[gentoo-user] usb1 performance out of usb2 external HD

[gentoo-user] usb1 performance out of usb2 external HD

[Iain Buchanan]

Hi all,

I have a 2.5in usb HD and 2 external usb2 cases.  I've been getting
pretty average performance with a 7200 rpm drive in both cases, but I
just thought this was the way it is.

However, I just did a test:
$ time
cp /usr/portage/distfiles/OOo_2.0.1_LinuxIntel_install.tar.gz /mnt/usb-storage/device-0/partition-5/

real    1m20.903s

which is pretty slow.  I copied the same file in winblows (without
changing usb ports or anything) and it copies in about 15 seconds.

I noticed I had uhci-hcd loaded (the usb 1 module?) so I unloaded it,
and my keyboard stopped working!!!  So using the laptop keyboard, I
replugged the HD (now without uhci-hcd) and it still goes slow...

$ sudo hdparm -tT /dev/sdd

/dev/sdd:
 Timing cached reads:   3640 MB in  2.00 seconds = 1820.28 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:   30 MB in  3.13 seconds =   9.60 MB/sec

9.6 is pretty slow! I should be able to get at least double that...

And as I've said, I know this port is usb 2.0.

Any hints?
thanks,
-- 
Iain Buchanan <iaindb at netspace dot net dot au>

IN MY OPINION anyone interested in improving himself should not rule out
becoming pure energy.
		-- Jack Handley, The New Mexican, 1988.

-- 
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Re: [gentoo-user] usb1 performance out of usb2 external HD

[Willie Wong]

On Mon, Jan 16, 2006 at 04:08:58PM +0930, Penguin Lover Iain Buchanan squawked:
> I noticed I had uhci-hcd loaded (the usb 1 module?) so I unloaded it,
> and my keyboard stopped working!!!  So using the laptop keyboard, I
> replugged the HD (now without uhci-hcd) and it still goes slow...
> 

uhci-hcd is the driver for the intel USB host controller, so if you
unload that, it is natural that it killed your (presumeably USB)
keyboard. 

the driver for USB2.0, incidentally, should be ehci-hcd, and according
to the kernel docs, if you have ehci built (grep USB_EHCI
/usr/src/linux/.config), it will use USB2.0 on enabled devices.

So, the question is, did you compile your kernel with EHCI support? 

HTH

W
-- 
 An engineer is walking along and runs across a talking frog.

 The frog says "I am a princess, and if you kiss me, I will turn back
 into a princess and be your girlfriend."

 Then engineer mutters "Neat", picks up the frog, puts it in his back
 pocket, and continues walking.

 The frog kicked the engineer, prompting him to pull the frog out. The
 frog said, "My daddy is rich, and if you kiss me, he will reward you
 handsomely." The engineer shrugged his shoulders and replaced the
 frog in his pocket.

 A couple minutes later, the frog kicked him again. This time the frog
 asked, "Why won't you kiss me? I will make you rich and be your
 girlfriend."

 The engineer replied "Look, lady. I am an engineer and have no use
 for a girlfriend. But a talking frog is cool!"
Sortir en Pantoufles: up 64 days, 23:34
-- 
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Re: [gentoo-user] usb1 performance out of usb2 external HD

[Iain Buchanan]

On Mon, 2006-01-16 at 02:17 -0500, Willie Wong wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 16, 2006 at 04:08:58PM +0930, Penguin Lover Iain Buchanan squawked:
> > I noticed I had uhci-hcd loaded (the usb 1 module?) so I unloaded it,
> > and my keyboard stopped working!!!  So using the laptop keyboard, I
> > replugged the HD (now without uhci-hcd) and it still goes slow...
> 
> uhci-hcd is the driver for the intel USB host controller, so if you
> unload that, it is natural that it killed your (presumeably USB)
> keyboard. 
> 
> the driver for USB2.0, incidentally, should be ehci-hcd, and according
> to the kernel docs, if you have ehci built (grep USB_EHCI
> /usr/src/linux/.config), it will use USB2.0 on enabled devices.
> 
> So, the question is, did you compile your kernel with EHCI support? 

Yes, I should have mentioned that: I'm using ehci.  I unloaded uhci.
I'm not using the old slow usb-block-device driver either.

thanks,
-- 
Iain Buchanan <iaindb at netspace dot net dot au>

Try not.
Do.
Or do not.
There is no try.

