On Thu, 8 Feb 2001, Vann, Mark (CRTATL) wrote:
> Also, i have seen a lot of stuff flying around about ide storage. Is this
> really an issue, could one not build a NFS server and connect to it via the
> broadband adapter? Is the adapter 100mbit capable? If not, how hard does it
> look to attach a generic tuplip chipset to it?

The adapter is 10/100Mbps.  NFS works, but it is an ungodly amount slower
than local IDE drives.  Also a dreamcast unix machine relying upon a LAN
configured with dhcp and exporting root filesystem is a lot less portable
than a dreamcast unix box you can toss in your backpack and take wherever
there is a TV. (yes, unix and networking go together, but you'd be leaving
your filesystem at home unless it's on a laptop). I am very happy to have
NFS working but on my 10Mbps it is rediculously slow.

Actually, I believe that the NFS on 10Mbps is so bad that it might explain
the CPU load increases.  This is after about 15 mins of idle:

dreamcast# uptime
11:12AM  up 37 mins, 1 user, load averages: 0.13, 0.09, 0.08
dreamcast# ps ax
PID TT STAT    TIME COMMAND
  0 ?? DKs  0:00.00 (swapper)
  1 ?? IWs  0:00.00 init -s
  2 ?? SK   0:00.31 (nfsio)
  3 ?? SK   0:00.11 (nfsio)
  4 ?? IK   0:00.02 (nfsio)
  5 ?? IK   0:00.00 (nfsio)
  6 ?? DK   0:00.11 (pagedaemon)
  7 ?? DK   0:00.06 (reaper)
  8 ?? DK   0:00.00 (ioflush)
  9 ?? DK   0:00.19 (aiodoned)
 74 ?? Is   0:00.75 /usr/sbin/syslogd -s
157 ?? IWs  0:00.00 /usr/sbin/inetd -l
161 ?? Is   0:00.11 /usr/sbin/cron
164 ?? S    0:00.33 telnetd
165 p0 IWs  0:00.00 -csh
178 p0 S    0:00.39 -csh
227 p0 R+   0:00.06 ps ax
163 ?? IWs+ 0:00.00 /usr/libexec/getty std.115200 console

With 2-4 people logged in i've seen it climb to 1.00 with a few commands
idly typed in. My FreeBSD machine is a 233 Pentium and tends to have a
much easier time with far more processes open.

