Subject: Re: Four small problems (HD, VCs in X, ps/xload, Minicom in xterm) From: rmk@rmkhome.UUCP (Rick Kelly) Date: Thu, 29 Oct 1992 06:04:34 GMT
In article <1992Oct28.075855.4644@athena.mit.edu> dthumim@athena.mit.edu (Daniel J Thumim) writes:
>I've been running Linux on my new 486 system here for a couple of weeks
>now... quite impressive! (I would *not* have bought a 486 to run DOS;
>I bought the hardware for linux/X! 8-)
>Just a couple of minor snags:
>
>1. Intermittently, I have the hard disk LED stay lit for a few seconds,
> everything freezes up, and I get a HD-timeout, HD-controller reset.
> It's a brand new HD, on a local bus IDE controller. Should this be
> happening? (and can it be fixed?)
The main "problem" with localbus systems is that the disk controller and the
system cpu are contesting for the same bus. When the disk controller is
accessing memory, the cpu must wait.
Some people consider a localbus system as a win for MSDOS, but a loser for
multitasking systems.
--Rick Kelly rmk@rmkhome.UUCP unixland!rmkhome!rmk rmk@frog.UUCP