Debian - How to force a HW Check and Update

[Ram]

Hi,

Continue of the SuSE 9.2 USB 2 Issue, on the PC I am dual booting it with Debian from the Linux Bible Book, this book covers many distros and discusses say Running A Mail Server and demostrate this with a chapter dedicated to one distro, hence me installing Debian to run through setting up a Mail Server etc.

One command I can't find in the book is how to force the system to do a HW check install new drivers etc. I want to force the system in loading the USB 2 Divers for my new USB 2 PCI Card so that I can run the Exernal Disk I just bought.

FIA

Ram

[towy71]

You don't say which version of Debian you are running or which kernel?
I think that the latest kernels have all such things built in.
to find the kernel type: uname -a in a terminal
and to see what HW you have type: dmesg
and then post the details back here

[fingers99]

You could try kudzu. The success is likely to depend on which kernel/modules you have.

[Ram]

It was 2.4*******,

Just reformatted this drive. hopefully it will pick it back up when i get round to reloading.

Thx
Ram

[jjmac]

I would suggest you update your kernel to 2.6.10 or 2.6.11 vanilla, not having used 2.6.11 i can only really speak on ".10"

The later kernels have broader and less bug prone hw support. You may also like to consider some of the many different patch sets available too. I'll give a plug for the "-ck" patches (Con Kolivas). They utilise some of the "-ac" and "-mm" set, and others as well, but focus mainly on task and i/o scheduling issues. For both the desktop user and for server boxes. They have made my desktop noticeably smoother.

Two links relating to that:

http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/
http://ck.kolivas.org/patches/


If your using debs policy system to handle your kernel, i'd suggest bypassing it. I find it to restrictive myself. Just do a standard make/install. You will probably need to update some of debs packages before hand, especially your modutils package. But that will be all in the changes file in the Documents sub directory. The compile system has changedfor the better in 2.6.x, as well. You will find it more straight forward than 2.4.x, the modules compile is now auto, though the install stage is still manually done.

You shouldn't think you must stay with debs default Kernel. It is quite ok to do a manual compile/install.


jm
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  Notice how ours is the only planet in the solar system
               thats named after dirt !


[Ram]

Cheers for that Jim,

I've not got round to re-installing Deb's yet but I will possibly next week when I've got some spare time.

I got the same problem with Deb's 2.4, Suse 9.1 & 9.2 both 2.26 where I'd lose the USB2 mount while it was doing large backups, the card was added to these systems after installation. After the reformat I tried FC3 as suplied on Cover Disk a couple of months back, card already in place and this also suffered the same symptoms. Once the mount to the USB2 device is lost only a reboot would get it working.

Out of frustration I tried 'MEPIS' from a Cover Disk, now when doing the same copying,
it starts off at 20 - 27 MBps which compares with IDE to IDE, but after a minute or so it starts to drop of to USB1 speed 500KBps then maybe it will STALL, at this point with the other Distros I would lose the mount but now after a short while it starts to speed up, maybe to say 4MBps then drops of again. It keeps doing this until it finishes the copying. The copy should take say 10 to 15 minutes but taking around 2 hours


Ram

[jjmac]

Howdy,

Know little about USB. The very latest 2.6 kernel would be my choice though, with patches. Either 2.6.10 or 2.6.11. The patches are important as the mainline kernel is kept patch free. The various distros will apply their own according to their own out-look. But, that's just a mater of chasing them up from the respective distro sites. Not always an easy task either . Also, the 2.6 kernel series likes to work with the lates versions of periferal software. Especially things that deal with the system. So any USB associated software should be updated as well. Including all the modutil, coreutil, hdparm etc stuff.

The only other thing i could think of would be some configuration issue, lurking in the background somewhere. Including the kernel config. Or something on a hw match level, such as the cable or ISP end.

If all fails, you could post on one of the kernel lists. I'd suggest the Kolivas list but then, i'm a bit biased in that direction . They do prefer well rounded posts. Wish i could say more.

jm
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  Notice how ours is the only planet in the solar system
                     thats named after dirt !


[Ram]

Hi jm,

I did not reliase till last night that MEPIS is based on Debian untill I started to install some updates. I'll put that down to frustration over the weekend .

Anyway I'll got my Server backup and running with Samba.

I'll look into updating the Kernal with all the USB Stuff.

Ram