Linux-Hardware Digest #662, Volume #14 Sat, 21 Apr 01 14:13:04 EDT
Contents:
Re: RAID 5 or 0 for performance? ("Ron Reaugh")
Red Hat 7.1, Promise FastTrak100, install issues. (iQXth)
Re: A Linux emulator for Linux, does this exist? (Grant Edwards)
Re: today's harddrives will surely fail before dialup users manage to fill them up?
(SammyTheSnake)
Re: A Linux emulator for Linux, does this exist? (SammyTheSnake)
Re: can Jaz 2MB cartridges be used in a 1MB drive ? (SammyTheSnake)
Re: Compaq laptops? (SammyTheSnake)
Re: RAID 5 or 0 for performance? (Dan Smith)
Re: RAID 5 or 0 for performance? ("Ron Reaugh")
Soundblaster Vibra 128 ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
Re: Rackmount PC HW recs? (Eric P. McCoy)
AHA-3940 aic7xxx kernel 2.2.13 problem ("Dr. Marcus Naraidoo")
Re: Switchboxes for keyboard, mice, video? (Anthony Hill)
Re: today's harddrives will surely fail before dialup users manage to fill them up?
(Nils Holland)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Ron Reaugh" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.misc,comp.periphs.scsi
Subject: Re: RAID 5 or 0 for performance?
Date: Sat, 21 Apr 2001 16:16:51 GMT
Dan Smith wrote in message ...
>I have 5 40MB/s SCSI drives (4GB each). I want maximum performance,
>and am not worried about redundancy. Should I use RAID 5 or 0?
RAID 0 with spindle sync emabled.
> I'd
>rather not lose the extra 4GB to RAID 5, but if it would be faster or
>better, then I'd do it.
>
>Using software raid under linux 2.2.
------------------------------
From: iQXth <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Red Hat 7.1, Promise FastTrak100, install issues.
Date: Sat, 21 Apr 2001 16:37:19 GMT
I was able to install Red Hat 7.0 with no problem using the driver
disk provided by Promise. Do I have to wait for them to put out
another driver disk for 7.1 or is there some sort of generic
compatibility mode that I can use to get this thing installed and
working--even if not at peak performance?
------------------------------
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: Sat, 21 Apr 2001 16:50:07 GMT
In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Jonadab the Unsightly One wrote:
>> What about hot-swappable programs?
>
>That leads me to a feature I've been thinking about that I'd
>like to have...
>
>At some kind of signal from the user, the kernel writes
>the entire contents of RAM, plus the CPU registers and
>any other relevant data, to a big file on disk, saves
>a pointer to this so that it'll see it at boot time,
>and then just powers down.
>
>Next boot time, it sees that flag file, loads the big
>file off the disk to RAM, restores everything, and
>picks up right where it left off, in the middle of
>whatever it was doing.
How's this different than the existing "suspend to disk" feature?
--
Grant Edwards grante Yow! Of course, you
at UNDERSTAND about the PLAIDS
visi.com in the SPIN CYCLE --
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (SammyTheSnake)
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: Sat, 21 Apr 2001 16:10:51 +0100
In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, J. Clarke wrote:
>In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, [EMAIL PROTECTED] says...
>> In article <8FjB6.388105$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Dave wrote:
>> >Dan Jacobson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
>> >news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
>> >> It seems that at least for a home dialup user, today's PC hard disks
>> >> would surely fail before he could manage to fill it all up via say,
>> >> browsing, even with caching proxies, etc. Therefore it seems deleting
>> >> unneeded files might become a routine of the past? Hmm, 30 GB /(20
>> >> MB/day)=4 years
>> >> --
>> >> http://www.geocities.com/jidanni Tel886-4-25854780 e-mail:restore .com.
>> >
>> >Nope, a heavily laden cache will eventually make the browser to slow to use.
>> >Still got to get rid of the dead weight.
>> >Dave
>>
>> (post at the bottom please)
>>
>> if that's the case then your cache software needs a rewrite, HTH.
>
>Oh? Care to provide us with the algorithm that performs searches of
>large directories as quickly as it does small ones?
my assertion isn't that the algorithm suffers _no_ slowdown with increase of
cache size, merely that if you have to _manually_ intervene to sort it, your
cache needs rewriting to do that stuff for you automatically. However, the
slowdown will usually be pretty minimal. See other posts by others for the
details :)
Cheers & God bless
SammyTheSnake
--
Sam.Penny @ Ntlworld.com | Looking for a computer related
Linux, Hardware & Juggling specialist :-) | job, if you can help, e-mail me :)
Wheels: bike, 'ickle bike, and unicycle. | /o \/
Boxen: K6-266@300, dual Celery500 & Nx486 | \__/\
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (SammyTheSnake)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.development.system,comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: Re: A Linux emulator for Linux, does this exist?