wallshot@catfive:~ [22]$ uptime
11:53AM  up 14 days, 12:50, 4 users, load averages: 0.03, 0.02, 0.00
wallshot@catfive:~ [23]$ ps ax
  PID  TT  STAT      TIME COMMAND
    0  ??  DLs    0:01.02  (swapper)
    1  ??  ILs    0:00.25 /sbin/init --
    2  ??  DL     0:15.03  (pagedaemon)
    3  ??  DL     0:00.75  (vmdaemon)
    4  ??  DL     0:12.63  (bufdaemon)
    5  ??  DL     4:00.87  (syncer)
   30  ??  IWs    0:00.00 adjkerntz -i
   96  ??  Ss     0:56.41 syslogd -s
   99  ??  Is     0:21.65 named -u bind -g bind
  108  ??  I      0:06.87 nfsiod -n 4
  109  ??  I      0:03.21 nfsiod -n 4
  110  ??  I      0:01.64 nfsiod -n 4
  111  ??  I      0:01.60 nfsiod -n 4
  132  ??  Is     0:19.04 inetd -wWl
  134  ??  Is     0:10.90 cron
  264  ??  Is     2:17.67 /usr/local/sbin/sshd (sshd1)
  493  ??  Ss     0:26.60 nmbd
15533  ??  Ss     1:23.65 screen
15545  ??  Ss     1:38.07 screen
19598  ??  Ss     1:18.38 smbd
25224  ??  Ss     0:08.85 screen
35657  ??  Is     0:00.21 /usr/sbin/portmap
35786  ??  Is     4:18.64 /usr/local/sbin/cfsd
74771  ??  Ss     0:21.17 screen
86321  ??  Ss     0:04.70 /usr/local/sbin/httpd
86322  ??  I      0:10.98 /usr/local/sbin/httpd
86323  ??  I      0:07.36 /usr/local/sbin/httpd
86324  ??  I      0:08.55 /usr/local/sbin/httpd
86325  ??  I      0:00.91 /usr/local/sbin/httpd
86326  ??  I      0:02.79 /usr/local/sbin/httpd
86327  ??  I      0:05.14 /usr/local/sbin/httpd
86328  ??  I      0:04.63 /usr/local/sbin/httpd
87130  ??  I      0:19.75 /usr/local/sbin/sshd (sshd1)
87759  ??  S      0:59.51 nfsd: server (nfsd)
87760  ??  I      0:04.42 nfsd: server (nfsd)
87761  ??  I      0:00.27 nfsd: server (nfsd)
87762  ??  I      0:00.05 nfsd: server (nfsd)
90414  ??  I      0:17.12 /usr/local/sbin/sshd (sshd1)
90682  ??  I      0:00.18 /usr/local/sbin/httpd
91449  ??  S      0:16.46 /usr/local/sbin/sshd (sshd1)
91535  ??  I      0:40.00 /usr/local/sbin/sshd (sshd1)
89020  p0  S+     0:01.07 pine
90418  p0  Is     0:00.28 -bash (bash)
91453  p1  Ss     0:00.17 -bash (bash)
93574  p1  R+     0:00.00 ps ax
25225  p2  Is     0:00.06 /usr/local/bin/bash
25226  p2  S+     0:21.58 sirc wallshot irc.openprojects.net
87132  p5  Is     0:00.09 -bash (bash)
87737  p5  I      0:00.14 /sbin/mountd -l -d -r /etc/exports
88651  p5  I      0:01.10 -su (bash)
93270  p5  I+     0:00.08 telnet dreamcast
91537  p6  Is     0:00.17 -bash (bash)
93501  p6  I+     0:01.49 pine
15534  pa  Is     0:00.12 /usr/local/bin/bash
47748  pa  S+     1:09.61 sirc didigogo irc.openprojects.net
15546  pb  IWs    0:00.00 /usr/local/bin/bash
15547  pb  S+     5:53.56 sirc didigogo alternet.cnmnetwork.com
 2565  pe  S+     2:11.61 perl smokey.pl
74772  pe  Is     0:00.10 /usr/local/bin/bash
  280  v0  IWs+   0:00.00 /usr/libexec/getty Pc ttyv0
  281  v1  IWs+   0:00.00 /usr/libexec/getty Pc ttyv1
  282  v2  IWs+   0:00.00 /usr/libexec/getty Pc ttyv2
  283  v3  IWs+   0:00.00 /usr/libexec/getty Pc ttyv3
  284  v4  IWs+   0:00.00 /usr/libexec/getty Pc ttyv4
  285  v5  IWs+   0:00.00 /usr/libexec/getty Pc ttyv5
  286  v6  IWs+   0:00.00 /usr/libexec/getty Pc ttyv6
  287  v7  IWs+   0:00.00 /usr/libexec/getty Pc ttyv7
  217 con- IW     0:00.00 /bin/sh /usr/local/bin/safe_mysqld --user=mysql
  224 con- I      0:02.97 qmail-send
  225 con- I      0:00.10 /usr/local/bin/tcpserver -u 82 -g 81 0 smtp
/var/qmail/bin/qmail-smt
  229 con- I      0:01.03 splogger qmail
  230 con- I      0:00.41 qmail-lspawn |preline procmail
  231 con- I      0:00.26 qmail-rspawn
  232 con- I      0:00.38 qmail-clean
  235 con- IW     0:00.00 /usr/local/sbin/rplayd
  276 con- S      0:26.16 /usr/local/libexec/mysqld --basedir=/usr/local
--datadir=/var/db/mys
wallshot@catfive:~ [24]$ uname
FreeBSD

With the need to swap, I would imagine that would also increase the load,
probably moreso than the lag time just manipulating it's filesystem.

Has anybody who has the DC filesystem on the gdrom gotten significantly
better cpu loads?


-John