Re: Changing processor speeds
On Mon, 12 Jun 2000, Greg Woods wrote: > > Alexander Clouter wrote: > > > due to microsofts infinite wisdom dos (and so windoze) has trouble > > handling more than 1024 cylinders (if I remember correctly). > > Much as I love a good M$-bashing occasionally, I don't think this is > Microsoft's doing. The 1024 cylinder limit was in the original design of > the PC BIOS. Those engineers just couldn't see that anyone would ever > have a 30GB disk drive on a PC :-) > > On most PC's, running any kind of modern operating system (including > Windoze), the 1024 limit only applies at boot time. Whatever program is > loaded at boot time must not be stored beyond cylinder 1024. I am told > that there are some newer BIOS's that can play games with the disk > geometry and translate block and cylinder numbers on the fly, to make it > look like the disk has a different geometry than it actually has, and > get around this limitation. But that is a function of the BIOS, not the > operating system. > actually from what I've read the old BIOS indeed couldn't use do more than 1024 cylinders however that was easily changed. The problem lay in how MS-DOS calculated the amount of disk space available for using CHS. However due to a useful feature more than 1024 cylinders could not be identified. To overcome this problem LBA (or something like it) was used to translate a 'virtual' CHS to real CHS. This is usually done by the BIOS however sometimes a software patch instead had to be used (causing a slight performance hit). Alex -- ** ((__)) Alexander "Jim diGriz" "Hubenko" Clouter \\ ((oo)) \\--\\// e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] || || |||||| ~~~~~~ equip : 300Mhz Celeron Laptop running Cow during an Debian Woody Linux Earthquake
Re: Changing processor speeds
On Mon, 12 Jun 2000, Greg Woods wrote: > > Alexander Clouter wrote: > > > due to microsofts infinite wisdom dos (and so windoze) has trouble > > handling more than 1024 cylinders (if I remember correctly). > > Much as I love a good M$-bashing occasionally, I don't think this is > Microsoft's doing. The 1024 cylinder limit was in the original design of > the PC BIOS. Those engineers just couldn't see that anyone would ever > have a 30GB disk drive on a PC :-) > > On most PC's, running any kind of modern operating system (including > Windoze), the 1024 limit only applies at boot time. Whatever program is > loaded at boot time must not be stored beyond cylinder 1024. I am told > that there are some newer BIOS's that can play games with the disk > geometry and translate block and cylinder numbers on the fly, to make it > look like the disk has a different geometry than it actually has, and > get around this limitation. But that is a function of the BIOS, not the > operating system. > actually from what I've read the old BIOS indeed couldn't use do more than 1024 cylinders however that was easily changed. The problem lay in how MS-DOS calculated the amount of disk space available for using CHS. However due to a useful feature more than 1024 cylinders could not be identified. To overcome this problem LBA (or something like it) was used to translate a 'virtual' CHS to real CHS. This is usually done by the BIOS however sometimes a software patch instead had to be used (causing a slight performance hit). Alex -- ** ((__)) Alexander "Jim diGriz" "Hubenko" Clouter \\ ((oo)) \\--\\// e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] || || |||||| ~~~~~~ equip : 300Mhz Celeron Laptop running Cow during an Debian Woody Linux Earthquake -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Changing processor speeds
Alexander Clouter wrote: > due to microsofts infinite wisdom dos (and so windoze) has trouble > handling more than 1024 cylinders (if I remember correctly). Much as I love a good M$-bashing occasionally, I don't think this is Microsoft's doing. The 1024 cylinder limit was in the original design of the PC BIOS. Those engineers just couldn't see that anyone would ever have a 30GB disk drive on a PC :-) On most PC's, running any kind of modern operating system (including Windoze), the 1024 limit only applies at boot time. Whatever program is loaded at boot time must not be stored beyond cylinder 1024. I am told that there are some newer BIOS's that can play games with the disk geometry and translate block and cylinder numbers on the fly, to make it look like the disk has a different geometry than it actually has, and get around this limitation. But that is a function of the BIOS, not the operating system. --Greg
Re: Changing processor speeds
