[gentoo-user] Slow HD

[gentoo-user] Slow HD

[José Pable Ezequiel Fernández]

Hello,
I am not sure, but I think I am experiencing dramatic slow down on my computer 
when doing HD intensive (but not CPU intensive) tasks such as coping files 
(or rsyncing).
Is it possible that I have disabled dma, or missing a kernel module for my IDE 
controler or something like that ?
Any documentation/guide with this kind of things ?
Thanks.
-- 
José Pable Ezequiel Fernández

-- 
gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-user] Slow HD

[Mark Knecht]

A quick test would be 

hdparm -tT /dev/hda

(or whatever drive you are concerned about.) Greater than 15MB/S is
almost certainly DMA but good DMA from newer drives should be
25-50MB/S

You can look at the drives parameters using hdparm and reading through
the man page to understand what all the values mean.

Hope this helps,
Mark

On 8/17/05, José Pable Ezequiel Fernández
<pablo.fernandez@reliable.com.ar> wrote:
> Hello,
> I am not sure, but I think I am experiencing dramatic slow down on my computer
> when doing HD intensive (but not CPU intensive) tasks such as coping files
> (or rsyncing).
> Is it possible that I have disabled dma, or missing a kernel module for my IDE
> controler or something like that ?
> Any documentation/guide with this kind of things ?
> Thanks.
> --
> José Pable Ezequiel Fernández
> 
> --
> gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
> 
>

-- 
gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-user] Slow HD

[Pupeno]

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On Wednesday 17 August 2005 18:44, Mark Knecht wrote:
> A quick test would be
>
> hdparm -tT /dev/hda
I got this:
/dev/hda:
 Timing cached reads:   1344 MB in  2.00 seconds = 672.10 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:    8 MB in  3.51 seconds =   2.28 MB/sec

> (or whatever drive you are concerned about.) Greater than 15MB/S is
> almost certainly DMA but good DMA from newer drives should be
> 25-50MB/S
The second speed is evidently wrong.

> You can look at the drives parameters using hdparm and reading through
> the man page to understand what all the values mean.
I tried to enable dma, but this happened:
# hdparm -d1 /dev/hda

/dev/hda:
 setting using_dma to 1 (on)
 HDIO_SET_DMA failed: Operation not permitted
 using_dma    =  0 (off)

What am I doing wrong ? some kernel option ?

Thanks
-- 
Pupeno <pupeno@pupeno.com> (http://pupeno.com)
Reading ? Science Fiction ? http://sfreaders.com.ar

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Re: [gentoo-user] Slow HD

[Mark Knecht]

On 8/17/05, Pupeno <pupeno@pupeno.com> wrote:
> On Wednesday 17 August 2005 18:44, Mark Knecht wrote:
> > A quick test would be
> >
> > hdparm -tT /dev/hda
> I got this:
> /dev/hda:
>  Timing cached reads:   1344 MB in  2.00 seconds = 672.10 MB/sec
>  Timing buffered disk reads:    8 MB in  3.51 seconds =   2.28 MB/sec
> 
> > (or whatever drive you are concerned about.) Greater than 15MB/S is
> > almost certainly DMA but good DMA from newer drives should be
> > 25-50MB/S
> The second speed is evidently wrong.

Not wrong, just not DMA. BTW - as has been pointed out here before -
do not take these numbers as a serious test of real disk speeds. This
is a just a quick way of looking.

> 
> > You can look at the drives parameters using hdparm and reading through
> > the man page to understand what all the values mean.
> I tried to enable dma, but this happened:
> # hdparm -d1 /dev/hda
> 
> /dev/hda:
>  setting using_dma to 1 (on)
>  HDIO_SET_DMA failed: Operation not permitted
>  using_dma    =  0 (off)
> 
> What am I doing wrong ? some kernel option ?

Possibly. Many of the ATAPI DMA drivers are supplied when you enable
the proper chipset support in make menuconfig under Device Drivers ->
ATA support.