Date: Sat, 21 Apr 2001 16:15:37 +0100
In article <9bkcra$5u0$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Philip Armstrong wrote:
>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
^^^^
don't trust this man! he's lying! ;)
Cheers & God bless
SammyTheSnake
--
Sam.Penny @ Ntlworld.com | Looking for a computer related
Linux, Hardware & Juggling specialist :-) | job, if you can help, e-mail me :)
Wheels: bike, 'ickle bike, and unicycle. | /o \/
Boxen: K6-266@300, dual Celery500 & Nx486 | \__/\
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (SammyTheSnake)
Subject: Re: can Jaz 2MB cartridges be used in a 1MB drive ?
Date: Sat, 21 Apr 2001 16:54:17 +0100
In article <3adb9784$0$18890$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Dances With Crows
wrote:
>On Mon, 16 Apr 2001 22:14:06 GMT, Courtney Thomas staggered into the
>Black Sun and said:
>>The subject says it all.
>
>Jaz drives with a 1M capacity? Wow, that's some seriously old tech,
>worse than a standard floppy.
>
>Anyway, a 2G Jaz cartridge cannot be used in a 1G Jaz Drive, nor can a
>250M Zip disk be used in a 100M Zip drive. Either the mechanical parts
>of the drive don't have the resolution necessary to deal with the double
>track density, or the onboard controller doesn't know how to deal with
>the underlying low-level format, or some combination of the two.
this answer assumes that TOP wanted to get 2GB capacity from the tapes, I
don't know if it works but perhaps he wanted to just pretend they were 1GB
tapes. I'm guessing they're the same physical shape etc. in which case it
might work, but I've heard that people've had problems using HD disks in DD
drives owing to the stronger magnetic heads needed to reliably record onto
HD disks, but I don't know if this is just an old wives' tale...
Cheers & God bless
SammyTheSnake
--
Sam.Penny @ Ntlworld.com | Looking for a computer related
Linux, Hardware & Juggling specialist :-) | job, if you can help, e-mail me :)
Wheels: bike, 'ickle bike, and unicycle. | /o \/
Boxen: K6-266@300, dual Celery500 & Nx486 | \__/\
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (SammyTheSnake)
Subject: Re: Compaq laptops?
Date: Sat, 21 Apr 2001 16:57:39 +0100
In article <9bfm8r$c0k$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Adam Byron Smith wrote:
>Hello all,
>
>I was considering buy a second hand laptop. It's a compaq lte elite 4/75.
>I was looking around on compaq.com for some tech. specs but I can't find
>any. I was wondering if someone out there could tell me if it is alot of
>trouble to get Linux running on it. I've heard mixed things about laptops.
>
>Thanks
>Adam
I had a compaq lte lite 3/25 which ran linux without problems until the
battery died and the power supply cable died too. Oh and the screen died
too. Oh and it was a v. v. slow machine, 386sx25 with 4MB system ram and 8MB
on a (PCMCIA?) card and a 112MB HDD.
I've heard that compaq sometimes use nonstandard stuff which they don't
release specs for but on such an old machine as mine there wasn't really any
hardware to not be supported :/
HTH
Cheers & God bless
SammyTheSnake
--
Sam.Penny @ Ntlworld.com | Looking for a computer related
Linux, Hardware & Juggling specialist :-) | job, if you can help, e-mail me :)
Wheels: bike, 'ickle bike, and unicycle. | /o \/
Boxen: K6-266@300, dual Celery500 & Nx486 | \__/\
------------------------------
From: Dan Smith <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.misc,comp.periphs.scsi
Subject: Re: RAID 5 or 0 for performance?
Date: 21 Apr 2001 12:49:51 -0400
OK, how do I enable spindle sync?
------------------------------
From: "Ron Reaugh" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.misc,comp.periphs.scsi
Subject: Re: RAID 5 or 0 for performance?
Date: Sat, 21 Apr 2001 17:23:17 GMT
Dan Smith wrote in message ...
>OK, how do I enable spindle sync?
Get the spec sheet for the drive and find the spindle synce jumper for the
drive.
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Soundblaster Vibra 128
Date: Sat, 21 Apr 2001 19:22:10 +0200
Hi Linux User,
I try to get a Soundblaster Vibra 128 soundcard running under Linux.
It's a PCI card but it seems to be not using the typical chipset !?
