Linux-Hardware Digest #612, Volume #9 Tue, 9 Mar 99 19:13:51 EST
Contents:
Re: Buying a new computer for linux (James Knowles)
Re: Disk > 8.4 Gbytes with Redhat 5.2 ("Jim Ross")
Re: AGP Diamond SpeedStar A50 help (Ed Wilts)
Re: Creative Labs Awe32 (egray7)
Re: USR modem 5687 - Will it work? (David Ripton)
Re: Speed..Speed..Speed (Kent Perrier)
Sound: OPTi 82C933 soundchip and kernel 2.2.3 (Ed Wilts)
STB Velocity 4400 w/ TV-Out ? (Manfred Becker)
Re: Can Linux use 36-bit Xeon addressing? (Tomasz Korycki)
Is my hard drive dying? (Michael Riffle)
user app can crash Linux? ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
Re: Dual CPU and Screen Blanking Questions (Henrik Carlqvist)
Re: Can Linux use 36-bit Xeon addressing? (Tomasz Korycki)
AGP video cards (Ron Lockard)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: James Knowles <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Buying a new computer for linux
Date: Tue, 09 Mar 1999 18:50:22 +0000
> I'm in the process of selecting parts for a new computer.
> ...
> I have no previous experience of linux, so sorry in advance for any stupid
> mistakes.
Jump in, the water's fine. :-)
> And could anyone make suggestions for the following bits:
I've had no problems with generic new hard drive, cd-rom, IOmega ZIP
drives. Others may have a different story, but I've had no problems.
> Network card
I personally stick to 3Com or Intel cards. You can pick up OEM PCI 3Com
cards rather inexpensively nowdays.
Overall, I've had no problems as long as I've stuck to mainstream
hardware. I learned my lesson the steer clear of bargain-basement
hardware, both for Linux and the UnspeakableOS.
J.
------------------------------
From: "Jim Ross" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: linux.redhat.install
Subject: Re: Disk > 8.4 Gbytes with Redhat 5.2
Date: Tue, 9 Mar 1999 13:50:03 -0500
Nick wrote in message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>...
>Philip Nelson wrote:
>
>> I've just become the owner of a 13 Gbyte Western Digital 13 Gbyte hard
disk.
>>
>> If I get my BIOS problems sorted out, will Redhat 5.2 be able to use it.
>>
>> If I can't get a BIOS upgrade how does Linux live alongside Ez-Drive /
Ez-BIOS and such utilities ?
>>
>
>I know that if you try installing with Redhat, druid disk is sure to give
you the "primary partition
>too big" error :) if your trying to install it alongside windows, or any
other os I suppose
>
If you have Partition Magic you could try making the partitions with that
first and see if Disk Druid would use that. There are some partition
programs on the internet you might look for and try.
Jim
------------------------------
From: Ed Wilts <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: AGP Diamond SpeedStar A50 help
Date: Tue, 09 Mar 1999 13:00:34 -0600
Nick,
You have to start by getting the latest XFree86 package. I'm currently
using 3.3.3.1-1. The RedHat ftp site has these in the 5.2 directory -
I don't know if they're compatible with 5.1 or not.
Once you've got the latest XFree86, you then need to spend some time
tweaking the XF86Config file that Xconfigurator generates. For my A50
card, the settings were flat out wrong, and it took me an hour or two to
get things working. Here's the extract from my XF86Config file:
Section "Device"
Identifier "My Video Card"
VendorName "Unknown"
BoardName "Unknown"
VideoRam 8192
Option "no_bitblt"
Option "no_imageblt"
Option "sw_cursor"
# Option "no_accel" # Use this if acceleration is causing problems
# Option "fifo_moderate"
# Option "fifo_conserv"
# Option "fifo_aggresive"
# Option "fast_vram"
# Option "pci_burst_on"
# Option "xaa_benchmark" # DON'T use with "ext_eng_queue" !!!
# Option "ext_eng_queue" # Turbo-queue. This can cause drawing
# errors, but gives some accel
# Insert Clocks lines here if appropriate
EndSection
Have fun,
.../Ed
Nick Pate wrote:
> I have a Diamond SpeedStar A50 AGP 8MB video card.