What chipset is your machine using? (lspci)

>From my laptop:

flash linux #  hdparm /dev/hda

/dev/hda:
 multcount    = 16 (on)
 IO_support   =  0 (default 16-bit)
 unmaskirq    =  0 (off)
 using_dma    =  1 (on)
 keepsettings =  0 (off)
 readonly     =  0 (off)
 readahead    = 256 (on)
 geometry     = 65535/16/63, sectors = 80026361856, start = 0
flash linux #

flash linux #  hdparm -tT /dev/hda

/dev/hda:
 Timing cached reads:   1788 MB in  2.00 seconds = 891.91 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:   82 MB in  3.04 seconds =  26.93 MB/sec
flash linux #

Cheers,
Mark

-- 
gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-user] Slow HD

[Pupeno]

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On Wednesday 17 August 2005 22:15, Mark Knecht wrote:
> On 8/17/05, Pupeno <pupeno@pupeno.com> wrote:
> > On Wednesday 17 August 2005 18:44, Mark Knecht wrote:
> > > A quick test would be
> > >
> > > hdparm -tT /dev/hda
> >
> > I got this:
> > /dev/hda:
> >  Timing cached reads:   1344 MB in  2.00 seconds = 672.10 MB/sec
> >  Timing buffered disk reads:    8 MB in  3.51 seconds =   2.28 MB/sec
> >
> > > (or whatever drive you are concerned about.) Greater than 15MB/S is
> > > almost certainly DMA but good DMA from newer drives should be
> > > 25-50MB/S
> >
> > The second speed is evidently wrong.
>
> Not wrong, just not DMA.
Should I leave DMA off ? Isn't almost always faster to use DMA ?

> > > You can look at the drives parameters using hdparm and reading through
> > > the man page to understand what all the values mean.
> >
> > I tried to enable dma, but this happened:
> > # hdparm -d1 /dev/hda
> >
> > /dev/hda:
> >  setting using_dma to 1 (on)
> >  HDIO_SET_DMA failed: Operation not permitted
> >  using_dma    =  0 (off)
> >
> > What am I doing wrong ? some kernel option ?
>
> Possibly. Many of the ATAPI DMA drivers are supplied when you enable
> the proper chipset support in make menuconfig under Device Drivers ->
> ATA support.
I have all of them enabled as modules.

> What chipset is your machine using? (lspci)
0000:00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) IDE Controller 
(rev 01)

> From my laptop:
>
> flash linux #  hdparm /dev/hda
>
> /dev/hda:
>  multcount    = 16 (on)
>  IO_support   =  0 (default 16-bit)
>  unmaskirq    =  0 (off)
>  using_dma    =  1 (on)
Here, your dma is on! :)

>  keepsettings =  0 (off)
>  readonly     =  0 (off)
>  readahead    = 256 (on)
>  geometry     = 65535/16/63, sectors = 80026361856, start = 0
> flash linux #
>
> flash linux #  hdparm -tT /dev/hda
>
> /dev/hda:
>  Timing cached reads:   1788 MB in  2.00 seconds = 891.91 MB/sec
>  Timing buffered disk reads:   82 MB in  3.04 seconds =  26.93 MB/sec
> flash linux #

Thanks.
-- 
Pupeno <pupeno@pupeno.com> (http://pupeno.com)
Reading ? Science Fiction ? http://sfreaders.com.ar

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Re: [gentoo-user] Slow HD

[Mark Knecht]

