# Asus Eee PC 901 SSD problems [solved]

## elsenator

I just got my grubby hands on an Ases Eee PC 901 and obviously i had to install Gentoo on it. The preinstalled Xandros distro is convenient for the average Joe but it's way to automated for my liking.

So far i've been pretty succesful. I have network up and running, sound working, X11, Kde 3.5.9 and stuff like that. But one thing annoys the crap out of me. I seem to be getting some extremely unacceptable speeds(600 kB/s writing) from the builtin 4 GB SSD(and the 16 GB one too). So i have a couple of questions for any of you guys out there who happen to have tried installing Gentoo on an Eee 901(or 1000 for that matter, they are, as far as i know, similar in hardware).

Can anyone tell me what drivers i need to compile my kernel with for the SSD's to function at full speed?

Right now they occupy the device nodes hdc and hdd - is that correct? Shouldn't it be sda and sdb in these sata times?

Any info on the SSD matters would be greatly appreciated as i am collecting all the info i can get to write a full-blown install guide at gentoo-wiki.com later on. Thanks!  :Smile: Last edited by elsenator on Thu Sep 04, 2008 8:38 pm; edited 1 time in total

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## alexvorn2

maybe this post will help you: http://gentoo-wiki.com/Asus_EEE_PC_901

Good luck!

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## elsenator

Thank you, but that post is actually the one i intend to update when i get the information. At the moment it isn't very informative.  :Smile: 

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## fafhrd

Did you compile the IDE drivers directly into the kernel?  For example, do your drives show up as /dev/hd[cd] or /dev/sd[ab]?  If it's the former, you can compile the kernel's entire IDE support as a module -- you really don't need it on this laptop -- so long as the SATA drivers (atapiix) are compiled in.  Warning: if you switch this, the drives will jump from /dev/hd* to /dev/sd*.

The speeds using the IDE driver were terrible -- approx 1.5MiB/s reading, compared to 25-30MiB/s with the SATA drivers (again, reading).

This might be the case you have with writing speeds.

P.S. -- If you come across a clean patch for the elantech driver (to make it work with synaptics programs), please let me know!

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## elsenator

 *fafhrd wrote:*   

> Did you compile the IDE drivers directly into the kernel?  For example, do your drives show up as /dev/hd[cd] or /dev/sd[ab]?  If it's the former, you can compile the kernel's entire IDE support as a module -- you really don't need it on this laptop -- so long as the SATA drivers (atapiix) are compiled in.  Warning: if you switch this, the drives will jump from /dev/hd* to /dev/sd*.
> 
> The speeds using the IDE driver were terrible -- approx 1.5MiB/s reading, compared to 25-30MiB/s with the SATA drivers (again, reading).
> 
> This might be the case you have with writing speeds.
> ...

 

Yes, i have them as hdx's right now, which is what annoyed me, because it's extremely slow, using pio or something. I have tried many of the sata drivers but none seemed to work, but if it's because the ide drivers overtake them, then it would make sense.

I've decided to take a totally different stance on the entire project though, installing Gentoo on an external HD(so far on the SD) instead of the internal SSD's. Gentoo need a lot of space for compiling, and it's just not that practical to use the SSD's because of their slow write operations, also if you want to move the system to some other PC to shorten compile time it's a pain in the ass to do so if the system is on the SSD's. I know, i could probably set up some network compile environment, but i really like it the sneaker way.

Anyways, i have Gentoo working quite well right off the SD card right now. All it needs is the rootdelay kernel parameter to give time to the USB subsystem to be initialized. After that it works like a charm. I will move the system to an external HD i ordered and see how that play out.

Thanks for your help.  :Smile: 

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## nixnut

Moved from Installing Gentoo to Kernel & Hardware.

better off here

Have you tried using the xandros kernel and its modules?

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## elsenator

 *nixnut wrote:*   

> Moved from Installing Gentoo to Kernel & Hardware.
> 
> better off here
> 
> Have you tried using the xandros kernel and its modules?

 

I've thought about it, but haven't gotten around to trying it yet. But it's an interesting idea.

fafhrd:

I tried what you suggest, and it works perfectly. The integrated SSD's are now called sda and sdb, exactly as i was looking for. Thanks!

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## GNUtoo

did you try that?

http://blogs.zdnet.com/perlow/?p=9190

it's about kernel parameters in order to be optimised for ssd drives

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