!
PLEASE HELP!
Andy
--
"You're not too tired for this life, and it's not going
to matter if you fall down twice" - Lisa Loeb 'Snow Day'
------------------------------
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.setup
Subject: Re: How do you know if you have a WinModem?
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Rob Clark)
Date: Mon, 24 May 1999 11:42:21 GMT
In article <7iabsg$4c7$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>Hmmm. I'm having the same difficulty as reported by "Steven". My
>situation is that I have a Diamond SupraMax 56i PCI modem. From windows
>I can determine that its UART is 16550AN as well. Under linux, I can't
>get it to respond. Is it possible that modems whose UART is 16550AN are
>winmodems?
Yes, yours is a winmodem, too. The 16550AN response you are getting is an
emulated UART, not a real UART. Software modems are incomplete without
their "modem emulation" software,
Rob Clark, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.o2.net/~gromitkc/winmodem.html
------------------------------
From: andy standley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: How to mount a mo drive?
Date: Mon, 24 May 1999 11:43:28 GMT
Gary Maltzen wrote:
> IIRC, you will need a 2.1 or later kernel (or suitable patches) to support
> the 2K sector size. My RH5.2 system (2.0.36 kernel) reports my Mitsubishi
> (internal device is Fujitsu) 640MO as a 2KB sector and fails to do anything
> more with it.
>
> Note: AFAIK, this should be treated as a (removable) hard disk; it has
> *nothing* to do with the SCSI generic device support.
>
I still don't understand this. I have a kernel less than 2.1. My MO is a
SONY SMO-501 (I think) and I have lots of 3M disks that say rewriteable
optical disk 1024 F on them. Does this mean 1024K ?? I can format them under
NT and read them, but under linux I can't then read them. Under linux it sees
my MO but I can't mount it as msdos due to bad superblock or too many
filesystems or one other reason I can't remember. I can mkefs on a disk though
and read + write to it. I can also use mkdosfs and read + write to it, but
then my NT machine does not like it. So, is the machine or the disk stopping
linux reading the NT formatted MO disks. Can I do anything under NT to format
it so linux can read it. Is there any toy to write + read ext2 filesystems
under NT ? What patches do I need to make my kernel work (I grabbed the
patches and have tried to remake a kernel but have not got too far with this
yet - but this may be the only way ???).
Pleae email to group and me with any clues as I may not see the group for
a while..
thanks in advance
--
###############################################################################
# From Andy Standley email [EMAIL PROTECTED] #
# Centre for Remote Sensing, UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL, #
# SCHOOL OF GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCES #
# UNIVERSITY ROAD, BRISTOL BS8 1SS #
# TEL 01179 288300 FAX 01179 287878 TELEX 445938 #
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# TOO MANY ENDANGERED ANIMALS IN THE WORLD #
###############################################################################
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Carsten Krebs)
Subject: Adaptec timeout revisited
Date: Mon, 24 May 1999 14:27:09 +0200
Hi there,
Linux still won't run on my box:
ASUS P2BS/Adaptec 2940U2W
IBM DDRS 39130D, Rev. DC1BB (SCSI ID 0).
Yamaha CRW 4416S, 1.0E (SCSI ID 1)
Pioneer DR-U16S (SCSI ID 2)
The scsi adapter is not automatically recognised. Autoprobing scsi drivers
halts the system completely.
When setting the correct driver (aic7xxx) manually I run into the following
error:
detected scsi disk sda at scsi0, channel0, id0, lun0, synchronous at 80 MB/S
offset 15 ...
detected scsi CDROM sr0 at scsi0, channel0, id1, lun0, synchronous at 8 MB/S
offset ...
detected scsi CDROM sda at scsi0, channel0, id2, lun0, synchronous at 20
MB/S offset ..
SCSI abborting command due to timeout pid 27, scsi0, channel0, id3, lunO
est Unit ready 00 00 00 00 00
(Endless loop)
I tried several measures as suggested in newsgroups: turning off large DOS
Partitions support in SCSI-Setup/BIOS, setting hard-drive speed to 10MB/sec
in SCSI-Setup/BIOS, setting boot option "no_reset", setting boot option
"extended": No effect!
Thanks in advance!
Carsten
------------------------------
Crossposted-To:
comp.os.linux.help,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.linux.networking,comp.os.linux.questions,comp.os.linux.setup
Subject: Re: Will a SupraExpress 56i modem run under linux?
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Rob Clark)
Date: Mon, 24 May 1999 11:47:35 GMT
In article <2A523.14487$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
Ozzy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>Anybody running this modem under linux?
>successfully?
Please check your model number on the list at
http://www.o2.net/~gromitkc/winmodem.html
There are several modems with very similar names, some which do work, and
some which do not.