-- 
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Re: [gentoo-user] usb1 performance out of usb2 external HD

[Richard Fish]

On 1/15/06, Iain Buchanan <iaindb@netspace.net.au> wrote:
> Hi all,
> $ sudo hdparm -tT /dev/sdd
>
> /dev/sdd:
>  Timing cached reads:   3640 MB in  2.00 seconds = 1820.28 MB/sec
>  Timing buffered disk reads:   30 MB in  3.13 seconds =   9.60 MB/sec
>
> 9.6 is pretty slow! I should be able to get at least double that...

Please post the dmesg output from plugging in the drive.  Also the
output of "zgrep USB /proc/config.gz | grep -v "^#" (or use grep &
/usr/src/linux/.config if you don't have /proc/config.gz).

> And as I've said, I know this port is usb 2.0.

Yes, true 1.1 speed would be about 1MB/sec.

-Richard

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Re: [gentoo-user] usb1 performance out of usb2 external HD

[Iain Buchanan]

On Mon, 2006-01-16 at 06:40 -0700, Richard Fish wrote:
> On 1/15/06, Iain Buchanan <iaindb@netspace.net.au> wrote:
> > Hi all,
> > $ sudo hdparm -tT /dev/sdd
> >
> > /dev/sdd:
> >  Timing cached reads:   3640 MB in  2.00 seconds = 1820.28 MB/sec
> >  Timing buffered disk reads:   30 MB in  3.13 seconds =   9.60 MB/sec
> >
> > 9.6 is pretty slow! I should be able to get at least double that...

actually, I should be able to get 4x that...

> Please post the dmesg output from plugging in the drive.

Note, there are 4 LUNS on this device, the first 3 are card readers ,so
they show with no media (no drive or partitions), the fourth (sdd) is
the ide drive.
relevant dmesg:

usb 5-4: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 6
scsi2 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
usb-storage: device found at 6
usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
  Vendor:           Model: VP6230            Rev: 1.07
  Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SCSI revision: 00
sd 2:0:0:0: Attached scsi removable disk sda
sd 2:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 0
  Vendor:           Model: VP6230            Rev: 1.07
  Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SCSI revision: 00
sd 2:0:0:1: Attached scsi removable disk sdb
sd 2:0:0:1: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 0
  Vendor:           Model: VP6230            Rev: 1.07
  Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SCSI revision: 00
sd 2:0:0:2: Attached scsi removable disk sdc
sd 2:0:0:2: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
  Vendor:           Model: VP6230            Rev: 1.07
  Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SCSI revision: 00
SCSI device sdd: 195371568 512-byte hdwr sectors (100030 MB)
sdd: assuming drive cache: write through
SCSI device sdd: 195371568 512-byte hdwr sectors (100030 MB)
sdd: assuming drive cache: write through
 sdd: sdd1 sdd2 sdd3 sdd4 < sdd5 sdd6 sdd7 sdd8 sdd9 sdd10 sdd11 >
sd 2:0:0:3: Attached scsi disk sdd
sd 2:0:0:3: Attached scsi generic sg3 type 0
usb-storage: device scan complete
kjournald starting.  Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3 FS on sdd1, internal journal
EXT3-fs: recovery complete.
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
NTFS volume version 3.1.
kjournald starting.  Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3 FS on sdd3, internal journal
EXT3-fs: recovery complete.
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
NTFS volume version 3.1.
kjournald starting.  Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3 FS on sdd7, internal journal
EXT3-fs: recovery complete.
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
kjournald starting.  Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3 FS on sdd8, internal journal
EXT3-fs: recovery complete.
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
kjournald starting.  Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3 FS on sdd9, internal journal
EXT3-fs: recovery complete.
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
kjournald starting.  Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3 FS on sdd10, internal journal
EXT3-fs: recovery complete.
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
kjournald starting.  Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3 FS on sdd11, internal journal
EXT3-fs: recovery complete.
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.

>   Also the
> output of "zgrep USB /proc/config.gz | grep -v "^#" (or use grep &
> /usr/src/linux/.config if you don't have /proc/config.gz).

