OK VoidMan I'm Back

[voidmain]

quote:Originally posted by MeatHead:
One last thing VoidMan. I know I should learn a bit more first, but I do have a history of using my unsuspecting neigbors' computers for my own educational purposes.  I guess I shouldn't go to medical school.

Heh heh, I have a good buddy who is a Plastic Surgeon.  He calls me probably every other night with an MS question. Of course I have to put him through terror with my anti-Microsoft crap before I give him the answer to his problem.  You'ld think he would eventually quit calling, but no......

[Louis D]

I guess you should solve it for him.  Ask him to figure out why they call it fdisk.

[voidmain]

quote:Originally posted by MeatHead:
I guess you should solve it for him.  Ask him to figure out why they call it fdisk.

Maybe I should give him the steps I gave out for turning on DOS mode in XP in another thread.  

[Louis D]

I am again posting from the dark side of my hard drive.  Linux is behaving very strangely.  Yesterday I was happy to have my network card up and running.  Today it runs and then everything just stops working.  This distro (mandrake 8.1) has been tempermental with the sound card as well.  In short, things work when I boot into KDE, and then slowly one by one, stop working.  It usually takes about two hours for the ethernet card to stop working, the internet gets progessively slower, then it just stops all together.I know this is a rediculously general complaint, I just need to let off some steam.  I'm not quitting though.  I just need a break.
  Anyway, I'm not asking anyone to fix this for me, but any suggestions anyone has are always welcome.

[voidmain]

quote:Originally posted by MeatHead:
I am again posting from the dark side of my hard drive.  Linux is behaving very strangely.  Yesterday I was happy to have my network card up and running.  Today it runs and then everything just stops working.  This distro (mandrake 8.1) has been tempermental with the sound card as well.  In short, things work when I boot into KDE, and then slowly one by one, stop working.  It usually takes about two hours for the ethernet card to stop working, the internet gets progessively slower, then it just stops all together.I know this is a rediculously general complaint, I just need to let off some steam.  I'm not quitting though.  I just need a break.
  Anyway, I'm not asking anyone to fix this for me, but any suggestions anyone has are always welcome.

Well, I can't say without some more info but I would be willing to bet it has something to do with that network card. Fortunately I can't get slammed too hard on this one if it is because WinXP doesn't even include a driver for this card, the manufacturer just released an XP driver. I would suggest looking at the hardware compatability list on Mandrake's web site and get a more well known card.  Some cheap cards can be found from around 10-15 bucks from companies like DLink (http://www.dlink.com) and LinkSys (http://www.linksys.com).  I like 3Com cards but you won't find one in that price range from 3Com.  I've used DLink and LinkSys very successfully.

Another thing you might want to try in the mean time is open a shell prompt and run "top" as soon as you start your machine. Note how much memory and swap is in use.  Maybe you are running out of memory or that NIC driver has a leak.  You can sort the processes by memory usage by pressing the "M" key.  Of course you could also use the graphical process/memory viewer (kpm or many others).  

It bothers me when people brag about Linux not needing as much memory, you'll never hear that one from me.  Linux screams when you have a lot of memory and never get into  swapping.  Not true if you do a lot of swapping (fortunately I got 512MB of RAM for $80 for my new machine so it's not a big deal to stick in a lot of memory).  It is true that you can use Linux for certain server roles without X on very little memory but when you are using it as a desktop OS, the X and the graphical apps use a lot more memory.  The Laptop I am using right now typing this has 64MB and I can do a fair amount of work but right now I do have 47MB of swap in use along with the 64MB of real memory.  It's not unbearable but it would be noticably faster if I had 128MB in this thing. It's not any slower than my Win2k partition on the other side of the hard drive though, but that side rarely gets booted.

Linux has good support for well known main-stream hardware but you can certainly get into these types of issues with the oddball stuff.  Last time I had a network card problem with Linux was at work when we were still running a Token Ring network, trying to get some Token Ring cards working.  I've actually had more problems with Ethernet Cards under Windows than I have with the same cards under Linux.  You may have an exception.

Oh, you might also periodically check the error count on your eth0 (/sbin/ifconfig).  And check the system logs for errors (/var/log/messages). This does look like a quick throw together driver where a shoehorn was used to port from a similar card.

[ December 20, 2001: Message edited by: VoidMain ]

[Louis D]

I've been happily working on the linux side of the hard drive since I was reminded of why I can't stand windows by a blue screen shortly after my last post.  Rebooting seems to fix some of my Linux problems, at least temporarily.  Anyway, I'm breaking my promise in my last post saying that I didn't want help.  This is only because VoidMan seems to have a soft spot for me, or he is just a bored insomniac.  Either way, I'm glad he answers.  Just a little additional info for anyone interested.  Some things I've noticed about my system.

