Re: [gentoo-user] Disable fcron logging

[Alan McKinnon]

Apparently, though unproven, at 00:12 on Tuesday 24 August 2010, Alex Schuster 
did opine thusly:

> > Configure your syslogger to devnull these specific entries.
> > All three common sysloggers (syslogd,syslog-ng,rsyslog) all come with
> > extensive documentation on how to do this.
> 
> Hmm, okay. I think there is no perfect solution. When I disable logging of 
> this PAM stuff, I can only disable it completely, but what if I want to 
> keep the logging from other jobs that are not run that often? Although for 
> this case I can use the direct logging of fcron (without nolog), so this 
> is quite academic. Can anybody still follow me? But thanks for the 
> clarification.


I use syslog-ng and that allows you to write a custom rule looking for the app 
that generated the log "[fcron]" and a string in the log entry 
"pam_unix(fcron:session)". You can then filter it out.

However you do it, the solution is quite fragile and very specific to your 
setup. A general solution that works everywhere will be difficult to form.

-- 
alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com

Re: [gentoo-user] failed reiserfs partition - help!

[Adam Carter]

Just checking, you ran mkreiserfs against /dev/sdf1 not /dev/sdf didnt you?

Re: [gentoo-user] failed reiserfs partition - help!

[Albert Hopkins]

On Tue, 2010-08-24 at 04:57 +, James wrote:
[...]
> try  www.namesys.com/support.html,  and for
> $25 the author of fsck,  or a colleague  if he is out,  will  step you
> through it all. 

Did you try that? ;)

It's probably a bad disk and you need to take it back...

Not sure why you had to dd/urandom to clear the partition table.  Just
simple running fdisk and saving will re-write over what previously
existed in the partition table.

Re: [gentoo-user] New HD monitor stretches everything. How to teach Xorg?

[d . fedorov]

> On Mon, Aug 23, 2010 at 8:58 PM,  wrote:
>
>>  On 24/08/10 03:38, Bill Longman wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Aug 23, 2010 at 7:27 PM, Kevin O'Gorman
>> wrote:
>>
>>> I had to replace an 4:3 Westinghouse monitor this weekend.  I got a new
>>> ASUS VH242H, which is very wide.  But Xorg is still running 1280x1024,
>>> instead of the monitor's normal 1920x1080, according to xorg logs
>>> because of
>>> lack of video memory (using the ATI on the motherboard).  I can make
>>> the
>>> screen use a 4:3 aspect ratio, so I'm up and running, much better than
>>> I
>>> started, but I'd like to do better.
>>>
>>> I guess I've gotta look for a video card, but all I have is PCIX slots,
>>> so
>>> I don't want to put a lot of money into it (I'll be upgrading the mobo
>>> when
>>> finances permit -- which is not right now.)
>>>
>>> Any ideas?
>>>
>>
>>
>> Have you tried setting different modelines etc using cvt and xrandr?
>>
>
> No.  I ditched my xorg.conf completely; it had been there just because I
> couldn't get the Westinghouse monitor to work without it.  The Xorg logs
> show it recognizes a boatload of
> modes that the monitor likes, but gives an alibi for not using the HD
> ones.
> The approach
> does not seem promising.
>
> /var/log/Xorg.0.log attached.  I'm paying attention to lines 269 295 327
> 369
> 377 380 and 381
>
> 269: (II) MACH64(0): Modeline "1920x1080"x0.0  148.50  1920 2008 2052 2200
> 1080 1084 1089 1125 +hsync +vsync (67.5 kHz)
> 295: (II) MACH64(0): Modeline "1920x1080"x60.0  172.80  1920 2040 2248
> 2576
> 1080 1081 1084 1118 -hsync +vsync (67.1 kHz)
> 327: (II) MACH64(0): Estimated virtual size for aspect ratio 1.7931 is
> 1920x1080
> 369: (II) MACH64(0): Not using default mode "1920x1440" (insufficient
> memory
> for mode)
> 377: (II) MACH64(0): Not using driver mode "1920x1080" (bad mode
> clock/interlace/doublescan)
> 380: (II) MACH64(0): Not using driver mode "1920x1080" (bad mode
> clock/interlace/doublescan)
> 381: (WW) MACH64(0): Shrinking virtual size estimate from 1920x1080 to
> 1280x1024
>
> --
> Kevin O'Gorman, PhD
>

1) Did you made entries for right resolution mode in xorg.conf
2) Are u sure that 1920x1080 is supported resolution for your monitor?
3) BIOS of some graphic cards is trying to overide the data reported by
the monitor in its own way

Re: [gentoo-user] New HD monitor stretches everything. How to teach Xorg?

