Linux-Hardware Digest #687, Volume #14 Wed, 25 Apr 01 20:13:03 EDT
Contents:
Re: Switchboxes for keyboard, mice, video? (Joeri Sebrechts)
Re: help with sound!!! (Peter Christy)
Re: Adding Hardrives (Joeri Sebrechts)
Re: Best RAID controller for Linux (Joshua Baker-LePain)
Re: Flat panel (TFT/LCD) with Linux anyone? (Greg Hughes)
Re: Pentium I 133 +32 MB enough ? (Johan Kullstam)
Re: Terratec DMX XFire (Olaf Groeger)
Alcatel SpeedTouch USB ADSL Modem probs ("Sam")
7.1 Install Fresh ("MikeyDee")
Re: Pentium I 133 +32 MB enough ? (Philipp Lehman)
Re: help with sound!!! (Gregory Davis)
Follow-up: Creative Ensoniq AudioPCI (Ben Feinstein)
HP 8250i cd-rw and cdrecord (Jason Bowen)
Re: Best RAID controller for Linux ("Steve Wolfe")
Re: ATA100 drive with ATA33 controller ("Dr. Stephen S. Kerr")
Re: Switchboxes for keyboard, mice, video? (Keith R. Williams)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Joeri Sebrechts <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Switchboxes for keyboard, mice, video?
Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2001 18:12:33 GMT
Jonadab the Unsightly One wrote:
>
> Joeri Sebrechts <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> > 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.
>
> [Looks]
>
> Do I misunderstand, or do those have the squishy keys?
No idea about that. I was talking about the keyboard with the two bowls
of keys.
> Also, they say they're programmable, but they don't say
> how, so I'd be afraid they'd use some idioic mechanism;
The programming system is completely hardware based, no software
involved. Reboot to another OS, and your keys stay mapped. A simple
proof of this is that you can buy keyboards without the programmable
functionality and then later send them back to have them refitted with a
card that allows programmability.
-
Joeri Sebrechts
------------------------------
From: Peter Christy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: help with sound!!!
Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2001 19:22:08 +0100
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
I had an almost identical set-up, and managed to get it working. If you
look in the kernel sources documentation, there is a specific txt file in
there about the CMI 8330. Basically, everything you need to know is in
there. If you're still stuck, get back to me, and I'll see if I can find
the old configuration files I used to get mine working.
It does work very well, when you get it sorted!
--
Pete
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
------------------------------
From: Joeri Sebrechts <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Adding Hardrives
Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2001 18:27:10 GMT
Ian Kingsford-Smith wrote:
>
> I have RH linux running on one of my machines, I have added another
> harddrive. Can I just move the partitions across or do I need to do a
> total reinstall.
> Any help in this matter will be appreciated.
> Cheer
> Ian
You fdisk the new disk into appropriate partitions, and then mount these
partitions below your /mnt directory, or any lace you see fit.
Next you copy over everything on the original partitions into the
mounted partitions with cp -a
Don't try cp -a / /mnt, because that will only give you problems. Things
like /proc shouldn't be copied, for instance. Try to take it a directory
at a time.
Afterwards you'll have to have fun with setting the correct partition to
active, and writing the boot sector with lilo on the new drive, but I
haven't done that.
I can personally vouch for this approach as a means of copying data
correctly, as I copied over the entire system from a ext2 system to a
raid ext2 system (afterwards nixing the original partitions and making
them part of the raid set).
-
Joeri Sebrechts
------------------------------
From: Joshua Baker-LePain <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: linux.dev.raid
Subject: Re: Best RAID controller for Linux
Date: 25 Apr 2001 19:09:44 GMT
Hubba Bubba <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> This Brownie Raid is a piece of shit (perhaps it was why the
> name Brownie was used, as in baking them).
> It is ATA-66 (not ATA-100 which it should have been). Serial
> ATA is where external raid is headed on the low end, not conventional
> IDE.
"Is headed", as in, "Is not there yet". Yep, serial ATA looks quite good.
But some of us need storage now.
> After reviewing said loaf of turd for 30 days, I can tell you
> that it is horrible. Performance sucks, the box is extremely
27-30MB/s on an 80MB/s bus? In RAID5? Sucks? Hmm. OK. And ours
has been rock solid.
> tempermental. No TCP support, no GUI support, and no remote
> communications whatsoever, unless you call a serial cable to a dumb
> terminal remote. Where is the GUI support? Where is the intelligent
> management?
