The Geekly Guy

This blog contains information regarding all things Linux, although any computer technology subject matter fits within the realm of this blog.

Saturday, December 21, 2002

Playing a bit more with Debian 3.0, I wanted to see how the new motherboard and CPU handled my drives. The EIDE drives I have are a 60GB Maxtor 7200rpm disk, a 4GB Western Digital (WD) 5400rpm drive, and a WD 5400rpm drive. The Maxtor is capable of ATA66 and the big WD is capable of ATA100.

I used the command '/sbin/hdparm -d1 -c3 -m16 /dev/hdX' on each drive, with X representing 'a,' 'b,' or 'c.' This sets up the drives DMA, 16/32bit, and other settings.

I then ran 'hdparm -tT /dev/hdc' and got the below stats:
_____________
debian:/etc/rcS.d# hdparm -tT /dev/hda

/dev/hda:
Timing buffer-cache reads: 128 MB in 0.60 seconds =213.33 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 1.74 seconds = 36.78 MB/sec
debian:/etc/rcS.d# hdparm -tT /dev/hdb

/dev/hdb:
Timing buffer-cache reads: 128 MB in 0.60 seconds =213.33 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 6.93 seconds = 9.24 MB/sec
debian:/etc/rcS.d# hdparm -tT /dev/hdc

/dev/hdc:
Timing buffer-cache reads: 128 MB in 0.60 seconds =213.33 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 2.75 seconds = 23.27 MB/sec
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/dev/hdb, the 120GB 5400rpm ATA100 drive is really moving some data, if you look at the stats, but the Maxtor is even quicker (faster spindle speed, most likely). Strange, as the 120GB also has a 8mb cache. Hrmm...

I got XP to boot. I went into the BIOS and played with some settings, then tried to reboot XP...it booted, but I then had to redo my network settings and configure the onboard soundcard. I'd thought I'd have to reinstall XP but then I realized that my old mainboard was also utilizing the VIA chipset, so XP shrugged and kept going.

I then tried a quick game of Quake3A. OMG! This machine FLYS! My framerates jumped from an average of 60-70fps to 80-90s...and this is without overclocking the vidcard! My vidcard is a Radeon 7500. The system played so much faster that I was having trouble controlling my character on the screen! There is no more slight hesitations or burping...its smooth as glass. I'll try to play UT tomorrow and see how that plays.

I'm gonna take the upgraded box with me to VA when I go to my new job. I'll leave the monitor here and buy a new one in VA. I don't think I can stand leaving this hot box here, which means I'll have to upgrade the lower end box from W98 to XP for my wife. It usually boots Slackware 8.1 but she's NOT going to use that...she'll just whine. I was hoping to be able to leave the Slack box on so I could SSH into it from VA, but I guess not (unless I call my wife and have her boot up Linux for me)....either that or leave her my laptop, which I don't think I'll do either. :o)

So, now I have a P200MMX mobo and CPU AND a 500mhz mobo/Celeron CPU not being utilized. This box, the Slack box, is using a 400mhz Celeron which I'm going to swap with the 500mhz one...not that its going to make a huge difference, but I may as well get as much ooomph as I can from this box.

Well, I'm outta here for now. I think I'll read some FreeBSD or Debian or Slackware docs on my Zaurus (got all three manuals installed on my 128MB SD card). NIGHT!

Friday, December 20, 2002

In dmesg:
..... CPU clock speed is 1666.7804 MHz

In X-Chat, using a Perl script:
I Am Using Debian 3.0, testing/unstable �� Linux 2.4.18-bf2.4 - i686 �� 1666.757 Mhz - AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2000+ �� Uptime ( 4 min, 2 users ) Memory Information ( 516M Megs Of Ram, 33 Megs Used - %6.41537 ) �� Hard Drive Info ( 170G Hard Drive, 152G Free ) �� Monitor Resolution ( 1280x1024 ) �� Internet Info ( Downloaded 0.03M, Uploaded 0.01M ) ��

Uname:
Linux debian 2.4.18-bf2.4 #1 Son Apr 14 09:53:28 CEST 2002 i686 unknown

AWESOME. I'm going to take some pictures, as soon as I can boot XP and offload the pics that are currently in my digital cam.

Yes, I finally got my Athlon XP 2000+ CPU and Gigabyte Socket A GA-7ZXE motherboard. I can feel the CPU's heat and the BIOS states the CPU temp is 145 degrees F. The case is still open but I'll shut it soon. I have the feeling I'll need more case fans. The system seems fast! I'll try to compile a kernel this weekend.

The only thing is that XP will not boot. And earlier, my Debian and FreeBSD installs were working but my NIC wasn't working...it was having an IRQ conflict...I eventually moved it to the last slot in the box and the Linux/Unix OSs were fine afterward. Now, to get XP up again. I dunno what I'm gonna do about that, other than reinstall XP (grrrr....again). Or at the very least, reinstall it but on a separate partition, leaving the older install alone.

We'll see. Later.

Monday, December 16, 2002

Guess what? I'm typing this from my new FreeBSD 4.7 box. I must say that this is very nice. I installed it on my 4GB drive but am fast running out of space! I may have to move it to a different drive. :o\

I fixed my X problem by installing the latest X port. I'd got X running as root but it wouldn't run as a normal user. I remember Tully from irc.freenode.net's #slackware stating that I needed to install 'wrapper' for X so that normal users could use X. I googled 'wrappers' and 'X' and found some data on it. I then installed the wrapper port and X worked as a regular user.

I also had to hack my XFConfig file to get the mouse working.

I also had to install the BASH port, as FBSD uses everything BUT BASH as the default shell.

Right now I'm using KDE until I get things polished a bit, but it looks like I may have to move this install or at the very least, move /usr to a different hard drive (if that's even possible, as I'm trying NOT to reinstall FBSD if I don't have to). Take a look:

$ df -H
Filesystem Size Used Avail Capacity Mounted on
/dev/ad1s1a 132M 48M 73M 40% /
/dev/ad1s1f 264M 1.2M 242M 1% /tmp
/dev/ad1s1g 3.1G 2.3G 549M 81% /usr
/dev/ad1s1e 264M 8.9M 234M 4% /var
procfs 4.1K 4.1K 0B 100% /proc

Yeah, not too good. :o(

Well, I'll dwell on it all later. Night!