Glitz
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Posts posted by Glitz
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Okay, now that we've all gone off on tangents that are not related to the bios at all, maybe it's time to look at what the bios is and why it is important.
The bios is code that is available to be run as soon as power is applied to the computer, nothing more, nothing less.
It's most important function is to load the MBR of the hard disk and then pass execution to that piece of code. Thereafter, the bios is really no longer of use and may be ignored.
So, as long as it loads and runs the code in the MBR then you can always boot Linux.
There are many other functions in the bios to make a programmer's life easier but these are just bonus functions. They are not (and have never been) required to run the system.
The only possible exception to this rule is ACPI which again, needs to be there when power is applied to the system. However, this again is a nice to have but not required feature. You could in theory just boot up the MBR again and have that handle restoration of the system. It just requires a little creativity.
Now for the caveat: As for booting any operating system that does not use the bios for access to the hardware, the only way it will be able to access the hardware is if the specs for the hardware are known so that a driver can be written. This may or may not exist but is not a bios issue. It is simply the policy of the hardware vendors, whether they wish to write such drivers and/or devulge the specs. Even an Intel/MS bios may not help, if the hardware specs are not known to them. Remember, although it is true that Intel makes chipsets and microprocessors, they are by no means the only ones. There are motherboards out there that contain absolutely no Intel parts on them (and are x86 compatible).
So really, when you get right down to it, the bios really doesn't have to do a whole hell of a lot.
Glitz.
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Alright. For those that think letting the internet do your bios updates for you is fine because it might make the computer boot faster should first think.
Just how long does it take for your computer to get past the boot strap and onto the OS loading? 10 seconds at most? Are you willing to let some one pass a bios viri to you for an extra 2 or 3 seconds on the boot?
if thats really bothering you then you have more problems than the computers bios.
Who has trouble booting their computer now that they will need an automatic bios update in the next week to access their own ports and hardwar? If it didn't work out of the box from the manufacturer then you got robbed.
Personally please leave my untouchable bios alone. I'm fine with a 10 second boot strap.
Who said anything about letting the internet do bios updates for you?
The booting speed really has nothing to do with it.
There was no mention of automatic bios updates, that is not the point.
The point is that now there would be tools for motherboard manufacturers to easily roll their own bios specifically for the hardware on their motherboards. Instead of having to patch modified code around commonly used entry points scattered throughout the bios they can now create a nice clean bios from scratch.
Having said that, the only concern I have is undocumented chipset features appearing in new generations of Intel chipsets. However, this is independent of the new bios arrangement since they could do it with the regular bios as well. In that case, they would simply only supply licensed bios manufacturers with the details of the hardware interface.
Glitz.
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As long as the specs on the chipsets used are public knowledge then anyone can replace the bios with their own. And since there are more than a few companies that would love to take a bite out of Intel's market share I suspect that they will not hide their specs.
If worst comes to worst then we simply make a BIOS that will boot LILO and burn that into the flash instead.
There's not much you can do make the BIOS inaccessible unless you also make the hardware inaccessible. However, for Intel to do that would mean giving up market share to their competition.
Glitz.
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Okay, let's start again ;)
Basically, the files you installed are the various different kernel binaries (the executable programs) that come with Mandrake. There are a few different types and it appears that you installed them all. That's okay, it shouldn't matter. What you really wanted to do was install the kernel source RPM for the kernel you are actually using. A source RPM contains the source code that was originally compiled to produce the executable that you are running. It's my guess that you need to make some changes to the source code (by patching it) and then re-compile it to produce a kernel that works with your driver. Please ask if there is something you would like us to clarify.
Go to the following web site:
ftp://klobouk.fsv.cvut.cz/pub/linux-mandr...6/Mandrake/RPMS
and download the following file:
kernel-source-2.4.22-10mdk.i586.rpm
This is the file that contains the actual source code for the kernel. Install this file. Note that any other Mandrake mirror will have this file available for download. I generally use the eastern European sites because when it's evening here (North America) it is early morning there and I tend to get great download speeds.
Now, you should be able to find the kernel sources you are looking for.
Once you've done this please let us know what the instructions for installing your driver says and we'll try to help you with that as well.
Good Luck,
Glitz.
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This is a good move. It's about time they overhauled the damn BIOS. By now it must really be spaghetti code. They can take a lot of stuff that is no longer used out of the code. I mean, who puts BIOS system calls in their code anymore. All they need is the bare minimum to configure the system and load the boot sector. After that, the OS takes over (at least under Linux :wink: ). Windows may still actually use some BIOS calls but I'm not sure.
Glitz.
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Kernel sources are not included on the download edition of LM9.2. You will have to visit their website and download and install the kernel source RPM.
Glitz.
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I believe you can set them in /etc/profiles. This should be loaded globally at bootup.
Glitz.
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If you have alsa running (it has to be set up properly and running), then set your volume settings the way you like them and from a console as root type:
alsactl store
This will save your sound settings to be restored the next time you boot.