I believe a GUI management app is available for 'Doze platforms, but who
cares? The front-side LCD/serial connection does all I need.
The point you seem to be missing is that this is not an enterprise (or even
high end) solution. Had I wanted SCSI, 24/7/365 uptime, redundant
host and internal channels, remote/GUI management, etc, I could have gone
with, e.g. a RocketRAID from Zzyzx. I quoted those out as well. Those
are absolutely sweet systems (U2W, the RocketSTOR is U160) from a company
I trust. They're also pricey -- $15K for a system with 438GB usable.
They are overkill for my needs.
I believe that this thread started with somebody looking for inexpensive
solutions to storing lots of data. This is one suggestion. Yes, SCSI
is better if you're going to have scores of people pounding on the system
at all times. But it's expensive. These solutions are far cheaper and,
in this case, very easy to integrate into an existing network.
> Oh, wait, I see you are a Dukie. I rest my case. Oh, and sorry
> little internet nazi, I can top quote all I want to.
Ah, and now we resort to name calling and the timeless "I don't care about
standards" motif. I'm done with this thread.
--
Joshua Baker-LePain
Department of Biomedical Engineering
Duke University
------------------------------
From: Greg Hughes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Flat panel (TFT/LCD) with Linux anyone?
Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2001 19:38:18 GMT
Actually, the DVI output will support up to 1600x1024 (including
1280x1024) when used with the G400, and I've had it working at 640x480,
800x600, 1024,768, 1280x1024 and 1600x1024 (and the BIOS text mode). A
lot of DVI outputs on other cards won't go that high; usually the rule of
thumb is to find a card w/ an off-chip DVI converter.
Pity that it has all those other problems though. =/
- Greg
On Wed, 25 Apr 2001, SilentNight wrote:
> I use a Sharp 15-inch LCD, but in setting up X, I put it as Generic SVGA,
> 1024x768 reso.
>
> The video card is an old Matrox PCI MilleniumG400 or G200, 16mb, but setting
> up as Riva TNT.
>
> It works well, with good and sharp image.
>
> But as you know, DVI is not good, resolution is lower.
>
> For me, it is OK with my work.
>
> SN
>
> -------
>
> "Greg Hughes" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> > Hello
> >
> > I've got an SGI 1600sw flatpanel hooked up to a G400 using the MultiLink
> > adapter.
> >
> > I have it working under a GNU/Linux install with kernel 2.4.3 and XFree86
> > 4.0.3 w/ Matrox HAL/Driver 1.2.0 (from their web site). The set up is
> > running in analog mode.
> >
> > This set up works pretty well. The display quality is impeccable -- just
> > as good as w/ the DVI adapter once you tweak the phase adjustments for the
> > analog signal. My only beef w/ this set up is that XFree86 4.0.3's DRI
> > modules for the G400 crash a lot, locking up the whole machine when I'm
> > playing Quake 3 (after about 20-60 minutes). And that has nothing to do
> > with the flatpanel (except that I need XFree86 4.x -- see below).
> >
> > The one thing about the set up is that you have to use XFree86 4.x to get
> > the 1600x1024 resolution to work properly (3.3.x doesn't do the right
> > things with the modeline). I also need the 1.2.0 HAL for the Linux
> > drivers to get a proper signal output (otherwise there is a black bar at
> > the left of the screen).
> >
> > However, the MultiLink box correctly detects and supports the VESA
> > standard resolutions including 1280x1024 and below, as I suspect most
> > flatpanels would do, so tweaking the modelines and whatnot to get weird
> > timings will probably not apply if you get a flatpanel supporting these
> > standard modes.
> >
> > I would recommend against getting the DVI add-on for the G400. I have it,
> > and it sucks. The analog output of the G400 by itself is so good that the
> > DVI adapter only provides marginal quality gains. However, the DVI
> > adapter also brings a whole new set of problems.
> >
> > The G400 routinely loses sync with the MultiLink adapter through the DVI
> > output, causing the flatpanel to turn off and then on again after a couple
> > of seconds. This happens every 5 minutes or so at the lower resolutions,
> > so it's frequent enough to be extremely annoying, to the point that the
> > DVI adapter is unusable at 640x480 or at the console. The blanking occurs
> > in all resolutions, all colour depths and happens in all operating systems
> > and at the BIOS POST screen. There are also quirky problems getting X to
> > work properly with the DVI adapter (I had to 'roll my own' version of the
> > Matrox-supplied X drivers to get it to work properly), and when you exit X
> > it doesn't properly reset the console video mode (no signal sent to the
> > flatpanel) so I have to reboot the machine.