On 8/17/05, Pupeno <pupeno@pupeno.com> wrote:
> On Wednesday 17 August 2005 22:15, Mark Knecht wrote:
> > On 8/17/05, Pupeno <pupeno@pupeno.com> wrote:
> > > On Wednesday 17 August 2005 18:44, Mark Knecht wrote:
> > > > A quick test would be
> > > >
> > > > hdparm -tT /dev/hda
> > >
> > > I got this:
> > > /dev/hda:
> > >  Timing cached reads:   1344 MB in  2.00 seconds = 672.10 MB/sec
> > >  Timing buffered disk reads:    8 MB in  3.51 seconds =   2.28 MB/sec
> > >
> > > > (or whatever drive you are concerned about.) Greater than 15MB/S is
> > > > almost certainly DMA but good DMA from newer drives should be
> > > > 25-50MB/S
> > >
> > > The second speed is evidently wrong.
> >
> > Not wrong, just not DMA.
> Should I leave DMA off ? Isn't almost always faster to use DMA ?
> 
> > > > You can look at the drives parameters using hdparm and reading through
> > > > the man page to understand what all the values mean.
> > >
> > > I tried to enable dma, but this happened:
> > > # hdparm -d1 /dev/hda
> > >
> > > /dev/hda:
> > >  setting using_dma to 1 (on)
> > >  HDIO_SET_DMA failed: Operation not permitted
> > >  using_dma    =  0 (off)
> > >
> > > What am I doing wrong ? some kernel option ?
> >
> > Possibly. Many of the ATAPI DMA drivers are supplied when you enable
> > the proper chipset support in make menuconfig under Device Drivers ->
> > ATA support.
> I have all of them enabled as modules.
> 
> > What chipset is your machine using? (lspci)
> 0000:00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) IDE Controller
> (rev 01)
> 
> > From my laptop:
> >
> > flash linux #  hdparm /dev/hda
> >
> > /dev/hda:
> >  multcount    = 16 (on)
> >  IO_support   =  0 (default 16-bit)
> >  unmaskirq    =  0 (off)
> >  using_dma    =  1 (on)
> Here, your dma is on! :)
> 
> >  keepsettings =  0 (off)
> >  readonly     =  0 (off)
> >  readahead    = 256 (on)
> >  geometry     = 65535/16/63, sectors = 80026361856, start = 0
> > flash linux #
> >
> > flash linux #  hdparm -tT /dev/hda
> >
> > /dev/hda:
> >  Timing cached reads:   1788 MB in  2.00 seconds = 891.91 MB/sec
> >  Timing buffered disk reads:   82 MB in  3.04 seconds =  26.93 MB/sec
> > flash linux #
> 
> Thanks.
> --
> Pupeno <pupeno@pupeno.com> (http://pupeno.com)
> Reading ? Science Fiction ? http://sfreaders.com.ar
> 
> 
> 

I'm sorry if this copy/paste gets messy. I'm attempting to show you
all the stuff I have enabled on a Via desktop machine:

<*> ATA/ATAPI/MFM/RLL support                                                │ │
  │ │  <*>   Enhanced IDE/MFM/RLL disk/cdrom/tape/floppy support      
             │ │
  │ │  ---     Please see Documentation/ide.txt for help/info on IDE
drives         │ │
  │ │  [ ]     Support for SATA (deprecated; conflicts with libata
SATA driver)     │ │
  │ │  [ ]     Use old disk-only driver on primary interface          
             │ │
  │ │  <*>     Include IDE/ATA-2 DISK support                         
             │ │
  │ │  [*]     Use multi-mode by default                              
             │ │
  │ │  <*>     Include IDE/ATAPI CDROM support                        
             │ │
  │ │  < >     Include IDE/ATAPI TAPE support (EXPERIMENTAL)          
             │ │
  │ │  < >     Include IDE/ATAPI FLOPPY support                       
             │ │
  │ │  < >     SCSI emulation support                                 
             │ │
  │ │  [ ]     IDE Taskfile Access                                    
             │ │
  │ │  ---     IDE chipset support/bugfixes                           
             │ │
  │ │  <*>     generic/default IDE chipset support                    
             │ │
  │ │  [*]     CMD640 chipset bugfix/support                          
             │ │
  │ │  [ ]       CMD640 enhanced support                              
             │ │
  │ │  [ ]     PNP EIDE support                                       
             │ │
  │ │  [*]     PCI IDE chipset support                                
             │ │
  │ │  [*]       Sharing PCI IDE interrupts support                   
             │ │
  │ │  [ ]       Boot off-board chipsets first support                
             │ │
  │ │  <*>       Generic PCI IDE Chipset Support                      
             │ │
  │ │  < >       OPTi 82C621 chipset enhanced support (EXPERIMENTAL)  
             │ │
  │ │  <*>       RZ1000 chipset bugfix/support                        
             │ │
  │ │  [*]       Generic PCI bus-master DMA support                   
             │ │
  │ │  [ ]         Force enable legacy 2.0.X HOSTS to use DMA         
             │ │
  │ │  [*]         Use PCI DMA by default when available   
  [ ]           Enable DMA only for disks                             
        │ │
  │ │  < >         AEC62XX chipset support                            
             │ │
  │ │  < >         ALI M15x3 chipset support                          
             │ │
  │ │  < >         AMD and nVidia IDE support                         
             │ │
  │ │  < >         ATI IXP chipset IDE support                        
             │ │
  │ │  < >         CMD64{3|6|8|9} chipset support                     
             │ │
  │ │  < >         Compaq Triflex IDE support                         
             │ │
  │ │  < >         CY82C693 chipset support                           
             │ │
  │ │  < >         Cyrix CS5510/20 MediaGX chipset support (VERY
EXPERIMENTAL)      │ │
  │ │  < >         Cyrix/National Semiconductor CS5530 MediaGX chipset
support      │ │
  │ │  < >         HPT34X chipset support                             
             │ │
  │ │  < >         HPT36X/37X chipset support                         
             │ │
  │ │  < >         National SCx200 chipset support                    
             │ │
  │ │  < >         Intel PIIXn chipsets support                       
             │ │
  │ │  < >         IT821X IDE support                                 
             │ │
  │ │  < >         NS87415 chipset support                            
             │ │
  │ │  < >         PROMISE PDC202{46|62|65|67} support                
             │ │
  │ │  < >         PROMISE PDC202{68|69|70|71|75|76|77} support       
             │ │
  │ │  < >         ServerWorks OSB4/CSB5/CSB6 chipsets support        
             │ │
  │ │  < >         Silicon Image chipset support                      
             │ │
  │ │  < >         SiS5513 chipset support                            
             │ │
  │ │  < >         SLC90E66 chipset support                           
             │ │
  │ │  < >         Tekram TRM290 chipset support                      
             │ │
  │ │  <*>         VIA82CXXX chipset support                          
             │ │
  │ │  [ ]     Other IDE chipset support                              
             │ │
  │ │  [ ]     IGNORE word93 Validation BITS          

I think the important ones are probably:

<*> ATA/ATAPI/MFM/RLL support                                                │ │
  │ │  <*>   Enhanced IDE/MFM/RLL disk/cdrom/tape/floppy support      
             │ │

  │ │  [*]     Use multi-mode by default                              
             │ │

  │ │  <*>     generic/default IDE chipset support                    
             │ │

  │ │  [*]     PCI IDE chipset support                                
             │ │

  │ │  [*]       Sharing PCI IDE interrupts support                   
             │ │

  │ │  <*>       Generic PCI IDE Chipset Support                      
             │ │

  │ │  [*]         Use PCI DMA by default when available   


and for you probably:

  │ │  < >         Intel PIIXn chipsets support                       
             │ │

Hope this helps,
Mark

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Re: [gentoo-user] Slow HD

[Pupeno]

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On Wednesday 17 August 2005 23:30, Mark Knecht wrote:
> I think the important ones are probably:
>
> <*> ATA/ATAPI/MFM/RLL support                                              
>  │ │ │ │  <*>   Enhanced IDE/MFM/RLL disk/cdrom/tape/floppy support
>              │ │
>
>   │ │  [*]     Use multi-mode by default
>              │ │
>
>   │ │  <*>     generic/default IDE chipset support
>              │ │
>
>   │ │  [*]     PCI IDE chipset support
>              │ │
>
>   │ │  [*]       Sharing PCI IDE interrupts support
>              │ │
>
>   │ │  <*>       Generic PCI IDE Chipset Support
>              │ │
>
>   │ │  [*]         Use PCI DMA by default when available
I have all of them on my kernel already.

