Hello all, I am new to this list and hope that my mail is not OFF TOPIC. After looking around for 2 months now, to find a solution, I will try it here now. Now the scenario: I bought a new cool dell laptop: INSPIRON 8100, 512MB RAM, NVIDEA GeForce2Go 32MB, 30GB Hitachi hard disk and a DVD. I bought it with WinME preinstalled, because it wasn't possible to get it with linux nor without an OS. I shrinked the WinME partition to 3GB using parted and installed RH 7.2 as second OS. So I have ext3 in use, it was the default. Here my partition layout: Disk /dev/hda: 255 heads, 63 sectors, 3648 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/hda1 * 1 392 3148708+ c Win95 FAT32 (LBA) /dev/hda2 393 427 281137+ 84 OS/2 hidden C: drive /dev/hda3 428 430 24097+ 83 Linux /dev/hda4 431 3648 25848585 f Win95 Ext'd (LBA) /dev/hda5 431 2215 14337981 83 Linux /dev/hda6 2216 3362 9213246 83 Linux /dev/hda7 3363 3489 1020096 82 Linux swap The strange OS/2 hidden partition is for suspend2disk. Here my mount points: [root@inspiron root]# mount /dev/hda6 on / type ext3 (rw) none on /proc type proc (rw) usbdevfs on /proc/bus/usb type usbdevfs (rw) /dev/hda3 on /boot type ext3 (rw) none on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620) /dev/hda5 on /home type ext3 (rw) none on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw) /dev/hda1 on /mnt/win type vfat (rw) I send you the hdparm informations, on the hdd I changed from udma5 to udma4, suggested me on the dell-linux mailing list. It seams I have lesser problems, but they persist. [root@inspiron root]# hdparm -i /dev/hda /dev/hda: Model=HITACHI_DK23CA-30, FwRev=00H0A0G1, SerialNo=11BPWF Config={ HardSect NotMFM HdSw>15uSec Fixed DTR>10Mbs } RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=36477, SectSize=579, ECCbytes=4 BuffType=DualPortCache, BuffSize=2048kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=16 CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=-66060037, LBA=yes, LBAsects=58605120 IORDY=yes, tPIO={min:400,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120} PIO modes: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4 DMA modes: sdma0 sdma1 sdma2 mdma0 mdma1 mdma2 udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 *udma4 udma5 AdvancedPM=yes: mode=0x80 (128) Drive Supports : ATA/ATAPI-5 T13 1321D revision 3 : ATA-1 ATA-2 ATA-3 ATA-4 ATA-5 [root@inspiron root]# hdparm -i /dev/hdb /dev/hdb: Model=LG DVD-ROM DRN-8080B, FwRev=2.01, SerialNo=2001/08/20 Config={ Fixed Removeable DTR<=5Mbs DTR>10Mbs nonMagnetic } RawCHS=0/0/0, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=0 BuffType=unknown, BuffSize=0kB, MaxMultSect=0 (maybe): CurCHS=0/0/0, CurSects=0, LBA=yes, LBAsects=0 IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:120,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120} PIO modes: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4 DMA modes: sdma0 sdma1 sdma2 mdma0 mdma1 *mdma2 AdvancedPM=no Drive Supports : ATA/ATAPI-4 T13 1153D revision 13 : ATA-4 Now the logs about my problems, the fresh one from today ;) Jan 23 10:02:22 inspiron kernel: ide-floppy driver 0.97.sv Jan 23 10:02:23 inspiron kernel: hda: status error: status=0x58 { DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest } Jan 23 10:02:23 inspiron kernel: hda: drive not ready for command Jan 23 10:02:23 inspiron kernel: EXT3-fs error (device ide0(3,6)): ext3_readdir: bad entry in directory #892807: rec_len is smaller than minimal - offset=0, inode=0, rec_len=0, name_len=0 Jan 23 10:02:33 inspiron kernel: hda: timeout waiting for DMA Jan 23 10:02:33 inspiron kernel: ide_dmaproc: chipset supported ide_dma_timeout func only: 14 Jan 23 10:02:33 inspiron kernel: blk: queue c0343660, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff) Jan 23 10:02:33 inspiron kernel: hdb: ATAPI 24X DVD-ROM DVD-RAM drive, 512kB Cache, DMA Jan 23 10:02:33 inspiron kernel: Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.12 Jan 23 10:02:33 inspiron kernel: hda: status error: status=0x58 { DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest } Jan 23 10:02:33 inspiron kernel: hda: drive not ready for command Jan 23 10:02:33 inspiron kernel: hdb: packet command error: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error } Jan 23 10:02:33 inspiron kernel: hdb: packet command error: error=0x24 Jan 23 10:02:33 inspiron kernel: blk: queue c0343660, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff) Jan 23 10:02:34 inspiron su(pam_unix)[924]: session closed for user root Jan 23 10:02:34 inspiron kernel: EXT3-fs error (device ide0(3,6)): ext3_readdir: bad entry in directory #892807: rec_len is smaller than minimal - offset=0, inode=0, rec_len=0, name_len=0 Could someone of you say me what is wrong with my system, I really don't know what to do. I am afraid dell will not care much about my problems, because I use linux and I don't know if it's a linux problem or a hardware problem. And if hardware related I would like to know, is it the HDD or the controller or what else. Please help Patrick -- +----------------------------------------------------------------------- | Save software competition, use Linux and Java! | | Also visit http://www.lugbz.org the Linux User Group in Southtyrol! | | Public PGP KEY:http://www.lugbz.org/PGP_PatrickOhnewein.asc |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much.