1.Since the sound card is tempormental, (SoundMax something or other onboard the Intel 815EEA desktop board.  There were also some made with soundblaster cards, which probably have better support in Linux so naturally I don't have that one) I usually just stick to playing CD's.  MP3's work but are full of static.  Shortly after opening XMMS I run HardDrake, the Mandrake Hardware Detection Utility.  For some reason, the detection process (which stops the player for about 3 secs) makes the soundcard behave and the MP3's and other system sounds are clear.  Still, no information about the sound card shows up in the hardware profile it gives, and I notice a deterioration in sound quality over a period of an hour or two.

2.VoidMan, I have to confess that I after I compiled the driver and learned how to mount the floppy and all the other stuff you were helping me with, I found that the fealnx driver was already in the system.  I just had to reconfigure some settings.  I thought it wouldn't work because the card did not show up in the supposed wizard that mandrake provides to set this up.  Turns out I never needed to use that wizard at all.  Also, I'm positive that the driver did not get there because of me compiling it and putting it there. But it was a good learning experience.  Lastly, when I run netconfg, I don't change any of the options it gives me, but when I exit it says that:
/etc/rc5.d/S56xinetd restart and /etc/rc5.d/S90webmin start has to happen.  Sometimes the card works again after I do that without rebooting.

3. Lastly,some other interesting things I noticed that may help anyone interested in helping me out.  Downloading a file has been a complete mess.  That usually causes the system to hang and stop working and I rarely can download a whole file before that happens.  Also I'm getting worse results from various bandwidth tests in my mozilla browser in Linux than I am with Netscape in windows.  In general, our bandwidth has been worse in the past couple of days, but it is especially bad on my machine running Linux.  The file download problem applies to any browser I use (konquerer, galleon, etc), and I only mentioned the bandwidth thing with mozilla because its the only thing I have an equivalent for in windows.

Thanks again for your help.  I'm going to try those things in the last post to see if I can find anything out.  :confused:

[Louis D]

After running that top command, I discovered that I had about 14 of my 128 megabytes of memory free.  I left the terminal window open while I started mozilla, and found that now I have a little less than 4 mb free and about 23 mb in the swap.  I checked it before I shut down last time and I had about the same free and 47 mb in the swap.  I have another 256 Mb of ram, which I had to remove because of errors it used to cause in windows (at least that was the conclusion of microsoft tecnical support)  It used to freeze my computer using the when I was using the CD Burner, and created a shitload of crosslinked files.  so I sent away for another stick, and the replacement did the same thing as well.  I'd be willing to try it again if anyone can tell if this was only a windows problem and thinks it may help this thing run better.

[voidmain]

quote:
 Lastly, when I run netconfg, I don't change any of the options it gives me, but when I exit it says that:
/etc/rc5.d/S56xinetd restart and /etc/rc5.d/S90webmin start has to happen.  Sometimes the card works again after I do that without rebooting.

Dude, I'm starting to think you have a hardware problem if you are having this many problems in both OSs.  And at this point I'm thinking it could very possibly be a bad memory chip. What sort of machine do you have? CPU? Motherboard? Memory Type? I have seen bad memory chips do some strange things. Do you have a neighbor who will temporarily let you steal his memory so you can test it in your machine (assuming it is of the same type). What do your BSOD messages say in Windows?  Just the normal dribble or do you get some useful info when searching for that message in http://support.microsoft.com/support

As far as the part above that I quoted (webmin and
xinetd), webmin is a web based system administration tool (for administering your machine from remote with a web browser, go to http://localhost:10000 to see it) and xinetd is the internet service server for items such as the FTP/TELNET servers.

Mandrake much have a check in netconfig to remind you to restart those services if you change your network card config (new IP address etc).  It sounds like you should go through all of your services and turn off the ones you don't need to save on memory if you don't have a lot of it.  I usually do this manually by removing or linking scripts in the /etc/rc.d/rc?.d directories but there are command line and windows tools to do this as well. On the command line use the "chkconfig" and "service" commands, in X you can use the "ksysv" command. Not sure if Mandrake has these particular tools but I bet they do.

For instance, on the command line you could type "/sbin/chkconfig --list" and see what services are installed and which ones are enabled on system startup.  To turn off the webmin service you would type "/sbin/chkconfig webmin off".  This does not stop the service, just makes it so the service will not start on bootup. To stop the service you can do a "/sbin/service webin stop", or to restart the service "/sbin/service webmin restart".

Again, this sounds like you have hardware problems.  Another thing I have seen is if you have a faster processor with a CPU fan.  Sometimes you will get funky problems like this if the fan is not working and the CPU gets really hot.  Swapping out some of the easy parts with a neighbor might pin it down.  Memory, sound card, network card, etc... Doesn't sound like a hard drive problem.

