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martinbishop
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Joined: 16 Dec 2003
Posts: 66
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 Posted: Wed Dec 24, 2003 11:43 pm Post subject: Basic gentoo tips that worked for me |
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I don't know that this will help anyone, but here are some basic tips for gentoo that have worked for me.
One: System Performance
Su to root and try hdparm -Tt /dev/hda (or your system drive) and check that both speeds are good, for a 7200rpm drive, the top should be well into the hundreds, and the second test should be around 40MB/s. I was getting really lagged on single compiles and large downloads, turns out that I missed an option for my IDE drives in the kernel, look in Device drivers, ATA/ATAPI,blah support, and try to find your ide device under the ide support section, enabling the correct one for me helped ALOT.
Two: /boot
when copying a new bzImage to your boot sector, MAKE SURE TO HAVE /BOOT MOUNTED.
doing cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot will NOT give you errors since there is a /boot on your / directory.
Three: ALSA
2.6 has alsa built in to the kernel, but you still need to emerge alsa-utils and get alsamixer and unmute the bars as needed.
Four: ALSA-xmms
This one took a while to get an answer for, but I saw it help at least 3 people at the same time as it helped me. When playing mp3's and streaming radio, there would be annoying poping sounds from my speakers, nothing I did would help. Heres how I finally fixed it. Open preferences in XMMS and make sure you have the alsa-xmms plugin used for your audio. Then click advanced, and deselect the Mmap option. Problem solved.
Note: All these solutions were usually given to me or to someone else from people who really know what the hell they are doing, and I am glad they share what they know. |
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neenee
Veteran
Joined: 20 Jul 2003
Posts: 1786
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| Posted: Thu Dec 25, 2003 12:16 am Post subject: |
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thanks for the tips; though i knew them myself,
there's nothing wrong with sharing what you know;
there's always someone who can benefit from it.
and merry christmas  |
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chipi
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Joined: 05 Oct 2003
Posts: 62
Location: Israel
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| Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2003 2:53 pm Post subject: |
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Thank you for the tips, but can explain a little further about the first one? I think I'm getting low results.. the first one is about ~240MB/s and the second one is ~7MB/s... That doesn't sound too good for me... and it happens with all of my hardrives (i have two, both are 7200RPM).
If can explain how you solved it - it would be great  |
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dkaplowitz
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Joined: 22 Nov 2003
Posts: 596
Location: Philadelphia, PA
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| Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2003 3:21 pm Post subject: |
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| chipi wrote: | Thank you for the tips, but can explain a little further about the first one? I think I'm getting low results.. the first one is about ~240MB/s and the second one is ~7MB/s... That doesn't sound too good for me... and it happens with all of my hardrives (i have two, both are 7200RPM).
If can explain how you solved it - it would be great |
I got:
| Code: |
/dev/hda:
Timing buffer-cache reads: 1048 MB in 2.00 seconds = 522.95 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 20 MB in 3.03 seconds = 6.61 MB/sec |
I'm running a 7200rpm 80GB drive (Maxtor I think) with reiserfs. And my system was only running X at the time I ran the test.
I've been curious about my disk's performance since installing Gentoo. I did a couple of large file x-fers (~4gb) and my system couldn't multitask anymore ---stuff like xmms would start sputtering out and chopping up the music I was listening to. Though I know a file x-fer like this will hammer my disk's performance, my old Redhat install (same drive with ext3) would still allow me to mult-task. Is it possible I misconfigured something that would cause such poor system performance with my disk?
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edave
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Joined: 28 Sep 2003
Posts: 9
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| Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2003 4:31 pm Post subject: |
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dkaplowitz and chipi:
That is most likely due to DMA being turned off. Try hdparm -d /dev/hda and see wether it is turned on or not. If not, you may turn it on by hdparm -d1 /dev/hda (assuming your chipset supports IDE DMA) |
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hulk2nd
Guru
Joined: 25 Mar 2003
Posts: 512
Location: Freiburg, Germany
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| Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2003 4:48 pm Post subject: |
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| Code: | /dev/hda:
Timing buffer-cache reads: 1172 MB in 2.00 seconds = 585.80 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 76 MB in 3.05 seconds = 24.94 MB/sec |
without any tweaking on my 5400rpm 40gb hitachi notebook hdd. i remember to have MUCH better results when playing around a little bit with hdparm settings.
greets,
hulk |
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chipi
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Joined: 05 Oct 2003
Posts: 62
Location: Israel
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| Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2003 5:17 pm Post subject: |
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Well yes, I have DMA turned off on both of my hard-drives.
But when I try to turn it on, it gives me "Operation not permitted". I'm logged as root.
Why? |
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Wedge_
Advocate
Joined: 08 Aug 2002
Posts: 3614
Location: Scotland
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| Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2003 5:21 pm Post subject: |
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I think that may mean the kernel you're using doesn't properly support your IDE controller. Try a newer version and see if that helps.