[Kevin O'Gorman]

On Mon, Aug 23, 2010 at 8:58 PM,  wrote:

>  On 24/08/10 03:38, Bill Longman wrote:
>
>
>
> On Mon, Aug 23, 2010 at 7:27 PM, Kevin O'Gorman wrote:
>
>> I had to replace an 4:3 Westinghouse monitor this weekend.  I got a new
>> ASUS VH242H, which is very wide.  But Xorg is still running 1280x1024,
>> instead of the monitor's normal 1920x1080, according to xorg logs because of
>> lack of video memory (using the ATI on the motherboard).  I can make the
>> screen use a 4:3 aspect ratio, so I'm up and running, much better than I
>> started, but I'd like to do better.
>>
>> I guess I've gotta look for a video card, but all I have is PCIX slots, so
>> I don't want to put a lot of money into it (I'll be upgrading the mobo when
>> finances permit -- which is not right now.)
>>
>> Any ideas?
>>
>
>
> Have you tried setting different modelines etc using cvt and xrandr?
>

No.  I ditched my xorg.conf completely; it had been there just because I
couldn't get the Westinghouse monitor to work without it.  The Xorg logs
show it recognizes a boatload of
modes that the monitor likes, but gives an alibi for not using the HD ones.
The approach
does not seem promising.

/var/log/Xorg.0.log attached.  I'm paying attention to lines 269 295 327 369
377 380 and 381

269: (II) MACH64(0): Modeline "1920x1080"x0.0  148.50  1920 2008 2052 2200
1080 1084 1089 1125 +hsync +vsync (67.5 kHz)
295: (II) MACH64(0): Modeline "1920x1080"x60.0  172.80  1920 2040 2248 2576
1080 1081 1084 1118 -hsync +vsync (67.1 kHz)
327: (II) MACH64(0): Estimated virtual size for aspect ratio 1.7931 is
1920x1080
369: (II) MACH64(0): Not using default mode "1920x1440" (insufficient memory
for mode)
377: (II) MACH64(0): Not using driver mode "1920x1080" (bad mode
clock/interlace/doublescan)
380: (II) MACH64(0): Not using driver mode "1920x1080" (bad mode
clock/interlace/doublescan)
381: (WW) MACH64(0): Shrinking virtual size estimate from 1920x1080 to
1280x1024

-- 
Kevin O'Gorman, PhD

X.Org X Server 1.7.7
Release Date: 2010-05-04
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
Build Operating System: Linux 2.6.34-gentoo-r1-kosmanor i686 
Current Operating System: Linux treat 2.6.34-gentoo-r1-kosmanor #2 SMP PREEMPT 
Fri Jul 30 08:41:44 PDT 2010 i686
Kernel command line: ro root=/dev/sda5
Build Date: 07 August 2010  09:04:19AM
 
Current version of pixman: 0.18.2
Before reporting problems, check http://wiki.x.org
to make sure that you have the latest version.
Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,
(++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,
(WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
(==) Log file: "/var/log/Xorg.0.log", Time: Mon Aug 23 19:10:43 2010
(II) Loader magic: 0x81da7e0
(II) Module ABI versions:
X.Org ANSI C Emulation: 0.4
X.Org Video Driver: 6.0
X.Org XInput driver : 7.0
X.Org Server Extension : 2.0
(++) using VT number 7

