Linux-Hardware Digest #409, Volume #13 Sat, 12 Aug 00 18:13:08 EDT
Contents:
Re: Dual processor board? ("D. Stimits")
Visioneer 8100 scanner ("Michael J. Sherman")
45 GB HD - How to get past BIOS limitation? (Gene Montgomery)
Re: Yamaha 4261 under Mandrake 7.0 (Nik)
Re: 45 GB HD - How to get past BIOS limitation? (Gene Montgomery)
Re: Linux on AMD (Fred Nastos)
Re: Linksys Router and Linux Redhat 6.2 (Bob Chiodini)
Re: 45 GB HD - How to get past BIOS limitation? ("Jake")
Toshiba Video Display ("W Peters")
Re: Linux on AMD (J Bland)
Trackballs. Anyone using one? (Mel Moore)
Re: Help: Did I kill my CDR? (root)
Defrag in Linux? (Elliott)
Re: 45 GB HD - How to get past BIOS limitation? (Gene Montgomery)
Re: Defrag in Linux? (J Bland)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 12 Aug 2000 12:28:52 -0600
From: "D. Stimits" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Dual processor board?
hac wrote:
>
> "D. Stimits" wrote:
> >
> > ... Last, although I love SM cases (their case
> > engineers are about the best in all areas, including customer service),
> > I no longer trust them with motherboards.
> >
>
> The people they buy the cases from do a good job ;-)
>
> http://www.addtronics.com
>
> (Written on a system housed in an SC750-A)
>
> --
> Howard Christeller Irvine, CA [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Some of it is actually designed internally. The SC850W was designed by
Henry Kung, complete with the ultra-160 backplane (probably one the
nicest cases to work on, and Henry Kung is very responsive to questions
on it...quite the opposite of the motherboard engineers).
------------------------------
From: "Michael J. Sherman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Visioneer 8100 scanner
Date: Sat, 12 Aug 2000 14:33:46 -0400
Hello,
I have a Visioneer 8100 parallel (and USB) scanner.
Any one out there get this to work with SANE or
any other package?
Any hints would be grand.
Thanks,
Mike
P.S. - I'm running the 2.2.14 kernel.
------------------------------
From: Gene Montgomery <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: 45 GB HD - How to get past BIOS limitation?
Date: Sat, 12 Aug 2000 18:22:27 GMT
I purchased a 45 GB Maxtor EIDE UDMA66 drive the other night. I want
to install it as a single partition data sump on a machine which
is already running RH6.2 (kernel 2.2.14), cpu K6-2/400 MHz, 128 MB,
j-mark J-542B MB with Award BIOS 4.51PG (542B/542BS C02.1) - 3-23-1999.
I installed RH6.2 on another machine which is currently running a
30 MB Maxtor as a single partition, so I know the RH6.2 works up to
that size. However, the BIOS on the working machine is different -
I think AMI.
I have chased through the postings on this list, comp.os.linux.setup,
through www.j-mark.com, www.award.com (now part of phoenix), and
www.maxtor.com. Maxtor lays the > 30 MB problem on the BIOS, the
BIOS mfr says see the MB vendor, and the MB vendor has no clear
definition that I have been able to access of the requisite fix,
although they do have a BIOS upgrade - largely undefined. The
MB mfr recommends that mere mortals not try to flash the BIOS, that
they provide the service only for their direct distributors. Besides,
I would never flash a BIOS ROM without some indication of what I am
getting.
I am not interested in the Award third party BIOS upgrader - I'd
rather trash the MB and start over with a new one if that becomes
necessary, rather than go down the path of yet another twist on
an already flakey situation.
I am fresh out of info on just what is going on that there is
a > 30 GB limitation in the BIOS POST, how to get around it so
that Linux can do its thing.
I tried the Cylinder Limitation Option jumper shown on the Maxtor
cheat sheet, and that gets past the POST hang-up, but then
Maxtor says you MUST use MAXBLAST plus, which takes you to Windoze,
and down into the murky mist. There must be a better way....
Gene Montgomery.
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Nik)
Subject: Re: Yamaha 4261 under Mandrake 7.0
Date: Sat, 12 Aug 2000 17:30:44 GMT
Yes it is a CDRW, but I couldn't get it work using the method you
suggested. I am gonna try tonight and see if I can play around with
the SCSI support on the kernel, thank you very much for the hint.
On Sat, 12 Aug 2000 00:16:49 +0100, "Toby Hobson"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>Nik <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
>news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
>> I can install Mandrake no problem, but then I can't access the cd
>> drive anymore, when I try to click on the icon on the Kde dektop it
>> says
>>
>> mount /dev/cdrom is not a valid block device
>>
>> What can I do?