Rob Clark, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
------------------------------
From: Carlos Rodrigues <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: sb16 & fullduplex �
Date: Mon, 24 May 1999 12:36:31 +0100
Stan wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> I can't get my original sb16 (CT2291) to work in full duplex mode. The
> sound card is installed properly and the irq, dma's and io ports are
> identified correctly.
>
> I suspect that the application (speak freely) I'm using is trying to use
>
> the same dma as the other application. In this case it would be
> sfspeaker for the output and sfmike for the input. I tried to use the
> ALSA driver, which worked after I set the Recording to 8 bit.
That's the advantage of ALSA, OSS drivers included in the kernel do not
support full duplex.
> My question is, can I set the recording generally to 8 bit with the
> driver included in the kernel 2.2.9. If not, what else can I do ?
------------------------------
From: Carlos Rodrigues <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Zoom 56K PCI Faxmodem
Date: Mon, 24 May 1999 12:42:16 +0100
Edward W. Nowak wrote:
>
> I recently installed a Zoom 56k PCI internal Faxmodem(Model 2925). I
> have a dual boot system with Win98 and Linux. The modem works fine in
> Win98 but as yet I haven't figured out how to configure it for Linux.
> Before I go any further, does anyone know if this modem is a winmodem?
> If so what modem should I replace it with? i.e. What 56k modems are
> known to work with Linux?
Your best shot are external modems, I've never heard about any external
winmodem.
------------------------------
From: "aZZa amarela" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: data acquisition, please help me run away from windows
Date: Mon, 24 May 1999 14:32:07 +0100
hello
i can't find a pcmcia card to do data acquisition of a 24 bit digital signal
under linux.
i've searched .. and searched ... with no luck at all.
the card manufacters still keep forget linux, i wonder if someone knows of a
card i could use.
if i can't find a suitable card i will have to go back to windows.
any help is welcome.
TIA all
azza amarela
------------------------------
From: Johan Kullstam <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help
Subject: Re: recognizing all my RAM
Date: 24 May 1999 08:24:07 -0400
Jeffrey Bridge <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> I have a nice Slack 3.6 install, still using the default 2.0.35
> kernel, running with a K6/233 on a VIA MVP3 chipset
> motherboard. There are two DIMM slots, four SIMM slots, 1 AGP, 3
> PCI, and 3 ISA, but I don't know the exact specification number of
> the motherboard. Now, I had one 64 megabyte DIMM (PC100 SDRAM) in,
> and it worked fine. Then I added another, identical, and the BIOS
> found it, but Linux still only sees 64 megs. Actually, it sees maybe
> one meg more than it did with 64 physical in, but it is not seeing
> the 131072K that it should. I have searched for the proper kernel
> parameter to specify how much RAM you have, but couldn't find it. If
> someone could inform me of possibly BIOS settings or kernel
> parameters to make it find all the RAM, I would be greatly indebted,
> because otherwise it's a $54 piece of junk.
this is not a slam against you, but a helpful hint. go to
<URL:http://www.deja.com/> and search for `linux memory lilo'. you
will find that many people have asked this question before and many
people have already answered it.
whenever i have a linux (or other computer) question, i try dejanews
right away. so many times it's already been asked and answered. you
get your answer right away instead of waiting a day or so.
> Tilde,
> Jeffrey :j
>
> And, if somebody is kind enough to respond, please also send it to my
> e-mail, because the volume in these lists is so large......
> j b r i d g e 2 1 AT take_this_crap_out DoT earthling DOT net
get a newsreader that does proper scoring like gnus/emacs or slrn and
set it up so that replies to your postings get moved to the top.
hope this helps.
--
johan kullstam
------------------------------
From: Johan Kullstam <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Configuring hardware for X
Date: 24 May 1999 08:32:18 -0400
Robert Sprawls <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> Hello,
> I have a Diamond Stealth 3D 2000, and a Mag DX1595. Can anyone
> tell me the specific chipset( for the card ), and the frequency specs for
> the monitor? I've had these tings for 3 years and can't find my manuals
> for them.
the diamond stealth has a S3ViRGE 325 chip (look at the card and read
the writing on the big black square :-> ). use the XFree86 SVGA
server. (the XFree86 S3V server is an unaccelerated legacy - use it
if you have trouble - the SVGA is faster. do not use the XFree86 S3
(no V) server as that supports a different chipset.)
i have no idea about your monitor. maybe the manufacturer has a
website?
--
johan kullstam
------------------------------
From: Johan Kullstam <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Recommend video board?
Date: 24 May 1999 08:25:25 -0400
"Christopher R. Carlen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> I am looking for a board, in the price range $50 to $100. I am not
> particularly concerned about 3D.
>
> Any suggestions appreciated.
matrox millenium ii
i have this card and it rocks for X.
--
johan kullstam
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Kjell Petersen)
Subject: Solved SCSI problem (aha152x)
Date: 24 May 1999 13:40:35 GMT
Earlier on I posted a message describing my problems with using the aha152x
support together with an AVA1502AE Adaptec scsi card to control a Mustek
scanner.