> how can i get this configured for linux 5.1. thanks
------------------------------
From: egray7 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.linux.setup,comp.os.linux.questions
Subject: Re: Creative Labs Awe32
Date: Tue, 09 Mar 1999 18:02:55 GMT
dooogh! wrote:
> Have you tried sndconfig?
Can't, don't have any such program. But I have managed to figure out
how to get some things working properly through an older message I
found that said to put some "insmod" stuff in the
rc.d file. That worked. Except for using the AWE32's midi
system. For that, I need the AWE utils at
http://bahamut.mm.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~iwai/awedrv/ but unfortunately, I
can't figure out how to
install it....there are binaries there, but while the awesfx one seems
to work, the drvmidi doesn't. Think it is set for some other version
of Linux or something. Can anyone help with doing that?
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (David Ripton)
Subject: Re: USR modem 5687 - Will it work?
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Tue, 9 Mar 1999 23:16:05 GMT
In article <7bv3gi$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
Rick Fleischman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I'm presuming this is an internal modem? Rule #1, which you know,
is to avoid Winmodems, even if you just run Windows. Rule #2 is
to always buy external modems. They're much harder to screw up.
(Not impossible; USR did make external Winmodems at one point.)
>At one point, I became frusterated and called CompUSA and asked to
>exchange for a different modem. Since the package was opened, they told
>me they are going to stick me with a 15% restocking fee if I try to
>return it, and they will only do an exchange for an item of equal or
>greater value. I told them the modem pictured on the box is not what I
>got... and they told me to look at the fine print. Lo and behold, the
>message "Product contents may differ from photos shown." AAARRRGGG!!!
>(I think very few people ever read EVERYTHING on the package before they
>buy it)
An external modem that will work is of equal or greater value. Of
course, trading up rewards them for this inappropriate behavior. You
want to get your money back and then buy the modem somewhere else.
You used a credit card, right? Go to the manager and explain to him
that, weasel words on the box aside, you did not get the modem you
thought your were getting, and this stupid PnP piece of junk does
not work in Linux which was the whole reason you bought it, and you'll
sic your credit card company on him rather than paying the restocking
fee, plus never buy anything else at CompUSA again, including that
awesome 21" Sony monitor you were going to buy when the tax return
came. (Well, start very nice and work your way up to that.) If he's
not a complete idiot, he'll let you return it without the extortion
fee. If he is, call your credit card company and explain the
situation. Your credit card company will teach CompUSA who's boss
and why customer service is not optional.
If you paid cash, you're at CompUSA's mercy. Try the manager anyway,
but if all else fails you can always pay the 15% and never go back.
>At this point, I am very frusterated with CompUSA and 3COM/USR. Does
>ANYONE know how to get this working?
Not me, but an external non-Winmodem will work the first time. Even
a USR, though I'd understand if you chose another brand. Good
luck.
--
David Ripton [EMAIL PROTECTED]
spamgard(tm): To email me, put "geek" in your Subject line.
------------------------------
From: Kent Perrier <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.lang.fortran
Subject: Re: Speed..Speed..Speed
Date: 09 Mar 1999 17:00:41 -0600
John Burton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
<SNIP>
> of 16.6, where a *single* 500mhz P-III had a SpecFP95 of 14.7 and
> SpecINT95 of 20.6. Supposedly, from the Spec benchmarks, a dual P-III
> system *should* be better at floating point than the Alpha 21164 533
> Mhz. (I'll believe it when I actually see it...;-)
If the SMP box linerally scales, which it doesn't. If your application isn't
multi-threaded, the second processor will be of little use to you....
