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kslen 12-03-2008 03:09 AM
ASUS A7N8X Deluxe rev. 2.0 runs Slackware 12.1 like an old three-legged donkey..
 
Hello there.

Let me introduce myself.

Code:
> cat /proc/version
Linux version 2.6.24.5-smp (root@midas) (gcc version 4.2.3) #2 SMP Wed Apr 30 13:41:38 CDT 2008

> lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce2 IGP2 (rev c1)
00:00.1 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Memory Controller 1 (rev c1)
00:00.2 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Memory Controller 4 (rev c1)
00:00.3 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Memory Controller 3 (rev c1)
00:00.4 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Memory Controller 2 (rev c1)
00:00.5 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Memory Controller 5 (rev c1)
00:01.0 ISA bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce2 ISA Bridge (rev a4)
00:01.1 SMBus: nVidia Corporation nForce2 SMBus (MCP) (rev a2)
00:02.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation nForce2 USB Controller (rev a4)
00:02.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation nForce2 USB Controller (rev a4)
00:02.2 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation nForce2 USB Controller (rev a4)
00:08.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce2 External PCI Bridge (rev a3)
00:09.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation nForce2 IDE (rev a2)
00:0c.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce2 PCI Bridge (rev a3)
00:0d.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): nVidia Corporation nForce2 FireWire (IEEE 1394) Controller (rev a3)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce2 AGP (rev c1)
01:08.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10k1 (rev 08)
01:08.1 Input device controller: Creative Labs SB Live! Game Port (rev 08)
01:0a.0 Ethernet controller: D-Link System Inc DGE-528T Gigabit Ethernet Adapter (rev 10)
01:0b.0 RAID bus controller: Silicon Image, Inc. SiI 3112 [SATALink/SATARaid] Serial ATA Controller (rev 02)
02:01.0 Ethernet controller: 3Com Corporation 3C920B-EMB Integrated Fast Ethernet Controller [Tornado] (rev 40)
03:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV530LE [Radeon X1600/X1650 PRO]
03:00.1 Display controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV530LE [Radeon X1650 PRO] (Secondary)

> lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
w83l785ts              9360  0
asb100                22420  0
hwmon_vid              6656  1 asb100
hwmon                  6276  2 w83l785ts,asb100
snd_seq_dummy          6660  0
snd_seq_oss            32896  0
snd_seq_midi_event    10112  1 snd_seq_oss
snd_seq                50256  5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_pcm_oss            40352  0
snd_mixer_oss          17920  1 snd_pcm_oss
ipv6                  234724  12
ipt_TTL                5888  1
xt_pkttype              5632  1
ipt_REJECT              7552  2
xt_tcpudp              6912  28
xt_state                5888  7
ipt_LOG                9600  13
iptable_mangle          6144  1
iptable_nat            9860  1
iptable_filter          6272  1
nf_conntrack_irc        8984  0
nf_nat_ftp              6656  0
nf_nat                19500  2 iptable_nat,nf_nat_ftp
nf_conntrack_ftp      10912  1 nf_nat_ftp
nf_conntrack_ipv4      17032  9 iptable_nat
nf_conntrack          53440  7 xt_state,iptable_nat,nf_conntrack_irc,nf_nat_ftp,nf_nat,nf_conntrack_ftp,nf_conntrack_ipv4
ip_tables              14788  3 iptable_mangle,iptable_nat,iptable_filter
x_tables              14980  8 ipt_TTL,xt_pkttype,ipt_REJECT,xt_tcpudp,xt_state,ipt_LOG,iptable_nat,ip_tables
lp                    13348  0
parport_pc            27556  0
parport                34632  2 lp,parport_pc
fuse                  45588  1
snd_emu10k1          136128  2
snd_ac97_codec        98724  1 snd_emu10k1
ac97_bus                5760  1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_pcm                72068  3 snd_pcm_oss,snd_emu10k1,snd_ac97_codec
fglrx                1854764  27
snd_timer              22532  3 snd_seq,snd_emu10k1,snd_pcm
3c59x                  42920  0
mii                    8448  1 3c59x
snd_page_alloc        11528  2 snd_emu10k1,snd_pcm
snd_util_mem            7424  1 snd_emu10k1
r8169                  30468  0
snd_hwdep              10756  1 snd_emu10k1
emu10k1_gp              6656  0
thermal                16540  0
button                10000  0
snd_mpu401            10216  0
processor              32680  1 thermal
rtc_cmos              11040  0
snd_mpu401_uart        10496  1 snd_mpu401
nvidia_agp            10140  1
i2c_nforce2            9344  0
rtc_core              18696  1 rtc_cmos
snd_rawmidi            22560  2 snd_emu10k1,snd_mpu401_uart
ns558                  7680  0
usblp                  15616  0
agpgart                30664  2 fglrx,nvidia_agp
snd_seq_device        10380  5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_emu10k1,snd_rawmidi
shpchp                32788  0
rtc_lib                6528  1 rtc_core
snd                    47716  17 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_emu10k1,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_hwdep,snd_mpu401,snd_mpu401_uart,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_device
gameport              14472  4 emu10k1_gp,ns558
soundcore              9824  1 snd
evdev                  12672  3

