Re: [SLUG] RAM disk ?

From: Bryan-TheBS-Smith (b.j.smith@ieee.org)
Date: Mon Oct 01 2001 - 07:24:03 EDT


Ron KA4INM Youvan wrote:
> I had several DOS ramdrive programs that were (more or less
> TSR's) ... I don't see why this would be a problem in LINUX,
> ask for memory, don't give it back, use it.

Er, remember, DOS is an unprotected operating system. You can do
anything you want, when you want. With Linux, NT and other true,
protected operating systems with separate kernel and user space
memory, there are a fair number of restrictions to doing this. Most
allocation must be done at boot -- although Linux has an extremely
flexible Ramdisk kernel driver.

> SB live value using :

Ahhh, SBLive. More Creative non-support.

> 2.2.16, 2.2.19, 2.4.5 which is broken IMMHO,

2.4.x is still "maturing" -- as the virtual memory and scheduler
were completely re-written. For single-user systems, 2.2.x is
great. Most of the VM/scheduler changes in 2.4.x were for
multiuser/server performance.

I've also learned that I no longer trust stock kernels, and even
some major distros' patched kernels, outside of RedHat or SuSE's
well-tested ones.

> took me 4 hours to recover my 40 gig /hda1 after a lockup,
> get 2 or 3 a day,

Its funny, it has been my experience that SGI's XFS filesystem is
more stable on kernel 2.4 than Ext2 (let alone ReiserFS), at least
through kernel 2.4.5.

> I will return to 2.2.19 ASAP.

Yeah, at least until 2.4.x matures.

> Playing .wav, and/or .mp3's with everything I have.
> (a nice of -20 helps but I can not have any disk activity
> while playing or recording a .wav file or I get skips.
> (both Slackware 7.1 and 8.0, with a 266 mHz/64 meg and
> 1 gig AMD/1 gig of DDR ram) Becoming disillusioned with
> LINUX. (been 100% LINUX since June 1998)

Well, I'm RedHat 7.1 with RedHat's patched kernel 2.4.3. 0 issues
so far. It's actually SGI's XFS 1.0.1 release, with the XFS
filesystem integration which includes extensive VM fixes (because
XFS is so integrated with the VM subsystem). SGI spent a good month
of testing that specific patched kernel before releasing it.

> The raw ram works fine for one file at a time, ( /dev/ram )
> how do I create a ram disk that will hold say 64 files at boot
> time? I don't recall the subject and I can not find the topic
> in any of my books.

I've never created a Ramdisk for end-user purposes, but the kernel
takes a boot parameter "ramdisk" for reserving larger than the
normal amount of memory (typically 2-4MB) for the initial ramdisk
size.

> BTW changing mommy boards/CPU/RAM only made a slight
> improvement in a few operations, compiling was the only
> noticeable speed improvement I could sense, when changed
> from 2.2.19 to 2.4.5 everything now takes 1/4 of the
> previous time, boot up is 1/2 a minute less time, things
> fly by, too bad it locks up and so very often too.

Hmmmm, I didn't see really any boot-time changes from RedHat 6.2
(2.2.x) to RedHat 7.1 (2.4.x).

> I also had my very first core dump with LINUX on the screen,
> said: the kernel has made a memory allocation out of range
> (gave a multi-digit address) said core dump, had all
> registers shown, full screen of stuff, modem stopped dead,
> keyboard dead, looked to me like OS dead.
> I had to re-compile 1/3 of my added programs to keep them
> from locking things up, I will have to re-compile them to
> get them to run under 2.2.19, I expect. discouraging!
> I am a user not a programmer.

Er, recompiling/making programs is the job of a sysadmin, not a
programmer! Don't confuse sysadmin duties with programmer duties
(or capabilities for that matter). Yes, they are more than your
typical user, but there is a very good reason for it all (unlimited
program compatibility given source).

-- TheBS

-- 
Bryan "TheBS" Smith     mailto:b.j.smith@ieee.org    chat:thebs413
Engineer   AbsoluteValue Systems, Inc.   http://www.linux-wlan.org
President    SmithConcepts, Inc.      http://www.SmithConcepts.com
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