install feedback

[fanderal]

Hello,

Just installed Salix and it works great.

Had a problem I think is the result of the install and wanted to mention it.
The drives:
sda: 100GB SSD (default Linux OS with root, home, swap)
sdb: 640GB HD (empty NTFS, four pairs of root and home partitions, and one swap - four Linux OSs)
sdc: 320GB HD (multimedia, no OS)

I installed Salix root and home to sdb2 and sdb3, respectively, and assigned swap to the existing sdb11 swap partition. I installed LILO to the MBR on sda and while I might have missed it, didn't see anything about the other OSs.

Rebooting after the install, the only choice was Salix. I'm much more familiar with GRUB than LILO so I tried to reboot to a Debian install CD, planning to use the rescue mode to reinstall GRUB to the MBR. I heard the CD spin up but it booted to the newly installed Salix. Tried another install CD and got the same result.

Rebooted and entered the BIOS. All three drives were shown and the boot order still showed the CD/DVD drive as first. Tried rebooting to the CD again and got stuck with "checking NVRAM..."

I shut it down, unplugged the power supply and disconnected the two HDs. An hour later, I reconnected the power supply and booted to the BIOS. The boot order showed the CD/DVD drive first then the SSD. I put in the Debian CD and rebooted... the CD worked and I installed GRUB. I shut it down, connected the two other HDs and rebooted to the default OS on the SSD. After reinstalling GRUB with all three drives connected, it's thankfully back to normal.

The Salix minimal graphic install was the first time I've installed any OS in almost two years, when I bought the SSD. LILO? the SSD? Salix? Dunno, but I'd be happy to give hardware specifics if this is worth looking into.

Looking forward to using and learning Salix.

[rokytnji]

When I want to give info on my install. I used inxi in Salix.

http://forum.salixos.org/viewtopic.php?p=35699#p35699

Howdy and Welcome.

[fanderal]

Howdy and thanks.

Didn't think of inxi when posting but glad you mentioned it as I found something I missed. Radeon's GPU scaling needs the 3.11 kernel or better to work, and the 14.1 kernel is 3.10.17. Ran ixni after enabling on-demand CPU scaling, parking the sdc HD in standby and letting the system idle for 30 minutes, then compared the temps with my default system. The hardware runs warmer on Salix than I'd like:

Salix:
System Temperatures: cpu: 39.0C mobo: N/A gpu: 56.0

Debian/Sid:
System Temperatures: cpu: 34.0C mobo: 33.0C gpu: 42.5 (sdb active, sdc parked)

Dunno if I can safely upgrade the kernel to 3.14.24 so I think Salix 14.2 would be a better fit, or perhaps the current Slackware.


As needed...

Code: Select all

System:    Kernel: 3.10.17-smp i686 (32 bit, gcc: 4.8.2) 
           Desktop: Fluxbox 1.3.5 dm: gdm Distro: Slackware 14.1
Machine:   Mobo: FOXCONN model: A7GM-S version: 1.0 
           Bios: American Megatrends version: 080014 date: 06/08/2009
CPU:       Quad core AMD Phenom II X4 945 (-MCP-) cache: 2048 KB 
           flags: (lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4a svm) bmips: 24002.1 
           Clock Speeds: 1: 800.00 MHz 2: 800.00 MHz 3: 3000.00 MHz 4: 800.00 MHz
Graphics:  Card: AMD/ATI [Advanced Micro Devices ] RV710 [Radeon HD 4550]
           X.Org: 1.14.3 driver: radeon Resolution: 1920x1200@60.0hz 
           GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on AMD RV710 GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 9.1.7 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card-1: AMD/ATI [Advanced Micro Devices ] SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA) 
           driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:14.2 chip-ID: 1002:4383 
           Card-2: AMD/ATI [Advanced Micro Devices ] RV710/730 HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 4000 series] 
           driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 01:00.1 chip-ID: 1002:aa38 
           Card-3: Logitech HD Webcam C910 driver: USB Audio usb-ID: 007-003 chip-ID: 046d:0821 
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture ver: k3.10.17-smp
Network:   Card: Realtek RTL8111/8168 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller 
           driver: r8169 ver: 2.3LK-NAPI port: e800 bus-ID: 02:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8168
           IF: eth0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
           WAN IP: <filter> IF: eth0 ip: N/A ip-v6: N/A 
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 1100.2GB (0.3% used)
           1: id: /dev/sda model: Samsung_SSD_840 size: 120.0GB
           2: id: /dev/sdb model: WDC_WD6400AAKS size: 640.1GB
           3: id: /dev/sdc model: WDC_WD3200AAKS size: 320.1GB
           Optical: /dev/sr0 model: N/A rev: N/A
           Features: speed: 48x multisession: yes audio: yes dvd: yes rw: cd-r,cd-rw,dvd-r,dvd-ram state: N/A
Partition: ID: / size: 10G used: 1.9G (19%) fs: xfs dev: /dev/sdb2 
           ID: /home size: 50G used: 51M (1%) fs: xfs dev: /dev/sdb3 
           ID: swap-1 size: 3.09GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sdb11 
RAID:      System: supported: linear raid0 raid1 raid10 raid6 raid5 raid4 multipath 
           No RAID devices detected - /proc/mdstat and md_mod kernel raid module present
           Unused Devices: none
Unmounted: ID: /dev/sda1 size: 10.74G 
           ID: /dev/sda2 size: 107.37G
           ID: /dev/sda3 size: 1.92G
           ID: /dev/sdb1 size: 453.69G
           ID: /dev/sdb5 size: 10.73G
           ID: /dev/sdb6 size: 53.69G
           ID: /dev/sdb7 size: 5.37G
           ID: /dev/sdb8 size: 26.85G
           ID: /dev/sdb9 size: 5.37G
           ID: /dev/sdb10 size: 26.85G
           ID: /dev/sdb11 size: 3.09G
           ID: /dev/sdc1 size: 320.07G
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 39.0C mobo: N/A gpu: 56.0 
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A 
Info:      Processes: 128 Uptime: 57 min Memory: 141.5/4041.2MB Runlevel: 4 Gcc sys: 4.8.2 
           Client: Shell (bash 4.2.53 running in lxterminal) inxi: 1.9.17