(--) PCI:*(0:7:1:0) 1002:4752:1002:0008 ATI Technologies Inc Rage XL rev 39, 
Mem @ 0xf900/16777216, 0xf860/4096, I/O @ 0x6000/256, BIOS @ 
0x/131072
(==) Using default built-in configuration (30 lines)
(==) --- Start of built-in configuration ---
Section "Device"
Identifier  "Builtin Default ati Device 0"
Driver  "ati"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier  "Builtin Default ati Screen 0"
Device  "Builtin Default ati Device 0"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier  "Builtin Default vesa Device 0"
Driver  "vesa"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier  "Builtin Default vesa Screen 0"
Device  "Builtin Default vesa Device 0"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier  "Builtin Default fbdev Device 0"
Driver  "fbdev"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier  "Builtin Default fbdev Screen 0"
Device  "Builtin Default fbdev Device 0"
EndSection
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier  "Builtin Default Layout"
Screen  "Builtin Default ati Screen 0"
Screen  "Builtin Default vesa Screen 0"
Screen  "Builtin Default fbdev Screen 0"
EndSection
(==) --- End of built-in configuration ---
(==) ServerLayout "Builtin Default Layout"
(**) |-->Screen "Builtin Default ati Screen 0" (0)
(**) |   |-->Monitor ""
(**) |   |-->Device "Builtin Default ati Device 0"
(==) No monitor specified for screen "Builtin Default ati Screen 0".
Using a default monitor configuration.
(**) |-->Screen "Builtin Default vesa Screen 0" (1)
(**) |   |-->Monitor ""
(**) |   |-->Device "Builtin Default vesa Device 0"
(==) No monitor specified for screen "Builtin Default vesa Screen 0".
Using a default monitor configuration.
(**) |-->Screen "Builtin Default fbde

[gentoo-user] failed reiserfs partition - help!

[James]

All,

I'm in desperate need of some help recovering a reiserfs partition
that went awry for some unknown reason. A quick list of events:

- purchased brand new WD "My Passport" drive -- 320GB, 2.5GB
- cleared partition table with a "dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/sdX bs=5M count=10"
- created one single large partition
- mkreiserfs /dev/sdX
- copied data into the new hard drive

All seemed well. I mounted the partition, copied critical data into
the partition, then *cleanly* unmounted the partition after confirming
that all the data was on the drive with no issues. Then "it the the
fan":

Upon attempting to remount the partition, the partition would not
mount. In fact, upon attempting to remount the partition, here's what
happens (according to /var/log/dmesg):

-->8--

[18723.893570] usb-storage: device found at 8
[18723.893572] usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
[18728.893199] usb-storage: device scan complete
[18728.895310] scsi 13:0:0:0: Direct-Access WD   My Passport
071A 2011 PQ: 0 ANSI: 4
[18728.897305] scsi 13:0:0:1: Enclosure WD   SES Device
   2011 PQ: 0 ANSI: 4
[18728.898987] sd 13:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg4 type 0
[18728.899119] ses 13:0:0:1: Attached Enclosure device
[18728.899222] ses 13:0:0:1: Attached scsi generic sg5 type 13
[18728.901909] sd 13:0:0:0: [sdf] 625086464 512-byte logical blocks:
(320 GB/298 GiB)
[18728.905166] sd 13:0:0:0: [sdf] Write Protect is off
[18728.905170] sd 13:0:0:0: [sdf] Mode Sense: 2b 00 10 08
[18728.905173] sd 13:0:0:0: [sdf] Assuming drive cache: write through
[18728.910673] sd 13:0:0:0: [sdf] Assuming drive cache: write through
[18728.910677]  sdf: sdf1
[18728.954536] sd 13:0:0:0: [sdf] Assuming drive cache: write through
[18728.954541] sd 13:0:0:0: [sdf] Attached SCSI disk
[18729.204285] REISERFS (device sdf1): found reiserfs format "3.6"
with standard journal
[18729.204305] REISERFS (device sdf1): using ordered data mode
[18729.233424] REISERFS (device sdf1): journal params: device sdf1,
size 8192, journal first block 18, max trans len 1024, max batch 900,
max commit age 30, max trans age 30
[18729.233645] REISERFS (device sdf1): checking transaction log (sdf1)
[18730.204418] REISERFS warning: reiserfs-5090 is_tree_node: node
level 5687 does not match to the expected one 65534
[18730.204422] REISERFS error (device sdf1): vs-5150 search_by_key:
invalid format found in block 0. Fsck?
[18730.204426] REISERFS (device sdf1): Remounting filesystem read-only
[18730.204430] REISERFS error (device sdf1): vs-13070
reiserfs_read_locked_inode: i/o failure occurred trying to find stat
data of [1 2 0x0 SD]
[18730.204436] REISERFS (device sdf1): Using r5 hash to sort names
r...@gentoo:~# fdisk -l /dev/sdf