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Gentoo Radeon FAQ |
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joem
Retired Dev
Joined: 20 Dec 2002
Posts: 508
Location: Bloomington, In
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| Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2003 5:31 pm Post subject: |
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| There is a turn dma on by default option for hard disks option that you can select in your kernel config |
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dkaplowitz
Guru
Joined: 22 Nov 2003
Posts: 596
Location: Philadelphia, PA
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| Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2003 5:47 pm Post subject: |
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| edave wrote: | dkaplowitz and chipi:
That is most likely due to DMA being turned off. Try hdparm -d /dev/hda and see wether it is turned on or not. If not, you may turn it on by hdparm -d1 /dev/hda (assuming your chipset supports IDE DMA) |
Thanks for the tip. It looks as though I will need to enable this in my kernel, since this is the result I got:
| Code: |
# hdparm -d1 /dev/hda
/dev/hda:
setting using_dma to 1 (on)
HDIO_SET_DMA failed: Operation not permitted
using_dma = 0 (off)
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I'm gonna go look for the option in my kernel config. Hopefully it's relatively easy to find..
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airflow
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Joined: 14 Dec 2003
Posts: 173
Location: Vienna, Austria
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| Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2003 8:14 pm Post subject: Re: Basic gentoo tips that worked for me |
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| martinbishop wrote: | Two: /boot
when copying a new bzImage to your boot sector, MAKE SURE TO HAVE /BOOT MOUNTED.
doing cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot will NOT give you errors since there is a /boot on your / directory. |
I would generally suggest to mount the /boot-Partition permanently via an entry in fstab. I don't know why the default-setting in gentoo is the non-permanent variant.
regards,
airflow |
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dkaplowitz
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Joined: 22 Nov 2003
Posts: 596
Location: Philadelphia, PA
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| Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2003 9:53 pm Post subject: Re: Basic gentoo tips that worked for me |
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| airflow wrote: | | martinbishop wrote: | Two: /boot
when copying a new bzImage to your boot sector, MAKE SURE TO HAVE /BOOT MOUNTED.
doing cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot will NOT give you errors since there is a /boot on your / directory. |
I would generally suggest to mount the /boot-Partition permanently via an entry in fstab. I don't know why the default-setting in gentoo is the non-permanent variant.
regards,
airflow |
Although I don't really get why it's so, they say it's for security reasons. Others recommended that I not mount it in fstab, but rather to leave it as is. Frankly I don't really see the security implications of this. Sure you can delete important files, but you can do that on any mounted fs. Maybe someone could shed some light on this. I'm sure I'm missing something.
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dkaplowitz
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Joined: 22 Nov 2003
Posts: 596
Location: Philadelphia, PA
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| Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2003 9:57 pm Post subject: |
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| dkaplowitz wrote: | | edave wrote: | dkaplowitz and chipi:
That is most likely due to DMA being turned off. Try hdparm -d /dev/hda and see wether it is turned on or not. If not, you may turn it on by hdparm -d1 /dev/hda (assuming your chipset supports IDE DMA) |
Thanks for the tip. It looks as though I will need to enable this in my kernel, since this is the result I got:
| Code: |
# hdparm -d1 /dev/hda
/dev/hda:
setting using_dma to 1 (on)
HDIO_SET_DMA failed: Operation not permitted
using_dma = 0 (off)
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I'm gonna go look for the option in my kernel config. Hopefully it's relatively easy to find.. |
All I had to do was enable my VT82C5xxx chipset in my kernel config. DMA is on now, and this is my hdparm -Tt /dev/hda output:
| Code: |
# hdparm -Tt /dev/hda
/dev/hda:
Timing buffer-cache reads: 1056 MB in 2.00 seconds = 527.21 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 102 MB in 3.11 seconds = 32.82 MB/sec |
Much better now. Thanks for the help.
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martinbishop
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Joined: 16 Dec 2003
Posts: 66
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| Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2003 11:15 pm Post subject: |
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| I had the same problem trying to turn DMA on for my hdd, when it tells you it can't, even though you are root, it definatly means something is wrong with your kernel options. |
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adaptr
Watchman
Joined: 06 Oct 2002
Posts: 6730
Location: Rotterdam, Netherlands
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| Posted: Sat Dec 27, 2003 4:44 am Post subject: Re: Basic gentoo tips that worked for me |
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| airflow wrote: | | martinbishop wrote: | Two: /boot
when copying a new bzImage to your boot sector, MAKE SURE TO HAVE /BOOT MOUNTED.
doing cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot will NOT give you errors since there is a /boot on your / directory. |
I would generally suggest to mount the /boot-Partition permanently via an entry in fstab. |
My first guess would be that you log in as root on every occasion.
| Quote: | | I don't know why the default-setting in gentoo is the non-permanent variant. |
A few very simple reasons:
1. How often do you need access to the boot partition ?
Which basically means : how often do you recompile your kernel ?