Alexander Clouter wrote: > due to microsofts infinite wisdom dos (and so windoze) has trouble > handling more than 1024 cylinders (if I remember correctly). Much as I love a good M$-bashing occasionally, I don't think this is Microsoft's doing. The 1024 cylinder limit was in the original design of the PC BIOS. Those engineers just couldn't see that anyone would ever have a 30GB disk drive on a PC :-) On most PC's, running any kind of modern operating system (including Windoze), the 1024 limit only applies at boot time. Whatever program is loaded at boot time must not be stored beyond cylinder 1024. I am told that there are some newer BIOS's that can play games with the disk geometry and translate block and cylinder numbers on the fly, to make it look like the disk has a different geometry than it actually has, and get around this limitation. But that is a function of the BIOS, not the operating system. --Greg -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Changing processor speeds
> > definately shadows something (actually two things, I think). What > > impact does this "shadow" stuff have? > > > It should make your machine faster, I've always put them on and never > noticed any problems. However it makes the machine run faster by > using a small amount of you memory, if you have 8Mb or more it > shouldn't really be noticed. If you have 16Mb then definitly leave > this on. This is my humble (and unprofessional) opinion :) Hmm, I thought I heard something about linux not using these optimizations. (Maybe does its own?) I have plenty of ram, so it isn't a problem. > really does sound like you have a phoenix bios. There is an option, > its called Boot Sequence. Although you can't disable booting from > disk you can give it a lower priority and make it occur after its > searched the harddisk. Beware though, I would use the sequence Disk > -> CDROM -> Harddisk -> Whatever remains. This is because if you run > into problems you can either boot off a disk or cdrom without firstly > going through your bios settings and change them so they will boot off > the disk or cdrom. I believe I do. I did set the sequence to HDD -> CDROM -> Disk, but it is still possible to get to a "menu" by pressing escape at boot time. I don't mind entering bios setup to change the option. I don't have problems that often. > Besides you shouldn't need to reboot your machine much as you are running > linux :) I'm not the only one using the machine, so I'd like to secure it. (Either because I'm paranoid, or because I'd like to brag about my machine being secure... ) Hugo van der Merwe
Re: Changing processor speeds
On Mon, 12 Jun 2000, Hugo van der Merwe wrote:
>
> Makes me think of my bios setup: there is an option where you select which
> OS you're using ("mostly"), with the options Win95, Win98 or Other... any
> idea what that might do?
>
due to microsofts infinite wisdom dos (and so windoze) has trouble
handling more than 1024 cylinders (if I remember correctly). This problem
can be overcome by reporting that the harddisk has more sectors, etc then
is physically does, as DOS/Windoze accesses the harddisk the BIOS will
convert the C/H/S to their REAL values.
I _think_ linux directly queries the harddisk and bypasses the BIOS
altogether so it doesn't really matter what it is set to. I think the
Other option generally applies to nasties like Novell :)
> Other thing, I read somewhere a recommendation to turn off (video
> bios?) shadowing, or something like that. I did that on my previous
> computer, but this laptop doesn't have an option like that, and it
> definately shadows something (actually two things, I think). What
> impact does this "shadow" stuff have?
>
It should make your machine faster, I've always put them on and never
noticed any problems. However it makes the machine run faster by using a
small amount of you memory, if you have 8Mb or more it shouldn't really be
noticed. If you have 16Mb then definitly leave this on. This is my
humble (and unprofessional) opinion :)
> I must say, I wish I had the source code to my bios, 'cause at this point
> I cannot even disable booting from disk! (It is always possible to press
> escape, and get a boot menu with "Disk, Hard Disk, or CDROM"...)
>
really does sound like you have a phoenix bios. There is an option, its
called Boot Sequence. Although you can't disable booting from disk you
can give it a lower priority and make it occur after its searched the
harddisk. Beware though, I would use the sequence Disk -> CDROM ->
Harddisk -> Whatever remains. This is because if you run into problems
you can either boot off a disk or cdrom without firstly going through your
bios settings and change them so they will boot off the disk or cdrom.
