Arch Linux

xaos5

Member

Registered: 2005-12-30

Posts: 75

my laptop is slow

I have a sager laptop with a pentium m 770 2.13ghz processor. I have a strange problem where its running really slow but I think i've narrowed down the problem. I checked the kernel config and its setup to use a pentium-pro. I believe it detected the cpu wrong and now its making it act very strange. If the cpu is under load it runs fine. gkrellm will only show 50% and 100% cpu load also. I want to know how to change the architecture to a pentium m in the config, when I reboot with the new kernel it tells me gcc is suppose to find 686 not pentium m.

sebcactus

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2005-01-27

Posts: 277

Re: my laptop is slow

I discussed it on the topic below, but nobody found an answer:

http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?t=17056&start=15

The only solution I found is to compile my own kernel...

You can also try the kernel26archck. It worked for some users (not me, I can't boot it)

xaos5

Member

Registered: 2005-12-30

Posts: 75

Re: my laptop is slow

I compiled my own vanillia kernel 2.6.15.4 from kernel.org and used the config from arch. The problem I think i'm having is it detected the processor as a pentium PRO, not a pentium m. When I reboot the new kernel it gives me a gcc error on a few starting with ide_core I think. The error message was it expected 686 but specified was pentium m which I changed in the config. How do you compile the kernel without using abs? every other distro i've used worked manuallycompiling the kernel.

1270

Member

From: Iowa

Registered: 2005-12-22

Posts: 16

Re: my laptop is slow

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ker … rom_Source

That's a great wiki article. First time I had ever compiled a kernel and worked the first time. Full credit to whom ever wrote the article.

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There is a chance I know what I am talking about.

sebcactus

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2005-01-27

Posts: 277

Re: my laptop is slow

This is not the best way to do it.
You should create your own kernel package with makepkg. The simplest way is to grab the PKGBUILD (and some patches) from cvs (or use abs to get them) and edit the PKGBUILD and change the line

"yes || make config" by
"make menuconfig"

so that you can edit your own package.

xaos -> did you update your initrd either ?
I am not sure the pb is the bad recognition of your CPU. Arch is based on i686 (=pentium-pro and above) compiled packages. Pentium-M are compatible with this architecture (as it is for i386 based package).