>> Thanks
>>
>
>Nik,
>is your CD-ROM a read only device or a CD-RW?
>If it's a CDRW Linux will treat it as a SCSI device (even if it's IDE) as
>there are no CDRW drivers available for IDE drives ...
>Try the following:
>open a terminal window as root (or type "su" if you are not logged on as
>root)
>type "insmod ide-scsi"
>then try "mount -t iso9660 /dev/scd0 /mnt/cdrom"
>see if you have any luck.
>
>Hope this helps
>
>Regards
>
>Toby
>
>----------------------------------------------
>Toby Hobson
>replace nospam.com with btinternet.com
>----------------------------------------------
>
>
>
------------------------------
From: Gene Montgomery <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: 45 GB HD - How to get past BIOS limitation?
Date: Sat, 12 Aug 2000 19:07:26 GMT
Gene Montgomery wrote:
>
> I purchased a 45 GB Maxtor EIDE UDMA66 drive the other night. I want
> to install it as a single partition data sump on a machine which
> is already running RH6.2 (kernel 2.2.14), cpu K6-2/400 MHz, 128 MB,
> j-mark J-542B MB with Award BIOS 4.51PG (542B/542BS C02.1) - 3-23-1999.
>
> I installed RH6.2 on another machine which is currently running a
> 30 MB Maxtor as a single partition, so I know the RH6.2 works up to
> that size. However, the BIOS on the working machine is different -
> I think AMI.
>
> I have chased through the postings on this list, comp.os.linux.setup,
> through www.j-mark.com, www.award.com (now part of phoenix), and
> www.maxtor.com. Maxtor lays the > 30 MB problem on the BIOS, the
> BIOS mfr says see the MB vendor, and the MB vendor has no clear
> definition that I have been able to access of the requisite fix,
> although they do have a BIOS upgrade - largely undefined. The
> MB mfr recommends that mere mortals not try to flash the BIOS, that
> they provide the service only for their direct distributors. Besides,
> I would never flash a BIOS ROM without some indication of what I am
> getting.
>
> I am not interested in the Award third party BIOS upgrader - I'd
> rather trash the MB and start over with a new one if that becomes
> necessary, rather than go down the path of yet another twist on
> an already flakey situation.
>
> I am fresh out of info on just what is going on that there is
> a > 30 GB limitation in the BIOS POST, how to get around it so
> that Linux can do its thing.
>
> I tried the Cylinder Limitation Option jumper shown on the Maxtor
> cheat sheet, and that gets past the POST hang-up, but then
> Maxtor says you MUST use MAXBLAST plus, which takes you to Windoze,
> and down into the murky mist. There must be a better way....
>
> Gene Montgomery.
A little added info. From the mini HOW-TO called Large-Disk, I
note that in addition to the BIOS limitation, there is a Linux
limitation in older kernels. Does anyone know where the break
comes in? That is, does 2.2.14 handle disks larger than the 33.8
GB limitation mentioned in the mini-HOWTO?
Wonder when the mini-HOWTO will be updated to reflect the *really*
large disks coming on line these days. I saw an 80Gig job at Fry's
the other day. We should be breaking the 137 GB barrier RSN.
Gene.
------------------------------
From: Fred Nastos <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.setup,comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: Re: Linux on AMD
Date: 12 Aug 2000 18:56:51 GMT
In comp.os.linux.misc J Bland <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> 2.2.14 has a serious security bug in it. This is why SuSE has released and
> update to the k_default.rpm package with a 2.2.16 kernel. Keep up with the
> security advisories.
Where can we do that? Is there a page where updates are posted? I looked
around for few, but found nothing recent. Thanks
------------------------------
From: Bob Chiodini <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Linksys Router and Linux Redhat 6.2
Date: Sat, 12 Aug 2000 19:29:19 GMT
How do you ping the interface if you do not have an IP Address?
Make sure your interface is configured for DHCP. You can run netcfg to do
this.
Bob...
mandinko wrote:
> Hello Everyone,
>
> Has anyone been able to get Redhat 6.2 Workstation to obtain an IP address
> from the Linksys Etherfast (4-port) Cable Router under RoadRunner. I got my
> WIN2K and Windows 98 Boxes to work fine. I am stuck. My Linux machine has
> configured the 3COM card and I can ping the card but I am not able to get an
> IP Address from the router. I am about to go to the Howto for Road Runner
> Service but that document only details a direct connection with your cable
> modem.
>
> I checked out Linksys' website but it only has the 10/100 BT card and linux
> and no information from the router
> Even in fact it stated it doesn't support Linux and the Linksys Router
>
> I know the MediaOne Roadrunner guys may not support this feature but do I
> need to register
> the MAC Address of the Linux box with Media One?
>
> Thanks in Advance,
>
> Calvin Grier, Jr.