$ zgrep USB /proc/config.gz | grep -v "^#"
CONFIG_USB_IRDA=m
CONFIG_BT_HCIUSB=m
CONFIG_BT_HCIUSB_SCO=y
CONFIG_BT_HCIBFUSB=m
CONFIG_USB_ARCH_HAS_HCD=y
CONFIG_USB_ARCH_HAS_OHCI=y
CONFIG_USB=m
CONFIG_USB_DEVICEFS=y
CONFIG_USB_EHCI_HCD=m
CONFIG_USB_UHCI_HCD=m
CONFIG_USB_PRINTER=m
CONFIG_USB_STORAGE=m
CONFIG_USB_HID=m
CONFIG_USB_HIDINPUT=y
CONFIG_USB_HIDDEV=y
CONFIG_USB_PEGASUS=m
CONFIG_USB_SERIAL=m
CONFIG_USB_SERIAL_GENERIC=y
CONFIG_USB_SERIAL_PL2303=m
CONFIG_USB_SISUSBVGA=m

thanks for the help,
Iain.
-- 
Iain Buchanan <iaindb at netspace dot net dot au>

(Never thought I'd be telling Malcolm and Ilya the same thing... :-)
             -- Larry Wall in <199711071819.KAA29909@wall.org>

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Re: [gentoo-user] usb1 performance out of usb2 external HD

[Richard Fish]

On 1/16/06, Iain Buchanan <iaindb@netspace.net.au> wrote:
> On Mon, 2006-01-16 at 06:40 -0700, Richard Fish wrote:
> > On 1/15/06, Iain Buchanan <iaindb@netspace.net.au> wrote:
> > > Hi all,
> > > $ sudo hdparm -tT /dev/sdd
> > >
> > > /dev/sdd:
> > >  Timing cached reads:   3640 MB in  2.00 seconds = 1820.28 MB/sec
> > >  Timing buffered disk reads:   30 MB in  3.13 seconds =   9.60 MB/sec
> > >
> > > 9.6 is pretty slow! I should be able to get at least double that...
>
> actually, I should be able to get 4x that...

No, you won't.  The max I've ever seen any USB drive run at is about
30MB/sec, even when the same drive installed internally will run at
65MB/sec.  My best 2.5" case and drive will pump about 25MB/sec.

> > Please post the dmesg output from plugging in the drive.
>
> Note, there are 4 LUNS on this device, the first 3 are card readers ,so
> they show with no media (no drive or partitions), the fourth (sdd) is
> the ide drive.

Ok, I've never used one of these combination devices.  I'm a little
concerned, because the maximum throughput of most media readers is
about 10MB/sec...so hoping this is not a limitation of the chipset.

> relevant dmesg:

Looks normal...

>  sdd: sdd1 sdd2 sdd3 sdd4 < sdd5 sdd6 sdd7 sdd8 sdd9 sdd10 sdd11 >

Damn, and I thought I made a lot of volumes.... ;->

> $ zgrep USB /proc/config.gz | grep -v "^#"
> CONFIG_USB_IRDA=m
> CONFIG_BT_HCIUSB=m
> CONFIG_BT_HCIUSB_SCO=y
> CONFIG_BT_HCIBFUSB=m
> CONFIG_USB_ARCH_HAS_HCD=y
> CONFIG_USB_ARCH_HAS_OHCI=y
> CONFIG_USB=m
> CONFIG_USB_DEVICEFS=y
> CONFIG_USB_EHCI_HCD=m
> CONFIG_USB_UHCI_HCD=m
> CONFIG_USB_PRINTER=m
> CONFIG_USB_STORAGE=m

I think you need to turn on some of the options under USB Mass Storage
support.  Particularly

CONFIG_USB_STORAGE_FREECOM=y

but I don't think there is any harm in turning all of them on...it is
very likely that one of these will give you the best performance.

-Richard

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[gentoo-user] How can I unsubscribe?

["Markus Döbele"]

What do I have to do to unsubscribe this mailinglist?
I tried everthing that the page tells me todo.
I sent en empty mail to:
gentoo-user+unsubscribe@gentoo.org
gentoo-user-unsubscribe@gentoo.org

Why do you not give even one example at the page how it should look like?

And why is there not a field where I can enter my mailadress and then simply
click "Subscribe" or "Unsubscribe" ?
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Re: [gentoo-user] How can I unsubscribe?

[Holly Bostick]

Markus Döbele schreef:
> What do I have to do to unsubscribe this mailinglist?
> I tried everthing that the page tells me todo.
> I sent en empty mail to:
> gentoo-user+unsubscribe@gentoo.org
> gentoo-user-unsubscribe@gentoo.org
> 
> Why do you not give even one example at the page how it should look like?
> 
> And why is there not a field where I can enter my mailadress and then simply
> click "Subscribe" or "Unsubscribe" ?

Perhaps the page has not been updated; the list address seems to now be

gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org,

so *maybe* the unsubscribe address is now

gentoo-user+unsubscribe@lists.gentoo.org

You did try to unsubscribe from the same email address that you
subscribed from, yes?

Anyway, it's just an idea (since I've never tried to unsubscribe :-) ).