I received several hints, thanks a lot to everyone who answered my posting.
None of the hints were head on, but together the hints drove me in the right
direction towards a solution ;^)
I've seen several people post regarding similar problems to mine with the
aha152x, so I'll try to make a summary of the hints I got.
But first, the symptoms :
When compiling the 152x support into the kernel, and giving parameters at
boot time :
aha152x=0x140,9,7 ( I/O, IRQ, SCSI_ID *for controller card, not device*)
or
append="aha152x=0x140,9,7" in lilo.conf
the following messages appeared during bootup :
aha152x: processing commandline: ok
aha152x: BIOS test: passed, detected 1 controller(s)
aha152x0: vital data: PORTBASE=0x140, IRQ=9, SCSI ID=7, reconnect=enabled,
parity=enabled, synchronous=disabled, delay=500, extended translation=disabled
aha152x: trying software interrupt, lost.
aha152x: IRQ 9 possibly wrong. Please verify.
scsi : 0 hosts.
scsi : detected total.
Trying modules instead yielded:
>insmod scsi_mod # needed by aha152x
>insmod aha152x aha152x=0x140,9,7
aha152x.o: Device or resource busy
>
According to my /proc/interrupts both irq 11 and 12 were taken, so I tried the
two last options for my card, irq 9 and 10. Both gave the same results as
above.
One of the first hints I got, was to also check the /proc/pci, and
there I discovered that irq 10 was taken by the USB controller. But it didn't
mention anything about the irq 9, so I still had that one as an option, or
at least that's what I thought. I did get the following warning in one mail,
but it didn't seem to be relevant for my system :
"you should re-re-check with cat /proc/pci | grep IRQ, I have never see a
PCI system not using the IRQ 9 for it's own or for some PCI card until now !!!"
In several postings I read something about a possibility to reserve an IRQ
number in the bios. In my bios I found a table where I could chose which IRQ
numbers and DMA channels that was possible for the PnP system to use. Both IRQ
9 and 10 were in this pool, so I disabled then for PnP use, but this didn't
solve any problems. The USB controller still used IRQ 10, and the aha152x would
not work on IRQ 9.
Getting tired of failures, I din't want to mess too much my BIOS. But I did
register some options regarding the USB port.
Then I found the following in a posting :
"These cards are a bit of a pain. If your willing to build a kernel with the
adaptec support built in you can go in and edit the Makefile in
/usr/src/linux/drivers/scsi and change the line that pertains to the
aha152x (it will be obvious). Remove all the stuff that says -DAUTOCONF (or
whatever it says) and replace it with -DSKIP_BIOSTEST
-DSETUP0="{0x140,11,7,1}"."
At this point I did two things at the same go. Remembering the options about
the USB port in the BIOS, and the fact that I don't have any USB devices yet
(and the Linux support isn't around yet(?)), I disabled the use of the USB
port and thereby freeing the IRQ 10. Changing the Makefile as described, but
with my parameters, compiling and booting, and it worked !!
Then I thought, maybe only the IRQ was the problem ? So I tried with old
Makefile again, compiling and booting, still working ! But I will never (?)
know if the card did need that initial direct assignment of parameters
(anyone ?)
I hope this can be of any help to anyone ;^)
My guess is that my system somehow uses IRQ 9, but is not listing it in neither
/proc/interrupts or /proc/pci. Anyplace else one should look ?
Kjell ;^)
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Frank)
Subject: newbie: install suse6.0 on HD connected to Promise ATA/66 contoller
Date: Mon, 24 May 1999 12:25:38 GMT
Hi,
I wanted to start using Linux. I have Suse 6.0 and started to install.
In my PC is a new Promise ATA/66 contoller with my HD (WD 18GB ATA/66)
The install program Yast is not recognizing my controller/HD. I can't
figure out how to by pass this problem.
How can I get the controller known to Suse ?
Frank
------------------------------
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.portable,comp.os.linux.setup
From: Stephen Tickell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: toshiba portege IDE
Date: Mon, 24 May 1999 13:46:42 GMT
Has anyone found a DMA IDE driver for the Toshiba portege 3010 ? (or any
similar toshiba notebooks) Slackware 3.6 - kernel 2.0.35 - decides it's
a plain-vanilla IDE, and the transfer rate reported by hdparm is just
over 2MB/sec, which I believe is about a third of what the drive should
manage.
Apart from hibernation being broken, the slow disk tranfser is the major
drawback to running linux. I didn't see any mention of this on the
various web pages about portege linux installation that I found, so
maybe I missed something obvious. However it's probable that Toshiba
haven't released any programming info for their proprietary IDE
hardware. Thought I'd ask anyway
Stephen Tickell
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
------------------------------
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End of Linux-Hardware Digest
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