Besides you shouldn't need to reboot your machine much as you are running
linux :)
ta ra
Alex
--
** ((__)) Alexander "Jim diGriz" "Hubenko" Clouter
\\ ((oo))
\\--\\// e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
|| ||
||||||
~~~~~~ equip : 300Mhz Celeron Laptop running
Cow during an Debian Woody Linux
Earthquake
Re: Changing processor speeds
> > definately shadows something (actually two things, I think). What > > impact does this "shadow" stuff have? > > > It should make your machine faster, I've always put them on and never > noticed any problems. However it makes the machine run faster by > using a small amount of you memory, if you have 8Mb or more it > shouldn't really be noticed. If you have 16Mb then definitly leave > this on. This is my humble (and unprofessional) opinion :) Hmm, I thought I heard something about linux not using these optimizations. (Maybe does its own?) I have plenty of ram, so it isn't a problem. > really does sound like you have a phoenix bios. There is an option, > its called Boot Sequence. Although you can't disable booting from > disk you can give it a lower priority and make it occur after its > searched the harddisk. Beware though, I would use the sequence Disk > -> CDROM -> Harddisk -> Whatever remains. This is because if you run > into problems you can either boot off a disk or cdrom without firstly > going through your bios settings and change them so they will boot off > the disk or cdrom. I believe I do. I did set the sequence to HDD -> CDROM -> Disk, but it is still possible to get to a "menu" by pressing escape at boot time. I don't mind entering bios setup to change the option. I don't have problems that often. > Besides you shouldn't need to reboot your machine much as you are running > linux :) I'm not the only one using the machine, so I'd like to secure it. (Either because I'm paranoid, or because I'd like to brag about my machine being secure... ) Hugo van der Merwe -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Changing processor speeds
On Mon, 12 Jun 2000, Hugo van der Merwe wrote:
>
> Makes me think of my bios setup: there is an option where you select which
> OS you're using ("mostly"), with the options Win95, Win98 or Other... any
> idea what that might do?
>
due to microsofts infinite wisdom dos (and so windoze) has trouble
handling more than 1024 cylinders (if I remember correctly). This problem
can be overcome by reporting that the harddisk has more sectors, etc then
is physically does, as DOS/Windoze accesses the harddisk the BIOS will
convert the C/H/S to their REAL values.
I _think_ linux directly queries the harddisk and bypasses the BIOS
altogether so it doesn't really matter what it is set to. I think the
Other option generally applies to nasties like Novell :)
> Other thing, I read somewhere a recommendation to turn off (video
> bios?) shadowing, or something like that. I did that on my previous
> computer, but this laptop doesn't have an option like that, and it
> definately shadows something (actually two things, I think). What
> impact does this "shadow" stuff have?
>
It should make your machine faster, I've always put them on and never
noticed any problems. However it makes the machine run faster by using a
small amount of you memory, if you have 8Mb or more it shouldn't really be
noticed. If you have 16Mb then definitly leave this on. This is my
humble (and unprofessional) opinion :)
> I must say, I wish I had the source code to my bios, 'cause at this point
> I cannot even disable booting from disk! (It is always possible to press
> escape, and get a boot menu with "Disk, Hard Disk, or CDROM"...)
>
really does sound like you have a phoenix bios. There is an option, its
called Boot Sequence. Although you can't disable booting from disk you
can give it a lower priority and make it occur after its searched the
harddisk. Beware though, I would use the sequence Disk -> CDROM ->
Harddisk -> Whatever remains. This is because if you run into problems
you can either boot off a disk or cdrom without firstly going through your
bios settings and change them so they will boot off the disk or cdrom.
Besides you shouldn't need to reboot your machine much as you are running
linux :)
ta ra
Alex
--
** ((__)) Alexander "Jim diGriz" "Hubenko" Clouter
\\ ((oo))
\\--\\// e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
|| ||
||||||
~~~~~~ equip : 300Mhz Celeron Laptop running
Cow during an Debian Woody Linux
Earthquake
--
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Changing processor speeds
On Sun, 11 Jun 2000, Alexander Clouter wrote:
> I used to have this problem after a resume. Surprisingly it was fixed by
> changing a BIOS option or two. On my laptop I had to turn off 'CPU Idle'
> calls in the *BIOS* and also (probably due to a dodgy Pheonix BIOS) had to
> turn off 'PnP OS'. This solved my problems and so far (touch wood) I have
> had no further slow downs..YAY!
Makes me think of my bios setup: there is an option where you select which
OS you're using ("mostly"), with the options Win95, Win98 or Other... any
idea what that might do? I cannot remember what it is currently on. Other
thing, I read somewhere a recommendation to turn off (video bios?)
shadowing, or something like that. I did that on my previous computer, but
this laptop doesn't have an option like that, and it definately shadows
something (actually two things, I think). What impact does this "shadow"
stuff have?