Disk /dev/sdf: 320.0 GB, 320044269568 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38909 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x2dbafd11

   Device Boot  Start End  Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdf1   1   38909   312536511   83  Linux

--8<--

I know the data is in tact because (a) I have not written anything to
the disk, and (b) using tools like foremost / scalpel have
successfully "restored" much of the data on the drive. (unfortunately
foremost does not restore file names and it'll be incredibly difficult
for me to properly restore the previous data structure)

I've attempted to recover the drive using "reiserfsck
--scan-whole-partition --rebuild-tree /dev/sdf1", to no avail:

-->8--

r...@gentoo:~# reiserfsck --scan-whole-partition --rebuild-tree /dev/sdf1
reiserfsck 3.6.21 (2009 www.namesys.com)

*snip*

Will rebuild the filesystem (/dev/sdf1) tree
Will put log info to 'stdout'

Do you want to run this program?[N/Yes] (note need to type Yes if you do):Yes
Replaying journal: No transactions found
###
reiserfsck --rebuild-tree started at Tue Aug 24 01:46:49 2010
###

Pass 0:
### Pass 0 ###
The whole partition (78134112 blocks) is to be scanned
Skipping 10595 blocks (super block, journal, bitmaps) 78123517 blocks
will be read
0%20%40%... left
0, 8521 /seccsecsec
Could not find a hash in use. Using "r5"
"r5" hash is selected
Flushing..finished
Read blocks (but not data blocks) 78123517
Leaves among those 0
Objectids found 2

Pass 1 (will try to insert 0 leaves):
### Pass 1 ###
Looking for allocable blocks .. finished

Flushing..finished
0 leaves read
0 inserted
### Pass 2 ###
Flushing..finished


No reiserfs metadata found.  If you are sure that you had the reiserfs
on this partition,  then the start  of the partition  might be changed
or all data were wiped out. The start of the partition may get changed
by a partitioner  if you have used one.  Then you probably rebuilt the
superblock as there was n

Re: [gentoo-user] New HD monitor stretches everything. How to teach Xorg?

[dennisonic]

 On 24/08/10 03:38, Bill Longman wrote:
>
>
> On Mon, Aug 23, 2010 at 7:27 PM, Kevin O'Gorman  > wrote:
>
> I had to replace an 4:3 Westinghouse monitor this weekend.  I got
> a new ASUS VH242H, which is very wide.  But Xorg is still running
> 1280x1024, instead of the monitor's normal 1920x1080, according to
> xorg logs because of lack of video memory (using the ATI on the
> motherboard).  I can make the screen use a 4:3 aspect ratio, so
> I'm up and running, much better than I started, but I'd like to do
> better.
>
> I guess I've gotta look for a video card, but all I have is PCIX
> slots, so I don't want to put a lot of money into it (I'll be
> upgrading the mobo when finances permit -- which is not right now.)
>
> Any ideas?
>
>
> You'd kinda think that since AGP is kinda sorta a beefed up version of
> PCI, kinda sorta like PCI-X, you ought to be able to find a boatload
> of cards like this for the cheap on eBay. But finding one is like
> finding hen's teeth. The only one I've found is a 3.3/5V 32/64bit
> 33/66MHz ATI card and they're about $US500. The company that makes
> them does them for multi-head displays such as NOC displays, etc, so
> if you can't spare the change for a new mobo, then five hundred bucks
> for a video card in a worn-out bus format is probably out of the question.
>
> I've been looking for one for years now because I have this
> great Dell server that just keeps on running and running but it has
> these beautiful 64 bit PCI-X slots just calling out for a decent video
> card -- but not AGP!
>
Have you tried setting different modelines etc using cvt and xrandr?

Re: [gentoo-user] New HD monitor stretches everything. How to teach Xorg?