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> An Aspiring Linux Administrator
--
=========================================================
Bob Chiodini [EMAIL PROTECTED]
=========================================================
------------------------------
From: "Jake" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: 45 GB HD - How to get past BIOS limitation?
Date: Sat, 12 Aug 2000 20:12:00 GMT
Gene Montgomery <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> A little added info. From the mini HOW-TO called Large-Disk, I
> note that in addition to the BIOS limitation, there is a Linux
> limitation in older kernels. Does anyone know where the break
> comes in? That is, does 2.2.14 handle disks larger than the 33.8
> GB limitation mentioned in the mini-HOWTO?
I has able to attach/see/access two 75 GB drives using RedHat 6.2,
which I beleive ships with kernel 2.2.14, without any modification
on both the primary and secondary motherboard IDE channels.
ASUS CUV4X motherboard
IBM Deskstar 75 GB
RedHat6.2
I ened up upgrading the kernel to 2.4.0test5 to get it to
work with a RAID controller card though.
Jake
------------------------------
From: "W Peters" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Toshiba Video Display
Date: Sat, 12 Aug 2000 20:36:37 GMT
I have a Toshiba Notebook, Satellit Pro 400 CS, friend of mine installed
Linux, Slackware dist on it. My problem is that Gnome wanst 600-800
resolution, and all I can get is 640 by 480, so I am constantly panning my
screen (dualscan). Annoying, to say the least.
At the following site, indication seems to be that the video card I have
might be supported.
http://www.xfree86.org/4.0/Status8.html#8
Can someone tell me if I should be able to get more out of fmy card? Its a
Chips and Technology 65546
Sincerely
Werner
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (J Bland)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.setup,comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: Re: Linux on AMD
Date: 12 Aug 2000 20:54:27 GMT
On 12 Aug 2000 18:56:51 GMT, Fred Nastos <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>In comp.os.linux.misc J Bland <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>> 2.2.14 has a serious security bug in it. This is why SuSE has released and
>> update to the k_default.rpm package with a 2.2.16 kernel. Keep up with the
>> security advisories.
>
>Where can we do that? Is there a page where updates are posted? I looked
>around for few, but found nothing recent. Thanks
For SuSE you can check their website at
http://www.suse.com/support/security/index.html
which also has information about joining their mailing lists for security
and general stuff.
For general non-distro specific information you can try
http://www.linuxsecurity.com/
Places like http://www.linuxtoday.com/ can keep you up to date with general
security flaws as they become known which is where I usually spot these
things first.
Frinky
--
John Bland MPhys(Hons) GradInstP Webmaster and Sys Admin.
http://ringtail.cmp.liv.ac.uk/ Condensed Matter Group
Email: j.bland at liv.ac.uk Liverpool University
"And it can suck a monkey through 30ft of garden hose!!"
------------------------------
From: Mel Moore <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Trackballs. Anyone using one?
Date: Sat, 12 Aug 2000 21:25:01 GMT
Is anyone using a trackball with there system? If so, which one, how
have you set it up as far as ports and drivers are concerned. I'm
currently using Redhat 6.0 on a system that does not support USB on the
motherboard so I would like to know if any are available that work on
serial port.
Thanks for the info in advance.
Mel Moore
------------------------------
From: root <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: roadrunner.nycap.linux,comp.os.linux.help
Subject: Re: Help: Did I kill my CDR?
Date: Sat, 12 Aug 2000 21:29:04 GMT
I think Dan is right when he mentioned powering down. I have a crappy
Creative Labs CD-Blaster 4X2X24 CD-RW and it's notorious for burning a
disc just fine, then not being recognized (and/or giving all sorts of
weird freakin errors.) The only way I've found to recover from this is
to power cycle the machine several times, or as Dan also suggested,
Power down, pop open the case and pull the drive out over night (to let
all pieces parts in the Burner discharge their electricity)
Hope this helps
------------------------------
From: Elliott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Defrag in Linux?
Date: Sat, 12 Aug 2000 21:42:48 GMT
Ok. When I first brought my brand new computer home, it ran fast. It
screamed. Now it takes longer to load stuff (programs). On other os's
I have simply booted Norton Speed Disk, and the speed was back. I'm
running RH 6.1 with a 4 gig ATA/IDE hard drive as well as 2 ~400mb
ata/ide drives. (Small, I know.) When I shut down, I get this message
(its a normal thing, I think, but I want to know what it is): Stopping
Auto-defragmentation What is that? Anyway, another reason why I want to
defrag is this (from the df -h command):
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda8 387M 317M 50M 86% /
/dev/hda1 23M 2.6M 19M 12% /boot
/dev/hda7 2.9G 938M 1.8G 34% /usr
/dev/hda5 387M 31M 337M 8% /var
/dev/hdd 390M 4.6M 365M 1% /mnt/drive3
/dev/hdb1 393M 16k 373M 0% /mnt/drive2
all the partitions appear to be fragmented. I would think, that "size"
minus "used" should equal "Avail". I checked my partition tables with
fdisk, and all cylinders and heads are accounted for. Thus leading me to
think that I really need to defrag. (then what the heck is auto-defrag?)