This will only work if you have alsa configured properly and running.
Glitz.
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Okay, I've moved onto LM9.2 and managed to get ALSA to run using an old SBAWE32 ISA non-plug and play card. I had to edit the modules.conf file by hand (since alsaconf doesn't recognize my sound card) but everything on the system seems to work with regards to sound now.
I then downloaded the latest version of Rosegarden, compiled it (not that the version of Jack installed in 9.2 is too old but I compiled it anyway), and installed it. It runs but not properly.
Only the external midi device produces any sound (my old waveblaster addon board). I figured out that the emu8000 driver was loaded but the soundfonts were not loaded. I had to do this manually from a console since I haven't been able to get modprobe to so this automatically. The OPL3 (FM synthesis) however, still produces no sound. And finally, the external midi in does work (my old midi keyboard) but the notes aren't recorded properly. Many have a duration of 0 or are not there at all. This seems to be related to quantization since if I play really slowly then the notes seem to be recorded. I haven't found any settings that change this behaviour. If I just play on the keyboard (not recording) the notes play properly on the midi output device.
I am currently using rosegarden 4-0.9.5.
I will list the contents of my modules.conf file here in case anyone can help me with the soundfont loading problem:
alias net-pf-4 ipx alias autofs autofs4 probeall scsi_hostadapter aic7xxx ide-scsi ataraid probeall usb-interface usb-uhci alias eth0 tulip # sndconfig configuration (OSS drivers) #alias sound-slot-0 sb #options sound dmabuf=1 #options opl3 io=0x388 #alias synth0 awe_wave #post-install awe_wave /bin/sfxload /etc/midi/GU11-ROM.SF2 #options sb io=0x220 irq=5 dma=1 dma16=5 mpu_io=0x330 alias /dev/nvidia* nvidia ### update-modules: start processing /etc/modutils/alsa alias char-major-116 snd alias char-major-14 soundcore #alias snd-card-0 snd-card-sbawe alias snd-card-0 snd-sbawe alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0 alias sound-service-0-0 snd-mixer-oss alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss #alias sound snd-card-sbawe #alias sound snd-sbawe alias snd-synth-midi snd-seq-midi #post-install snd-card-sbawe /usr/bin/alsactl restore #pre-remove snd-card-sbawe date > /tmp/file; echo Storing mixer > /tmp/file;/usr/bin/alsactl store #options snd snd_major=116 snd_cards_limit=1 snd_device_mode=0660 snd_device_gid=29 snd_device_uid=0 options snd major=116 cards_limit=1 device_mode=0660 device_gid=29 device_uid=0 #options snd-card-sbawe snd_irq=5 snd_mic_agc=1 snd_id=SB_AWE32_ISA #snd_index=0 snd_id=sb16 snd_port=0x220 snd_irq=5 snd_mpu_port=0x330 snd_awe_port=0x620 snd_dma8=1 snd_dma16=5 snd_mic_agc=1 snd_isapnp=1 snd_csp=1 options snd-sbawe irq=5 mic_agc=1 id=SB_AWE32_ISA port=0x220 mpu_port=0x330 awe_port=0x620 dma8=1 dma16=5 isapnp=0 csp=1 index=0 dma8_size=64 dma16_size=64 opl3_port=0x388 post-install snd-emu8000-synth /bin/sfxload /etc/midi/GU11-ROM.SF2 ### update-modules: end processing /etc/modutils/alsa#
Note that alsaconf did not produce the entries here. I cut and pasted them from various web pages.
Glitz.
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Installed it on LM9.2 (Geforce 3 and dual Celeron 433MHz) and it sapped another 400fps from glxgears in its default window size (2400fps). I get 2800fps on LM8.1 on the same system with the previous drivers.
On the other hand the 2D performance has increased slightly (tested using xmame fullscreen under X11).
Glitz.
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The one I'm saving my pennies for is at Emperor Linux... It's based on Dell Latitude 800
Check out the RHINO--Click Here!
Power & Portability! Nvidia graphics too! :woops:
Dells seem to be pretty compatible all around. However, Emperor Linux charges one hell of a markup. You'd probably be better off buying a laptop from Dell directly and then installing Linux yourself. The $3100US system described there is probably identical to a Dell inspiron 8600 and would probably only cost you about $2300US directly from Dell (even with XP installed).
Log onto Dell's website (www.dell.com in the US or www.dell.ca in Canada) and you can put together a system to your specs and get a quote. Note that there is a new "deal" every week so don't get pressured into buying because of them.
Glitz.
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It seems to me like you are having major hardware problems on that machine. That could be why win98 doesn't boot up anymore. Maybe you should physically remove the harddrive and stick it in a different machine to rescue the contents.
Glitz.
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Speaking of local exploits, you should see what I can do to both Linux and Windows systems by booting a Knoppix CD... :lol:
Glitz.