[Adam Carter]

> I guess I've gotta look for a video card, but all I have is PCIX slots, so
> I don't want to put a lot of money into it (I'll be upgrading the mobo when
> finances permit -- which is not right now.)
>
>
"newer 3.3-volt PCI cards will work in a PCI-X slot" - from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI-X.

Re: [gentoo-user] New HD monitor stretches everything. How to teach Xorg?

[Bill Longman]

On Mon, Aug 23, 2010 at 7:27 PM, Kevin O'Gorman  wrote:

> I had to replace an 4:3 Westinghouse monitor this weekend.  I got a new
> ASUS VH242H, which is very wide.  But Xorg is still running 1280x1024,
> instead of the monitor's normal 1920x1080, according to xorg logs because of
> lack of video memory (using the ATI on the motherboard).  I can make the
> screen use a 4:3 aspect ratio, so I'm up and running, much better than I
> started, but I'd like to do better.
>
> I guess I've gotta look for a video card, but all I have is PCIX slots, so
> I don't want to put a lot of money into it (I'll be upgrading the mobo when
> finances permit -- which is not right now.)
>
> Any ideas?
>

You'd kinda think that since AGP is kinda sorta a beefed up version of PCI,
kinda sorta like PCI-X, you ought to be able to find a boatload of cards
like this for the cheap on eBay. But finding one is like finding hen's
teeth. The only one I've found is a 3.3/5V 32/64bit 33/66MHz ATI card and
they're about $US500. The company that makes them does them for multi-head
displays such as NOC displays, etc, so if you can't spare the change for a
new mobo, then five hundred bucks for a video card in a worn-out bus format
is probably out of the question.

I've been looking for one for years now because I have this great Dell
server that just keeps on running and running but it has these beautiful 64
bit PCI-X slots just calling out for a decent video card -- but not
AGP!

[gentoo-user] New HD monitor stretches everything. How to teach Xorg?

[Kevin O'Gorman]

I had to replace an 4:3 Westinghouse monitor this weekend.  I got a new ASUS
VH242H, which is very wide.  But Xorg is still running 1280x1024, instead of
the monitor's normal 1920x1080, according to xorg logs because of lack of
video memory (using the ATI on the motherboard).  I can make the screen use
a 4:3 aspect ratio, so I'm up and running, much better than I started, but
I'd like to do better.

I guess I've gotta look for a video card, but all I have is PCIX slots, so I
don't want to put a lot of money into it (I'll be upgrading the mobo when
finances permit -- which is not right now.)

Any ideas?

-- 
Kevin O'Gorman, PhD

Re: [gentoo-user] Disable fcron logging

[Alex Schuster]

Alan McKinnon writes:

> Apparently, though unproven, at 15:25 on Saturday 21 August 2010, Alex
> Schuster did opine thusly:

> > There is a nolog option for fcrontab, but I still get this output
> > every minute:
> That will tell fcron not to log stuff.
> It will not tell other apps to not stuff

Right. But I did not know that there are more things involved than cron 
itself and the command I am calling. This PAM stuff is new to me, but 
maybe I just never noticed it before in my logs. It's no problem when it's 
not coming every minute.

> > Aug 21 15:10:06 [fcron] pam_unix(fcron:session): session opened for
> > user root by (uid=0) Aug 21 15:10:08 [fcron]
> > pam_unix(fcron:session): session closed for user root
> > 
> > Hmmm... could it be that these entries do not come from fcron itself,
> > but from PAM?
> 
> Yes.
> 
> Configure your syslogger to devnull these specific entries.
> All three common sysloggers (syslogd,syslog-ng,rsyslog) all come with
> extensive documentation on how to do this.

Hmm, okay. I think there is no perfect solution. When I disable logging of 
this PAM stuff, I can only disable it completely, but what if I want to 
keep the logging from other jobs that are not run that often? Although for 
this case I can use the direct logging of fcron (without nolog), so this 
is quite academic. Can anybody still follow me? But thanks for the 
clarification.

Meanwhile, I have the script running in /etc/conf.d/local.start, so I have 
no syslog output at all and I also can have more updates than only once 
per minute.

