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dan.lindfield : 10/06/03 03:36 AM : Incident created |
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- After using Mandrake 9.0 for the past 5 months on my home PC and being
very pleased with the results I have installed Mandrake 9.1 on my Atlas
Flyer AMDK6-II 500Mhz notebook, everything works but it is very slow,
frustratingly slow! Taking 3 minutes to Boot and 2 minutes to load KDE.
I have done a little investigating on the kernel features that have been
setup by Mandrake 9.1 and noted the following:
Chipset: Mandrake detects AMD-K6 3D with 64kb secondary cache whereas my
chip is an AMD-K6 2 with 512kb of secondary cache.
Chipsets: CPU to PCI bridge VT8501; PCI to ISA bridge VT82C686 (Apollo);
IDE/ATA controller VT82C686(IDE) Apollo. All these bridges/controllers
are detected by Mandrake but module "unknown" is reported.
So at a first glance it would appear the Kernel is not particularly
optimized for my hardware, the 62kb L2 cache setting instead of 512kb
particularly worries me as I originally procured the higher secondary
cache chip for improved performance.
I've been scouring the web for any clues on which Kernel configuration
or patch might better suit my needs but so fare have come away empty
handed. I also need to add that the last time I tried to compile my own
kernel was a few years ago when I was testing Mandrake 7.0, my
confidence in this area is shaky!
Any practical advice on this problem of mine would be greatly received.
Cheers,
Dan Lindfield
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drakerules : 10/06/03 04:01 AM : Reply received |
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- well kde has a nice gui interface in the "control center" that allows you to modify your
kernel. its ->control center-> system ->"linux kernel"
There you'll see all of the kernel settings and the help info to what your doing
(provided that you've got the "kernel source" installed if not then
mcc->software->install kernel source)
One thing to note is that you've got your file system(s) loaded (enabled) into the
kernel before compiling and rebooting.
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dan.lindfield : 10/06/03 05:19 AM : More info provided |
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- Thank you, I wasn't aware of the KDE kernel configurator, it seems to be a handy little tool.
Unfortunately in my case it seems to lead to deeper problems, as you suggested I opened up the linux kernel configurator in Control Center / System and the following error was returned:
The Kernel configurator could not be read due to the following error:
could not open /usr/src/linux/arch//config.in
I subsequently tried looking for both config.in and .config in /usr and its subdirectories but to no avail. Direcory /usr/src/linux does not exist.
I checked my PC that uses Mandrake 9.0 and everything is as it should be.
Any ideas?
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zeb : 10/06/03 08:09 AM : Reply received |
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- Install the kernel-source package.
Regards.
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dan.lindfield : 11/06/03 04:06 AM : More info provided |
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- OK, Kernel source package and its documentation have been loaded. I can now acces the Control Center - System configurator.
I noted the kernel was configured for a generic 583 CPU and that the VIA VT82C*** chipset was enabled. It would seem sensible to select the AMD K6-2 CPU, this I tried, kcontrol then instructed me to 'make symlinks dep' this returned the following error:
[root@localhost dan]# make symlinks dep
make: *** No rule to make target `symlinks'. Stop.
[root@localhost dan]#
I'm not sure what this instruction means as I cannot find much documentation for it.
Should I resolve this error before compiling as reccomended above?
Also when compiling for a change in the .config file should I be using:
make dep && make clean && make bzImage && make modules
Dan
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dan.lindfield : 11/06/03 07:01 AM : More info provided |
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- Sorry! earlier error was caused by the fact I was not executing 'make' from the /usr/src/linux.
I succesfully executed 'make symlinks dep', will this have compiled the correct Kernel? Or do I still need to 'make dep && ...."
A fundamental question emerges from this exercise of mine: What is the hardware information reported in the Mandrake Control Center? Clearly Mandrake is carying out hardware detection but this seems to be indipendent of how Kernel is configured (E.g. Mandrake detects AMDk6 CPU but kernel is configured for generic 586 CPU). Which then leads me to question what the meaning in the Mandrake Control Center is for "Module:unknown" on the different controllers/bridges that were detected by the harware sweep? Is anyone able to clarify?
I'm sorry if this sounds simplistic and thank you for your continued patience.
Thanks,
Dan
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zeb : 11/06/03 09:52 AM : Reply received |
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- Yes detection has no relationship with the way the kernel has been compiled.
Actually you can use a kernel that was compiled for i586 with an Athlon or K6,
the gain will not be significant if you recompile (by experience). Simply the
kernel is optimised the the instruction set of 586s, but most multimedia
softwares detect the supplementary instruction dets like 3D now.
Moreover, the module unknown is not a problem : some components are either not
supported, either supported in the kernel itself, so no module is necessary or
available.
Regards.
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zeb : 11/06/03 09:53 AM : Reply received |
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- Compiling a kernel is interesting though. But don't forget to setup the boot
loader.
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dan.lindfield : 12/06/03 04:13 AM : More info provided |
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- Zeb, thanks for the advice.
For completeness are you able to tell me what "make symlinks dep" actually does? I have only executed this statement which seemed to initiate a five minute sequence of something that looked similar to compiling. I have note yet executed "make dep, make bzImage etc" but wonder if "make symlinks dep" might have compiled the changes in the kernel. I also don't seem to have much to change in the boot loader.
Anyway, I guess I'm close to closing out this incident, I better understand how the kernel is compiled and which features are incorporated. What I haven't resolved is the root cause of the slow speed on my notebook, I'm going to need to investigate further. Just out of interest what areas would you suggest I look into? Redundant Kernel Components? Superflous background services?
Cheers,
Dan
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zeb : 12/06/03 09:39 AM : Reply received |
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- AFAIK, it computes dependencies. However, I don't know exactly what it does
internally.
Regards
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dan.lindfield : 13/06/03 04:56 AM : More info provided |
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- Can any one else shed light on my questions?
Dan
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dan.lindfield : 23/06/03 04:42 PM : Incident closed |
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