Linux-Hardware Digest #407, Volume #14 Mon, 26 Feb 01 23:13:09 EST
Contents:
Re: Need LOTS of disks: Promise ATA RAID?? (Jonathan Buzzard)
Re: Need LOTS of disks: Promise ATA RAID?? (Jonathan Buzzard)
Re: Need LOTS of disks: Promise ATA RAID?? (Jonathan Buzzard)
Mother board compatibility (Chris Harris)
Configuration of National Instrument PXI Box (Garry Herzberg)
Re: Promise ultra100 hdd controller driver (Mike McCann)
Re: Need LOTS of disks: Promise ATA RAID?? ("C. Newport")
How do I load a module at start up? ("Kit Chong")
Re: video capture card, bttv question (Vladimir Florinski)
Re: ALSA & Intel 8x0 sound card: Error... (Dan Smith)
IOCTL Usage ("Ajit Sodhi")
Adaptec 1530P insists on IRQ 12 ("Curtis Rempel")
problem with a samsung syncmaster 400b ("Hiriam Gonz�lez S.")
Re: Cable modem and DHCP and MAC (Pete Ritter)
Disk Geometry with Promist ATA100 Controller ("John Weeks")
Re: USB Harddrives? (Dances With Crows)
Re: TDK VeloCD in RH6.1 (Dances With Crows)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Jonathan Buzzard)
Crossposted-To: uk.comp.os.linux
Subject: Re: Need LOTS of disks: Promise ATA RAID??
Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2001 22:39:34 +0000
In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
"C. Newport" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> John Rowe wrote:
>>
>> A user needs at least 300GB of disk space and that's after formatting,
>> file system overhead, etc. So I'm reckoning I need at least 6 IBM 60GB
>> disks and I would prefer to have only one per channel, ie no hard
>> disks running as slaves. So I could use a little help!
>>
>> * If I just use three ordinary ATA-100 cards will that cause me any
>> problems? (Performance, boot, etc.)
>>
>> * Will I gain much by using Promise ATA RAID cards? Is there better
>> performance, does it reduce the number of IRQs I'm using? Are
>> there boot problems if I try to make a RAID device my boot device?
>>
>
> Your only realistic option is SCSI, preferably using an external
> RAID array.
>
> Take a look at http://www.transtec.co.uk/ for typical configs.
>
That is utter rubbish and shows a complete lack of understanding of
the area of large disk arrays. There are many situations in which
SCSI is a waste of time and just as many where SCSI is inadequate and
you need to use Fibre Channel.
JAB.
--
Jonathan A. Buzzard Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Northumberland, United Kingdom. Tel: +44(0)1661-832195
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Jonathan Buzzard)
Crossposted-To: uk.comp.os.linux
Subject: Re: Need LOTS of disks: Promise ATA RAID??
Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2001 22:44:07 +0000
In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
Jason Clifford <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> On 26 Feb 2001, John Rowe wrote:
>
>> A user needs at least 300GB of disk space and that's after formatting,
>> file system overhead, etc. So I'm reckoning I need at least 6 IBM 60GB
>> disks and I would prefer to have only one per channel, ie no hard
>> disks running as slaves. So I could use a little help!
>
> Have you considered that for a requirement of so much disk space access
> times to data is also important.
Often it is not that important. I can think of all sorts of situations
where having large amounts of data available online is important, but
access times are not critical. As the system is RAID the extra spindle
speed of 10,000rpm drives over 7200rpm will likely only improve access times.
The impact on throughput will be minimal unless he is using RAID 0, 1 or
0+1, or starts spending mega bucks.
> While a RAID5 of 6 60GB EIDE drives would provide the necessary space
> would performance be up to the requirement? If so then fine, go ahead and
> buy a couple of 4 channel ATA-100 IDE controllers and be happy.
It all depends on the application.
> If not then I strongly recommend that you get a real hardware raid card
> and a quantity of 10,000 rpm hard drives.