> and for you probably:
>
>   │ │  < >         Intel PIIXn chipsets support
>              │ │
I have this as module and it seem to be loaded automatically because lsmod 
shows:
piix                    9476  0 [permanent]

Maybe it has to be compiled on the kernel (not as a module) to work ?

Thanks.
-- 
Pupeno <pupeno@pupeno.com> (http://pupeno.com)
Reading ? Science Fiction ? http://sfreaders.com.ar

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Re: [gentoo-user] Slow HD

[Pupeno]

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On Wednesday 17 August 2005 23:52, Pupeno wrote:
> I have this as module and it seem to be loaded automatically because lsmod
> shows:
> piix                    9476  0 [permanent]
>
> Maybe it has to be compiled on the kernel (not as a module) to work ?
I compiled it in the kernel and now DMA is on by default.

# hdparm /dev/hda

/dev/hda:
 multcount    = 16 (on)
 IO_support   =  0 (default 16-bit)
 unmaskirq    =  0 (off)
 using_dma    =  1 (on)
 keepsettings =  0 (off)
 readonly     =  0 (off)
 readahead    = 256 (on)
 geometry     = 65535/16/63, sectors = 40007761920, start = 0


and the tests are better:
/dev/hda:
 Timing cached reads:   1332 MB in  2.01 seconds = 664.11 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:   76 MB in  3.01 seconds =  25.25 MB/sec

well, at least the buffered one. Can it be tuned more ?

Thanks
-- 
Pupeno <pupeno@pupeno.com> (http://pupeno.com)
Reading ? Science Fiction ? http://sfreaders.com.ar

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Re: [gentoo-user] Slow HD

[Mark Knecht]

On 8/17/05, Pupeno <pupeno@pupeno.com> wrote:
> On Wednesday 17 August 2005 23:52, Pupeno wrote:
> > I have this as module and it seem to be loaded automatically because lsmod
> > shows:
> > piix                    9476  0 [permanent]
> >
> > Maybe it has to be compiled on the kernel (not as a module) to work ?
> I compiled it in the kernel and now DMA is on by default.
> 
> # hdparm /dev/hda
> 
> /dev/hda:
>  multcount    = 16 (on)
>  IO_support   =  0 (default 16-bit)
>  unmaskirq    =  0 (off)
>  using_dma    =  1 (on)
>  keepsettings =  0 (off)
>  readonly     =  0 (off)
>  readahead    = 256 (on)
>  geometry     = 65535/16/63, sectors = 40007761920, start = 0
> 
> 
> and the tests are better:
> /dev/hda:
>  Timing cached reads:   1332 MB in  2.01 seconds = 664.11 MB/sec
>  Timing buffered disk reads:   76 MB in  3.01 seconds =  25.25 MB/sec
> 
> well, at least the buffered one. Can it be tuned more ?
> 
> Thanks
> --
> Pupeno

Hey, much better results. Cool. The results look pretty reasonable.
You can play around with the read ahead a bit if you want. Try it with
unmaskirq both ways, etc.

Do a reboot also and make sure your settings stick. They probably will
but it's good to do a check while you're looking at this vs. tomorrow
when you're not.

Cheers,
Mark

-- 
gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-user] Slow HD

[Volker Armin Hemmann]