Kent
------------------------------
From: Ed Wilts <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Sound: OPTi 82C933 soundchip and kernel 2.2.3
Date: Tue, 09 Mar 1999 13:36:45 -0600
I'm having a problem configuring my new sound card, a Spacewalker
HOT-247 sound card based on the OPTi 82C933 sound chip. I had this
thing working under 2.0.36 (base Redhat 5.2) and now can't get it to
work with 2.2.3. Using sndconfig, I get a modprobe error:
The following error occurred running the modprobe program:
/lib/modules/2.2.3/misc/mad16.o: to many values for dma (max 1)
I'm using the MAD16 driver, and it did work before. This card is PnP,
and I have no idea what the irq/dma/io settings should be. It's a
Linux-only system, so I can't check to see what Windows reports. The
manual is useless.
Any and all ideas would be GREATLY appreciated.
Thanks,
.../Ed
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
------------------------------
From: Manfred Becker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: STB Velocity 4400 w/ TV-Out ?
Date: Tue, 09 Mar 1999 19:41:19 +0100
Hi !
How can I activate TV-Out from Linux ? Has anyone knowledge on this?
Ciao
- Manfred -
--
+----------- Manfred Becker -----------+ W W
! D-53842 Troisdorf-Altenrath ! ( )___( )
! http://home.tronet.de/manfred.becker ! ( o o )
! mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ! ( O )
+--------------------------------------+--oooO-`___'-Oooo---
------------------------------
From: Tomasz Korycki <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux,comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: Re: Can Linux use 36-bit Xeon addressing?
Date: Tue, 09 Mar 1999 14:37:34 -0500
brian moore wrote:
>
> On Tue, 09 Mar 1999 01:26:56 -0500,
> Tomasz Korycki <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > brian moore wrote:
> > >
> > > > Yes. And Your point, as related to "the last holdout from basing their
> > > > systems on Unix concepts is Microsoft" bit? Mind You, if You look deep
> > > > enough into NT architecture, You'll see.... VMS!
> > >
> > > VMS is based on Unix?
> > >
> > > Very interesting news indeed.
> >
> > Never said it was. That was just an "aside". And the explicit answer to
> > my question? I am a little slow on the uptake, as I can't make it out
> > from Your reply....
>
> I didn't think it needed an explanation, since it's clear that IBM is a
> Unix vendor despite also selling OS/400. (Heck, they also sell Windows
> on Aptivas.) Your argument is a red herring. May as well claim that
> Safeway doesn't sell apples because they have milk.
>
Well, allright: IBM makes AIX, which I actually love immensely. But You
walk into almost any bank and You won't see too many AIX boxes (with
exception of SP-2's), or other **IX boxes. What You'll see will be
UNISYS XPM3800 series (love the -82!), S/390, Tandem (and NOT the SGI's
OEM'd boxes). Same in power companies. Same in baggage handling
facilities. And so on.... What does it mean? Not that *IX is worse OS,
just that it's not suitable for some tasks. Like OLTP. What that means,
in turn, is that some companies shoot for that niche. You shouldn't look
at IBM as a one company - they are not. Thay all feed off IBM's brand
recognition and size economies (common sales, etc), but that's pretty
much all. OK, You can call 1-800-IBM-SERV and get service for any IBM
product, be it Aptiva or S/390, but that does not mean You're dealing
with the same organisation in all those cases. In fact the AIX group
(and RS6k group) are completely seperated from, say, OS/2 group (yes, it
still exists). I ,don't care about their common name: they're a separate
company from the S/390 people. Or CPU design and fab people.
Now, that niche also has some specialised players: like UNISYS. They
make their OS2200 and market it quite succesfully, along with the HW it
supports. I looked: they don't see to be making any **IX OS, even though
they DO support their products on various flavours of it.
Correct me if I'm wrong: I thought the definition of "last" included
that there's NO other. Also, Your original statement did NOT include the
"major" quallifier. Which is good, as ho do You define "major".
