Linux-Hardware Digest #646, Volume #14 Wed, 18 Apr 01 15:13:09 EDT
Contents:
Re: Switchboxes for keyboard, mice, video? (Eric P. McCoy)
Re: linux and cray j90 (Jagged)
Re: need a driver for noderunner pro (intel S82595FX network adapter) ("Mathias
Berger")
Re: Recommendation for Cheap Soundcard for RH 7.0 (Toby Haynes)
Re: A Linux emulator for Linux, does this exist? (Philip Armstrong)
Re: can't install DLink DFE-530TX (Toby Haynes)
Re: Switchboxes for keyboard, mice, video? (Joeri Sebrechts)
Re: 2.4.3 kernel / new aic7xxx driver problem (Markus Kossmann)
Re: Could Linux be used in this factory environment ? (Brent R)
Re: logitech and others... (Henry_Barta)
Re: A Linux emulator for Linux, does this exist? (Grant Edwards)
Re: need good linux *athlon* (tbird) motherboard.. (Martijn Brouwer)
Re: Could Linux be used in this factory environment ? (The Ghost In The Machine)
Re: Could Linux be used in this factory environment ? (The Ghost In The Machine)
Re: today's harddrives will surely fail before dialup users manage to fill them up?
(J. Clarke)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Crossposted-To: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips
Subject: Re: Switchboxes for keyboard, mice, video?
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Eric P. McCoy)
Date: 18 Apr 2001 12:25:31 -0400
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Jonadab the Unsightly One) writes:
> They sound like they're worth $60, but if I'm going to spend that
I doubt you have to. Get a used one.
> I might as well spend $200 and get one that's also programmable,
> because I hate having the keys like Ctrl and Alt and Shift (which
> get pressed at least twice as often as any letter) where I have
> to hit them with my pinky.
You're doing it wrong.
Try rolling your left hand out to hit the Ctrl key. You should be
hitting it with the joint just below your pinky finger. Alt is an
annoying reach, but I usually get it with my left ring finger.
If you're not doing it this way now, try it in Emacs without first
having your fingers on the keyboard. See what keys your index and
middle fingers are over.
--
Eric McCoy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
"Knowing that a lot of people across the world with Geocities sites
absolutely despise me is about the only thing that can add a positive
spin to this situation." - Something Awful, 1/11/2001
------------------------------
From: Jagged <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: linux and cray j90
Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2001 18:47:11 +0200
thanks for getting serious, Lew,
it's the overall requirem,nt that i talked about, but astll a comment to Martha: i
don't
think that engineers work hundreds of years (100 men multiplied by 1 yera are 100
working
years) to build efficient cooling technology, while one private man or even a group of
enthusiastic private men build a very own cooling circuit and feed it with melted
snow...
Not that I think bad about you, but how old are you again?
No offense please, but this is a serious and important point while thinking about
getting
such a system into operation (the operating system might be the least important part)
Regards,
Jagged
Lew Pitcher wrote:
> On Wed, 18 Apr 2001 14:30:58 GMT, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Martha H Adams)
> wrote:
>
> >I see some discussion about water cooling. Why might this be a problem?
> [snipped interesting thoughts on how to build a water-cooling system]
>
> I don't think that the mechanisms of water cooling are the issue here.
> Instead, the problem is one of what to do with the waste heat you
> extract from the system. Having worked on water-cooled mainframes for
> a while, I can tell you that the waste heat can really cause a
> problem. So much so that datacentre design takes great pains to make
> sure that cooling is properly managed (HVAC, raised flooring,
> electrical requirements, etc.).
>
> Anyway, if waste heat is a concern, then so will the electrical
> requirements be <g>. It takes a _lot_ of electricity to make a CPU
> generate enough heat to be a cooling concern.
>
> Lew Pitcher, Information Technology Consultant, Toronto Dominion Bank Financial Group
> ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
>
> (Opinions expressed are my own, not my employer's.)
------------------------------
From: "Mathias Berger" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.networking,linux.support
Subject: Re: need a driver for noderunner pro (intel S82595FX network adapter)
Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2001 19:21:21 +0200
Hi Matthias,
try the eepro10 driver, which is a standard driver.
My card is EtherExpress Pro/ISA and uses also the I82595 chipset.
Have fun
Mathias
"Matthias Metzner" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:<3add7c53$0$26870$62ce1842@SSP1NO55>...