Wonko

Re: [gentoo-user] Disable fcron logging

[Alex Schuster]

Stroller writes:

> On 22 Aug 2010, at 22:39, Alex Schuster wrote:
>> Stroller writes:
>>
>>> The script with which you reply is missing the sleep 60 loop.
>>
>> No, it's only the script that outputs the drive's state. It's called  
>> by ~/.kde4/Autostart/hdstate:
>>
>> #!/bin/bash
>>
>> while :
>> do
>>/usr/local/sbin/hdstate >> ~/log/hdstate.log
>>sleep 10
>> done
> 
> You wrote to the list telling us that you were running a script from  
> cron every minute, and that this was causing your log file to fill up  
> with messages from cron.
> 
> That is what I replied to.

Yes, I know. You had the good idea of simply putting the script into a
loop, and I actually followed your advice by now. When I posted my first
script in response to yours, I just wanted to show how I got the
relevant information in a more convenient format, using hdparm and
hddtemp, than using the direct output of smartctl. Just in case someone
else also likes this. Of yourse the outer loop was missing, but I did
not bother to add this trivial addition just for the posting here. It's
just the script I was already using in cron. And later in the posting I
mentioned that the script itself should be run in a loop instead of
cron, also because I could decrease the update interval.

Sorry, I probably should have made clear that the original question was
sort of solved.

> Please do not move the goalposts halfway through the thread, and make  
> it about something else unrelated. That is the perfect way to annoy  
> people who are trying to help you.

I'm sorry about this, I did not mean to annoy anyone. But I still do not 
really seewhat the problem is. You had the idea to do this without cron, 
and so I did. Well, I forgot a 'thank you' for the loop idea, this is 
true. Sorry again. Your ideas were appreciated as always.

Wonko

Re: [gentoo-user] Reducing repeated checkings

[Al]

>>
>> I wounder if efforts have been made to reduce this repeated checks.
>>
>> Al
>
> cmake.

Didn't know that, Time to study the build tools, even if I am not a C-coder.

>
> It really does decrease the amount of time in the configure step - witness
> KDE4.
>
> Then promptly causes a huge rash of other problems elsewhere.

Nothing else expected. New features, new troubles. Once I really
believed programming would save me time.

Re: [gentoo-user] Reducing repeated checkings

[Paul Hartman]

On Mon, Aug 23, 2010 at 2:27 PM, Al  wrote:
> Some thoughts of the day
>
> With multicore machines compilation itself is relativly fast. The
> bigger part of time meanwhile is spend for the system check before
> compilation. Each  program das it again and 90% of the checks check
> the same stuff.
>
> I wounder if efforts have been made to reduce this repeated checks.

confcache

It can (or used to be able to) be used with portage, though I think it
is discouraged because it can cause some other problems. I used it for
a while and never noticed any ill effects, but maybe I wasn't looking
in the right places. I read enough about it being bad that I stopped
using it out of fear.

The better time-saver is probably parallel emerges (emerge -j) which
can configure multiple packages at once. It also has quirks but works
most of the time. :)

Re: [gentoo-user] Reducing repeated checkings

[Alan McKinnon]

Apparently, though unproven, at 21:27 on Monday 23 August 2010, Al did opine 
thusly:

> Some thoughts of the day
> 
> With multicore machines compilation itself is relativly fast. The
> bigger part of time meanwhile is spend for the system check before
> compilation. Each  program das it again and 90% of the checks check
> the same stuff.
> 
> I wounder if efforts have been made to reduce this repeated checks.
> 
> Al

cmake.

It really does decrease the amount of time in the configure step - witness 
KDE4.

Then promptly causes a huge rash of other problems elsewhere.

It's software, what were you expecting? That it should actually work?


-- 
alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com

[gentoo-user] Reducing repeated checkings

[Al]

Some thoughts of the day

With multicore machines compilation itself is relativly fast. The
bigger part of time meanwhile is spend for the system check before
compilation. Each  program das it again and 90% of the checks check
the same stuff.

I wounder if efforts have been made to reduce this repeated checks.