> The last holdout is Microsoft: every other major OS vendor (including
> IBM, which was unthinkable in 1980, as was DEC) is dealing Unix.
>
See above about the "major" difficulty I have. Plus a vendor is someone
who sells, not necesserily makes, a product. So You seems to be
broadening the domain QUITE a bit... Was that intended?
> Apple, HP, IBM, DEC: all proprietary and wierd OS's of their own 15
> years sgo (remember HP-3000's? or RSTS?). Now with their major OS
> investments in Unix.
>
15 Years ago they weren't weird: they just were. Unix was than "weird"
(by the day's standards), and, generally speaking, a bet on the future
going in certain direction, with VERY little security or ways to
introduce it. That's why "the Enterprise" didn't take to it in
overwhelming numbers.
> The exception: Microsoft.
>
Not the only one, as I'm trying to show. BTW, You seem to be mellowing
Your original statement: it seemed to say MS was the _only_ exception.
Now we have addition of "major", domain broadening with "vendor" and
weakening withlack of "only". Am I to assume "Among companies selling
OSs, Microsoft is an exception in that it doesn't sell any unix-based
OS"? If that's the correct way to read "the last holdout from basing
their systems on Unix concepts is Microsoft", forgive me, as English is
not my mother tongue.
I would also suggest we move to e-mail (if You wish to continue, as
our discussion doesn't have a lot to do with this thread...
>>>>>>>> snip! <<<<<<<<
> Please trim texts when quoting.
>
I do, usually. Unless something seems to me relevant to the subject, or
to someone who might stumble upon a message and wish to know what it is
all about.
> --
> Brian Moore | "The Zen nature of a spammer resembles
> Sysadmin, C/Perl Hacker | a cockroach, except that the cockroach
> Usenet Vandal | is higher up on the evolutionary chain."
> Netscum, Bane of Elves. Peter Olson, Delphi Postmaster
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Michael Riffle)
Crossposted-To: linux.redhat.misc,comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: Is my hard drive dying?
Date: Tue, 09 Mar 1999 23:19:50 GMT
Hoy,
Today, I download, gunzip and untar about a 9 meg file. Right after
it's done untarring, I get a prompt and then the system freezes. No
pings, no nothing.
I go to the datacenter, and the hard drive indicator light is on. But
I can't pull up a login prompt or anything at the console. Screen is
blank.
I reboot, and fsck finds and fixes a bunch of things.
I check /var/log/messages and see :
kernel: EXT2-fs error (device 03:03): ext2_find_entry: bad entry in
directory # 890265: rec_len % 4 != 0 - offset=252, inode=1869902965,
rec_len=11886, name_len=26983
I actually see this repeated a LOT in the /var/log/messages file.
It's been going on for 3 days, I just didn't notice. I saw one
timestamped right when the system locked up.
Anyway, my question is: is my hard drive going kaput? I've actually
seen file system corruption the last 3 or 4 times I've restarted the
machine... but I always figured it was because it wasn't shut down
properly.
Any advice out there?
Mike
(don't respond to my email, it's spam proof. please post here.)
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: user app can crash Linux?
Date: Tue, 09 Mar 1999 23:01:22 GMT
Hi there,
I have the following question: is it normal that a simple application run
from a regular user account to make the machine unusable?
The following situation happened on a P2 laptop with 128M of RAM and 108M of
swap and running linux-2.0.34 (shipped with RH5.1). The machine was running
only the Xserver and fvwm: From a regular user account I started an Xgraph
application on a really big file (19 megs). Xgraph is a program that wastes
memory, but otherwise an ordinary one. After a while, when it became obvious
that Xgraph will not be able to finish its job (the system started to trash
the HDD) I tried to kill it. But any command given from a secondary xterm
(ls, kill, rm etc.) simply dumped the core. Furthermore, the shell from which
I started Xgraph announced that there is no VM available anymore. The single
working solution was to do a hard reset.
What can I do to prevent a regular user to put the machine into such
situation? Can I limit the resource allocation to a given process? Why the
kernel did not protect itself?