> has anybody info regarding this? i don't know where to search (it's not on
> the suse.de)
>
> regards, matthias
>
>
"Matthias Metzner" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:3add7c53$0$26870$62ce1842@SSP1NO55...
> has anybody info regarding this? i don't know where to search (it's not on
> the suse.de)
>
> regards, matthias
>
>
------------------------------
From: Toby Haynes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Recommendation for Cheap Soundcard for RH 7.0
Date: 18 Apr 2001 13:43:02 -0400
On Tue, 17 Apr 2001, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> "Richard A. Bilonick" wrote:
>> Because I'm having problems with the on-board Via sound system, is
>> there a CHEAP sound board that would work well with Red Hat 7.0 and
>> is easy to install?
>
> I tried two $15 soundcards but could get neither of them to work with
> RH 7: ESS Solo1, Crystal CS1481 (board by Pine IIRC).
I'm surprised that you had trouble with the first of these two
cards. The ESS Solo1 is supported by kernel drivers and should be fairly
straightforward to get running. It's also supported by the es1938 driver
in Alsa for the Solo1 and by the es1946 driver for the Solo1e.
The CS1481 doesn't ring any bells.
Cheers,
Toby Haynes
--
Toby Haynes
The views and opinions expressed in this message are my own, and do
not necessarily reflect those of IBM Canada.
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Philip Armstrong)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.development.system,comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: Re: A Linux emulator for Linux, does this exist?
Date: 18 Apr 2001 16:45:46 +0100
In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
Jonadab the Unsightly One <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>How much does a 390 cost?
How long is a piece of string ?
:)
I'm told IBM mainframe pricing is of the "turn them upside and shake
them until all the spare money falls out" variety, but having never
been in a position to actually want or need one of the beasts, I can't
speak from personal experience!
Phil
--
http://www.kantaka.co.uk/ .oOo. public key: http://www.kantaka.co.uk/gpg.txt
------------------------------
From: Toby Haynes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: can't install DLink DFE-530TX
Date: 18 Apr 2001 13:53:57 -0400
On Wed, 18 Apr 2001, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Suse Linux 7.0 (linux is totally new to mee) doesn't seem to find my
> networkcard. I have a Dlink DFE-530TX.
> I just use Yast2, but he always tells me he can't find any networkcard and
> it's doesn't seem to be possible to install it manually (probably I just
> don't now how).
> Can someone help me?
I have a DLink DFE 530TX. Configuration involved an alias or two in
/etc/modules.conf and an modprobe and that was it. You almost certainly already
have the via-rhine driver for this card as part of your distro.
The following page covers the driver:
http://www.scyld.com/network/ethercard.html
and this details the instructions:
http://www.scyld.com/expert/modules.html
Skip straight to 'Testing the new module' and type (as root)
modprobe via-rhine.o
Configure the interface (probably eth0) by giving it a route to the default
gateway on your network (substitute your gateway ip address for 1.2.3.4).
route add default gw 1.2.3.4 eth0
'netconf' will also help you configure if you don't like editing ethernet
configs by hand :-)
However, if you are using PPPoE or similar, you should get the PPPoE client
from www.roaringpenguin.com and install that instead.
Assuming you now have a working ethernet card, add the following line to your
/etc/modules.conf (as root) (no leading spaces)
alias eth0 via-rhine
then update the kernel dependencies by typing (as root)
depmod -a
otherwise you'll get a lot of warning messages about /etc/modules.conf being
too new.
To be honest, I'm surprised that your system hasn't picked up your card - it's
not an ISA card is it???! Mine is PCI. Kudzu activated as soon as I added the
card to my system and installed the driver without intervention.
Cheers,
Toby Haynes
--
Toby Haynes
The views and opinions expressed in this message are my own, and do
not necessarily reflect those of IBM Canada.
------------------------------
From: Joeri Sebrechts <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Switchboxes for keyboard, mice, video?
Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2001 18:06:24 GMT
Jonadab the Unsightly One wrote:
> They sound like they're worth $60, but if I'm going to spend that
> I might as well spend $200 and get one that's also programmable,
> because I hate having the keys like Ctrl and Alt and Shift (which
> get pressed at least twice as often as any letter) where I have
> to hit them with my pinky. I'm going for an Avant keyboard and
> creating my own custom layout. The only thing I'm going to miss
> badly is having a two-piece keyboard (like my current one), but
> it's well worth losing that to get full programmability.
