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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.cs.su.oz.au!inferno.mpx.com.au!goliath.apana.org.au!news.syd.connect.com.au!news.mel.connect.com.au!munnari.OZ.AU!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!news.cis.okstate.edu!newsfeed.ksu.ksu.edu!news.physics.uiowa.edu!math.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!gatech!psinntp!psinntp!psinntp!psinntp!miriam.fuller.edu!jacques!wbrown From: wbrown@EbiCom.net (Wayne Brown) Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.development.apps,comp.os.linux.development.system,comp.os.linux.x,comp.os.linux.hardware,comp.os.linux.setup,comp.unix.bsd.386bsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc,comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: Why to not buy Matrox Millennium Followup-To: comp.os.linux.development.apps,comp.os.linux.development.system,comp.os.linux.x,comp.os.linux.hardware,comp.os.linux.setup,comp.unix.bsd.386bsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc,comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Date: 7 Apr 1996 22:07:23 GMT Organization: Weyerhaeuser Company Lines: 55 Message-ID: <4k9ear$8dl@miriam.fuller.edu> References: <4jn4qp$6p@darkstar.my.lan> <stephenkDp7nHo.369@netcom.com> <4jrhth$66a@hoopoe.psc.edu> <4jve3t$cfe@hermes.synopsys.com> <4k0m0f$68j@hoopoe.psc.edu> <4k6b75$3dh@miriam.fuller.edu> <31676302.2605@vfr.interceptor.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: pmcol27.ebicom.net X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.os.linux.development.apps:14259 comp.os.linux.development.system:20878 comp.os.linux.x:28849 comp.os.linux.hardware:35737 comp.os.linux.setup:49473 comp.unix.bsd.386bsd.misc:497 comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc:3054 comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc:2827 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:16868 Thumper! (thumper@vfr.interceptor.com) wrote: : I'd say there have been about 7 really bad (unbootable) kernels, and about : 12 unreliable kernels. By comparison, our 1.2.13+IP alising machine has : been running bricklike since 1.2.13 came out. (admittedly, it's not a : heavily loaded machine, but it runs without up and bombing every once in a : while. Well, I didn't say that I've never had any problems at all, just that I hadn't had any major ones. To me, a problem qualifies as major if it causes the system to crash unexpectedly or trashes it to the point that I lose data and have to restore from a backup. MS-Windows has done both to me a number of times; Linux (any version) has never done so even once. When a minor problem comes along, such as a failure to compile because of a change in a header file or a default IRQ or something, I either fix it myself, find a fix from someone else in linux.dev.kernel, or wait for the next patchlevel. Lately, with them coming out so frequently, the third alternative is my usual choice. Among the minor problems I remember: A kernel in the 1.1.x series caused a very small amount of disk corruption. It was fixed by fsck at the next system boot without losing anything. I dropped back to the previous version until the next patchlevel, which fixed the problem. Another kernel caused a segmentation violation on the first attempt to unmount a floppy disk. This wasn't a serious problem and was fixed in the next patch. Somewhere in the late 1.3.6x or early 1.3.7x patches, CSLIP quit working. It took a couple more patchlevels to resolve that one. In the meantime, I either ran an earlier kernel or used plain SLIP instead of CSLIP, depending on my mood. Somewhere in the middle of the 1.3.xx series, utilities like top started giving seg faults. It took about ten minutes of searching the newsgroups to find that I needed to get an upgraded version of the procps package. Other problems have been so trivial that I've forgotten them. The main point is that most kernels have given me no trouble at all. Right now, I have just about everything possible compiled as a module, which kerneld loads and unloads on demand. As long as I stay out of X, my 8 meg of RAM almost never needs to swap. Under X, even Netscape runs without too much swapping if I don't open too many other windows at the same time. In a day or two, I'll be upgrading to 20 meg and expect to see most swapping disappear. Response time is excellent, and the system doesn't go down unless I take it down. For me, kerneld is plenty of reason in itself to run a 1.3.xx kernel. -- "When your tail's in a crack you improvise, if you're good enough. Otherwise you give your pelt to the trapper." -- John Myers Myers Wayne Brown wbrown@ebicom.net