Re: Shell on AMD

[Jeff Dwork]

I have no problem running Emacs and M-x shell on AMD Athlon or K-6
cpus.  

Since the system was upgraded from a PII, it's quite possible that the
power supply is inadequate for the new cpu/chipset/memory.  There is a
list of approved power supplies on the AMD web site - go to
http://www.amd.com/ and then "Processors" -> "Athlon" -> "System
Configuration Info" -> "Recommended Power Supplies".

You should check the system with a program that exercises the
cpu/memory/disk etc., such as BurnIn Test from Passmark Software
http://www.passmark.com/ (shareware, 30 day free evaluation).
Unfortunately, I don't know of any free programs of this nature.

Hope this helps,
Jeff

PS: I work for AMD, but I'm not involved with cpu chips.  This is not
an official AMD response.

Jim Funderburk writes:
 > To: gnu-emacs-bug@moderators.isc.org
 > Subject: Shell on AMD
 > Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2001 05:17:15 GMT
 > 
 > I have posted this question for several weeks to the gnu.emacs.help listing.
 > One responder, Eli Zaritskii, having looked at the details of the problem as
 > listed below, suggested I try posting it to this  forum.
 > 
 > Let me describe a bit of background of the problem before stating some
 > details.  I had used EMACS-20.7 for windows on a Pentium II computer.
 > Since then, I got a Pentium III computer from Dell, copied the EMACs
 > directory to CD from the PII, then to the PIII Dell.  Thus done, EMACs
 > works fine on the PIII Dell.
 > Then, I upgraded the PII computer by having a local dealer install
 > an AMD K7 (Thunderbird Chip-set, A-Open motherboard).  He installed
 > the OS (Windows 98, Standard Edition) from the same disk as was on
 > the PII.  Then I copied the Emacs CD to the new system.
 > 
 > On the AMD system, EMACS works fine EXCEPT THAT M-x shell
 > does not work.  In my early experiences, the AMD system crashed. In
 > recent tests, doing things in a more controlled way, the following describes
 > what happens when I try M-x shell.  Mr. Zaritskii used the term 'dead shell
 > window' which seemed apt, so I have adopted it in the description.
 > 
 > The current status:  I use EMACS for editing functions and for some ELISP
 > code on the AMD, and it works fine on all these.  However, I still cannot
 > use
 > the shell, which is a serious limitation since I like to use EMACS as the
 > development environment for program coding, mostly in JAVA for now.
 > Thus, I hope the problem is just some obscure configuration problem.  Please
 > note that there are no files '.emacs' or 'default.el' on the system -- I
 > have done
 > no customization in this way ( I prefer to just load  elc libraries when
 > needed).
 > There are no such libraries loaded in the test described below.
 > 
 > If there are any other things I could do to help the Emacs guru who
 > (hopefully)
 > will examine this problem,  just let me know.  If it is just some limitation
 > of
 > AMD systems, I need to know that so that future system purchases will allow
 > my full use of EMACS (by avoiding the AMD).
 > 
 > Thanks for considering this problem.
 > 
 > 
 > a. Here are some details regarding the dead shell window:
 >  1. message line  says 'Loading shell ... done'
 >  2. line above msg line says : *shell*  (Shell:run)-L:1-A11
 > b. Also, menu bar has the usual shell menus : complete, In/out, and Signals.
 > c. When I do Ctrl-Alt-Delete to see what tasks show, the expected 'Cmdproxy'
 >     shows.
 > d. When I exit Emacs via C-x C-c, I am prompted to end the active process,
 >  which shows
 >   Proc     status    Buffer    Tty   command
 >   shell       run      *shell*  (none)
 > C:/EMACS/EMACS-20.7/bin/cmdproxy.exe -i
 > If I say 'yes', then Emacs exits.  On some tests, when all I did after a
 > restart was
 >  start EMACS, do M-x shell, then C-x C-c,  then EMACS exited cleanly.
 > 
 > I normally get a 'bell' sound while M-x shell  is trying to start .
 > Note that the usual 'Microsoft Windows ...' message does NOT appear in shell
 > window.
 > When I try 'date' then return, the cursor goes to next line but no usual
 > response appears.
 > When I try 'show command history' from 'In/Out' Menu, 'date' shows up.
 > 
 > I have tried 'Cmdproxy.exe' outside of EMACS by double-clicking on it, and
 > it seems to work fine.
 > 
 > If there are any other details that you think might help resolve this
 > mystery, I'll be glad
 > to find them and report them to you.
 > Thanks for considering the problem.  I do so much in Emacs (e.g., Java
 > program development)
 > with the shell, that I hope this can be resolved for the AMD system I have.
 > 
 > 
 > 
 > 
 > _______________________________________________
 > Bug-gnu-emacs mailing list
 > Bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
 > http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/bug-gnu-emacs

-- 
Jeff Dwork                      |           jeff.dwork@amd.com
Advanced Micro Devices, M/S 45  | 408-749-5216 (voice) 408-774-8448 (fax)
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