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Yes, under GCC you have to link with the -lm option in order to link in the math libraries. Some other linkers link these libraries in automatically. Just specifying the math.h header files with GCC is not enough.
Glitz.
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Does key.read() return an int? If so then try checking the upper bits. I'm just guessing since I have no clue about Java.
Glitz.
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That security flaw must come from the SCO code :P :P :P
Glitz.
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Post Split by bvc
About "top":
<!--QuoteEBegin-->top - 04:34:45 up 5:23, 4 users, load average: 0.18, 0.39, 0.34<!--QuoteEBegin-->Tasks: 66 total, 1 running, 64 sleeping, 0 stopped, 1 zombie<!--QuoteEBegin-->Cpu(s): 3.6% user, 6.9% system, 0.0% nice, 89.5% idle<!--QuoteEBegin-->Mem: 254256k total, 246860k used, 7396k free, 39984k buffers<!--QuoteEBegin-->Swap: 506008k total, 4112k used, 501896k free, 77112k cached<!--QuoteEBegin--><!--QuoteEBegin--> PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND <!--QuoteEBegin--> 5088 crow 18 0 25060 24m 10m S 2.3 9.7 4:49.69 python <!--QuoteEBegin--> 5081 root 15 0 282m 26m 7304 S 2.0 10.6 6:10.50 X <!--QuoteEBegin--> 6244 crow 17 0 940 940 764 R 1.6 0.4 0:00.93 top <!--QuoteEBegin--> .......<!--QuoteEBegin--><!--QuoteEBegin-->
If I'm reading this right, You have approximately 117MB of RAM used as disk buffers and swap space cache (40MB and 77MB respectively), you have 7MB of RAM unused, you have 130MB of RAM used by programs, and you have 4MB of swap space used by programs (most likely this is also cached in the 77MB).
If you open a large application, how do these numbers change? Will the swap cache and disk buffers become smaller as the RAM gets transfered to the new app?
Glitz.
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Here is a link to a quick introduction to simple make files:
http://linux.oreillynet.com/pub/a/linux/20...make_intro.html
Glitz.
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Technonoid, I have an ASUS V8200 deluxe (Geforce 3) using the Nvidia drivers and SMP. I had no trouble getting it to run with Xawtv under LM9.1. I did notice that Xawtv would not start up on occasion if I didn't have a proper video signal on the S-video input but it never locked up my system.
tyme, I deleted the source files so I'm going to have to re-apply the I2C patch and re-compile. I'll let you know what the exact output is when I've done that. Thanks.
Glitz.
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I have the old RS232 serial port version of the tablet and it was detected on install and worked fine on LM8.1.
Since then I have always just copied the LM8.1 configuration into my XF86Config-4 files.
Here are the relevant parts of my XF86Config-4 setup:
Section "InputDevice" Identifier "Stylus1" Driver "wacom" Option "Type" "stylus" Option "Device" "/dev/ttyS1" Option "Mode" "Absolute" EndSection Section "InputDevice" Identifier "Eraser1" Driver "wacom" Option "Type" "eraser" Option "Device" "/dev/ttyS1" Option "Mode" "Absolute" EndSection Section "InputDevice" Identifier "Cursor1" Driver "wacom" Option "Type" "cursor" Option "Device" "/dev/ttyS1" Option "Mode" "Relative" EndSection
Section "ServerLayout" Identifier "layout1" InputDevice "Keyboard1" "CoreKeyboard" InputDevice "Mouse1" "CorePointer" InputDevice "Stylus1" "AlwaysCore" InputDevice "Eraser1" "AlwaysCore" InputDevice "Cursor1" "AlwaysCore" Screen "screen1" EndSection
If you have a USB version then I can't help you. Sorry.
Glitz.
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Thanks guys!
I put the exported variable in the /etc/profile file. Works great!
Now I have the latest Glade-2 and Anjuta stuff compiled and operating on LM9.1 at work.
Glitz.
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I tried to temporarily set environment variables in a bash shell script. However, when the script terminates so does the shell and the environment variables are lost. Is there anyway to transfer them to the original running shell?
Glitz.
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In a console type:
init 3
Log in
Install Nvidia drivers
init 5
You're done!
Glitz.
AMD or Intel ??
in Hardware
Posted · Edited by Glitz
All three run both 64bit and 32bit code.
Opteron is the multiprocessor version but be careful. The 100 series is not multiprocessor capable.
Athlon 64 and Athlon 64 FX are single processor. The Athlon 64 FX is optimized for gamers.
Make sure that you only buy memory modules approved by the motherboard manufacturer. Even then you may have to tweek the voltage to get it to be stable.
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/Produc...18_9331,00.html
The Athlon 64 FX is comperable to the Pentium 4 Extreme Edition (a re-labled Xeon processor).
http://www.tomshardware.com/
Scroll down the page.
Glitz.