If you're going to be spending that much money on a new keyboard, check
out this site:
http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/
Their contour elite keyboard (almost) gives me wet dreams :-)
I wish I could afford it.
------------------------------
From: Markus Kossmann <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: 2.4.3 kernel / new aic7xxx driver problem
Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2001 18:52:12 +0200
"Bruce S. Garlock" wrote:
>
> My 2.4.3 kernel comes with version 6.1.5 of the new Adaptec driver. I
> have tried to update this to the most recent version, 6.1.11 as seen on
> http://people.freebsd.org/~gibbs/linux/ however, this site does not have
> the patches for 6.1.6, 6.1.7, or 6.1.8 for the 2.4.3 kernel. Does
> anyone know how to get in touch with the site maintainer (his email is
> not listed on the site), or how I can get these patches to bring my
> driver to 6.1.11?
>
Just get linux-aic7xxx-6.1.11-2.4.3.patch. It should apply clean against
2.4.3 with 6.1.5 build in.
--
Markus Kossmann
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
------------------------------
From: Brent R <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.advocacy,comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: Re: Could Linux be used in this factory environment ?
Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2001 18:14:49 GMT
Erik Funkenbusch wrote:
>
> "Brent R" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> > Erik Funkenbusch wrote:
> > >
> > > "Jean-David Beyer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> > > > I thought that a few years ago, the U.S.Navy tried a computer
> > > > controlled battleship, and the computers ran Windows NT (probably 3.51
> > > > in those days), and it crashed so bad the ship had to be towed into
> > > > port. (I may not have the facts exactly correct, but it was pretty
> > > > much like this.) Maybe the computers were not exactly your
> > > > bargain-basement PCs, but the software must have been. If the U.S.Navy
> > > > is dumb enough to use Microsoftware in a battle-critical system, why
> > > > would not some private industry be just as dumb?
> > >
> > > Why let the facts get in the way of a good dis, right? Your lack of
> > > knowledge on the issue doesn't seem to prevent you from jumping to
> > > conclusions.
> > >
> > > The facts in the matter are a) that it wasn't a battleship, and b) that
> they
> > > were running a beta version of the control software which did not
> validate
> > > entry fields. As such, when an operator entered a 0 into a field, it
> was
> > > stored in the database, causing all subsystems that depended on that
> > > information to fail with a divide by zero exception.
> > >
> > > The application could not be restarted because every time they restarted
> it,
> > > it would re-read the data values and crash again, thus the ship was dead
> in
> > > the water. Further, the ship wasn't towed in, the ship had alternate
> > > propulsion mechanisms onboard because it was an experimental project
> running
> > > beta software.
> > >
> > > The Navy and the canadian company that wrote the software stated that
> the
> > > problem was not related to NT in any way. In fact, the canadian
> contractor
> > > laid the blame on the Navy for not installing their validated version
> before
> > > the incident, which would have prevented the problem from ever occuring.
> > >
> > > The navy, however, believed that they should shake out the vessel and
> see
> > > where the potential failures might be so that in real emergency
> situations,
> > > they would know how to respond.
> >
> > Still, I think their point was that a single application brought the
> > entire show down... a situation that's critical when it really matters
> > (which admittedly it usually doesn't).
>
> It brought the whole show down because the application was central to the
> entire system. When the application won't run, neither does the system.
> That has nothing to do with the OS.
>
> > I've been an MS defender in here... still I would never use NT to do
> > something like that... that's just not what it's made for. UNIX is more
> > apptly suited in that role.
>
> Unix is neither more or less aptly suited. Please explain how the same
> design would somehow make the application work in Unix.
Well your partially right... a badly designed system running on UNIX
would work just as bad... but a well-administered UNIX system is less
probable to be brought down by a process then NT. NT is good for lot's
of things... but nothing industrial-strength.
--
- Brent
http://rotten168.home.att.net
------------------------------
From: Henry_Barta <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: logitech and others...
Date: 18 Apr 2001 18:15:28 GMT
Thumper <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> They DO have an SDK out for Windows development, though my programming
> skills are rudimentary at best. Maybe someone that knows what they are doing
> can port it over from the Win stuff.
Has anyone looked at 'imwheel'? I'm trying to get it to work
with my 'jogdial' on a Sony VAIO, but it is originaly intended
for use with multi-button mice.