> >
> > In short, the card works very well in analog mode with a flatpanel, but do
> > not purchase the DVI add-on for the G400 until Matrox gets their act
> > together and fixes all the problems with it (which I doubt they will).
> >
> > - Greg
> >
> > On Tue, 24 Apr 2001, it was written:
> >
> > >
> > > Hi, Does anyone have any success with using a flat panel monitor with
> > > Linux? If so, I would appreciate if you could post the details.
> > >
> > > Iam currently running Linux Mandrake 7.2, but would be moving to 8.0
> > > soon. I have a Matrox Millennium G400 (Dual head) AGP card. Iam
> > > thinking of buying a flat panel monitor, but want to make sure I can
> > > use it under Linux.
> > >
> > > Thanks, nram
> > >
> > > ==================================
> > > Poster's IP address: 38.161.118.161
> > > Posted via http://nodevice.com
> > > Linux Programmer's Site
> > >
> >
>
>
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Pentium I 133 +32 MB enough ?
From: Johan Kullstam <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: 25 Apr 2001 15:53:54 -0400
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Philipp Lehman) writes:
> Jaap L.A. <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> >I'm planning to install Linux Suse 6.0 on a P133 with 32 mb. I'd like to use
> >the KDE desktop. Will it work or will I get just as frustrated with it as I
> >am with win9x etc.
>
> If you want a full blown install of the current KDE release:
> yes. A basic Linux install and console apps will run fine, but
> for the X window system 32 MB RAM is extremely tight.
32MB is enough to run X, a reasonable sized window manager like
fvwm-1.24r, and emacs. netscape is a hog, but it will run ok too.
> Consider getting more RAM (having 64 MB will make a real
> difference)
you are right, 64 MB is *plenty* of RAM (for most things). however, a
586 class system will be using EDO RAM. this old RAM is expensive
when you buy it from a regular source (or nearly free through scavange).
> and instead of using the latest and greatest KDE or
> GNOME release, pick only essential components and pick them
> with performance in mind. There are window managers with memory
> footprints ranging from less than 50K to several MB, to give
> just on example.
these are good points.
> What kind of apps do you need besides the basic desktop
> environment?
a good question.
--
J o h a n K u l l s t a m
[[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
sysengr
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Olaf Groeger)
Subject: Re: Terratec DMX XFire
Date: 25 Apr 2001 20:37:33 GMT
No problem using ALSA (www.alsa-project.org)
Olaf
--
EMail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
NT-MiniFAQ: http://www.olaf-groeger.de/MiniFAQ.html
------------------------------
From: "Sam" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Alcatel SpeedTouch USB ADSL Modem probs
Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2001 15:10:18 +0100
Hi,
I recently got ADSL installed and BT supplied the alcatel speedtouch USB
modem - after applying all the patches and config changes as described by
alcatel's website and failing miserably I found the following HOWTO:
http://www.linuxdude.co.uk/docs/Alcatel-Speedtouch-USB-mini-HOWTO.html
With this it was a sinch to setup, and I had it working in no time. Just one
problem tho - has anyone else found that the link will die at random? It can
be anywhere between a few minutes to several days defore it dies but the
only way to bring it up again is to kill pppd, kill mgmt, umount none unplug
the modem then rmmod speedtch and then follow the final installation
procedure again (modprobe speetch, mount none /proc/bus/usb, /usr/sbin/mgmt,
plug in modem....blah blah....). Obviously this is a bit annoying
particularly as there appears to be no warning or error messages displayed
in the logs when it fails and the modem led's seem fine.
I can always reliably kill the link tho by running unreal tournament from a
windows pc (I have ip tables and ip routing and iptables_nat running on the
linux box) with the utwf mod, connect to a server that is using a map that I
do not have, the map download starts and within a couple of seconds the adsl
link will die and I loose all connectivity to the internet. Yet I can
normally play Ut fine - its the map download specifically that kills the
link - very strange.
If anyone has any ideas on why this happens, has found a way of automating
the link-restart procedure or has a more up-to-date set of drivers than
those in the HOWTO or alcatel site then I would love to hear from you!
Cheers,
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
------------------------------
From: "MikeyDee" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: linux.redhat.install
Subject: 7.1 Install Fresh
Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2001 14:05:22 -0700
I have and LB440GX+ ISP server from intel with and Adaptec 7896 on board.