Good luck.

[voidmain]

quote:Originally posted by MeatHead:
I have another 256 Mb of ram, which I had to remove because of errors it used to cause in windows (at least that was the conclusion of microsoft tecnical support)  It used to freeze my computer using the when I was using the CD Burner, and created a shitload of crosslinked files.

Hey! This message wasn't here when I sent the above reply about suspecting memory.  I agree with Technical support. It's either bad memory, bad CPU, or bad Motherboard.  I think it could be other hardware but less likely.

[Louis D]

That ram that I was talking about has not been in my machine for a few months now.  It shouldn't surprise you to find out that the ram was like $20 and that it was brand X and I bought it from the same place that I bought the Ethernet card.  I'm a lot more knowlegable about hardware than I am about other things, but I often go into denial (Not wanting to admit to myself that I bought a useless piece of shit).  So before I get any bright ideas about taking apart my system to install a piece of ram that came from the nevada desert, I went to the Intel website to remind my self that there are many kinds of memory that are tested a work with this board.  Also, since my ram really isn't any brand at all there is no way of knowing if it is one of them.  I'm also starting to figure out the soundcard thing.  The OS does recognize it, it just doesn't come right out and say it.  I found some settings I didn't know existed and pretty much fixed the static problem too.  If I spent as much time messing with the OS as I do posting to this board, I might figure more things out.  But then what would you (VoidMan) do all night?
Anyway, I'm going to mess with this a little more because the more I mess with it the better it behaves for me (Obviously this OS is female).  I'll try to whine a little less, but I appreciate all the help I've recieved.  Enough computers for tonight.  I wish I worried this much about the organic chemistry final I have tommorow, but so far, linux has been more of a challenge (well at least a challenge that doubles as a tool for downloading porn when I'm irratated with it).  This MeatHead needs a protein shake and his bed.  Talk to you tommorow.

[voidmain]

quote:Originally posted by MeatHead:
That ram that I was talking about has not been in my machine for a few months now.  

I would still test the RAM that is currently in your machine by replacing it with known good RAM.  I wouldn't be surprised if that has been your problem all along. I have seen this before. You can not be sure until you do this.

[ December 20, 2001: Message edited by: VoidMain ]

[Louis D]

On another note, I have a question about some files in the /proc/sys/net/core/ directory.  After running the tweak test on DSL reports, it explained to me that I need to change the size of my recieve window.  Currently 65530 and reccomemdeded to be between 14000-37752 for my connection.  So I went in to the files rmem_default and rmem_max and changed the values.  (logged in as root, then used vi)  When I reboot the machine, the values return to the ones there before I made any changes.  Can you tell me why this is, and if it will make a difference in my connection/download speeds?

[voidmain]

quote:Originally posted by MeatHead:
On another note, I have a question about some files in the /proc/sys/net/core/ directory.  After running the tweak test on DSL reports, it explained to me that I need to change the size of my recieve window.  Currently 65530 and reccomemdeded to be between 14000-37752 for my connection.  So I went in to the files rmem_default and rmem_max and changed the values.  (logged in as root, then used vi)  When I reboot the machine, the values return to the ones there before I made any changes.  Can you tell me why this is, and if it will make a difference in my connection/download speeds?

           "/proc" only exists when the system is running.  It's not a real filesystem.  You can make runtime adjustments in there and even put a command in one of your startup scripts (rc.local):

echo 65535 > /proc/sys/net/core/rmem_default
echo 65535 > /proc/sys/net/core/rmem_max

Better yet, do a "man sysctl" and a "man sysctl.conf" and put your changes in the /etc/sysctl.conf file.

Please install your kernel source and read the /usr/src/linux*/Documentation/networking/ip-sysctl.txt for an explanation of these parameters.

Or you can change the values in the kernel source and rebuild and they'll be perm, but I would not recommend this method (upgrading will reset the default you desire). I would be suspect that reducing this will have the desired effect, but I encourage you to experiment.

[ December 20, 2001: Message edited by: VoidMain ]

[Louis D]

Once again VoidMan, thank you.  I feel like I should send you a Christmas card.  You realize that if you look at some of my earlier posts, it wasn't too long ago that I was asking how to mount my floppy.  Obviously, you've been a big help.  Of course I'll always have more questions, but at this point I feel guilty asking you anything else.  But I would appreciate a picture of your Traxxas truck if you have one.

[voidmain]

quote:Originally posted by MeatHead:
But I would appreciate a picture of your Traxxas truck if you have one.

No problem, and there is a web site dedicated the the truck we have: http://www.t-maxx.com/ which even has some pretty good movies of it in action.