OK. I just copied to huge26.s and then installed all of its corresponding slack packages in the /testing folder. It works, and I can get my NVidia driver going. This will work for now, but I sure wish that I could have fixed it. Can you tell me how to verify that DMA is running?

usually

or whatever device your HDD is (/dev/???)

Use the utility mkinitrd to add the require module(s) to the initrd file. You may need the directory /initrd for the ramdisk or initrd file to work. I do not recommend using ReiserFS because it is not reliable and it is not fast. I suggest you always include both EXT2 and EXT3 as built-in and the rest can be as modules. When using SCSI devices, include the label option while formatting partitions. I recommend use GRUB unless it does not have a feature that you want that LILO has.

Well, I don't recommend ext3, because it's not fast, and it can cause problems (especially with some DVD+-RW drives ... like mine)

JFS and XFS are great journaled filesystems ... if you don't need journaling, then ext2 is fine.

And here is a good comparison of filesystem performance (IMO).

http://linuxgazette.net/122/piszcz.html

I use JFS

Um a dvd+-rw doesn't use ext3, reiser or even jfh as its filesystem is iso9660. also ext2 is the exact same thing as ext3 except that ext3 is journaled. if you are just using it on a regular desktop with a normal drive it really doesnt matter but i WOULD use a journaled filesystem

I think that initrd may be where I am going wrong. Here is why I think that:

I did everything with huge26.s from the installation DVD, and it worked. DMA worked and so did all of my SATA drives. I wanted to compile the kernel with support for multiple processors and my Intel Core 2 Duo proc, which is supported in 2.6.20 but not 2.6.17 [slack's default 2.6 kernel]. So I copy the config file from the installation kernel [which worked] and then only changed the processor type and support for multiple processors. Recompiled. Did the things that I normally did. Rewrote LiLo to include both kernels. Rebooted. Kernel panic.

What would huge26.s have that my kernel didn't? Help? I usually don't get stumped like this, but I am giving up for the night and I will be back on it in the morning. Thanks for all of your help so far.

BREAK

If I go the initrd route, does someone have a link to a good write up on how to do it? Which modules should I use? etc...

You have a screw up computer if EXT3 causes problems to your DVD+RW drive. I have used EXT3 for the whole root partition and not yet have experience any hardware problems. For my present system, I use EXT3 for /boot and /var/log.

One problem with JFS is it needs to be defrag. Unfortunately, there are no utilities for JFS, so you have to dump the data to another medium and then back on the drive.

I use XFS with custom options and it is very fast, so the results that the site you posted is not accurate.

The follow command that I used to format the partition for /.

mkfs.xfs -b 1024 -d agcount=32 -r extsize=8192

For my media drives, I used the following commands

mkfs.xfs -b 1024 -d agcount=32 -r extsize=16384

The agcount helps on finding files faster while extsize helps to transfer large amounts of data. If agcount is greater than 32, XFS will get slower before 90% of total capacity of the partition. A block size of 1024 helps with small files. The only problem is the computer needs at least 512 MB of RAM to make XFS useful.

@spaceballs...

lets get to the basics here: can you post your lilo.conf, fstab and .config files here?

When you copy the .config you are running make oldconfig before make menuconfig/xconfig yeah? Make sure you do this and don't take for granted that it worked. Inspect those sata options and filesystem supports. It pretty much HAS to be one or the other.

I'm pretty much certain that if my Dell with the same SATA controller is working that yours can too. BTW- I am using 2.6.19.1

Im away from my work computer or i'd post the .config I use.

Maybe we can keep brief if you tell us what options you are compiling in for:

Device Drivers-> SATA and PATA (I think I have only ATA=y and ATA_PIIX=y)

Double check these options in your make menuconfig (or xconfig - my preference) and don't assume they are there. Its not uncommon for the .config from one kernel version to not exactly work for an upgraded kernel.

One thing I noticed in the link you supplied was that .config was also for a 2.6.17 kernel, in my xconfig at least it seems there was some menu & nomenclature change between 2.6.17 and .19 - some quick googling:kerneltrap.org

if you ctrl+f on that page for SATA i think ~1/2 down you'll see a comment about the config changes between 2.6.18 and 2.6.19

well I don't think you should need to, but the man mkinitrd is pretty good I think. But then again I've never gotten one to work

sorry can't help on that one.

I am trying a make oldconfig. Before, I was just copying the old config file in there and running it. I will post back in about 15 minutes to let you know how it is working. Thanks!

EDIT : It worked!! I apologize for thinking I knew it all. Now the touchpad doesn't work, but it worked on the huge26.s. Can you think [quick!] about which kernel option I might have missed for it? Thanks.

sweet!

I checked my .config and looks like I only selected:

'provide legacy /dev/psaux device' = y
'event interface' = y
'Mouse' = y
|-> 'PS/2 mouse'


.. then under USB...
'USB HID support' = y
|-> 'HID Input layer support' = y


??? Sorry, can't be more help here... I 2 NUB

Your tags seemed to do it. Thanks!

Well, I know it's hard to believe, but it is true. With any other filesystem my DVD+-RW can burn at full speed and never fails. With ext3, it burns at 1x at most and fails nearly every burn !!! I'm guessing it has something to do with how the filesystem operates, something unknown and unforseen.

I don't really care if you don't believe me, but it is true. If you come over to my house I can show you. You can also search this forum ... there is at least 1 other person who has had this problem and posted here ... I replied to it too.

Duh. But somehow, something about the way ext3 works causes burns to fail with this DVD+-RW drive. Obviously data is pulled from the HDD (using ext3) and sent to the DVD+-RW drive (using iso9660) to get burned ... you can't tell me that your filesystem doesn't matter for this. I'd go even further to say that using NTFS also produces the same or similar effect (while I was running Window$). Yet, with JFS, XFS, and reiserfs there is no problem whatsoever ... how do you explain that ?

@spaceballs - can you illuminate me a bit more? (regarding the touchpad) Since I clearly got lucky myself (by getting it working) and share what you were missing/changed to get it working?

It likely would help me (in the future) and others who may search for an answer to the same problem.

many thanks

OT- did you get SMP working too? Pretty fast huh? Mine is 2GHz core duo & compiles kernel in like < 3min...

If you did, do you have gkrellm/superkaramba (or equivalent i don't know) running? is very coool to see both CPUs up there