Merkli
Motherboard[edit]
Base Board Information
Manufacturer: MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO., LTD
Product Name: MS-6570
Version:
Serial Number:
http://www.msi.com/product/mb/K7N2.html
Video[edit]
- ATI Radeon 9800 SE AGP 8x
- 128MB RAM
- upgraded video to 1 x ($39.99) VGA XFX GF6200 256MB PVT44AWANG R - Retail AGP 8x Nvidia
CPU[edit]
AMD Athlon XP 2100+
- cores: 1
RAM[edit]
2 GB
Replace with CORSAIR 1GB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Desktop Memory. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145505&cm_mmc=CNETFindMEMUS-_-20-145-505-_-na-_-na should go up to 3 GB
OS[edit]
Ubuntu
Storage[edit]
- 160 GB NTFS
- WD 1600AVJB 1 x 40-pin Ultra ATA/100 (ATA-6) IDE/EIDE
- PATA
- Bogomips: 3461
Video benchmarks with compiz enabled[edit]
- Glxgears fps: 2200
Video benchmarks without compiz enabled[edit]
- Glxgears fps: 1540
bonnie on local disk[edit]
Version 1.96 ------Sequential Output------ --Sequential Input- --Random-
Concurrency 1 -Per Chr- --Block-- -Rewrite- -Per Chr- --Block-- --Seeks--
Machine Size K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP K/sec %CP /sec %CP
merkli 4G 58 76 78189 47 32216 20 680 92 79873 20 152.2 10
Latency 171ms 44400us 795ms 28096us 151ms 953ms
Version 1.96 ------Sequential Create------ --------Random Create--------
merkli -Create-- --Read--- -Delete-- -Create-- --Read--- -Delete--
files /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP /sec %CP
16 12200 64 +++++ +++ 19061 75 15494 77 +++++ +++ 19681 77
Latency 3228us 1549us 14250us 2193us 962us 3448us
upgrade to ssd[edit]
For $100 I bought a 120GB SSD and a SATA controller card that would plug into my old PCI bus. But oddly, my attempts to install ubuntu on the SSD have failed with an unknown error at the point in the install that it is copying files to the drive. I've tried Ubuntu precise and quantal, and they both fail in the same way at the same place.
In the hope that the problem is related to the firmware revision in the SSD, I'm prepping to upgrade it.
lshw says that my SSD is at revision 502A:
*-scsi:1
physical id: 2
logical name: scsi2
capabilities: emulated
*-disk
description: ATA Disk
product: KINGSTON SVP200S
physical id: 0.0.0
bus info: scsi@2:0.0.0
logical name: /dev/sdb
version: 502A
serial: 50026B7229018E8A
size: 111GiB (120GB)
capabilities: partitioned partitioned:dos
configuration: ansiversion=5 sectorsize=512 signature=0007dfe7
The latest revision for this model is 503. But the web page says that I have to have AHCI enabled in the bios to perform the update. But this computer is too old for AHCI.
root@merkli:~# dmesg | grep -i ahci root@merkli:~#
I think I'm going to try to do the upgrade and see how it fails. As a last resort, I could try installing the drive in a newer machine and doing the upgrade there.
rday@potato:~$ dmesg | grep -i ahci [ 0.512666] ahci 0000:00:09.0: version 3.0 [ 0.512838] ahci 0000:00:09.0: irq 40 for MSI/MSI-X [ 0.512846] ahci 0000:00:09.0: controller can't do PMP, turning off CAP_PMP [ 0.512903] ahci 0000:00:09.0: AHCI 0001.0200 32 slots 6 ports 3 Gbps 0x3f impl SATA mode [ 0.512906] ahci 0000:00:09.0: flags: 64bit ncq sntf led clo pio boh [ 0.512908] ahci 0000:00:09.0: setting latency timer to 64 [ 0.513560] scsi0 : ahci [ 0.513629] scsi1 : ahci [ 0.513672] scsi2 : ahci [ 0.513711] scsi3 : ahci [ 0.513749] scsi4 : ahci [ 0.513787] scsi5 : ahci
I tried using the firmware updater and it worked on my system without AHCI. It now shows the revision to be 503A:
*-disk
description: ATA Disk
product: KINGSTON SVP200S
physical id: 0.0.0
bus info: scsi@3:0.0.0
logical name: /dev/sdb
version: 503A
serial: 50026B7229018E8A
size: 111GiB (120GB)
capabilities: partitioned partitioned:dos
configuration: ansiversion=5 sectorsize=512 signature=0007dfe7
ubuntu installer bug[edit]
Attempting to install fails even after upgrading the SSD firmware with the same symptoms. I now believe that this is the problem: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubiquity/+bug/968216 The workaround is to remove the slideshow before doing the install.