Re: [vox-tech] Raid 1 - Fresh Install - Drives seem slow
Bill Broadley wrote: Linux by default does not saturate the disk during rebuilds so that users aren't overly impacted. If you want to speed it up tweak the parameters under /proc/sys/dev/raid. You should be able to get close to whatever the hardware is capable of, at the cost of higher loads and more lag. Thanks Bill, yep I know it will rebuild slowly in the background. I hadn't filled in the new info I have since no one had responded, and figured the thread was dead. Here's the deal I just installed a simple raid-1. I have a single HD on each controller. ie. 2 controllers 2 HDs. That's it, no CD players or DVD drives... I did a fresh install of Sarge. After reboot I unplugged the CD drive, and let the array sync overnight. It took 10hrs to sync 160GiB, which seemed pretty long, so I executed the "dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/null bs=64k count=1" command I've seen posted on the raid list. It took about a minute and change to complete, which is long. So out of curiosity I plugged in a CD player and booted Knoppix. When I ran the same command it took only 30 seconds (which is still not as quick as some of the numbers on that list, but it's an old celeron 466MHz). So Knoppix is configuring something different, I'm searching for the difference I compared the result hdparm under both OSs Sarge:~# hdparm /dev/hda /dev/hda: multcount= 0 (off) IO_support = 0 (default 16-bit) unmaskirq= 0 (off) using_dma= 1 (on) keepsettings = 0 (off) readonly = 0 (off) readahead= 256 (on) geometry = 19457/255/63, sectors = 312581808, start = 0 knoppix:~# hdparm /dev/hda /dev/hda: multcount= 16 (on) IO_support = 0 (default 16-bit) unmaskirq= 0 (off) using_dma= 1 (on) keepsettings = 0 (off) readonly = 0 (off) readahead= 8 (on) geometry = 19457/255/63, sectors = 312581808, start = 0 so I did a "hdparm -m 16 /dev/hda" while under Sarge, but it had no effect Now I'm looking thru the differences in dmesg, nothing is sticking out at me, but I'm not sure I'd be able to find the culprit even if was listed. Below is the diff of my 2 dmesg commands if you have an interest in looking at them: Thanks Jay 1c1 < Linux version 2.6.8-2-686 ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) (gcc version 3.3.5 (Debian 1:3.3.5-6)) #1 Mon Jan 24 03:58:38 EST 2005 --- > Linux version 2.4.27 ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) (gcc version 2.95.4 20011002 (Debian prerelease)) #2 SMP Mo Aug 9 00:39:37 CEST 2004 12,15c12,14 < DMA zone: 4096 pages, LIFO batch:1 < Normal zone: 10240 pages, LIFO batch:2 < HighMem zone: 0 pages, LIFO batch:1 < DMI 2.2 present. --- > zone(0): 4096 pages. > zone(1): 10240 pages. > zone(2): 0 pages. 18,19c17 < Built 1 zonelists < Kernel command line: root=/dev/hda1 ro --- > Kernel command line: ramdisk_size=10 init=/etc/init lang=us apm=power-off vga=791 initrd=minirt24.gz nomce quiet BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix BOOT_IMAGE=linux24 desktop=twm 23,35c21,29 < PID hash table entries: 256 (order 8: 2048 bytes) < Detected 467.789 MHz processor. < Using tsc for high-res timesource < Console: colour VGA+ 80x25 < Dentry cache hash table entries: 8192 (order: 3, 32768 bytes) < Inode-cache hash table entries: 4096 (order: 2, 16384 bytes) < Memory: 49220k/57344k available (1550k kernel code, 7668k reserved, 688k data, 148k init, 0k highmem) < Checking if this processor honours the WP bit even in supervisor mode... Ok. < Calibrating delay loop... 919.55 BogoMIPS < Security Scaffold v1.0.0 initialized < Mount-cache hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes) < CPU: After generic identify, caps: 0183fbff < CPU: After vendor identify, caps: 0183fbff --- > Detected 467.722 MHz processor. > Console: colour dummy device 80x25 > Calibrating delay loop... 930.61 BogoMIPS > Memory: 52904k/57344k available (1406k kernel code, 4052k reserved, 574k data, 144k init, 0k highmem) > Dentry cache hash table entries: 8192 (order: 4, 65536 bytes) > Inode cache hash table entries: 4096 (order: 3, 32768 bytes) > Mount cache hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes) > Buffer cache hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes) > Page-cache hash table entries: 16384 (order: 4, 65536 bytes) 38,41c32,33 < CPU: After all inits, caps:0183fbff 0040 < Intel machine check architecture supported. < Intel machine check reporting enabled on CPU#0. < CPU: Intel Celeron (Mendocino) stepping 05 --- > CPU: After generic, caps: 0183fbff > CPU: Common caps: 0183fbff 43a36,46 > Checking for popad bug... OK. > POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX > mtrr: v1.40 (20010327) Richard Gooch ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) > mtrr: detected mtrr type: Intel > CPU: L1 I cache: 16K, L1 D cache: 16K > CPU: L2 cache: 128K > CPU: After generic, caps: 0183fbff > CPU: Common caps: 0183fbff > CPU0: Intel Celeron (M