Anyway, I have been looking in some HOWTos and some webpages but I
can't find anything about it. Is there any way to get this card
running ?
Maybe with a "Soundblaster compatible" module or so ???
Many thanks in advance.
Yours,
Oliver Hohlfeld
PS: I'm running Suse Linux 7.0 with Kernel 2.2.18 and 2.4.3
------------------------------
Crossposted-To: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.systems
Subject: Re: Rackmount PC HW recs?
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Eric P. McCoy)
Date: 21 Apr 2001 13:29:47 -0400
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> I was looking to put together a rackmounted PC (Preferably 1U), and was
> looking to get some recomendations on hardware to use.
First question: Do you want to use hardware you have lying around, or
are you willing to buy new stuff? If the latter, how much are you
looking to spend?
Bear in mind that a 1U chassis will run you $250+ by itself, depending
on whether you want hot-swap drive bays (yes, they make backplanes for
IDE drives).
> 1U Rackmount, standard PC hardware (I'm going to be running either one of
> the BSD's or Linux on it, and odn't want to have to worry about support),
> 686 class processor or higher, preferably a CPU that can run fanless (w/
> a generous but not monstrous heatsink),
Remember that once the mobo and chip are taken into consideration, you
probably have 1.5" or less to work with in a 1.75" high box. Modern
CPUs run hot enough that I wouldn't recommend a 1.5" heat sink alone.
I'd also suggest at least one case fan. I'm afraid it'll be fairly
loud, as rackmount cases typically have better ventilation, meaning
less insulation and more volume.
> What I'm looking for would either be pieces or a bare bones rackmount unit
> that would utilize a mobo/CPU combination to my description above. I have
> a socket360 Celeron 366 that works w/o a fan, so if the motherboard was
> a socket360 (or the socketed celerons, as I have a slocket) that would be
> great.
I don't believe there's room for a slotted CPU in a 1U case.
> Other parts I have laying about that would be useful to be able to
> utilize, but unecessary (as it wouldn't cost much to replace them) are
> a PCI video card (original Matrox Millenium) and an ISA 10bT network
> card (3com 509B). On board video and network are fine as long as they're
> well supported by a variety of OS's.
What are you going to use the computer for? If it's a firewall (which
I assume is the case), you run into space concerns. I've seen a 1U
case which has a 2-PCI riser card, but it's the exception rather than
the rule. Since you need a video adapter and two ethernet adapters,
that means 2/3 of them will _have_ to be onboard. There are dual-port
ethernet adapters you can buy, which makes your life easier, since
Celeron boards with built-in video are a dime a dozen.
I've seen those dual-port NICs from Digital and Adaptec. The Digital
ones use the tulip chipset, I believe, which should make them
well-supported. I think earlier Adaptecs were tulip-based as well,
but modern ones may use a different chipset. I have no idea if 3com
et al. make dual-port adapters, although I'd assume so.
Unless size is a big issue for you, I'd recommend just going with 2U
or 4U. The cases are cheaper, easier to find, and cause less of a
headache for you in terms of what hardware you can use.
--
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: "Dr. Marcus Naraidoo" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: mailing.freebsd.aic7xxx
Subject: AHA-3940 aic7xxx kernel 2.2.13 problem
Date: Sat, 21 Apr 2001 18:53:34 +0100
This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
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My system:
Adaptec AHA-3940AU (narrow) two channel adapter card.
Adaptec Bios 1.34.1
Seagate Barracuda 18XL ST318416N (narrow) SCSI hard drive.
SuSE Linux v6.3 kernel 2.2.13
Phoenics Bios 4.0 release 4.0E
HP PC with Pentium 2 400MHz, 128MBytes RAM and Bios 02.01
On channel B (SCSI1) I have one external device, Iomega Zip250 (ID5)
with termination
enabled.
I have just bought a Seagate Barracuda ST318416N 18GByte additional hard
drive which I have
attached to channel A (SCSI0). It has jumpers set to ID0. It is not on
the end of the SCSI bus
and so is not terminated. The end of the SCSI bus is terminated witha
Belkin active terminator.
(I've tried setting termination on the device, putting it at the end of
the bus and removing the
active terminator. No joy.)
I am booting from an another (non-SCSI) disk.
Before OS boot, the system correctly recognises the ST318416N and the
channel and ID.
When LILO begins the OS installation I get the following messages.
SCSI0 Aborting due to time out
SCSI PID2 SCSI0 Chan0 ID0 LUN0 Test ...then some numbers...
SCSI Host 0 abort (pid2) timed out - resetting
SCSI Bus reset for host 0 channel 0
SCSI Host 0 abort (pid2) trying harder
...and so on...