Why, the write perfomance of many real hardware RAID cards is not that
good. You can often get better perfomance with software RAID and more
processing power and RAM in the server.
> Also bear in mind that you probably want hot swap capability so factor
> that in from the outset - it's VERY expensive to have to cobble it on
> later.
Again it all depends on the application. More to the point is what are
you going to back it up onto. A backup device for this size of array
is going to cost as much as the array in the first place.
JAB.
--
Jonathan A. Buzzard Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Northumberland, United Kingdom. Tel: +44(0)1661-832195
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Jonathan Buzzard)
Crossposted-To: uk.comp.os.linux
Subject: Re: Need LOTS of disks: Promise ATA RAID??
Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2001 22:47:05 +0000
In article <97e893$6no$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
Joshua Baker-LePain <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> In comp.os.linux.hardware C. Newport <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>> John Rowe wrote:
>>>
>>> A user needs at least 300GB of disk space and that's after formatting,
>>> file system overhead, etc. So I'm reckoning I need at least 6 IBM 60GB
>>> disks and I would prefer to have only one per channel, ie no hard
>>> disks running as slaves. So I could use a little help!
>>>
>>> * If I just use three ordinary ATA-100 cards will that cause me any
>>> problems? (Performance, boot, etc.)
>>>
>>> * Will I gain much by using Promise ATA RAID cards? Is there better
>>> performance, does it reduce the number of IRQs I'm using? Are
>>> there boot problems if I try to make a RAID device my boot device?
>>>
>
>> Your only realistic option is SCSI, preferably using an external
>> RAID array.
>
> I'm in the market for disk space of this magnitude at the moment as
> well. While the above statement used to be the case, I have heard
> a number of *very* informed opinions in support of IDE-SCSI RAID
> towers, such as the ones at www.zero-d.com. It's a tower/rack-mount
> full of IDE disks that'll do RAID 0, 1, or 5 (possibly 10, I don't
> recall at the moment). They have hot swappable drives, power supplies
> and fans. Finally, they connect to the host via a SCSI (typically UW or
> U2W) connection, so are OS independent.
These are good but the write perfomance on RAID 5 is a bit sucky and
the read is not too hot either. You really need to do your homework
first.
> There was a thread on this on the beowulf mailing list just a bit ago.
> You can look at it here:
>
> http://www.beowulf.org/pipermail/beowulf/2001-February/thread.html
>
> These are *far* cheaper than SCSI arrays of similar size. From initial
> quotes I've gotten, I can get 560GB of RAID 5 storage (8*80GB drives)
> for ~$6K. 8 73GB SCSI drives alone will run you close to $10K, never
> mind the controllers, power supplies, case, etc.
Yep, but the IDE arrays don't go as fast as the SCSI ones and the
zero-d website says as much.
JAB.
--
Jonathan A. Buzzard Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Northumberland, United Kingdom. Tel: +44(0)1661-832195
------------------------------
From: Chris Harris <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Mother board compatibility
Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2001 05:21:23 -0300
I am looking at the options available for a new mother-board, perhaps an
asus A7x, but I want to ask what people here felt were the pitfalls to
avoid regarding, manufacturers, chipset, processors etc.. particularly
any problems with the onboard sound, and graphics drivers... I'm not a
fan of onboard stuff but the seem to be the way its going.
Anyway I would be pleased to hear of any really positive experiences, or
any boards that I should definitly avoid..
BTW I am currently runnung SuSE 7.0 so if the Linux flavour is an issue
I would like to hear about it too.
Thanks
Chris
------------------------------
Crossposted-To:
comp.os.linux.networking,comp.os.linux.setup,comp.os.linux.help,comp.lang.labview
From: Garry Herzberg <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Configuration of National Instrument PXI Box
Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2001 23:51:22 GMT
I have a National Instruments PXI chassis w/ an 8156B controller I am
trying to load SUSE Linux 7.1 on. We are experiencing difficulty in
configuring the network adapter for the controller. National said it is
a SMC 91C92 chip on the controller. SUSE supports in their driver
database a SMC 9143 drver but it seems to be not configuring properly.