I must say, I wish I had the source code to my bios, 'cause at this point
I cannot even disable booting from disk! (It is always possible to press
escape, and get a boot menu with "Disk, Hard Disk, or CDROM"...)
Hugo van der Merwe
Re: Changing processor speeds
On Sun, 11 Jun 2000, Benjamin Tyger Sunshine-Hill wrote: > > Hello all, > > I have a Toshiba Libretto 70CT that I use a fair amount for MP3s. I've > noticed over the last couple of months that after some suspend/resume > cycles, the processor will go slower, causing the player to skip. BogoMIPS > confirms this; the rating is either 158 or 238; if I'm inferring things > correctly, that means a drop from 120mhz to 80mhz. Another suspend/resume > cycle usually fixes things. I've noted the problem ever since trying to > use TuxTime a couple of months back. For the curious: > > Linux 2.2.13/i586 > APM BIOS 1.2 (kernel driver 1.9) > > Nothing else really seems topical. AFAICT, the system doesn't care about > the speed change. > I used to have this problem after a resume. Surprisingly it was fixed by changing a BIOS option or two. On my laptop I had to turn off 'CPU Idle' calls in the *BIOS* and also (probably due to a dodgy Pheonix BIOS) had to turn off 'PnP OS'. This solved my problems and so far (touch wood) I have had no further slow downs..YAY! Alex -- ** ((__)) Alexander "Jim diGriz" "Hubenko" Clouter \\ ((oo)) \\--\\// e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] || || |||||| ~~~~~~ equip : 300Mhz Celeron Laptop running Cow during an Debian Woody Linux Earthquake
Re: Changing processor speeds
On Sun, 11 Jun 2000, Alexander Clouter wrote:
> I used to have this problem after a resume. Surprisingly it was fixed by
> changing a BIOS option or two. On my laptop I had to turn off 'CPU Idle'
> calls in the *BIOS* and also (probably due to a dodgy Pheonix BIOS) had to
> turn off 'PnP OS'. This solved my problems and so far (touch wood) I have
> had no further slow downs..YAY!
Makes me think of my bios setup: there is an option where you select which
OS you're using ("mostly"), with the options Win95, Win98 or Other... any
idea what that might do? I cannot remember what it is currently on. Other
thing, I read somewhere a recommendation to turn off (video bios?)
shadowing, or something like that. I did that on my previous computer, but
this laptop doesn't have an option like that, and it definately shadows
something (actually two things, I think). What impact does this "shadow"
stuff have?
I must say, I wish I had the source code to my bios, 'cause at this point
I cannot even disable booting from disk! (It is always possible to press
escape, and get a boot menu with "Disk, Hard Disk, or CDROM"...)
Hugo van der Merwe
--
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Changing processor speeds
On Sun, 11 Jun 2000, Benjamin Tyger Sunshine-Hill wrote: > > Hello all, > > I have a Toshiba Libretto 70CT that I use a fair amount for MP3s. I've > noticed over the last couple of months that after some suspend/resume > cycles, the processor will go slower, causing the player to skip. BogoMIPS > confirms this; the rating is either 158 or 238; if I'm inferring things > correctly, that means a drop from 120mhz to 80mhz. Another suspend/resume > cycle usually fixes things. I've noted the problem ever since trying to > use TuxTime a couple of months back. For the curious: > > Linux 2.2.13/i586 > APM BIOS 1.2 (kernel driver 1.9) > > Nothing else really seems topical. AFAICT, the system doesn't care about > the speed change. > I used to have this problem after a resume. Surprisingly it was fixed by changing a BIOS option or two. On my laptop I had to turn off 'CPU Idle' calls in the *BIOS* and also (probably due to a dodgy Pheonix BIOS) had to turn off 'PnP OS'. This solved my problems and so far (touch wood) I have had no further slow downs..YAY! Alex -- ** ((__)) Alexander "Jim diGriz" "Hubenko" Clouter \\ ((oo)) \\--\\// e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] || || |||||| ~~~~~~ equip : 300Mhz Celeron Laptop running Cow during an Debian Woody Linux Earthquake -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