Fresh install of 7.1 creates timeouts.
I have read some where to recompile kernel and lower the timeouts to 5000ms
from 15000ms, problem is im not very good at that or if it is possible on a
fresh install?
any help would be appreicate if there is a work around by creating a boot
disk of some sort or anything else i could try.
Thanks.
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Philipp Lehman)
Subject: Re: Pentium I 133 +32 MB enough ?
Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2001 23:30:32 +0200
Johan Kullstam <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Philipp Lehman) writes:
>
>> Consider getting more RAM (having 64 MB will make a real
>> difference)
>
>you are right, 64 MB is *plenty* of RAM (for most things). however, a
>586 class system will be using EDO RAM. this old RAM is expensive
>when you buy it from a regular source (or nearly free through scavange).
Point taken, I guess I had SDRAM prices somewhere in the back
of my head. But in this case, the original poster should really
tell us what he intends to do with the box, since the actual X
apps will probably be the real issue here.
--
Philipp Lehman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
------------------------------
From: Gregory Davis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: help with sound!!!
Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2001 17:56:21 -0400
Mike Buckley wrote:
> Does anyone know why I can't get my sound to work with my AMD K6-2 400Mhz
> motherboard?
>
> The sound audio adapter is bult into the motherboard (CM 18330 Audio
> Adapter) In the documentaton Red Hat says that this is actually used on
> many motherboards.
>
> Linuz Red hat recognizes it but I can't seem to find the right mix of IRQ,
> memory addresses, DMA's, etc to get it to work.
>
> With the sound coming right off the motherboard one would thnk Linux would
> have no trouble working with it (guess not)
>
> As anyone run into this problem?
>
Onboard stuff is evil. RedHat is funny. SuSE is much better at
recognizing hardware.
Greg
------------------------------
From: Ben Feinstein <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Follow-up: Creative Ensoniq AudioPCI
Date: Sun, 22 Apr 2001 14:57:48 -0700
Hello all,
Thanks for the help I've received so far! Apparently I was failing to
insert the 'soundcore' module before attempting to insert the 'es1370'
module. After inserting the 'soundcore' mod, the undefined symbol
errors I was getting upon inserting the es1370 module disapeared. What
I get now is:
$> insmod es1370
Using /lib/modules/2.2.18pre21/misc/es1370.o
/lib/modules/2.2.18pre21/misc/es1370.o init_module: Device or resource
busy
Hint: this error can be caused by incorrect module parameters, including
invalid IO or IRQ parameters
Someone suggested inserting the 'ac97' module, which I took to mean the
'ac97_codec' module. This does not fix the problem. Doing an 'lspci'
yields this info about my sound card:
00:10.0 Multimedia audio controller: Ensoniq: Unknown device 5880 (rev
02)
Is this the right chipset for the 'es1370' module? Did Creative change
the chipset and continue marketing a different card as the "Ensoniq
AudioPCI"?
If the hardware is correct, how would I go about trying to fiddle with
the IO and IRQ params? Is there a way to probe the PCI bus to get the
correct values? Doesn't Linux already do this?
Thanks much!,
Ben Feinstein
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Jason Bowen)
Subject: HP 8250i cd-rw and cdrecord
Date: 25 Apr 2001 22:47:32 GMT
I've never been able to successfully burn a cd under Linux with this
drive. Linux has trouble spinning it back up too after it has spun down.
Anybody else using this drive without any problems? If you are using it
just fine does it spin up quickly or slowly? Mine is a dog and takes
around 10 seconds to spin up.
Thanks in advance
Jason
------------------------------
From: "Steve Wolfe" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: linux.dev.raid
Subject: Re: Best RAID controller for Linux
Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2001 17:16:59 -0600
> I believe that this thread started with somebody looking for inexpensive
> solutions to storing lots of data. This is one suggestion. Yes, SCSI
> is better if you're going to have scores of people pounding on the system
> at all times. But it's expensive. These solutions are far cheaper and,
> in this case, very easy to integrate into an existing network.
I certainly don't aim to keep up this war (er... thread). But SCSI
doesn't necessarily have to be terribly expensive. When I initially set up
the servers for my company, we were on a shoestring budget, and we bought
some used RAID cards, and found the drives that offered the best
price/peformance, and it turned out very nicely. It seems from your earlier
post that you got about 640 GB of space for around $6,000. Let me see what
I can come up with on PriceWatch for a decently-sized RAID array....
