[gentoo-server] Re: linux-2.6.8-gentoo-r3 .config for RAID5, help?

[David Wuertele]

Chris> I have attached a 2.6.8-r4 config (cause that's the latest
Chris> gentoo-dev-sources available) that I made specifically for your
Chris> system, based on the info you have given.

Thanks!  I will try it today.  I noticed right away that there were
some differences:

- You skipped APIC, and PNP (probably not significant...)
- You enabled APM (probably not significant...)
- You set Block Dev RAM Size to 8192 (is this significant?)
- You set CONFIG_FB_VESA_DEFAULT_MODE="640x480@60" (this is probably
  significant)
- You enabled a logo and FB splash (also probably significant)
- You enabled devfs (but not mount on boot.  Hmm...)
- You enabled profiling

Chris> You will need to make sure you build the driver for the
Chris> ide-controller statically into your kernel (I have included via
Chris> ide).

The IDE section of the .config you made for me is identical to the one
I am already using.  What is the CONFIG_ for the ide-controller?

Chris> Also, some advice - I notice your raid array consists of drives
Chris> hdc/d/e/f/g This means you must be using master slave
Chris> combinations for IDE drives - this will kill your performance,
Chris> even with raid5 (infact could make is SLOWER than if you just
Chris> had 2 drives in raid1!)

Yowza: seven IDE drives means seven IDE busses!  I only have three PCI
slots, and they would all be full of IDE controllers.  Since PCI cards
share interrupts, will interrupt latency then become a bottleneck?

Thanks very much for the detailed advice!

Dave