> hdparm /dev/hda:
 multcount    = 16 (on)
 IO_support    =  3 (32-bit w/sync)
 unmaskirq    =  1 (on)
 using_dma    =  1 (on)
 keepsettings  =  0 (off)
 readonly      =  0 (off)
 readahead    = 256 (on)
 geometry      = 60801/255/63, sectors = 976773168, start = 0

(the same is true for hdc and hdd)

> hdparm -Tt /dev/hda
/dev/hda:
 Timing cached reads:  724 MB in  2.00 seconds = 361.77 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  226 MB in  3.01 seconds =  75.08 MB/sec

> hdparm -Tt /dev/hdc
/dev/hdc:
 Timing cached reads:  728 MB in  2.00 seconds = 363.63 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  236 MB in  3.00 seconds =  78.54 MB/sec

> hdparm -Tt /dev/hdd
/dev/hdd:
 Timing cached reads:  726 MB in  2.00 seconds = 362.38 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  228 MB in  3.02 seconds =  75.61 MB/sec

> glxgears
13784 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2756.799 FPS
13135 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2624.654 FPS
12727 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2545.380 FPS
11689 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2337.340 FPS
7075 frames in 5.1 seconds = 1396.874 FPS
8933 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1784.060 FPS
10769 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2150.579 FPS
12216 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2443.152 FPS
(Framerate is stable when the drives are calm. The sudden drop in fps was caused by starting another instance of Firefox.)
It renders 3D "nicely", but can't seem to keep up when the drives start to work on something. The glxgears freezes for 2-3 seconds then start rotating smoothly again. Windows in general redraw themselves as if it was 1992 even under the slightest CPU load and general load times for applications seem to suck in general.

After some googling I have managed to find a bunch of threads regarding poor performance on the A7N8X board. They talk of adding the amd74xx module to the kernel and all will be glorious.

Is there any truth to this? If so, where do I start?

So far my Slackware experience has been gained on old boxes which ran nicely with no other "must fix" items than adding stuff to the .conf files in /etc and making stuff executable in /etc/rc.d.

Any help on resolving this would be groovy.

Note: I'll donate a cheezburger to the person(s) that helps me figure this out. :D

General Failure 12-03-2008 04:45 AM
amd74xx is an IDE chipset driver. To insert it into the kernel you would normally use the modprobe command like this:
Code:
modprobe amd74xx
This fails for me because the module can't be found. Since it is a chipset driver I assume it was compiled into the kernel, so you don't need to load it manually. This would make sense because without it you wouldn't be able to boot as you couldn't access the hard drive.

Maybe you should take a look at the hdparm utility which lets you fine tune your hard disk settings.

kslen 12-03-2008 05:02 AM
Yes, I believe it is supposed to be compiled into the kernel as of 2.6.x. However, a thread which I thought I had bookmarked spoke of disabling generic IDE support in the kernel and then enable the amd74xx thingy which was hidden under ATI somewhere in menuconfig. I can't seem to find the option regarding amd74xx (I've read pretty much every help screen there is) and "something hidden under ATI" seems to be hidden too well for me atleast.

This might sound like complete gibberish and that is because it mostly is. I vaguely remember what the thread said, but the description of the problem was spot on in regards to the issue I'm having.

Please don't shoot me for saying this. But when I was running XP on this box, the problem I have now was pretty much identical only to a lesser degree. It was however solvable by installing the NForce driver package.

I've already looked into hdparm and jacked up my drives to the best of my ability. I posted the hdparm output along with read-write speeds in the code box in the first post. This had no effect on removing the "stop and go" thing my machine seem to be doing when starting up simple apps like mousepad. :)

It seems to be a DMA issue, however; I still lack a suspect.

PS: I'm drop dead serious about them cheezburgers. I need this box at somewhere close to peak performance before my brain implodes. :D

keefaz 12-03-2008 08:37 AM
I have A7N8X Deluxe motherboard as well, same lspci output exept network card
(mine has Marvell instead of 3Com)
I use custom kernel, for IDE, I have enabled these features
in Devices Drivers > ATA/ATAPI/MFM/RLL support:

Enhanced IDE/MFM/RLL disk/cdrom/tape/floppy support (BLK_DEV_IDE) [built-in]
Include IDE/ATA-2 DISK support (BLK_DEV_IDEDISK) [built-in]
Include IDE/ATAPI CDROM support (BLK_DEV_IDECD) [module]
IDE ACPI support (BLK_DEV_IDEACPI) [built-in]
legacy /proc/ide/ support (IDE_PROC_FS) [built-in]
AMD and nVidia IDE support (BLK_DEV_AMD74XX) [built-in]

kslen 12-04-2008 05:47 PM
Ha! Ofcourse.... The AMD and nVidia IDE support option. How did I miss it...

As it was already built in to the kernel, I disabled generic IDE support, changed processor type from Intel Pentium Pro (-.-) to AMD Athlon and then recompiled. Problem solved.

Thanks a bunch, man!

I'll be sending you a pm about that cheezburger, keefaz. :D

keefaz 12-04-2008 05:58 PM
Cool, looking forward to receive it :)

kslen 12-05-2008 04:14 PM
Did you get my e-mail, keefaz? Looked for a pm function, but I only found a send message via e-mail link on your profile thingamabob. :D

keefaz 12-05-2008 04:21 PM
Hey, thanks :) I updated the email address (it was a old one)
I sent you an email as well


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