Does anyone have a better driver to install or an alternate driver that
one should try?
Garry Herzberg
206-544-1567
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Associate Technical Fellow
Manufacturing R&D
Boeing Company
------------------------------
From: Mike McCann <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: linux.redhat.install,alt.os.linux.suse
Subject: Re: Promise ultra100 hdd controller driver
Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2001 00:42:48 GMT
You could check previous messages like the one below. Otherwise if you had and
had some additional information like - SuSE recognized it on the initial
install, however didn't recognize it on the reboot. And I tried the methods
reported at the w3 below. Then does any one have any suggestions.
Mike
[email protected]
Remove the period after the @ symbol to reply.
kernel >= 2.4.1 or:
http://www.geocities.com/ender7007/
Grtz,
Dick
Sabbia wrote:
> I am trying to install Linux on my computer...I have a 30 gig ATA/100 hd and
> can't get linux to pickup my drive....anyone know of a way around this or of
> a version that supports it?? I am trying to larn Linux so I don't know much
> about compiling.
>
> thx
>
> Sabbia
Mark Dack wrote:
> Does anyone out there know where I can get a driver for my promise ultra100
> hdd controller as I can't install at the mo. as linux can't find my hd.
>
> I have been searching for a long time with no success - has anyone got any
> pointers for me?
>
> Thank you - Mark
------------------------------
From: "C. Newport" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: uk.comp.os.linux
Subject: Re: Need LOTS of disks: Promise ATA RAID??
Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2001 00:42:32 +0000
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Jonathan Buzzard wrote:
>
> In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
> "C. Newport" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> > John Rowe wrote:
> >>
> >> A user needs at least 300GB of disk space and that's after formatting,
> >> file system overhead, etc. So I'm reckoning I need at least 6 IBM 60GB
> >> disks and I would prefer to have only one per channel, ie no hard
> >> disks running as slaves. So I could use a little help!
> >>
> >> * If I just use three ordinary ATA-100 cards will that cause me any
> >> problems? (Performance, boot, etc.)
> >>
> >> * Will I gain much by using Promise ATA RAID cards? Is there better
> >> performance, does it reduce the number of IRQs I'm using? Are
> >> there boot problems if I try to make a RAID device my boot device?
> >>
> >
> > Your only realistic option is SCSI, preferably using an external
> > RAID array.
> >
> > Take a look at http://www.transtec.co.uk/ for typical configs.
> >
>
> That is utter rubbish and shows a complete lack of understanding of
> the area of large disk arrays. There are many situations in which
> SCSI is a waste of time and just as many where SCSI is inadequate and
> you need to use Fibre Channel.
Be reasonable, in the given context it is marginally possible
to use IDE, leaving little or no room for expansion and horrid
performance.
The website that I cited offers a range of SCSI and Fibre Channel
arrays, including inexpensive IDE/SCSI hybrids.
In the context of the question, cost is a factor, so I did
not bother suggesting FC. Using PC hardware there is little benefit
in using FC rather than SCSI because the throughput is limited by
the architecture rather than the upper bound of SCSI performance.
FC would only be usefull in this context if the disk array needed
to be located too far from the CPU for SCSI cabling.
--
Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm
not sure about the universe. [Albert Einstein].
------------------------------
From: "Kit Chong" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: How do I load a module at start up?
Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2001 09:05:47 +0800
Hi all,
I'm a linux newbie using 2 D-Link DFE-538TX cards on my PC. I need to
load the pci-scan.o module before I can load the rtl8139.o drivers for the
card. How do I load the pci-scan.o at loading time before it loads the
rtl8139.o module so that I don't get the [FAILED] when initializing my eth0
and eth1?
