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Date:      01 Jul 1999 17:19:53 -0400
From:      Arcady Genkin <a.genkin@utoronto.ca>
To:        freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   FreeBSD is painfully slow on my 486
Message-ID:  <87aetg6pae.fsf@main.wgaf.net>

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I'm quite desperate by now -- I dumped Linux for FreeBSD on an i486
that I used as a firewall, and FreeBSD is much slower. I mean *really* 
slow. The 486 is DX4 and works at 100MHz. It has 16M or RAM. Not
exactly a screamer, but it is fast enough for a machine with no X
installed.

I compiled a custom kernel, disabling pretty much everything.

I suspected that "Turbo" could have been turned off, but Linux kernel
from a rescue disk reports 49 bogomips, which seems to be
reasonable. I also know that the disk access is slower because fs's
are mounted syncronously, but it shouldn't be *that* slower.

I'll give you a couple of examples: kernel compilation takes 4 hours,
whereas somebody on this list reported that his similar 486 takes 30
minutes to compile a kernel. Midnight commander takes 7 seconds to
start, and I have to wait for 7-8 seconds for its file viewer to open
a file.

I hope somebody can help me determine whether FreeBSD doesn't support
something on my computer (for example, the chipset is ALI1429 -- Linux 
had a special option for this chipset in kernel config). Perhaps I
should throw in the towel. Or is there still hope for me?

Below are startup messages and kernel config file. Could somebody
please have a look at them and tell me if everything looks sane?

Thanks a lot in advance, and I apologize for the size of this message.

FreeBSD 3.2-RELEASE #2: Thu Mar 11 16:40:53 EST 1999
    root@door.wgaf.net:/usr/src/sys/compile/DOORKERNEL2
Timecounter "i8254"  frequency 1193182 Hz
CPU: i486 DX4 (486-class CPU)
  Origin = "GenuineIntel"  Id = 0x480  Stepping=0
  Features=0x3<FPU,VME>
real memory  = 16777216 (16384K bytes)
avail memory = 14589952 (14248K bytes)
Preloaded elf kernel "kernel" at 0xc020e000.
Preloaded userconfig_script "/boot/kernel.conf" at 0xc020e09c.
Probing for devices on the ISA bus:
sc0 on isa
sc0: VGA color <16 virtual consoles, flags=0x0>
ed0 at 0x240-0x25f irq 10 on isa
ed0: address 00:80:c8:ec:0f:39, type NE2000 (16 bit) 
ed1 at 0x300-0x31f irq 11 on isa
ed1: address 52:54:4c:17:c9:5c, type NE2000 (16 bit) 
atkbdc0 at 0x60-0x6f on motherboard
atkbd0 irq 1 on isa
fdc0 at 0x3f0-0x3f7 irq 6 drq 2 on isa
fd0: 1.44MB 3.5in
wdc0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7 irq 14 flags 0x90ff on isa
wdc0: unit 0 (wd0): <WDC AC22100H>, LBA, multi-block-16
wd0: 2014MB (4124736 sectors), 1023 cyls, 64 heads, 63 S/T, 512 B/S
vga0 at 0x3b0-0x3df maddr 0xa0000 msize 131072 on isa
npx0 on motherboard
npx0: INT 16 interface
changing root device to wd0s1a

==================
# DOORKERNEL2
machine		"i386"
cpu		"I486_CPU"
ident		"DOORKERNEL2"
maxusers	4

options		"NO_F00F_HACK"

# options		IPFIREWALL
# options		IPDIVERT
options		INET			#InterNETworking
options		FFS			#Berkeley Fast Filesystem
options		FFS_ROOT		#FFS usable as root device [keep this!]
options		PROCFS			#Process filesystem
options		"COMPAT_43"		#Compatible with BSD 4.3 [KEEP THIS!]

#options		FAILSAFE		#Be conservative
#options		USERCONFIG		#boot -c editor
#options		VISUAL_USERCONFIG	#visual boot -c editor

config		kernel	root on wd0

controller	isa0
controller	fdc0	at isa? port "IO_FD1" bio irq 6 drq 2
disk		fd0	at fdc0 drive 0

#  options		"CMD640"	# work around CMD640 chip deficiency
controller	wdc0	at isa? port "IO_WD1" bio irq 14 flags 0x90ff
disk		wd0	at wdc0 drive 0
   
# atkbdc0 controlls both the keyboard and the PS/2 mouse
controller	atkbdc0	at isa? port IO_KBD tty
device		atkbd0	at isa? tty irq 1

device		vga0	at isa? port ? conflicts

# syscons is the default console driver, resembling an SCO console
device		sc0	at isa? tty

# math coprocessor config
device		npx0	at isa? port IO_NPX irq 13

# device		sio0	at isa? port "IO_COM1" flags 0x10 tty irq 4
# device		sio1	at isa? port "IO_COM2" tty irq 3
# device		sio2	at isa? disable port "IO_COM3" tty irq 5
# device		sio3	at isa? disable port "IO_COM4" tty irq 9

device ed0 at isa? port 0x240 net irq 10 iomem 0xd8000
device ed1 at isa? port 0x300 net irq 11 iomem 0xd8000

pseudo-device	loop
pseudo-device	ether
pseudo-device	pty	16
pseudo-device	gzip		# Exec gzipped a.out's

# This provides support for System V shared memory and message queues.
options		SYSVSHM
options		SYSVMSG
options		SYSVSEM

pseudo-device	bpfilter 4	#Berkeley packet filter

-- 
Arcady Genkin
"... without money one gets nothing in this world, not even a certificate
of eternal blessedness in the other world..." (S. Kierkegaard)


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