True, for a web server or fully networked computer, defragmenting may
not make a difference, but for my computer, I think it would. So what
program should I use? I have looked high and low, and I can't find one
(except for auto-defrag, whatever that is). Any help would be nice
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
------------------------------
From: Gene Montgomery <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: 45 GB HD - How to get past BIOS limitation?
Date: Sat, 12 Aug 2000 21:40:07 GMT
Jake wrote:
>
> Gene Montgomery <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> > A little added info. From the mini HOW-TO called Large-Disk, I
> > note that in addition to the BIOS limitation, there is a Linux
> > limitation in older kernels. Does anyone know where the break
> > comes in? That is, does 2.2.14 handle disks larger than the 33.8
> > GB limitation mentioned in the mini-HOWTO?
>
> I has able to attach/see/access two 75 GB drives using RedHat 6.2,
> which I beleive ships with kernel 2.2.14, without any modification
> on both the primary and secondary motherboard IDE channels.
>
> ASUS CUV4X motherboard
> IBM Deskstar 75 GB
> RedHat6.2
>
> I ened up upgrading the kernel to 2.4.0test5 to get it to
> work with a RAID controller card though.
>
> Jake
Thanks, Jake. I will concentrate on the BIOS limitation,
under the assumption that RH6.2 (2.2.14) has solved the 33.8
GB limitation.
Gene
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (J Bland)
Subject: Re: Defrag in Linux?
Date: 12 Aug 2000 21:53:14 GMT
>Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
>/dev/hda8 387M 317M 50M 86% /
>/dev/hda1 23M 2.6M 19M 12% /boot
>/dev/hda7 2.9G 938M 1.8G 34% /usr
>/dev/hda5 387M 31M 337M 8% /var
>/dev/hdd 390M 4.6M 365M 1% /mnt/drive3
>/dev/hdb1 393M 16k 373M 0% /mnt/drive2
>
>all the partitions appear to be fragmented. I would think, that "size"
>minus "used" should equal "Avail". I checked my partition tables with
>fdisk, and all cylinders and heads are accounted for. Thus leading me to
>think that I really need to defrag. (then what the heck is auto-defrag?)
>True, for a web server or fully networked computer, defragmenting may
>not make a difference, but for my computer, I think it would. So what
>program should I use? I have looked high and low, and I can't find one
>(except for auto-defrag, whatever that is). Any help would be nice
>[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Ext2fs (which you are almost certainly using) does not fragment in the same
way that windows filing systems do. Ext2fs is intelligent and arranges its
data in such a way as to reduce fragmentation. The only time this really
breaks down is when your disc is almost full, and all your partitions are
quite a way from this.
The small amount of fragmentation (of the order of a % or two) that you get
on a standard ext2fs system will not produce a system performance drop that
you could see. As for df; it only reports disc usage, there is no indication
of fragmentation in its output so I wonder where you think it is saying your
partitions are fragmented. Any differences between the allocated size of a
partition and the reported size in df are due to:
a) Space taken by formatting
b) by default 5% of a partition is reserved for the root user only. So even
when the disc is supposedly 5% full there is still some space for root to
play around in. A godsend when users fill your disc accidentally.
If you are experiencing performance drops it is much more likely to be a RAM
factor, or more the usage of it. Once you start using up your RAM and hit
the swap partition or file, performance nosedives.
What are you running? How much RAM do you have? What does 'free' report?
Linux doesn't 'degrade' with time like certain other systems. If there's a
problem with performance it's to do with what you're doing, not the state
the OS has got itself into.
Frinky
--
John Bland MPhys(Hons) GradInstP Webmaster and Sys Admin.
http://ringtail.cmp.liv.ac.uk/ Condensed Matter Group
Email: j.bland at liv.ac.uk Liverpool University
"And it can suck a monkey through 30ft of garden hose!!"
------------------------------
** FOR YOUR REFERENCE **
The service address, to which questions about the list itself and requests
to be added to or deleted from it should be directed, is:
Internet: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
You can send mail to the entire list (and comp.os.linux.hardware) via:
Internet: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Linux may be obtained via one of these FTP sites:
ftp.funet.fi pub/Linux
tsx-11.mit.edu pub/linux
sunsite.unc.edu pub/Linux
End of Linux-Hardware Digest
******************************