Thanks in advance!
------------------------------
From: Vladimir Florinski <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: video capture card, bttv question
Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2001 18:06:18 -0700
joeyd wrote:
>
> In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "Vladimir Florinski"
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> > This doesn't make sense. Bttv doesn't have this program and it doesn't
> > come as an RPM (even if it does it would be nearly useless because you'd
> > have to patch the kernel and compile anyway). I recommend you use the
> > driver provided with the kernel.
>
> bttv was recommended by someone in this group.
> It is available at rpmfind.net in many versions.
> >
Ok, I fount it too. That "bttv" on rpmfind has nothing to do with the real
thing. It's just a single app and a bunch of docs, useless to you.
Unfortunately, there are many computer generated databases around filled with
bogus information. The real bttv is a set of drivers, and it comes in one way or
another, with Linux kernels.
> >
> > The program you were trying isn't really fit for the task (I don't think
> > anyone is using it these days). Start with xawtv, which works quite well
> > (although the interface leaves a lot to be desired). Zapping is an
> > alternative, although I believe it needs Linux 2.4 for best performance.
> >
> >
> Where do I find xawtv?
>
Do a web search for xawtv, how else?
--
Vladimir
------------------------------
From: Dan Smith <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: ALSA & Intel 8x0 sound card: Error...
Date: 26 Feb 2001 19:54:58 -0500
Well, the version of ALSA that I am using came with my distro (TLW61), so I would
assume they are matched. How can I check the version of the drivers?
Thanks!
--Dan
------------------------------
From: "Ajit Sodhi" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To:
comp.os.linux.development.system,alt.os.linux,comp.os.linux.embedded,linux.redhat.devel,linux.dev.kernel
Subject: IOCTL Usage
Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2001 02:17:46 GMT
How can I support an ioctl call for a read/write operation, which needs two
param for the command (IOCTL Command and offset value) and two for the
output (output buffer and size). Basically I want to offer same
functionality of the driver read/write function calls via ioctl calls also.
Thanks
Ajit
------------------------------
Reply-To: "Curtis Rempel" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
From: "Curtis Rempel" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: linux.dev.scsi
Subject: Adaptec 1530P insists on IRQ 12
Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2001 02:23:16 GMT
Hello,
I've searched everywhere but can't seem to find a solution to this problem
I'm having with my 1530P card using aha152x
I've set it in the SCSI BIOS to use IRQ 11 as my PS/2 bus mouse is on IRQ 12
and there doesn't seem to be any way on my Compaq 6150e to change it to
something else.
Still, when I load the module and explicitly specify IRQ 11, it complains of
"trying software interrupt, lost" and "IRQ 11 possibly wrong, please verify"
If I insmod it with IRQ 12, it is happy and my SCSI disk works just fine
except of course gpm complains of device/resource busy.
/proc/interrupts doesn't show anything on IRQ 11 although I understand that
it doesn't necessarily mean that something isn't using IRQ 11.
I have also tried setting the Compaq BIOS IRQ 11 as "used by ISA card" but
this had no effect (power cycle of course).
It would seem that the SCSI BIOS is the only method of altering the IRQ for
this card, although I have observed a jumper block on the card but don't
know if it is related. I know the DIP switches only affect the I/O address
and plug/play.
Anybody know what is going on here?
Thanks in advance.
(remove appropriate part of from address to reply)
------------------------------
From: "Hiriam Gonz�lez S." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: problem with a samsung syncmaster 400b
Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2001 22:40:31 -0400
I have a problem with the configuration of my monitor samsung syncmaster
400b when I try to change the resolution I am hung the computer like I can
get the drivers of this monitor or to solve this problem. ah!!!! and another
question where I can find the drivers of the voodoo 3 for linux and the
linux that I use it is mandrake 7.2
thank you
------------------------------
From: Pete Ritter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Cable modem and DHCP and MAC
Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2001 02:48:16 GMT
This happened to me when I installed my coyote GNU/linux firewall. Your
supposition is probably correct. All you need to do is power off (or
reset) your cable modem. That forces it to get the MAC address of the
NIC it's connected to. At least it worked for me.