Re: [vox-tech] Installing Linux from within Linux
On Tuesday 17 May 2005 18:42, Richard Crawford wrote: > > > Well, the problem is that there is no way to boot from the install medium. > As I mentioned, the computer is set to boot from the hard drive, and she > can't get into the BIOS to change that. How about going to Google and typing the make and model of her computer with "BIOS". She might use that technique to discover how to get into the BIOS. Bob ___ vox-tech mailing list vox-tech@lists.lugod.org http://lists.lugod.org/mailman/listinfo/vox-tech
Re: [vox-tech] Installing Linux from within Linux
On Tuesday 17 May 2005 15:32, Peter Jay Salzman wrote: > All you need to do to install Linux is to boot off Linux install medium. > What OS is on the hard drive is inconsequential. You don't install Linux > from "within" Linux; you just boot a Linux install disk/floppy. That said, > I'm sure there are fancy-pants way of installing Linux. But that would be > needless complicated. Well, the problem is that there is no way to boot from the install medium. As I mentioned, the computer is set to boot from the hard drive, and she can't get into the BIOS to change that. > However, if the ultimate goal is to change the boot sequence, installing > Linux won't help at all. Linux has nothing to do with setting BIOS config > options. That's not the ultimate goal. As I mentioned, the ultimate goal is to install Linux. Unfortunately, since she can't get into the BIOS to change the boot sequence, she can't boot from the install media. I know you can't change that in Linux; I'm pretty sure my original message was clear on that. > If she really wants to change the boot options, she'll have to get into > BIOS. As I mentioned above, she can't. I don't know why. Which is why I was looking for a way to install Linux which didn't involve booting from the install medium. > That said, if what happened is that she changed the "factory default" > settinga and wants to set it back, then she can drain CMOS to reset back to > the default setting. I think that the idea of opening up the case and messing with the innards scares her. ;-) -- Richard S. Crawford http://www.mossroot.com pgpMjvtLcpKIg.pgp Description: PGP signature ___ vox-tech mailing list vox-tech@lists.lugod.org http://lists.lugod.org/mailman/listinfo/vox-tech
Re: [vox-tech] Raid 1 - Fresh Install - Drives seem slow
> I just installed Sarge on an old PPro 180Mhz, with / on a RAID1 device > and everything else on RAID1/VG/LVGs (which is very easy using the new > Debian installer). I'm building this machine to be an offsite backup > machine. > > It took 10hrs to sync my 100GiB partition, the first time, which seems a > bit slow. Linux by default does not saturate the disk during rebuilds so that users aren't overly impacted. If you want to speed it up tweak the parameters under /proc/sys/dev/raid. You should be able to get close to whatever the hardware is capable of, at the cost of higher loads and more lag. -- Bill Broadley Computational Science and Engineering UC Davis ___ vox-tech mailing list vox-tech@lists.lugod.org http://lists.lugod.org/mailman/listinfo/vox-tech
Re: [vox-tech] Installing Linux from within Linux
On Tue, May 17, 2005 at 03:34:57PM -0700, Bill Kendrick wrote: > > "Install GNU/Linux without any CD, floppy, USB-key, nor any other > removable media" > > http://marc.herbert.free.fr/linux/win2linstall.html That doc mentions loadlin, which used to be the way to start linux on the install media from DOS/Windows: http://elserv.ffm.fgan.de/~lermen/ -David ___ vox-tech mailing list vox-tech@lists.lugod.org http://lists.lugod.org/mailman/listinfo/vox-tech
Re: [vox-tech] Installing Linux from within Linux
On Tue, May 17, 2005 at 06:32:41PM -0400, Peter Jay Salzman wrote: > On Tue 17 May 05, 3:22 PM, Richard Crawford <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> said: > > Let's suppose you have a set of Linux CD's (in this case, SuSE Enterprise > > 9). > > The computer already has SuSE 8.2 installed. The user cannot get into the > > BIOS to change the boot sequence (I don't know why, and she doesn't know > > enough about the BIOS to tell me). Is there a way to start a fresh install > > from within Linux? Seems like it should be possible. > > All you need to do to install Linux is to boot off Linux install medium. > What OS is on the hard drive is inconsequential. You don't install Linux > from "within" Linux; you just boot a Linux install