Al

Re: [gentoo-user] Disable fcron logging

[Stroller]

On 22 Aug 2010, at 22:39, Alex Schuster wrote:

Stroller writes:


The script with which you reply is missing the sleep 60 loop.


No, it's only the script that outputs the drive's state. It's called  
by

~/.kde4/Autostart/hdstate:

#!/bin/bash

while :
do
   /usr/local/sbin/hdstate >> ~/log/hdstate.log
   sleep 10
done


You wrote to the list telling us that you were running a script from  
cron every minute, and that this was causing your log file to fill up  
with messages from cron.


That is what I replied to.

Please do not move the goalposts halfway through the thread, and make  
it about something else unrelated. That is the perfect way to annoy  
people who are trying to help you.



Stroller.

[gentoo-user] Firefox-bin/Hulu - complete X crash

[Mark Knecht]

Hi,
   I haven't seen any posts on this nor found much using Google as of
yet. Is anyone seeing complete crashes of X - back to the gdm login
screen - when they try to play a video in Hulu using firefox-bin? This
is a 64-bit machine, up to date, mostly stable. I switched to
firefox-bin due to the security warnings about Flash on the 64-bit
version of Firefox and since the switch have been unable to use Hulu.
Both Hulu and Hulu desktop worked before the change. Everything else
I've tried seems to work OK.

   Intel motherboard with Intel graphics. Have not removed .mozilla or
anything like that as of yet. Waited a few weeks to see if upgrades
might take care of it but nothing has helped yet.

Cheers,
Mark

Re: [gentoo-user] system lag with gentoo-sources-2.6.35-r2

[Alan Warren]

Thanks Mark, I'll look into that config option, and try again with top open.

In this case I was doing a home backup to a 1TB WD Caviar black formatted
as ext3.

I also have a raid0 with 2 other non-WD sata drives, and a single WD
velociraptor I can test
with.

It also doesn't sound too far off that FF could be the culprit (mentioned
above), as I have it
open all the time, and so far it's been the first place I've noticed these
hiccups. That could
be coincidence though, as I've pretty much always got it open and these
hiccups are
system wide.

On Mon, Aug 23, 2010 at 10:03 AM, Mark Knecht  wrote:

> On Sun, Aug 22, 2010 at 12:01 PM, Alan Warren 
> wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > I am having some system performance issues with this kernel release. I
> have
> > a SMP machine (dual xeon nehalem 8 core / 16 threads) with 24gb non-ecc
> > memory.
> >
> > On occasion (seems random so far) my system feels like a Pentium II
> trying
> > to cope with Vista. For example, I was in the middle of tar'ing a
> semi-large
> > file and noticed all of my apps came to a crawl. Scrolling in firefox,
> > typing in the terminal, or trying to navigate in my file manager resulted
> in
> > breif "pauses" that came in waves. On one occasion my system froze
> > completely and I had to manually reset the machine. (that was with
> > 2.6.35-r1)
> >
> > I didn't activate anything "new" in this kernel release that I don't
> > normally activate. ie, no cpuidle driver
> >
> > Is there a proper venu for debugging such matters, or should I just wait
> for
> > this kernel to go prime-time?
> >
> > Thanks for your time,
> > Alan
> >
>
> Hi Alan,
>   Sorry for the problems. I've seen them also in the recent past. In
> my case it was on new hardware so I couldn't say it was due to a
> specific kernel release.
>
> 1) What happens when you watch top while doing the tar? Do you by any
> chance see large wait times in top? (Hit '1' to watch all CPUs) If so
> the problem could well be how the kernel is dealing with writing data
> back to the hard drive. I had this problem with the WD Green drives.
> When I changed to WD RAID Edition drives (1/2 the storage for 30% more
> money) the problems disappeared.
>
> 2) If it's not the drive issue then there is a kernel option called (I
> think) RCU_CPU_STALL_DETECTION (or something like that. If you turn it
> on I may generate a trace of what's keeping a core busy to long.
> Mileage will vary.
>
> Good luck,
> Mark
>
>

Re: [gentoo-user] system lag with gentoo-sources-2.6.35-r2

[Mark Knecht]