If the answer is not "at least 3 times a day" then there is absolutely no reason to have /boot mounted in the normal course of running things.
2. Simple security at zero cost: if it's mounted, you can mess it up; if it's not, you can't. Simple as that.
Anyone with even a clue about security will tell you that you do not grant access unless it is necessary; you never do the opposite (deny access when needed). That's the M$ way - the highway to ruin.
Minor caveat: (2) is pointless if you habitually run the system as root; all one has to do is "dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/hda" and watch while your world crumbles before your eyes... |
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chipi
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Joined: 05 Oct 2003
Posts: 62
Location: Israel
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| Posted: Sat Dec 27, 2003 10:49 am Post subject: |
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| Sorry, I don't know much about my chipset... How do I know which one do I have? what chipset is it? the hard-drive's or the motherboard's? I have one Maxtor hard-drive and the other one is Seagate... What else do I need to know? |
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dkaplowitz
Guru
Joined: 22 Nov 2003
Posts: 596
Location: Philadelphia, PA
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| Posted: Sat Dec 27, 2003 1:51 pm Post subject: |
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| chipi wrote: | | Sorry, I don't know much about my chipset... How do I know which one do I have? what chipset is it? the hard-drive's or the motherboard's? I have one Maxtor hard-drive and the other one is Seagate... What else do I need to know? |
It should be your motherboard's. I went to my vendor's site to see what it said there. You can also do an "lspci" as root ---that's actually what helped me the most.
Good luck.
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airflow
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Joined: 14 Dec 2003
Posts: 173
Location: Vienna, Austria
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| Posted: Sat Dec 27, 2003 3:25 pm Post subject: Re: Basic gentoo tips that worked for me |
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| adaptr wrote: | | airflow wrote: | | I don't know why the default-setting in gentoo is the non-permanent variant. |
A few very simple reasons:
1. How often do you need access to the boot partition ?
Which basically means : how often do you recompile your kernel ?
If the answer is not "at least 3 times a day" then there is absolutely no reason to have /boot mounted in the normal course of running things.
2. Simple security at zero cost: if it's mounted, you can mess it up; if it's not, you can't. Simple as that.
Anyone with even a clue about security will tell you that you do not grant access unless it is necessary; you never do the opposite (deny access when needed). That's the M$ way - the highway to ruin. |
Mmh, I think this is not the right way to go... To my mind, a user with root-right should know what he does, and he should also have the possibility to do so (without hassles). Instead, a normal user should not have to possibility to mess up the boot partition. Everyday work has to be done with such a normal user.
| adaptr wrote: | | Minor caveat: (2) is pointless if you habitually run the system as root; all one has to do is "dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/hda" and watch while your world crumbles before your eyes...;-) |
There are easier ways to achieve this - what about "rm / -rf"? ;) This destroys your system too when issued as root - regardless of your /boot partition mounted or not...
regards,
airflow |
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SubAtomic
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Joined: 20 Dec 2003
Posts: 255
Location: Hobart, TAS, Australia
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Black
Apprentice
Joined: 10 Dec 2002
Posts: 158
Location: Québec, Canada
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| Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2003 4:03 am Post subject: Re: Basic gentoo tips that worked for me |
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| airflow wrote: | | I don't know why the default-setting in gentoo is the non-permanent variant. |
My understanding is that the original reason was that in the event of a system crash, all mounted partition might potentially become corrupted because the cached data doesn't get the chance to be written to disk.
If /boot isn't mounted, it can't become corrupted that way, allowing the computer to at least boot and allow you to make corrections. Assuming of course that the required drivers are built into the kernel, rather than as modules. |
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adaptr
Watchman
Joined: 06 Oct 2002
Posts: 6730
Location: Rotterdam, Netherlands
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| Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2004 10:28 pm Post subject: Re: Basic gentoo tips that worked for me |
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| airflow wrote: | | Mmh, I think this is not the right way to go... To my mind, a user with root-right should know what he does, and he should also have the possibility to do so (without hassles). Instead, a normal user should not have to possibility to mess up the boot partition. Everyday work has to be done with such a normal user. |
Of course - totally agree there.
Small analogy:
You are an adult, you live alone, you own a gun - do you keep it loaded at all times ?
I wouldn't...
Point of view, probably.
| airflow wrote: |
| adaptr wrote: | | Minor caveat: (2) is pointless if you habitually run the system as root; all one has to do is "dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/hda" and watch while your world crumbles before your eyes... |
There are easier ways to achieve this - what about "rm / -rf"?
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This does not achieve the same at all - but never mind, because I b0rked up there - the line I gave will allow you to erase ANY partition - including those that are not mounted |
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chipi
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Joined: 05 Oct 2003
Posts: 62
Location: Israel
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| Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2004 11:51 am Post subject: |
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I just wanted to say thanks one more time, after I configured my kernel properly I can sure notice the speed change.  |
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