Bios tells Linux how much memory is in system. Most bios's only tell Linux that the there is only 64meg even
though there may be more. We can fix this by telling lilo what the real amount
is.
cache
on chip cache
Some motherboards only cache a max of ?, If more memory is added then none of the memory is cached. This can
thus make the system slow because none of the memory is cache Example is the Intel TX chipset only caches 64meg.
Intel LX Pentium II boards only cache 512Meg. The spec said 1 gig but it does not work.
CPU
Intel 386
Intel 486
Intel Pentium Pro
Intel Pentium & Pentium MMX
Intel Pentium II
AMD ( not supported at Fermi)
Cyrix ( not supported at Fermi)
I/O bus
isa
eisa (support ?)
micro channel ( not supported at all by Linux)
vlb
pci
Disk
mfm - old (relative)
ide
max of 2 devices per ide controller
one drive is jumpered as master
other is slave
normally 2 controllers on todays motherboards -- 0 & 1
/dev/hda - master drive on controller 0
/dev/hdb - slave drive on controller 0
/dev/hdc - master drive on controller 1
/dev/hdd - slave drive on controller 1
atapi
cdrom
zip
ls-120
cd-r
disk
<504 meg (bios)
Original pc
<= 1024 real cylinders
504meg - 8.4gig (bios)
lba (logical block address)
<1024 cylinders by changing cylinder/head/sector geometry
divide cylinders by 2 and double number of heads logically
Vendor has started to support "Open source" community. Will be a while before the drivers catch up
with the hardware.
NCR/Symbios based boards
Symbios
tekram
Bus Logic
Intel Night Shade Dual Pentium II motherboard
device names
/dev/sda first scsi disk found
/dev/sdb 2nd scsi disk found
beware of removing scsi disks as drive names may change
/dev/st0 -- first scsi tape drive
Raid
software - MD device driver
Hardware
DPT
Floppy
/dev/fd0
/dev/fd01440 default size
/dev/fd01722 ?
IRQ
1-15
most are reserved for system use
some are assigned by convention
0 -- System timer
1 -- Keyboard Controller
2 -- cascade
3 -- com 2
4 -- com 1
5 -- sound/lpt2
6 -- floppy disk
7 -- parallel port/lpt1
8 -- real-time clock
9 -- same as 2
10
11 -- pci bus
12 -- ps/2 mouse
13 -- math co-processor
14 -- ide disk 0
15 -- ide disk 1
ports
serial - normally 2 connectors
com1
base io 3F8h
/dev/cua0
/dev/ttyS0
com2
base io 2F8h
/dev/cua1
/dev/ttyS1
com3
same irq as com1
base io 3E8h
/dev/cua2
/dev/ttyS2
com4
same irq as com2
base io 2E8h
/dev/cua3
/dev/ttyS3
parallel
ecp,epp/bidirectional
ecp -- enhanced capabilites port
uses a dma
designed for faster printers
epp -- enhanced parallel port
designed for notebooks
base io 38Ch or 378h
/dev/lp
ps/2
/dev/psaux
usb
ir
pcmcia
mice
2 button
In X must press both buttons to simulate "center" button
2 button with scroll wheel
works with X -- use IMps/2 as mouse type
microsoft
3 button
In X center button just works
logitech
mousesystems white mouse
belkin 3 button
cheap -- may not work with X as a 3 button
ps/2
/dev/mouse symbolic link to /dev/psaux
serial
/dev/mouse symbolic link to /dev/cua0
DMA
0 -- available
1 -- Sound/available
2 -- floppy disk
3 -- ecp/parallel/available
4 -- 1st DMA controller cascade
5 -- Sound/Available
6 -- SCSI/Available
7 -- Available
Plug and Play
Intended to have system automatically configure IRq,dma,base io address's. Need Plug and Play aware BIOS. Do
NOT need Plug and Play aware OS. If you do NOT have a plug and play aware OS then BIOS can do most of the work.
Need to tell BIOS to do the work by turning OFF Plug and Play aware OS question in BIOS.