On Sun, Aug 22, 2010 at 12:01 PM, Alan Warren  wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I am having some system performance issues with this kernel release. I have
> a SMP machine (dual xeon nehalem 8 core / 16 threads) with 24gb non-ecc
> memory.
>
> On occasion (seems random so far) my system feels like a Pentium II trying
> to cope with Vista. For example, I was in the middle of tar'ing a semi-large
> file and noticed all of my apps came to a crawl. Scrolling in firefox,
> typing in the terminal, or trying to navigate in my file manager resulted in
> breif "pauses" that came in waves. On one occasion my system froze
> completely and I had to manually reset the machine. (that was with
> 2.6.35-r1)
>
> I didn't activate anything "new" in this kernel release that I don't
> normally activate. ie, no cpuidle driver
>
> Is there a proper venu for debugging such matters, or should I just wait for
> this kernel to go prime-time?
>
> Thanks for your time,
> Alan
>

Hi Alan,
   Sorry for the problems. I've seen them also in the recent past. In
my case it was on new hardware so I couldn't say it was due to a
specific kernel release.

1) What happens when you watch top while doing the tar? Do you by any
chance see large wait times in top? (Hit '1' to watch all CPUs) If so
the problem could well be how the kernel is dealing with writing data
back to the hard drive. I had this problem with the WD Green drives.
When I changed to WD RAID Edition drives (1/2 the storage for 30% more
money) the problems disappeared.

2) If it's not the drive issue then there is a kernel option called (I
think) RCU_CPU_STALL_DETECTION (or something like that. If you turn it
on I may generate a trace of what's keeping a core busy to long.
Mileage will vary.

Good luck,
Mark

Re: [gentoo-user] system lag with gentoo-sources-2.6.35-r2

[Paul Hartman]

On Sun, Aug 22, 2010 at 2:01 PM, Alan Warren  wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I am having some system performance issues with this kernel release. I have
> a SMP machine (dual xeon nehalem 8 core / 16 threads) with 24gb non-ecc
> memory.
>
> On occasion (seems random so far) my system feels like a Pentium II trying
> to cope with Vista. For example, I was in the middle of tar'ing a semi-large
> file and noticed all of my apps came to a crawl. Scrolling in firefox,
> typing in the terminal, or trying to navigate in my file manager resulted in
> breif "pauses" that came in waves. On one occasion my system froze
> completely and I had to manually reset the machine. (that was with
> 2.6.35-r1)
>
> I didn't activate anything "new" in this kernel release that I don't
> normally activate. ie, no cpuidle driver

Sounds exactly like the same problem I was having. I posted about it
recently on this list. Downgrading to the latest 2.6.34 made
everything work normally again.

> Is there a proper venu for debugging such matters, or should I just wait for
> this kernel to go prime-time?

Well, 2.6.35 is already prime-time as far as it has been released and
is not RC...

The proper way to debug would be to do a git bisect of the kernel.org
sources until you find the exact patch that broke things. I haven't
had time to attempt such a feat yet, so I'm just waiting patiently for
someone else to figure it out instead. :)

Re: [gentoo-user] system lag with gentoo-sources-2.6.35-r2

[Peter Humphrey]

On Sunday 22 August 2010 21:04:56 Robert Bridge wrote:

> Well, the fix is in the line for 2.6.36 IIRC, so wouldn't be in an
> 2.6.35 kernel.
> 
> That said, the problem supposedly being fixed goes back well before
> 2.6.34, so if that kernel works, it suggests that it is a different
> issue you are hitting.

Alan's problem sounds like the one I've been having through several 
kernel versions - the way I describe the symptom is that the system 
"lurches" through its work. It's an i5 box with 4 GB simple RAM (4 
cores, 8 threads).

I did mention this here a few weeks ago, but when I discovered that 
killing BOINC, or reducing its allowed CPU load, seemed to cure it I 
took no further action.

> However... If there was a FF update, that could be triggering the bug,
> as FF3.5+ are pretty stinky for I/O levels.

You may be onto something there. My genlop history of firefox goes back 
to January, when 3.5.6 was installed together with sys-kernel/gentoo-
sources-2.6.32-r1. I don't remember when I first noticed the lurching 
though.

-- 
Rgds
Peter.  Linux Counter 5290, 1994-04-23.