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Linux
All forms of linux experience hard kernel lockup on my computer.
(waits for the inevitable bullshit about how crappy my hardware must be, etc, to die down)
The distros I've installed: OpenSUSE, Knoppix, Gentoo. All were, of course, the latest version (as of a couple months ago when I installed them).
To get SUSE to install I had to do it in failsafe mode. Now, when it boots, it lasts 1-5 minutes, then locks up hard. Hard, as in, I can't toggle numlock on my PS/2 keyboard hard.
Gentoo just wouldn't install; it couldn't get past hardware detection. I could probably install it with failsafe settings, but, so far, I haven't had a free weekend to devote to Gentoo installation.
I've tried disabling all IDE/SATA devices (the ones that seemed to crash the installers) besides my primary (brand-new) hard drive, but that doesn't help at all.
Of course, my Windows XP runs perfectly, and I mean perfectly fucking stable. Rock solid. No crashes, ever.
So the question is this: am I right in assuming this is a hardware issue that happens to only affect the linux kernel? Should I assume it is the motherboard, or is there any way I can test that?
There's no question that linux is worth the cost of a new motherboard, but the hardware can't be all that bad if it runs perfectly under Windows. I don't like to pay for computer hardware and not upgrade my system, but I can't afford to upgrade at the moment. And who knows if it's really the motherboard?
Anyway, help would be appreciated.
(waits for the inevitable bullshit about how crappy my hardware must be, etc, to die down)
The distros I've installed: OpenSUSE, Knoppix, Gentoo. All were, of course, the latest version (as of a couple months ago when I installed them).
To get SUSE to install I had to do it in failsafe mode. Now, when it boots, it lasts 1-5 minutes, then locks up hard. Hard, as in, I can't toggle numlock on my PS/2 keyboard hard.
Gentoo just wouldn't install; it couldn't get past hardware detection. I could probably install it with failsafe settings, but, so far, I haven't had a free weekend to devote to Gentoo installation.
I've tried disabling all IDE/SATA devices (the ones that seemed to crash the installers) besides my primary (brand-new) hard drive, but that doesn't help at all.
Of course, my Windows XP runs perfectly, and I mean perfectly fucking stable. Rock solid. No crashes, ever.
So the question is this: am I right in assuming this is a hardware issue that happens to only affect the linux kernel? Should I assume it is the motherboard, or is there any way I can test that?
There's no question that linux is worth the cost of a new motherboard, but the hardware can't be all that bad if it runs perfectly under Windows. I don't like to pay for computer hardware and not upgrade my system, but I can't afford to upgrade at the moment. And who knows if it's really the motherboard?
Anyway, help would be appreciated.
Comments
If you mean genkernel crashed, well, genkernel makes baby Jeebus cry. You really have to make your own kernel to get much out of Gentoo.
You could try a basic install of a distro on a TOTALLY stripped down system. I'm talking mobo, hard drive, video, ram, CPU, PS/2 mouse and keyboard. That way you can be 100% sure it's an issue Linux is having with your core system and not anything else. (Bonus points if you have a crappo video card to stick in for testing).
I believe you as far as the hardware ;^) Linux isn't exactly the best at detecting hardware or loading the correct modules, especially for super new or otherwise esoteric devices.
I don't know if it will work or not, but I do know that kernel 2.4.x hates my computer completely, so it's worth a try.
The thing is that NVidia has always had superior stability, reliability, and such. Their Windows drivers are just better, and more stable, period. Also, there are small differences that you wouldn't realize. For example, when we first tried to setup our TV PC we had two cards to choose from, an ATi and an NVidia from about the same time. Both had S-Video output. We tried the ATi first. It refused to send any video out of that S-Video hole unless we used a special windows driver. This meant we had to have a monitor in the living room, which was not acceptable. The NVidia card started outputting on the S-Video during POST, that's while the BIOS is still doing its thing. That's the little detail that lets you know who's really got the better product.
Also, for the longest time, ATi had no official Linux support. Even though NVidia's Linux drivers were, and are still, closed source, they worked. That hurt ATi more than you realize. That's why they more recently have open sourced their drivers.
That being said, I haven't used an ATi card in a very long time. Now that their drivers are open sourced and such, they might be a lot better than they used to be. I have no idea. The thing is, I have no desire to find out. Because of their poor performance back in the day, I can't trust the brand. I keep buying NVidia, and they always work great. They never make me sorry to purchase their products or use their drivers. Until they do, I won't even bother looking at an ATi unless there is a ginormous difference in the price/performance ratio.
ok here goes
Here is what I have
A 100 base switch, some network cables, some sunfire 420 servers and sunfire 280 servers. I also have solaris 10 for them, oh and by the way the server total is 8.
Here is what I am trying to do:
Create an independent network with only these systems on it, then cluster it into a super machine to do number crunching for my university's physics and math departments so they stop hijacking our sun labs on weekends.
What my problem is:
ok, I got the systems to load the OS but I am having problems configuring the domain controller(do I even need one?)...... actually I need these systems to talk to each other and since my background is in windows and PCs I'm not sure where to even start. All the publications I read assume you have more knowledge than I have or at least that you are already part of a network. I need a some sort of starting position. If step A is loading the OS and step D is configuring the clustering software, I'm at step B Configuring the Network devices. I'm not looking for someone to hold my hand through it, I just need some sort of reference to work with, and Google is failing me.
Thx,
Bruce
Although on another note, I managed to convince some people to make the case to bring the systems up on a subnet of the university network while we are testing their proposition of the cluster. If I get a "go" for that I won't need to emulate the network control in my network to bring them up. I can use the University's DNS and DHCP services. Also I can load the Jumpstart scripts I already configured for the servers when I do re installs when I mess something up once I get DHCP services going.
@Bruce are you referring to something like a be0wulf cluster?
I've decided to throw a copy of fedora on a PC and plug in into my switch. Still working on configuring the fedora PC to handle mDNS and DHCP Daemon. It looks like if I can get the right configuration on these two services I can emulate being connected to a network well enough for the Solaris systems to not hate me.
In a world where DHCP servers go rogue..... only one sys admin can track them down......