Re: Hibernation
> >If it's there it will be used. Therefore during system operations the disk
> >will be hit. If you are so insanely sensitive that you can "feel" the diff
> >between hitting disk and hitting RAM - notice I haven't said I'm using the
> >trick - then your measly scrap of swap could be on... more RAM. There is
> >probably even some optimal size for the silly thing.
>
> The point is that a scrap of swap in ram decreases main memory and makes the
> swap more likely to be used.
>>[...]
> The issue is that it will be used directly if it's not forced to be in swap
> because of main memory being used by a RAM disk (for swap).
1 Mb less is going to make that much difference? I detect more need for
kernel work then.
> >hard disk = motor = conserves lots to not have it spin, if you have an old
> >enough monster. Betcha motors cost more than bit flips.
>
> Yes. However any program that gets swapped out will have it's code pages
> discarded. So when it starts to be used again the code pages will have to be
> brought in from disk and the drive will spin up anyway.
> The only exception to this is certain types of binaries in the "a.out" family
> which behaved like DOS .COM files (code and data in the same memory area).
Thus a stronger need to simply not run junk you aren't using.
> >> Currently I am using the Xserver-fbdev which can't take advantage of the
> >> co-processed features of my video card and wastes CPU power and energy.
> >> I plan to write a Neomagic FrameBuffer driver and then try and get the
> >> xserver-fbdev co-prossing patches going (they apparently work well on Power
> >> Macintosh).
> >
> >Isn't Neomagic supported directly in the latest X? Why use a non-optimal
> >server?
>
> I always had big problems having two X servers running on the same display
> before I went to fbdev. I have VT5 and VT6 running seperate X sessions.
Hmm. Glad I don't have Neomagic then.
> >> What I would like to see is a laptop that supports multiple hard drives.
> >> RAID-1 on desktop features is starting to become common (it will become
> >> especially common when the Raidtools2 stuff gets into the mainstream kernel).
> >> I think that we need the same in laptops. Also for more serious use they
> >> should sell laptops with support for 4 hard drives to run RAID-10.
> >
> >I have an IDE adapter cable, and it's possible to get a SCSI one, but that
> >wouldn't really do what you want. The Omnibook 800 - as far as I can tell
> >unique among laptops - has its internal SCSI bus accessible as an external
> >port, so you should be able to hang a whole chain off of it. Helluva docking
> >station you get there :)
>
> External SCSI requires power down to disconnect. Even with hibernation it
> would be a PITA.
PCMCIA SCSI only requires the cardbus stuff. Still have to actively mount/
dismount though. Carrying that stuff is more the PITA.
> >If the focus of laptops is to be portable - what sort of task needs to
> >carry a half-terabyte around with you *regularly*? Or are you looking for
> >the parity/stability which RAID is supposed to offer - why wouldn't the
> >upcoming journaling be enough? Just curious...
>
> Journalling does not replace parity at all. In fact if anything journalling
> probably increases the need because it'll be more difficult to recover from a
> partial hardware failure!
Ahh. Fair enough.
> What I wait is RAID-1 for reliability and double the read bandwidth. I also
> want RAID-0 for bulk write bandwidth and for read performance when I have
> many processes running. Combine that into RAID-10 and you need a minimum of
> 4 hard drives but get great performance.
> I use my laptop as a development and test machine for ISP servers amoung
> other things. Also I compile many largish programs.
> I could use RAID-10 for LDAP ldif imports and performance while compiling
> large programs. Lots of RAM will be handy for compiling MICO (gcc takes 160M
> of memory) and for running OpenLDAP (wants database size * 1.5 amount of RAM
> for good performane - I'm playing with a 40M database).
>
> I use my laptop to compare Linux to UNIX servers that come from all the big
> vendors and I like Linux to win. Recently I had the opportunity to replace a
> Sun server with 400M of RAM and SCSI RAID with a PC running Linux (128M and
> an IDE drive). The Linux machine is significantly faster, now I just want
> RAID-1 on it for obvious reasons!
So you make good business convincing people to buy big PCs and run Linux as
their main servers because even your laptop kicks their present one's butt? :)
> ><pipe dream>
> >an 8.5-10 pound laptop with a half Gb of memory (expandable further) with
> >2 internal, 1 swappable drive bays (options 10 Gb through 38 Gb in size)
> >with [whatever the latest rage in perfected laptop monitors is] plus builtin
> >CD/DVD capable, real stereo access, Video4Linux supported vidtuner graphics
> >card,
> ></pipe dream>
> >might start getting there.
[moved]
> No. Just buy a new laptop. I think that you should get a new one every 18
> months.
> Firstly you don't want to lug 5Kg. You want at most 3.5Kg with 1280x1024
> display, 500M of RAM, 4 hard drives, and CD-ROM/floppy (like the Thinkpad 600
> series where you choose which one of floppy or CD is external and which is
> internal). This is all achievable with today's technology, and would cost
> much less than $32000 if they made them.
> As for Video. I am waiting for that, but expect I'll be waiting quite a
> while.
Do *not* tell me that what I want is what you want. What I want is a laptop
to serve my mobile needs until its components finally wear out; if it also
meets some of my desktop station needs, great, but I'm not gonna cry over it.
I actually like the smaller box; if I want a bigger monitor, I bloody well
plug it into one. But it's not weight that has me wanting smaller, it's
the shape.
When I'm thinking "quality video" I'm thinking crisp images that don't flicker
and a vidcard that doesn't squeal or click when I change modes because I do, a
lot. (Yeah I can hear elctronic things make noises. Sigh.) Talk about what
you will -not- find in the marketdroid bullet list.
-* Heather Stern * Starshine Technical Services * star@starshine.org *-
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