From: becker@super.org (Donald J. Becker) Subject: Re: [SUMMARY] SLS Experiences Date: 28 Mar 1993 23:30:39 GMT
In article <1p3nekINNsqn@uwm.edu> pegasus@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (David R Hucke) writes:
>As promised, here is the summary of results...
>From @rnd.brooks.af.mil:smd@hrt216.brooks.af.mil Thu Mar 18 15:21:00 1993
>
> Well, I've had some problems with the recent SLS. For one
>thing, they've unnecessarily compiled in the ethernet drivers into the
>a1 kernel, without making any use of them.
While it's not yet possible, the plan is to be able to load linux over
the net with minimal user input. This requires that the boot kernel
have built-in autoprobing, auto-IRQing ethercard drivers.
>On the machines we use here,
>that causes a1 to lock up, because we have WD8003EB boards that the
>driver doesn't correctly identify as being 8-bit, and it tries using it
>as 16-bit.
This problem has been resolved (I think). It would have taken weeks
longer to discover and fix if Peter hadn't provided a broader (not
just larger) user base. The self-selected sample that tests early
versions of drivers usually use products biased towards higher
performance, and none of them tested the drivers with an older 8003.
In return for this one-time problem with Linux, future kernels will
likely boot out-of-the-box, and you won't have to specify -DFORCE_8BIT
or set up the ethercard memory parameters when you compile your own
kernels.
-- Donald Becker becker@super.org Supercomputing Research Center 17100 Science Drive, Bowie MD 20715 301-805-7482