Regarding the SDK, if it uses proprietary driver libraries or
an NDA, than it is of little use to the Linux community. (Even
if a vendor ships Linux binaries for their product, there are
people that choose not to use it.)
Otherwise I vote with my feet. For example, Dave Hinds publishes
a list of vendors that help with the PCMCIA effort by providing
technical information, product samples and so forth. Guess who
gets my business when I need to buy PCMCIA hardware. We've come
a long way from the time when most vendors did not have the
slightest idea what Linux was. There are now a lot of choices
out there.
--
Hank Barta White Oak Software Inc.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] Predictable Systems by Design.(tm)
Beautiful Sunny Winfield, Illinois
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Grant Edwards)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.development.system,comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: Re: A Linux emulator for Linux, does this exist?
Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2001 18:38:45 GMT
In article <9bkcra$5u0$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Philip Armstrong wrote:
>>How much does a 390 cost?
>
>How long is a piece of string ?
>
>:)
You've also got to remember we're talking about an equivalent
number of PC's running with 99.99% (or some such number)
uptime. By the time you add hot-swappable disk arrays,
redundant, hot-swappable power-supplies, hot-swappable ECC
memory, etc. a Wintel PC isn't all that cheap. Neither is the
24/7 support contract for when the automatic fail-over doesn't
work or the triple-point failure that "can't" happen does
happen. According to folklore, you can pretty much replace an
entire 390 one piece at a time without ever rebooting -- I
imagine that's a bit exagerated.
But, since the OP was talking about something to use in place
of two run-of-the-mill desktop machines, I'm pretty sure that a
390 isn't a financially viable solutions.
--
Grant Edwards grante Yow! QUIET!! I'm being
at CREATIVE!! Is it GREAT
visi.com yet? It's s'posed to SMOKEY
THE BEAR...
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Martijn Brouwer)
Subject: Re: need good linux *athlon* (tbird) motherboard..
Date: 18 Apr 2001 18:39:27 GMT
I just choose for a AOpen AK73 with VIA KT133A chipset. From Toms Hardware
page (www.tomshardware.com) it ones the second fastest (after the ASUS),
but it is much lower priced. Besides the ASUS does not have an ISA slot.
Good Luck,
Martijn
________________________________________________________
Martijn Brouwer eambrouwerNO@$PAM.freeler.nl
Remove NO and $PAM
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (The Ghost In The Machine)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.advocacy,comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: Re: Could Linux be used in this factory environment ?
Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2001 18:49:10 GMT
In comp.os.linux.advocacy, Charles Lyttle
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote
on Wed, 18 Apr 2001 01:28:40 GMT
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
>I see the same thing. But NT is not often used where it could, due
>either a crash or lack of timeliness, do any damage to the work process.
>I have seem it tried several times. One crash shut down a process line
>permitting liquid nylon to harden in pipes and valves. 15 minutes off
>line cost several hundreds of thousands of dollars. Another caused
>disruption of a refinery operation. It took several days to get the
>plant cleaned up and back on line.
Dumb question, but .... whatever happened to the concept of redundancy?
I'll admit it adds to expense (specifically, equipment and software
licensing costs), but as far as I can tell, many web server farms using
NT have just that: web server farms, with multiple machines; this makes
the reliability quite adequate -- maybe even 99.999 % (5 minutes/year)... :-)
Granted, this is a far cry from industrial control processes.
(How long does it take for nylon to harden in a tube line, just out
of curiosity? Are we talking hours, minutes, or seconds?)
(ObLinuxPlug: Linux would work very well here :-) )
>
>I build SCADA system also. Several US cities are running systems I
>designed. But if the operator displays fail, the A-B PLCs and
>specialized computers will still run everything OK. The operator, just
>has to run around to check local controls like he did before the
>computers were installed.
Can't comment unless SCADA systems are things like those used in
metropolitan traffic projects with gigantic status screens showing
where every traffic light, streetcar, or train is.
[rest snipped]
--
[EMAIL PROTECTED] -- insert random misquote here
EAC code #191 1d:22h:34m actually running Linux.
We are all naked underneath our clothes.
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (The Ghost In The Machine)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.advocacy,comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: Re: Could Linux be used in this factory environment ?
Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2001 18:55:26 GMT
In comp.os.linux.advocacy, Charles Lyttle
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote
on Wed, 18 Apr 2001 01:33:15 GMT
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
>Greg Cox wrote:
>>
>> In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, [EMAIL PROTECTED] says...