disk/floppy. That said, > I'm sure there are fancy-pants way of installing Linux. But that would be > needless complicated. Oh son-of-a... That'll teach me to read too quickly. I read the above and somehow parsed it as: "The machine has windows and can't boot of CD, is there a way to install Linux?" Ugh. Sorry >:^P > That said, if what happened is that she changed the "factory default" > settinga and wants to set it back, then she can drain CMOS to reset back to > the default setting. Yeah, often motherboards include a jumper that allows this to be done 'quickly' (a few seconds, rather than minutes). -bill! PS - There are also some interesting "chroot" install tricks that MIGHT be useful in this case. Found via Rick's LinuxMafia page, not surprisingly: http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Debian/installers.html#chroot ___ vox-tech mailing list vox-tech@lists.lugod.org http://lists.lugod.org/mailman/listinfo/vox-tech
Re: [vox-tech] Installing Linux from within Linux
On Tue, May 17, 2005 at 03:22:46PM -0700, Richard Crawford wrote: > Let's suppose you have a set of Linux CD's (in this case, SuSE Enterprise 9). > > The computer already has SuSE 8.2 installed. The user cannot get into the > BIOS to change the boot sequence (I don't know why, and she doesn't know > enough about the BIOS to tell me). Is there a way to start a fresh install > from within Linux? Seems like it should be possible. Should be. Debian's installation doc mentions, for example: Booting the installation system directly from a hard disk is another option for many architectures. This will require some other operating system to load the installer onto the hard disk. This might help, too (a quick google search): "Install GNU/Linux without any CD, floppy, USB-key, nor any other removable media" http://marc.herbert.free.fr/linux/win2linstall.html To quote: The challenge You are in front of a working, networked machine and want to install your favorite GNU/Linux distribution on it. Unfortunately, you don't have any CD, floppy, USB-key, no nothing at hand. Fortunately, you don't need any one of them. The trick First put the (small) Linux installer on a hard disk and run it from your previous operating system. Finish using the network. In some variants you can replace the network by a (big) hard disk. Hope that helps get you started. Gotta run, -- -bill! [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://newbreedsoftware.com/ ___ vox-tech mailing list vox-tech@lists.lugod.org http://lists.lugod.org/mailman/listinfo/vox-tech
Re: [vox-tech] Installing Linux from within Linux
On Tue 17 May 05, 3:22 PM, Richard Crawford <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> said: > Let's suppose you have a set of Linux CD's (in this case, SuSE Enterprise 9). > > The computer already has SuSE 8.2 installed. The user cannot get into the > BIOS to change the boot sequence (I don't know why, and she doesn't know > enough about the BIOS to tell me). Is there a way to start a fresh install > from within Linux? Seems like it should be possible. All you need to do to install Linux is to boot off Linux install medium. What OS is on the hard drive is inconsequential. You don't install Linux from "within" Linux; you just boot a Linux install disk/floppy. That said, I'm sure there are fancy-pants way of installing Linux. But that would be needless complicated. However, if the ultimate goal is to change the boot sequence, installing Linux won't help at all. Linux has nothing to do with setting BIOS config options. If she really wants to change the boot options, she'll have to get into BIOS. That said, if what happened is that she changed the "factory default" settinga and wants to set it back, then she can drain CMOS to reset back to the default setting. Pete -- Every theory is killed sooner or later, but if the theory has good in it, that good is embodied and continued in the next theory. -- Albert Einstein GPG Fingerprint: B9F1 6CF3 47C4 7CD8 D33E 70A9 A3B9 1945 67EA 951D ___ vox-tech mailing list vox-tech@lists.lugod.org http://lists.lugod.org/mailman/listinfo/vox-tech
[vox-tech] Installing Linux from within Linux
Let's suppose you have a set of Linux CD's (in this case, SuSE Enterprise 9). The computer already has SuSE 8.2 installed. The user cannot get into the BIOS to change the boot sequence (I don't know why, and she doesn't know enough about the BIOS to tell me). Is there a way to start a fresh install from within Linux? Seems like it should be possible. -- Richard S. Crawford http://www.mossroot.com pgppoWmsLeoiE.pgp Description: PGP signature ___ vox-tech mailing list vox-tech@lists.lugod.org http://lists.lugod.org/mailman/listinfo/vox-tech