Hatem wrote:
>
> What I am suspecting, is that the cable modem whcih is (TERAYON) has lost
> the MAC address that it recognized first (which is on the other computer)
> ,,,
> So is my guess correct?
> if no please help me!
> second thing, is there a way to re-register a new MAC on the cable modem?
> without the use of DHCP or DHCP is a must in this case??
>
> At the end, I really would like to thank all the people who helped me to
> have my beautiful linux up and running!!
--
============================================
You know where to put the "@" and the "."
cpritter
home
com
============================================
------------------------------
From: "John Weeks" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Disk Geometry with Promist ATA100 Controller
Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2001 03:22:21 GMT
I'm trying to install SuSE 7.0 on the second of two 45G IBM Deskstars
connected to a Promise ATA100 controller. This is sitting on an ABIT KT7
motherboard (not the raid version.) The installation kernel sees both disks
(the first one is Win2K - don't ask) fine but doesn't get the disk geometry
right. Fdisk for both yast1 and yast2 insist that it is an 11G drive. Any
suggestions would be appreciated.
jweeks
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Dances With Crows)
Subject: Re: USB Harddrives?
Date: 27 Feb 2001 03:42:12 GMT
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
On Mon, 26 Feb 2001 21:20:18 +0000 (UTC), John Hong staggered into the
Black Sun and said:
>Just wondering if anyone has used a USB hard drive under Linux.
>Does it work?
If the vendor has followed the USB Mass Storage Spec, then it should
be seen as a SCSI device, provided you have a 2.2.18 or 2.4.x kernel on
your machine.
A better question would be, "Who on Earth would be STUPID enough to
think that putting a hard drive on USB is a good idea?" USB in its
current form is far too slow for a hard drive, and anyone who decides to
buy a USB hard drive will find that out in short order. Firewire,
now....
--
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: TDK VeloCD in RH6.1
Date: 27 Feb 2001 03:42:14 GMT
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
On Mon, 26 Feb 2001 17:03:05 GMT, Jason Noble staggered into the Black
Sun and said:
>I have been trying to get my TDK VeloCD burner working under RedHat 6.1
>for some time now with no luck. It is an IDE drive and therefore needs
>the ide-scsi driver. I am using the kernel that shipped with RH6.1. Do
>I need to compile a new kernel?
Probably not, but 6.1 is showing its age. Upgrade to RH 6.2, or better
yet, SuSE 7.1 / Mandrake 7.2 / Debian woody. Stay away from RH 7.0.
>lilo.conf
> append = "hdb=ide-scsi"
Necessary, but remember the caveats about putting your CD-RW on the same
IDE channel as your main HD. Open the case and rearrange things so the
CD-RW is on the secondary if at all possible; less chance of a coaster
that way.
>conf.modules
>options ide-cd ignore=hdb
>pre-install sg modprobe ide-scsi
>pre-install sr_mod modprobe ide-scsi
>pre-install ide-scsi modprobe ide-cd
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Why? You're not using ide-cd for anything. Get rid of all references
to ide-cd within conf.modules, and get rid of ide-cd.o itself while
you're at it. Then, to test things out, manually load the things you
need with insmod:
insmod ide-scsi sr_mod sg
(NOTE: RedHat ships their kernels with SCSI support built in; most of
the time you'll need to insmod scsi too.)
cdrecord -scanbus
should then return something reasonable, and you should be able to
mount a data CD/play an audio CD via /dev/scd0. If you could still
access the TDK CD-RW via /dev/hdb, then the ide-cd module was grabbing
hold of the device and not letting go, as it is wont to do. 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....
------------------------------
** 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 by posting to comp.os.linux.hardware.
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
******************************
