Text 13644, 123 rader
Skriven 2009-12-14 18:21:00 av WAYNE CHIRNSIDE (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av JAMES BRADLEY
Ärende: Re: All better now
==========================
-=> ROSS CASSELL wrote to JAMES BRADLEY <=-

 RC> Hello James!

 RC> 12 Dec 09 15:24, you wrote to Wayne Chirnside:

 JB> Long long ago, in a galaxy... I digress. I recall reading the order of
 JB> control that occurs after a boot, and took from those words that the
 JB> firmware on the vid (I *think* it's a BIOS routine.) runs through its
 JB> business before POST on the main board, and then any other controllers
 JB> (IE: NIC SCSI/RAID...) before the kernel is called.

 RC> This is what I was trying to explain in my arguments here recently.

 RC> In laymans terms your computer could be described in three layers

 RC> A. Layer One = BIOS

 RC> B. Layer Two = Operating System

 RC> C. Layer Three = Programs

 RC> Take any out of the equation and your computer is useless, moreso if
 RC> there is no BIOS.

 RC> Layer One can be supplemented by firmware on other controller cards,
 RC> sometimes they are silent, as is the case with the Nvidia Card on my
 RC> Windows Box, in other cases you see the firmware on these various
 RC> controller cards post, just like you do the main system BIOS.

 RC> Without the system BIOS there is nothing to control the hardware, not
 RC> only is the system BIOS responsible for polling and posting what
 RC> hardware and resources there are in the system, it carries out the
 RC> instructions from the operating system as well as its last act at
 RC> bootup is to execute the bootcode on the first bootable disk it finds.
 RC> The bootloader takes over and is responsible for executing and
 RC> launching the operating system (Layer Two), the operating system is
 RC> responsible for the programs (Layer three).

 RC> The individual I was conversing with, was insisting that his bootloader
 RC> was loading a video driver, before his BIOS even posted and executed
 RC> the bootloader.

You, this as well James.

The firmware in BIOS'ed video card *was* in fact linked to 
lilo.conf in the MBR *before* the motherboard BIOS 
attempted to take over, and failed dramatically, 
to reestablish itself.

I thought this detail not worth mentioning
*again* until it was once again being called on.

Gee, who has a better idea?

One who sits in front of the console and 
*watches* the reality unfold over and over before one's
very eyes or someone a thousand miles away speculating
in the total absence of all facts?

Anyway, as I mentioned all before as well
simply google the following keywords:
Linux GeForce MX-400 experiences 

And all will be made abundantly clear to all those
who elect to check thks out.

IOW's plenty of other people found this out before
me and but also unfortunately after I followed 
some very unsafe and ill advised advice.

My bad for not trusting my instincts AND for not
checking google for the thousands of others experiencing
either the identical or equally bizarre but near universally
bad outcomes.

Right now that card and it's software driver sits in the bottom
of a drawer with my nefver intending to mess with such
a piece of poorly designed firmware and software *both*.

Nvidia driver on installation taints the kernel
as well so going switching back to the original motherboard card 
as someone advised was the *worst* possible advice causing:

Multiple files of up to 8 of each of several of dozens of inodes.

Causing many directories to be made unwritable
through all subdirectories including those in /var
and /tmp as well as all sorts of other entertaining
mayham.

I was for the first time *ever* left without an operational or
bootable Linux operating system for over 18 hours.

However due to foresight this was the probable outcome
considering I'd reviewed all evidence over idle speculation
I kept my important files on /hda4 which has never been in /etc/fstab
and so was never grunged.

I just repartitioned as better suited me and recovered the last
partition at beginning 27874.

Very annoying all the needless bother had I followed my
original thoughts.

But a better organized system as a result.

Net gain, much knowledge and confirmation from both my experience
and others with this card. 

As a *final*, I hope, comment on this issue I
may very well get an Nvidia equipped motherboard
with compatible BIOS only because quite soon
Nvidia's driver will be made available as part
of the new Linux kernel and thus not taint the kernel
rendering it worse than useless with another video card
as does Nvidia's proprietary software for the GeForce MX-400 .



 
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