>>
>> <snip>
>>
>> >
>> > I thought that a few years ago, the U.S.Navy tried a computer
>> > controlled battleship, and the computers ran Windows NT (probably 3.51
>> > in those days), and it crashed so bad the ship had to be towed into
>> > port. (I may not have the facts exactly correct, but it was pretty
>> > much like this.) Maybe the computers were not exactly your
>> > bargain-basement PCs, but the software must have been. If the U.S.Navy
>> > is dumb enough to use Microsoftware in a battle-critical system, why
>> > would not some private industry be just as dumb?
>> >
>> >
>>
>> The version of the story I heard was that the first ship of a new class
>> of Navy ship was out testing a new ship's control system programmed
>> using a custom database running on NT4 and the DB software crashed, not
>> NT. I believe the story goes that the captain said in his report that
>> the DB software crashed a couple of times and was successfully restarted
>> but the ship was towed in on the third crash with the system left in its
>> crashed state for later analysis by the developers...
>>
>> --
>> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Essentially the version that was posted here. The DB crash, iirc, was
>due to the cook entering too many items in a dinner menu. This crashed
>the DB, the DB took down NT. It got restarted without anyone knowing why
>it crashed, the cook did it again. When it crashed, it took out
>propulsion. On the third try, the Captain decided to call for a tow
>until the problem could be solved.
>
>One joke was that it should be intuitive that entering 4 entrees in the
>dinner menu will shutdown the ships propulsion. The Navy fixed the
>problem by making a new regulation prohibiting more than 3 entrees at a
>meal.
Oh man...what a way to solve a problem!
I hadn't been aware that it was the cook putting in too many entrees
that was causing the database to crash. Reminds me of the old song
(poem?) about the lack of a horse's shoenail causing loss of a battle...
OTOH, a database crashes when it will -- one hopes very infrequently,
but how does one specify that a DB will crash when, say, a scratch page
fills up and gets flushed out to a disk that's already full?
One also hopes that next time the Navy designs a slightly more robust
system that won't go down every time the DB server decides to powder
its nose.
(One would also think that the propulsion DB system and the cook's
DB system were on different systems. Like the cooks' DB system is
ultra-critical to ship's operation -- he could write things down on
index cards or paper notebooks if he had to. Note quite as convenient
of course, but certainly not life-threatening.)
[.sigsnip]
--
[EMAIL PROTECTED] -- insert random misquote here
EAC code #191 1d:23h:40m actually running Linux.
The EAC doesn't exist, but they're still watching you.
------------------------------
From: J. Clarke <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.arch.storage,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage
Subject: Re: today's harddrives will surely fail before dialup users manage to fill
them up?
Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2001 15:15:57 -0400
In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
says...
> J. Clarke <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> > > > What difference does the number of bytes make? It's the number of
> > > > directory entries that matters.
> > >
> > > The number of directory entries is a linear function of the number of bytes,
> > > (since web pages are not indefinitely small or indefinitely large), so it's
> > > logN either way.
> >
> > Fraid that linearity is a poor assumption. You can have 1 megabyte of
> > data stored, and depending on how it's broken up it can take one
> > directory entry or a million.
>
> It doesn't matter which. Okay, if you were running a benchmark
> suite it would matter, but in real life a user would be unable
> to tell the difference in the time it takes to find a page.
>
> Although if you have a one-megabyte web page most browsers
> will take forever (possibly literally) to start displaying
> it, but that's true regardless of whether it's coming out
> of a cache or the user doubleclicks on the page or whatever.
>
> > > > And this takes how long?
>
> Not enough time to bother measuring.
>
> > > > How much RAM do you need to do this?
> > >
> > > Enough to hold the key and one directory name.
> >
> > Care to provide some _numbers_?
>
> What, you don't know how much RAM it would take to hold a
> 128-bit key and a long URL? What kind of cave are you
> coming out of? One where they don't have computers,
> obviously.
>
> A few kilobytes would be _plenty_ for the code and
> data and everything related to the cache. A megabyte
> would be way more than overkill.
I'm sorry, but I don't quite see how a "128 bit key and a long URL"
tells me how much space I'm going to need to index a million cache
entries.
--
--
--John
Reply to jclarke at ae tee tee global dot net
(used to be jclarke at eye bee em dot net)
------------------------------
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