On Thursday 18 August 2005 03:15, Mark Knecht wrote:
> On 8/17/05, Pupeno <pupeno@pupeno.com> wrote:
> > On Wednesday 17 August 2005 18:44, Mark Knecht wrote:
> > > A quick test would be
> > >
> > > hdparm -tT /dev/hda
> >
> > I got this:
> > /dev/hda:
> >  Timing cached reads:   1344 MB in  2.00 seconds = 672.10 MB/sec
> >  Timing buffered disk reads:    8 MB in  3.51 seconds =   2.28 MB/sec
> >
> > > (or whatever drive you are concerned about.) Greater than 15MB/S is
> > > almost certainly DMA but good DMA from newer drives should be
> > > 25-50MB/S
> >
> > The second speed is evidently wrong.
>
> Not wrong, just not DMA. BTW - as has been pointed out here before -
> do not take these numbers as a serious test of real disk speeds. This
> is a just a quick way of looking.
>
> > > You can look at the drives parameters using hdparm and reading through
> > > the man page to understand what all the values mean.
> >
> > I tried to enable dma, but this happened:
> > # hdparm -d1 /dev/hda
> >
> > /dev/hda:
> >  setting using_dma to 1 (on)
> >  HDIO_SET_DMA failed: Operation not permitted
> >  using_dma    =  0 (off)
> >
> > What am I doing wrong ? some kernel option ?
>
> Possibly. Many of the ATAPI DMA drivers are supplied when you enable
> the proper chipset support in make menuconfig under Device Drivers ->
> ATA support.
>
> What chipset is your machine using? (lspci)
>
> >From my laptop:
>
> flash linux #  hdparm /dev/hda
>
> /dev/hda:
>  multcount    = 16 (on)
>  IO_support   =  0 (default 16-bit)
>  unmaskirq    =  0 (off)
>  using_dma    =  1 (on)
>  keepsettings =  0 (off)
>  readonly     =  0 (off)
>  readahead    = 256 (on)
>  geometry     = 65535/16/63, sectors = 80026361856, start = 0
> flash linux #
>

you may want to turn on 32 bit io and unmaskirq too. Which are both 
beneficial.
-- 
gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-user] Slow HD

[Pupeno]

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On Wednesday 17 August 2005 23:04, Volker Armin Hemmann wrote:
> > flash linux #  hdparm /dev/hda
> >
> > /dev/hda:
> >  multcount    = 16 (on)
> >  IO_support   =  0 (default 16-bit)
> >  unmaskirq    =  0 (off)
> >  using_dma    =  1 (on)
> >  keepsettings =  0 (off)
> >  readonly     =  0 (off)
> >  readahead    = 256 (on)
> >  geometry     = 65535/16/63, sectors = 80026361856, start = 0
> > flash linux #
>
> you may want to turn on 32 bit io and unmaskirq too.
How do you do that ?

> Which are both 
> beneficial.
Can they be bad in some case ?

Thanks.
-- 
Pupeno <pupeno@pupeno.com> (http://pupeno.com)
Reading ? Science Fiction ? http://sfreaders.com.ar

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Re: [gentoo-user] Slow HD

[Volker Armin Hemmann]

On Thursday 18 August 2005 05:13, Pupeno wrote:
> On Wednesday 17 August 2005 23:04, Volker Armin Hemmann wrote:
> > > flash linux #  hdparm /dev/hda
> > >
> > > /dev/hda:
> > >  multcount    = 16 (on)
> > >  IO_support   =  0 (default 16-bit)
> > >  unmaskirq    =  0 (off)
> > >  using_dma    =  1 (on)
> > >  keepsettings =  0 (off)
> > >  readonly     =  0 (off)
> > >  readahead    = 256 (on)
> > >  geometry     = 65535/16/63, sectors = 80026361856, start = 0
> > > flash linux #
> >
> > you may want to turn on 32 bit io and unmaskirq too.
>
> How do you do that ?

man hdparm ;)
-c1 turns on 32 bit io, -u1 turns on unmaskirq.

