On Fri, 2003-04-04 at 15:22, Olaf Marzocchi wrote: > [I sent this message some days ago but I did not see it in the ML. I send > it again.] > > I downloaded two days ago the ISOs and yesterday I installed them in the > following PC: > > Mobo PCChips 748lmrt, 128+64+32 ram, chipset sis620 (with onboard audio > cmi8738, lan davicom 901a, video sis 620 agp shared memory, modem pctel > AMR), celeron 400, video card 3dfx Banshee 16 mb PCI. hda IBM 60GXP 40 GB > (hda1 ReiserFS 5 GB, swap 400 MB and /home about 32 GB, ReiserFS).
> I had a "problem" during X configuration: I saw "Voodoo Banshee generic" as
> video card set automatically, so I simply changed the resolution: from 1024
> to 800. I then tested the configuration and ... EVERYTHING freezed.
> Control-Alt-Fx did not work and I had to reinstall everything from the
> beginning (I didn't know the x configuration was the LAST step! :-\. Hard
> reboot and installation from the beginning. After about one hour and half,
> at the same point of the previous freeze, I simply ignored the test button
> and I accepted the configuration.
>
> When I rebooted (with much expectations, honestly) I found linux booting
> without graphics (I was really suprised: I have seen the graphic boot for
> at least 3 MDKs!) and **really slow**, especially in the "Finding modules
> dependencies" (or similar, I'm writing from another pc because the pctel
> modem is not recognized, as expected: not only it's a softmodem, it's also
> AMR).
looks like it's running depmod -a every boot now -- I've seen this too.
Is this necessary? It takes about 30 seconds or more!
> Unfortunately, when the login manager should have appeared, everything > locked up again. I could hear the HD reading something, but I wasn't able > to kill xfree because I could not access the terminals. Hard reboot AGAIN. > I booted into runlevel 3 and executed XFdrake, this time trying to use a > different driver for the video card. I didn't find one, but I discovered I > could select xfree 4.3 wirthout 3d support or even xfree 3.3.6. I don't > know why but the problem was 3D support: the Banshee card has 3d support > with xfree, but who knows...
Glad I saw this before trying to upgrade either of my servers -- they both have Voodoo3 AGP cards in them. Have you tried using 3.3.6? It was always pretty solid with the Voodoo.
Thank you for the tip! I tried 3.3.6 but, since 4.3 worked, I chose the latest. Anyway, has 3.3.6 3d support? if not, where's the advantage?
> Another strange thing: not only kde and gnome are slower than mdk 9.0, but > even the whole system: for example, window maker or a simple "./configure" > executed in a separate shell outside xfree (runlevel 5). Could it depends > on the kernel? I don't know, but I find this situation very strange and > unacceptable (I mean: I will come back to mdk 9.0 and I'll try to upgrade > manually as much as I can). >
X stuff being slow could be an xserver problem, but this sounds like something different... I don't know what though. /etc/sysconfig/harddisks? Was the system responsive before?
The system has always been responsive ... as responsive as a cel400 with a very poor chipset can be. This time, with 9.1, it's MUCH worse.
The problem should not be related to the harddisk: the ibm hd is now pio (I will change it to dma soon), but the disk works only for few seconds, while apps take many many seconds to start, after the hd has stopped working. I forgot to tell that I set the hd in quietest mode, but this affects only seek time (so it could probably slows down the depmod process), while, as already said, apps take much to start even after the hd has finished.
> A question: why did you choose a -pre kernel? was it really necessary? >
I'll hazard a guess that it's ACPI -- those of us with new laptops and desktops don't get working systems without good ACPI support, and 2.4.21 is definitely a lot better.
What about preemptive patch? is it already inside?
Thank you
Olaf
<olaf@ kjws.com> for every kind of mail, except spam! :-)
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