Mylex 170 U160 RAID controller, 64 MB cache, ~ $500.
IBM UltraStar 36 gig $249
So, 15 drives and the controller, in a RAID 5 configuration, gives you 500
gigs for $4200. Add another $250 for external chassis and cables, and that
gives you 400 GB for $3750. Still not there.... so...
Mylex 352 $730
18 drives $4482
2 9-bay enclosures $550
Two VHDCI cables $50
=====================
That totals up to about $5800, right around what you spent, and now you'd
have a dual-channel controller for more bandwidth, and 64 megs of cache on
the board to speed things along. You might need some converters to hook
the SCA drives to the 58-pin cables, but the extra $200 would more than
cover that. Now, I'm not saying that's what you should have done, and I'm
not saying that's the ideal setup. I'm just saying that SCSI doesn't
necessarily have to be extremely expensive in all situations.
steve
------------------------------
From: "Dr. Stephen S. Kerr" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.systems
Subject: Re: ATA100 drive with ATA33 controller
Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2001 23:36:58 +0000 (UTC)
In comp.os.linux.hardware Ed Ohsone <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I am thinking of buying a new hard drive to attach to my old PC
> running linux.
> Nowadays almost all new IDE hard drives are ATA100. But my PC supports
> only ATA33. In this case can I add ATA100 drive to my PC
> without problems? Are ATA100 drives backward compatible?
I'm not an expert on this matter, but I am using an ATA100 IBM 30 Gb
drive in an ATA33 controller with no problems. You do have to be
careful about BIOS settings, and you may even need to upgrade your
BIOS in order to ensure that everything works right in UDMA or Bus
Master mode. As I say, I'm not expert. Consult the UDMA HOWTO for
details. Also, check the drive manufacturer's website for BIOS
configuration details.
> I do not mind not using full bandwidth of the new drive
> as long as it works as fast as ATA33 with stability.
> Do I have to buy an adapter going between the existing cable and
> the new drive, since I hear ATA100 has 80 pin socket
> while my PC has 40 pin cable?
Huh? I didn't have to get any adapter. The drive took a standard
IDE ribbon cable.
> Second question.
> Which channel should I use for the new drive to get the best performance
> in the below situation?
> Current usage of IDE controller:
> channel 1 ------- 10 GB hard drive
> channel 2 ------- CD-ROM dirve
> It seems connecting the new drive to channel 2 as master and
> moving the CD drive to slave status is the way to go. Right?
> I would appreciate if you let me know why or why not, as
> I know very little about IDE controllers.
That's how I have my ATA100 connected right now. I have heard (maybe
in the UDMA HOWTO?) that it's a good idea to isolate UDMA drives on
separate channels, but the CDROM is used infrequently enough that it
shouldn't be an issue for it to share that channel with the ATA100.
> Finally, I am about to choose Fujitsu 40GB 5400rpm with fluid bearing.
> Do you have any comment on that or any other recommendations?
> Thanks for your help in advance.
You're welcome. Free of charge and worth every penny. ;-)
> ----------
> Ed
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Keith R. Williams)
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Crossposted-To: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips
Subject: Re: Switchboxes for keyboard, mice, video?
Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2001 00:06:07 GMT
On Wed, 25 Apr 2001 04:17:22, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Eric P.
McCoy) wrote:
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Keith R. Williams) writes:
>
> > Actually, no. QWERTY was specifically desigened to slow
> > down touch-typists. Note that the most commonly used keys
> > are on the least powerful fingers on the left hand. Try
> > typing anything without a left hand.
>
> That reminds me of a `fortune' joke. It went something like this, for
> those who haven't seen it:
>
> The QWERTY keyboard layout is designed for both hands to be used
> equally when typing. Yet the word "database" is typed using only the
> left hand. This suggests that writing about databases is not only
> unnatural, but a lot harder than it looks.
>
> I don't know who it was attributed to, if anyone.
Exercise: find the longest word that can be typed on the
right hand (by a touch-typist).
One time I had seriuos tendonitis in my left hand (have had
lesser since and no longer can wear a watch). I spent months
typing with a pencil stuffed between my left fingers just so
I could press one key at a time on that side of the
keyboard. I've had similar bouts on my right hand (no watch
thre anymore either) and only suffered chasing the mouse.
Keyboards suck, but there hasn't been anything better come
along.
----
Keith
------------------------------
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