Slow Kickstart on a Cluster(tyan 2466) because of Video

[Abhishek SINHA]

Dear All

Though this is more of a kickstart thing but since i
have done it on a cluster and i guess a lot of ppl
here use Tyan 2466 mobo and Kickstart Redhat i guess
something will be relevant

There are two machine both Tyan 2466 based and one has
an ATI Rage Xpert 98 card and the other Trident
9750.When i use the ATI card the kickstart (NFS)takes
about 3 hours. On the same system when i use a Trident
card it takes half an hour.After install everything is
fine.

So i went ahead and compared the lspci-vv ouputs of
both

Here is the relevant info from Trident card system
with onboard(I have deleted all other info which is
similar)

THIS IS SCREAMING FAST

02:04.0 VGA compatible controller: Trident
Microsystems 3DImage 9750 (rev f3) (prog-if 00 [VGA])
        Subsystem: Trident Microsystems 3DImage 9750
        Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle-
MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
        Status: Cap- 66Mhz+ UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr-
DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
        Latency: 64
        Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 16
        Region 0: Memory at f4400000 (32-bit,
non-prefetchable) [size=4M]
        Region 1: Memory at f4800000 (32-bit,
non-prefetchable) [size=128K]
        Region 2: Memory at f4000000 (32-bit,
non-prefetchable) [size=4M]
        Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled]
[size=64K]

02:08.0 Ethernet controller: 3Com Corporation
3c905C-TX/TX-M [Tornado] (rev 78)
        Subsystem: Tyan Computer: Unknown device 2466
        Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle-
MemWINV+ VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
        Status: Cap+ 66Mhz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr-
DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
        Latency: 80 (2500ns min, 2500ns max), cache
line size 10
        Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 19
        Region 0: I/O ports at 2000 [size=128]
        Region 1: Memory at f4821000 (32-bit,
non-prefetchable) [size=128]
        Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled]
[size=128K]
        Capabilities: [dc] Power Management version 2
                Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1+ D2+
AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0+,D1+,D2+,D3hot+,D3cold+)
                Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=2
PME-


THIS IS THE SLOW ONE ATI CARD
02:04.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies
Inc Rage XL (rev 27) (prog-if 00 [VGA])
        Subsystem: ATI Technologies Inc Rage XL
        Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle-
MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping+ SERR- FastB2B-
        Status: Cap+ 66Mhz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr-
DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
        Latency: 64 (2000ns min), cache line size 10
        Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 16
        Region 0: Memory at f5000000 (32-bit,
non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
        Region 1: I/O ports at 2000 [size=256]
        Region 2: Memory at f4001000 (32-bit,
non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
        Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled]
[size=128K]
        Capabilities: [5c] Power Management version 2
                Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1+ D2+
AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0-,D1-,D2-,D3hot-,D3cold-)
                Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0
PME-

02:08.0 Ethernet controller: 3Com Corporation
3c905C-TX/TX-M [Tornado] (rev 78)
        Subsystem: Tyan Computer: Unknown device 2466
        Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle-
MemWINV+ VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
        Status: Cap+ 66Mhz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr-
DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
        Latency: 80 (2500ns min, 2500ns max), cache
line size 10
        Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 19
        Region 0: I/O ports at 2400 [size=128]
        Region 1: Memory at f4002000 (32-bit,
non-prefetchable) [size=128]
        Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled]
[size=128K]
        Capabilities: [dc] Power Management version 2
                Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1+ D2+
AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0+,D1+,D2+,D3hot+,D3cold+)
                Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=2
PME-


----

Let me compare both of them so that you all dont have
scroll up and down

Here is the difference between the network card o/p of
lspci between ATI CARD and TRIDENT


Ethernet controller: 3Com Corporation 3c905C-TX/TX-M
[Tornado] (rev 78)

the changed lines being:

On ATI
        Region 0: I/O ports at 2400 [size=128]
        Region 1: Memory at f4002000 (32-bit,
non-prefetchable) [size=128]

where the MAJORITY of (trident-equipped) machines say
under 3com,
        Region 0: I/O ports at 2000 [size=128]
        Region 1: Memory at f4821000 (32-bit,
non-prefetchable) [size=128]


I am unable to explain this .slow behaviour..Can
anyone help me do so

Thanks
abhishek




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