>
> > Which are both
> > beneficial.
>
> Can they be bad in some case ?
>
never heard of one ;)

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gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-user] Slow HD

[Joe Menola]

On Wednesday August 17 2005 7:56 pm, Pupeno wrote:
> On Wednesday 17 August 2005 18:44, Mark Knecht wrote:
> > A quick test would be
> >
> > hdparm
>
> I got this:
> /dev/hda:
>  Timing cached reads:   1344 MB in  2.00 seconds = 672.10 MB/sec
>  Timing buffered disk reads:    8 MB in  3.51 seconds =   2.28 MB/sec
>
> > (or whatever drive you are concerned about.) Greater than 15MB/S is
> > almost certainly DMA but good DMA from newer drives should be
> > 25-50MB/S
>
> The second speed is evidently wrong.
>
> > You can look at the drives parameters using hdparm and reading through
> > the man page to understand what all the values mean.
>
> I tried to enable dma, but this happened:
> # hdparm -d1 /dev/hda
>
> /dev/hda:
>  setting using_dma to 1 (on)
>  HDIO_SET_DMA failed: Operation not permitted
>  using_dma    =  0 (off)
>
> What am I doing wrong ? some kernel option ?
>
> Thanks

If you want the kernel to set dma you need to enable it and the support for 
your motherboard chipset. For a 2.6.12 kernel, you'll find this under 
Block devices
	ATA/ATAPI/MFM/RLL support
Enable 
Generic PCI bus-master DMA support (BLK_DEV_IDEDMA_PCI)		
Use PCI DMA by default when available (IDEDMA_PCI_AUTO)
And below that support for your MB chipset.

However, hdparm should have set this even without kernel support (I'm pretty 
sure)...what say #hdparm /dev/hda

-jm
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Re: [gentoo-user] Slow HD

[Pupeno]

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On Wednesday 17 August 2005 22:17, Joe Menola wrote:
> On Wednesday August 17 2005 7:56 pm, Pupeno wrote:
> > On Wednesday 17 August 2005 18:44, Mark Knecht wrote:
> > > A quick test would be
> > >
> > > hdparm
> >
> > I got this:
> > /dev/hda:
> >  Timing cached reads:   1344 MB in  2.00 seconds = 672.10 MB/sec
> >  Timing buffered disk reads:    8 MB in  3.51 seconds =   2.28 MB/sec
> >
> > > (or whatever drive you are concerned about.) Greater than 15MB/S is
> > > almost certainly DMA but good DMA from newer drives should be
> > > 25-50MB/S
> >
> > The second speed is evidently wrong.
> >
> > > You can look at the drives parameters using hdparm and reading through
> > > the man page to understand what all the values mean.
> >
> > I tried to enable dma, but this happened:
> > # hdparm -d1 /dev/hda
> >
> > /dev/hda:
> >  setting using_dma to 1 (on)
> >  HDIO_SET_DMA failed: Operation not permitted
> >  using_dma    =  0 (off)
> >
> > What am I doing wrong ? some kernel option ?
> >
> > Thanks
>
> If you want the kernel to set dma you need to enable it and the support for
> your motherboard chipset. For a 2.6.12 kernel, you'll find this under
> Block devices
> 	ATA/ATAPI/MFM/RLL support
> Enable
> Generic PCI bus-master DMA support (BLK_DEV_IDEDMA_PCI)
> Use PCI DMA by default when available (IDEDMA_PCI_AUTO)
I have both.

> And below that support for your MB chipset.
I have all as modules, maybe I am just missing to load it.

> However, hdparm should have set this even without kernel support (I'm
> pretty sure)...what say #hdparm /dev/hda
/dev/hda:
 multcount    = 16 (on)
 IO_support   =  0 (default 16-bit)
 unmaskirq    =  0 (off)
 using_dma    =  0 (off)
 keepsettings =  0 (off)
 readonly     =  0 (off)
 readahead    = 256 (on)
 geometry     = 65535/16/63, sectors = 40007761920, start = 0

Thanks.
-- 
Pupeno <pupeno@pupeno.com> (http://pupeno.com)
Reading ? Science Fiction ? http://sfreaders.com.ar

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Re: [gentoo-user] Slow HD

[Joe Menola]

On Wednesday August 17 2005 9:02 pm, Pupeno wrote:
> I have all as modules, maybe I am just missing to load it.

Personally, I would compile them into kernel.

You can get the module names from menuconfig/xconfig by selecting them and 
choosing help.
Modprobe them, then hdparm /dev/hda. If dma is now on, add them 
to /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6.

-jm
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