Thank you,
Serban
============= Posted via Deja News, The Discussion Network ============
http://www.dejanews.com/ Search, Read, Discuss, or Start Your Own
------------------------------
From: Henrik Carlqvist <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Dual CPU and Screen Blanking Questions
Date: Sun, 07 Mar 1999 20:24:33 +0100
Craig Block wrote:
> Also. Does anyone know how to inhibit the screen blanking?
In Slackware, screen blanking is turned on in /etc/rc.d/rc.M with
# Screen blanks after 15 minutes idle time.
/bin/setterm -blank 15
If you don't want it, comment that line out.
regards Henrik
--
spammer strikeback:
root@localhost [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
------------------------------
From: Tomasz Korycki <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux,comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: Re: Can Linux use 36-bit Xeon addressing?
Date: Tue, 09 Mar 1999 13:22:17 -0500
"Stuart R. Fuller" wrote:
>
> brian moore ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote:
> : >
> : > Yes. And Your point, as related to "the last holdout from basing their
> : > systems on Unix concepts is Microsoft" bit? Mind You, if You look deep
> : > enough into NT architecture, You'll see.... VMS!
> :
> : VMS is based on Unix?
> :
> : Very interesting news indeed.
>
> It might be interesting, but it is certainly wrong news. If you read the
> paragraph above, it implies that the NT architecture is based on VMS.
>
> Stu
It is. Just look who the main architect was and who he brought with him
to create NT. Then look at all the arch details (at kernel level): NT
processes are the same as VMS processes; there are 32 priority levels in
process scheduler of both: 16 highest ones are realtime (or fixed)
priorities, the others are dynamic; the schedulers never lower
processes' priority; lightweight user threads in NT4.0 are
indistinguishable from VMS's threads; virtual memory address maps are
almost identical; both rely VERY heavily on memory-mapped files, using
copy-on-write (VAX has limited support for copy-on-demand, whereas x86,
MIPS and Alpha do not, so...); The concept of working-set is identical,
along with a lot of algorithms; both I/O managers are layered-driver
model, stackable and loadable; both represent resources as objects to be
managed by Object Manager, implementing uniform reference counting and
accounting; security based on same idea (DACL); then: look at
Performance Monitor and MONITOR, or NT backup tool and BACKUP. Devil's
in the details, as they say. Those arch ideas may be common among more
than those two OS's, but when You analyse (I recommend "VAX/VMS
Internals and Data Structures", Digital Press: reads like NT design
document...) actual design assumptions, algorithms, etc, You just can't
help it but conclude that VMS 5.0 and NT3 were born in the same
brain(s). Final argument, in the form of a diagram for both Executives:
Applications Applications
/ | |
Win32 | POSIX OS/2 DOS/Win16 |
======= | ===== ==== ========== |
| | User Mode |
===|=======|=========================================================|=========================
| | Kernel Mode |
=============================================
=========================================
| System Services | | System Services
|
|-------------------------------------------|
|----------------------------------------|
|---------- Process Management, I/O Mgmt, | |------------|
Process Management, |
| Device | Memory Management,...... | | Device |
I/O Management, |
| Drivers | | | Drivers | Memory
Management, |
--------------------------------------------|
|----------------------------------------|
| Harware Abstraction Layer | | Hardware
Abstraction Layer |
|-------------------------------------------|
|----------------------------------------|
'nough said?
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 09 Mar 1999 11:47:08 -0800
From: Ron Lockard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.x
Subject: AGP video cards
Hello,
I'm about to build a new Linux system and I'm trying to figure out which
video card to get. I'd like to get an AGP card, and am wondering what
people's experiences have been with the different cards that are
supported under XFree86?
I'd also like to stick with a card that has a server with good
acceleration so if you have comments about the server it would be
appreciated also.
Thanks,
Ron
------------------------------
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End of Linux-Hardware Digest
******************************
