[ale] Computers for sale with Linux installed.

[Jeff Hubbs]

On Mon, 2003-02-03 at 10:41, Joe wrote:
> Jeff Hubbs <hbbs at attbi.com> writes:
> 
> > But if you do that, bring along a tomsrtbt floppy to check for the buggy
> > CMD640 and RZ1000 IDE controller chips in the Pentium classics.  About a
> > third of all machines made in that era have them and are to be avoided. 
> 
> Linux has had workarounds for those problems since they were detected,
> and they're enabled by default in (AFAIK) all kernels that support
> them. So unless you're looking for pure speed (and if you're buying
> a 5-year-old machine, you're not :-), they should be OK.

Not necessarily.  IIRC, many of the machines with the bad IDE
controllers had the additional issue of them simply being wired up
incorrectly on the motherboard.  And, inasmuch as there is a conf0g-time
kernel option for buggy CMD640 support, the RZ1000 issue was a bit
thornier.  In any case, the buggy controllers are a bit of a minefield
for any multitasking OS.  All I'm saying is, if you can easily avoid a
bad one for a good one, do so, but if you get a bad one (I have two,
BTW, and one is my firewall and has no HDD running), you might consider
working around the problem by somehow not relying on that controller.

What's bad is that Micron, which back in the day was one of the most
highly thought-of PC manufacturers (of those who made their own mobos),
made LOTS of machines with the buggy controllers.

- Jeff

_______________________________________________
Ale mailing list
Ale at ale.org
http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale