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I was trying to install Fedora on an older laptop which "only" took about 10h
Anyway, at first I thought it may be a Fedora issue and tried to got advice on the fedora forum. Unfortunately it seems that this is not Fedora related as I have the exact same issue with Linux Mint. The previous Win install was fast and HDD access rates are normal.
I've identified the HDD as the culprit for long install/ unresponsive system in general after looking at a few stats.
the system:
Sony Vaio A517B
Intel 915PM
Intel Pentium M 740 / 1.73 GHz
ATI Mobility Radeon X600
2GB RAM
lspci:
Code:
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) IDE Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801FBM (ICH6M) SATA Controller (rev 03)
linux Mint kernel version: 3.5.0-17 not sure about the one in Fedora - takes rather long to boot...
smart output for the HD:
smartctl -a /dev/sda2:
Code:
smartctl 5.43 2012-06-30 r3573 [i686-linux-3.5.0-17-generic] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-12 by Bruce Allen, http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family: Hitachi Travelstar 5K100
Device Model: HTS541080G9SA00
Serial Number: MPBDL0X6H43YWM
Firmware Version: MB4OC60D
User Capacity: 80,026,361,856 bytes [80.0 GB]
Sector Size: 512 bytes logical/physical
Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is: 7
ATA Standard is: ATA/ATAPI-7 T13 1532D revision 1
Local Time is: Thu Jan 10 13:37:24 2013 UTC
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled
=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED
General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status: (0x00) Offline data collection activity
was never started.
Auto Offline Data Collection: Disabled.
Self-test execution status: ( 0) The previous self-test routine completed
without error or no self-test has ever
been run.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection: ( 645) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities: (0x5b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
Suspend Offline collection upon new
command.
Offline surface scan supported.
Self-test supported.
No Conveyance Self-test supported.
Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities: (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
power-saving mode.
Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability: (0x01) Error logging supported.
General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 55) minutes.
SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate 0x000b 100 100 062 Pre-fail Always - 0
2 Throughput_Performance 0x0005 100 100 040 Pre-fail Offline - 0
3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0007 253 253 033 Pre-fail Always - 0
4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0012 098 098 000 Old_age Always - 4491
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 100 100 005 Pre-fail Always - 0
7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x000b 100 100 067 Pre-fail Always - 0
8 Seek_Time_Performance 0x0005 100 100 040 Pre-fail Offline - 0
9 Power_On_Hours 0x0012 083 083 000 Old_age Always - 7722
10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0013 100 100 060 Pre-fail Always - 0
12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 099 099 000 Old_age Always - 3061
191 G-Sense_Error_Rate 0x000a 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 105
193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0012 079 079 000 Old_age Always - 217167
194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0002 141 141 000 Old_age Always - 39 (Min/Max 17/56)
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0022 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0008 100 100 000 Old_age Offline - 0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x000a 200 253 000 Old_age Always - 0
SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged
SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
No self-tests have been logged. [To run self-tests, use: smartctl -t]
Warning! SMART Selective Self-Test Log Structure error: invalid SMART checksum.
SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
SPAN MIN_LBA MAX_LBA CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
1 0 0 Not_testing
2 0 0 Not_testing
3 0 0 Not_testing
4 0 0 Not_testing
5 0 0 Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.
/dev/sda2:
Timing buffered disk reads: 4 MB in 3.08 seconds = 1.30 MB/sec
I also noticed when running the mint live-CD that the internet connection goes down during HDD r/w operation, while the system was usable in general
ping shows:
Code:
ping: sendmsg: No buffer space available
on the installed Fedora(fresh 17 install) system on the other hand, the system got unresponsive for several seconds in regular intervals during HDD operations.
Please let me know if you need any additional information. I attached the dmesg from the linux mint live right after boot... there were no dmesg coming up after that.
There seems to be something wrong with that machine, I would recommend to run some basic tests: Memtest86+, the disk manufacturer's diagnosis tool, also have a look at the temperatures of that machine.
Windows is not Linux, they handle hardware different, so it may be that Windows (especially with manufacturer proved drivers) has a different way to handle the errors you are seeing in your dmesg log.
From my experience, Linux is more prone to act weird when hardware failures occur than Windows.
So to rule out hardware errors I recommended to make some basic hardware tests first. If the tests are passed successfully we know for sure that it must be a software issue.
A hidden issue in installing distros like Fedora is that they have to sit down and figure out the dependencies of each rpm and check to see if you have or are going to install them. The smaller your memory, the longer that takes.
Quote:
/dev/sda2:
Timing buffered disk reads: 4 MB in 3.08 seconds = 1.30 MB/sec
In a case with a disc that slow, I have always compiled a kernel with the correct chipset driver compiled in and the generic driver excluded. What is inclined to happen is that generic is tried first, and you get a message
Quote:
pci not 100% native, will probe irqs later
But then no other chipset driver can have the ide, because 'generic' has it. This can give a huge improvement. This sort of thing can produce bottlenecks, so I wouldn't worry about the net going down on a live cd. It does mean you'll probably have to install overnight on the slow disk, and then build the kernel to get your improvement.
would you mind letting me know what in the dmesg made you think it could be a hardware issue? - just for future reference
I did the memtest and an extensive HDD test with manufacturer tool, both reported no errors.
Had a look at temps and they were all pretty average.
There was another suggestion on the Fedora forum to do a fsck check.
That one gave back "Bad magic number" which wasn't fixable with backup superblocks, but only by partitioning the drive again - gparted for some reason resulted in the same error, so I used some program of Hiren's boot cd...
Anyway, after that fsck was fine, nevertheless the error remained the same
@business_kid:
uhmm... I did built a kernel ONCE and I had a step-by-step tutorial. While I'm sure there'll be a good tutorial to compile the kernel, I'm not sure how I'd have to change the parameters to get rid of this issue - that is what I'd have to do right? also, is there a way for me not to have to do another 10h install before building the kernel?
Thanks both for your input and I appreciate any additional input
cheers
so, I just tried that with the Mint live cd. Unfortunately nothing changed and I should have done it correctly as I could find it in the Kernel command line in the dmesg output. On the other hand, it still suggests to use irqpoll...
Please have a look at the attached dmesg.
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