Board index Linux Hardware

a new system...linux friendly?

a new system...linux friendly?

Post by Prasanth Kuma » Thu, 17 Feb 2000 04:00:00




> I'm thinking about getting a new system.  The old one has served me well
> but it's time to retire it.  Below is a new system.  I would like your
> comments about it especially with respect to Linux.  If you have insight
> about how well behaved it would be in OS/2 as well that's a plus.  Bear in
> mind that I will likely add a 27.3GB Western Digital 7200rpm Ultra ATA/66.
> How will that work with the Maxtor?  (I once had a Maxtor 120MB that
> wouldn't slave to a WD 340MB so I'm cautious here.)

<snip>

I just read the following note on the Linux kernel List the other day.
It
cautions against combining certain Maxtor/WDC UDMA drives!

"I am using you problem as the example for the world, You need to split
the
Maxtor WDC pair before you corrupt your FS!!!!

Everyone this is the classic case stated many times but no examples.
This
one is different in that irq's are lost only and FS is not destroyed.
Since the
ASIC timing modes on the Maxtor are better than that of the WDC, and it
is the faster drive, the error is minor.

This is only because the order is Maxtor then WDC. If the order was
reversed WDC the Maxtor, you would watch the two destroy each other.
One should never mix a UDMA Maxtor with DMA WDC, the chatter of
the timings will kill."

--
Prasanth Kumar

 
 
 
Top

a new system...linux friendly?

Post by Anton Degue » Thu, 17 Feb 2000 04:00:00


Quote:> External USB Viking 56kV90andFlex Hot Swappable in WIN98 Modem

I would avoid usb devices.  A good old external modem on serial port
sounds better to me.

Anton

 
 
 
Top

a new system...linux friendly?

Post by Robert M. Taylor, Jr » Sun, 20 Feb 2000 04:00:00



> I just read the following note on the Linux kernel List the other day.
> It
> cautions against combining certain Maxtor/WDC UDMA drives!

> "I am using you problem as the example for the world, You need to split
> the
> Maxtor WDC pair before you corrupt your FS!!!!

> Everyone this is the classic case stated many times but no examples.
> This
> one is different in that irq's are lost only and FS is not destroyed.
> Since the
> ASIC timing modes on the Maxtor are better than that of the WDC, and it
> is the faster drive, the error is minor.

> This is only because the order is Maxtor then WDC. If the order was
> reversed WDC the Maxtor, you would watch the two destroy each other.
> One should never mix a UDMA Maxtor with DMA WDC, the chatter of
> the timings will kill."

> --
> Prasanth Kumar


I have had a WDC 1.2 GB drive as hda (PIA mode 4 non-UDMA) and a Maxtor
5.7 GB UDMA dirve combination for nearly two years. This combination
running both windows (hda) and Linux (hdb) has been stable for the whole
time. The only difference has been upgrades of SuSE linux (twice). Whats
the problem? I have corrupted one file system in my experience and that
turned out to be a defective drive (WDC 1.2 GB that went south 6 mos.
after installation and before the installation of the second drive).
--
-----------------------------------------------------
Bob Taylor

SuSE Linux 6.2 on a Cyrix 6x86PR233


 
 
 
Top

a new system...linux friendly?

Post by Thord Nilso » Sun, 20 Feb 2000 04:00:00



Quote:> I'm thinking about getting a new system.  The old one has served me well
> but it's time to retire it.  Below is a new system.  I would like your

[snip]
Youll want a 3-button mouse for X.

If you can have the IDE disks on different channels then
the Maxtor/WDC slaving would not be an issue.

/Thord Nilson.

 
 
 
Top

a new system...linux friendly?

Post by biell.. » Sun, 20 Feb 2000 04:00:00




Quote:>I have had a WDC 1.2 GB drive as hda (PIA mode 4 non-UDMA) and a Maxtor
>5.7 GB UDMA dirve combination for nearly two years. This combination
>running both windows (hda) and Linux (hdb) has been stable for the whole
>time. The only difference has been upgrades of SuSE linux (twice). Whats
>the problem? I have corrupted one file system in my experience and that
>turned out to be a defective drive (WDC 1.2 GB that went south 6 mos.
>after installation and before the installation of the second
>drive).

6 months?  Hmm...  I've heard of problems with 1.2 and 1.6 WDs but failure
was usually much sooner than six months out.  The only HDD "failure" I had
on a "burned-in" WD desktop HDD was actually a controller failure.

--
-----------------------------------------------------------

-----------------------------------------------------------

 
 
 
Top

1. How do I reinstall Linux to a new file system from a running Linux system?

I already have Linux up and running on /dev/hda4.  My swap is /dev/hda3 and
previously I had Windows NT server on /dev/hda2.  /dev/hda1 is my OS2 boot
loader.  So I love Linux, it does everything (and better) then NT server did
(nanny nanny poo poo Billy boy) so I nuked the NT server partition and made
another ext2 Linux partition on /hda2.  I would like to be able to make /hda2
my new Linux system and use /hda4 for user files, games, etc. (non Linux
system stuff).  Right now, /hda2 is empty.  So, how do I get Linux over to
/hda2??

I looked into cp, but the problem is that it doesn't seem to copy files that
have hard/symbolic links to them properly.  At least it didn't seem to work
when I tried to.  Also, it barfs when trying to copy /dev over and I assume it
probably will have a heart attack with /proc.  Anyway, I thought I could
simply copy all the Linux system directories over to  /hda2, reconfigure lilo
to point to it, and then boot.  Doesn't look like I can easily do this.  
Another option I was thinking about, is doing a network install if this is
possible?  I currently have Linux setup with an ISDN high speed Internet
connection (using pppd).  My flavour of Linus is Red Hat 5.2 using kernel
2.1.130 (needed some support in this kernel not available 2.0.36).  Is there a
way I can run the same Red Hat install program that I originally did and ftp
all the files from sunsite over to /hda2 from my running system? I can't
reboot from the floppy install disks to do this, because the ISDN support
isn't there unless my current Linux system is running (I originally did this
by installing the ISDN in a Windoze machine and using ftp through a proxy, but
I don't want to disconnect the device and do this again).

There has to be an easier way?  

Also, I use partition magic (installed in /dev/hdb1 - second IDE drive) to set
this stuff up originally.  It works great and allows me to boot any OS.  It
also allows me to resize partitions - safely.  Is there any advantage to
having my swap partition as /hda3, or should I try to move it physically to
some other part of the disk? ie: move /hda4 to where /hda3 is and
visa-versa putting the swap partition at the end of the disk
partition space. Probably, I should just leave it as it is...

Mark

**  Remove ".nospam" when replying or email will bounce back to you...

2. Printing with Ghostscript

3. new user friendly linux site

4. .fvwm2rc init questions

5. Bash questions

6. HELP: csh-$argv[$#argv]-struct in bash???

7. New BootManager - Linux friendly

8. Help needed in choosing a new OS/2 and Linux-friendly PC

9. New BootManager - Linux friendly


All times are UTC
Board index