I have changed the internal ribbon cable. Ensured pin-1-orientation.
Made sure the cables
adhere to the appropriate standards and are the correct length.
I have tried SCSISelect sync=no, max rate=5 and this didn't help. (I've
now returned to the
defaults.)
The adapter is in the first PCI slot and this is scanned first.
This appears to be quite a common problem (see Linux news groups).
The termination is fine. The adapter is fine. The drive is fine. The
cable lengths are fine.
This all points to the aic7xxx driver and the options it employs. It
appears that I need to add one
of the following commands. They are all to do with the aic7xxx chipset
driver. Either:
1. at the LILO prompt
LILO boot: linux aic7xxx=seltime:0,no_reset,extended,verbose:0x39 (is
this syntax right?)
2. in the /etc/lilo.conf file
append "aic7xxx='seltime:0.no_reset.extended.verbose:0x39'" (although
the various quotes syntax may be wrong and I could do with help, should
these be commas or periods?)
3. in the /etc/modules.conf file
allias scsi_hostadapter off (...why?)
options aic7xxx aic7xxx=seltime:0,no_reset,extended,verbose:0x39 (commas
or periods?)
...or...
alias scsi_hostadapter off
post-install aic7xxx rmmod aic7xxx
post-remove aic7xxx modprobe aic7xxx
aic7xxx=seltime:0,no_reset,extended,verbose:0x39
NONE of these has any effect. Even the command to the boot prompt is
being ignored! During boot up I get the following messages.
...some text, then...
loading module aic7xxx
using /lib/modules/2.2.13/aic7xxx.o
...some text, including stuff about scsi0 and scsi1 which is fine,
then this again...
loading module aic7xxx
using /lib/modules/2.2.13/aic7xxx.o
insmod named module already exists
No-where are any of my options being echoed.
It looks like the module is being loaded twice and the first loading of
the module does not use any of the options I have provided. Where can
this be happening? How can I force the kernel to read my options and not
some which are buried elsewhere?
Furthermore, I'm a little confused. In /etc/rc.config theres the
following:
INITRD_MODULES="aic7xxx aic7xxx"
What the hell is this?
And finally, the chip on my AHA-3940AU is an aic7870 but when I look at
the c source file aic7xxx.c it suggests that the chip will be either an
aic7872 or an aic7895. Will this make a difference? Should I be using a
different aic7xxx.c file? Where will I get that from? How do I compile
it and use it? If I need to compile my own kernel I'm going to need an
idiots guide. Any pointers?
HELP!
Marcus
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------------------------------
From: Anthony Hill <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips
Subject: Re: Switchboxes for keyboard, mice, video?
Date: Sat, 21 Apr 2001 17:55:21 GMT
On Sat, 21 Apr 2001 00:07:42 GMT, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Jonadab the
Unsightly One) wrote:
>chrisv <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>> 256 color is fine for many things, yes, but you said "even 16
>> coulors", which is extremely lame. And 60Hz is NOT acceptable at all.
>
>256 colours is only marginally better than 16. Neither is
>of any use for working with images, but either is okay for
>working with text and word processing, IMO.
Hmm, I'd really prefer to go up to at least 16-bit colour for word
processing and such work, preferably 24/32 bit colour, but then again,
I'm picky about that sort of thing.
>24-bit is the break-even point for me; 32-bit colour
>doesn't look significantly better AFAICT.
32-bit colour uses 24-bits for colour and either discards the other 8
bits or uses them for extra info that doesn't really get displayed.
The real reason for 32-bit colour vs. 24-bit colour is that 32-bit
stuff is usually faster since most video cards are designed for either
16 or 32-bit graphics pipes. Generally speaking the video card uses
32-bits whether you select 24 or 32-bit colour.
=======================
Tony Hill
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
------------------------------
From: Nils Holland <[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: Sat, 21 Apr 2001 19:48:09 +0200
Troy Bowman wrote:
> You have not seen my hard drive. I just bought a 45GB drive and have
> already filled over 1/2 of it.
How did you do that? Now, I also have a 45 GB drive and I have almost
everything that comes with SuSE 7.1 installed. Then I have taken my
favorite CDs (about 20) and put them on my hard disk in MP3-format. In
addition, I have some more stuff, like the sources of the software I
downloaded, compiled and installedmyself. Still, however, I have about 30
GB available. I really don't think that I will get my HD filled up any time
within the next 5 years ;-)
Greetings,
Nils
------------------------------
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End of Linux-Hardware Digest
******************************
