On Friday 21 November 2003 08:54 pm, Sotocan wrote:
> Hello mates,
>
> First of all you need to know my hardware:
> Mobo: MSI 865PE Neo2 FIS2R - BIOS v1.4 - build date
> 18/08/03,
> CPU: Intel P4 2,8 FSB800 HT (HT is enabled in the
> BIOS), 2x256 DDR 400 RAM,
> VGA: MSI FX5900-VTD128 - BIOS v4.35.20.18.04,
> Hdds: (BIOS setting: native mode; that is 4 IDE
> channels) Hitachi SATA Deskstar 7K250 - 80GB, IBM "DeathStar"
> DTLA 307030 (operating in PIO mode only!)
> Cd-roms: Plextor CDRW and a Pioneer DVD-rom
Output of 'lspci' or 'lspcidrake' and 'cat /proc/cpuinfo'
would be helpful. Also "2x256 DDR 400 RAM" says practically
nothin. Ram labeled pc3200 and DR400 could vary from junk to very
good stuff. Vendor, ns speed, and CAS rating would rule here.
Junk ram isn't a problem in Windoze, cause M$ doesn't use it very
well anyhow. Linux exploits it to it's fullest.
MSI, makes good boards, but all i8<whatever> chipsets sort'a
suck with any real OS, IMO. To mitigate ram problems you can
minimize ram timings (ie, increase clock cycles for CAS,
precharge and ras/cas, disable banking), and if your MSI/bios
supports it, give it a little extra IO voltage, eg, increase from
2.5 to 2.6 or 2.7. As to the Intel chipset/P4 ...well that's why
so many people are usin AMD systems ;> BTW, your FSB is 200Mhz.
800 is a quad pumped marketing number.
> I have a dual-boot system (the other OS is winXP, which boots
> normally). My problems with mdk 9.2
> started very early. During the installation process and right
> after the mouse configuration and testing screens, my computer
> freezes. I reset it a couple of times but no progress could be
> made. Finally, I decided to unplug the "DeathStar". Voila, the
> installation process proceeded normally. Now the boot problem..
> If I choose the "linux-smp" kernel the system freezes right
> after the ..
> Finding modules dependences [OK]
>
> >cursor blinks for a second or two here and then freezes.
>
> If I plug the IBM's hdd, the "linux-smp" kernel always freezes
> when it tries to activate the DMA on that disk.
>
> Now my other option is to boot with the standard (non-smp)
> kernel. This kernel always passes the step of trying to
> activate the DMA on the IBM's hdd (without actually succeeding
> - this is not an issue since even winXP fails, so it's the hdd
> that is problematic.). This kernel also manages 3 out of 4
> times to start the X-server, but exactly then it freezes the
> system as well (Grrr!!!)
>
> The "failsafe" kernel always boots normally, unless I press 'Y'
> in the HDDs integrity check question.(that is when I haven't
> shutdown the system properly). Fsck ALWAYS freezes the system
> after 35% - 70% completion (Once it managed to check one
> partition completely, but right after that my computer
> reboot-itself !!!)
>
> I couldn't find much in the error logs, but one thing might be
> useful to you:
> In /var/log/kernel/errors file, whenever I don't boot with the
> "failsafe" kernel the following errors appear:
> Note: "ide" is the Hitachi SATA device.
> errors:
> .Kernel: ide: late registration of driver
> .Kernel: Swsusp 1.0.3: Missing or invalid swap
> partition location (resume= parameter). Disabled.
>
> Swap partition should be valid since I re-installed the OS,
> reformatting all the partitions in the process.
> A final note, all the partitions (except swap :-)) in the ide
> drive use the ext3-fs.
ReiserFS or XFS would'a been a better choice.
> Do you think updating to
> kernel-smp-2.4.22.18mdk-1-1mdk.i586.rpm,will solve my problems
> ???
> Thanks in advance.
No, smp (symmetrical multi processors) is as it says for dual
cpu systems. With 512mb ram and one cpu, you want the 'regular'
kernel. HT (hyper threading) AFAIK is still just treated as one
cpu. 'cpuinfo' should tell you for sure if I'm right on this.
Other than that you probly want the newest kernel you can find,
SATA is now only gaining some decent kernel support from all I've
read. Are you sure you've got the right driver for the SATA
controller? You're probly gonna have to search the web on this
issue, or the linux-kernel mailing list archive. I've avoided
SATA (ATA/133 is often faster, less cpu dependant anyhow), but
maybe someone here or on the expert list who's tryin it can help.
I believe that and the wrong kernel are at the heart of your
problems.
I believe you'd do well to boot to level three (no X) till you
get this sorted out. You can do that by usin any one of MCC,
editing /etc/inittab, or hit <Esc> at the lilo screen and typing
'linux init 3'. You can also do that from the 1st CD by pressing
<F1> at the first screen and typing 'rescue'. After you log in at
level three, you can then start your WM with 'startx'.
--
Tom Brinkman Corpus Christi, Texas
Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft?
Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