HTH,
Holly
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Re: [gentoo-user] How can I unsubscribe?

[Christoph Daldrup]

Am 16.01.2006 18:13 schrieb Holly Bostick:

> Perhaps the page has not been updated; the list address seems to now be
> 
> gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org,
> 
> so *maybe* the unsubscribe address is now
> 
> gentoo-user+unsubscribe@lists.gentoo.org

If that is really the case, the list information in the mail header
should be updated, too.

Christoph
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[gentoo-user] Re: How can I unsubscribe?

[Charles Marcus]

Christoph Daldrup wrote:
> Am 16.01.2006 18:13 schrieb Holly Bostick:
> 
>> Perhaps the page has not been updated; the list address seems to now be
>>
>> gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org,
>>
>> so *maybe* the unsubscribe address is now
>>
>> gentoo-user+unsubscribe@lists.gentoo.org
> 
> If that is really the case, the list information in the mail header
> should be updated, too.

And the header in the digest version as well - it only contains the list 
for the 'gentoo-user', with no reference to the digest version. I just 
found this out when unsubbing (switched to using gmane for accessing the 
gentoo lists)...

Charles

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Re: [gentoo-user] How can I unsubscribe?

[Andrea Barisani]

On Mon, Jan 16, 2006 at 06:34:19PM +0100, Christoph Daldrup wrote:
> Am 16.01.2006 18:13 schrieb Holly Bostick:
> 
> > Perhaps the page has not been updated; the list address seems to now be
> > 
> > gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org,
> > 
> > so *maybe* the unsubscribe address is now
> > 
> > gentoo-user+unsubscribe@lists.gentoo.org
> 
> If that is really the case, the list information in the mail header
> should be updated, too.

Lists header are just fine, you can use
gentoo-user+unsubscribe@lists.gentoo.org as well as
gentoo-user+unsubscribe@gentoo.org.

You can also try gentoo-user+help@gentoo.org or look up http://www.gentoo.org
and the lists page (it's there, easy to find).

So there's plenty of ways to get the info you need without bothering the
lists itself (including your friendly gentoo-user+owner@gentoo.org)

-- 
Andrea Barisani <lcars@gentoo.org>                            .*.
Gentoo Linux Infrastructure Developer                          V
                                                             (   )
PGP-Key 0x864C9B9E http://dev.gentoo.org/~lcars/pubkey.asc   (   )
    0A76 074A 02CD E989 CE7F AC3F DA47 578E 864C 9B9E        ^^_^^
      "Pluralitas non est ponenda sine necessitate"
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Re: [gentoo-user] How can I unsubscribe?

[Nick Rout]

On Mon, 16 Jan 2006 21:34:17 +0100
Andrea Barisani wrote:

> Lists header are just fine, you can use
> gentoo-user+unsubscribe@lists.gentoo.org as well as
> gentoo-user+unsubscribe@gentoo.org.
> 
> You can also try gentoo-user+help@gentoo.org or look up http://www.gentoo.org
> and the lists page (it's there, easy to find).
> 
> So there's plenty of ways to get the info you need without bothering the
> lists itself (including your friendly gentoo-user+owner@gentoo.org)


yes except the OP said he had tried sending an empty email to 

gentoo-user+unsubscribe@gentoo.org

and it had not worked. So what is he to do - i imagine the help address
would just tell him the same.



-- 
Nick Rout <nick@rout.co.nz>

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Re: [gentoo-user] usb1 performance out of usb2 external HD

[Iain Buchanan]

On Mon, 2006-01-16 at 07:21 -0700, Richard Fish wrote:
> On 1/16/06, Iain Buchanan <iaindb@netspace.net.au> wrote:
> > On Mon, 2006-01-16 at 06:40 -0700, Richard Fish wrote:
> > > On 1/15/06, Iain Buchanan <iaindb@netspace.net.au> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > 9.6 is pretty slow! I should be able to get at least double that...
> >
> > actually, I should be able to get 4x that...
> 
> No, you won't.  The max I've ever seen any USB drive run at is about
> 30MB/sec, even when the same drive installed internally will run at
> 65MB/sec.  My best 2.5" case and drive will pump about 25MB/sec.

well, I was estimating, and I am expecting about 30+MB/s given a friend
gets the same with the same drive.

> Ok, I've never used one of these combination devices.  I'm a little
> concerned, because the maximum throughput of most media readers is
> about 10MB/sec...so hoping this is not a limitation of the chipset.

nope, windows does the transfer in about 10/15 seconds, (I can time it
exactly if you're interested) making the speed (conservatively) about
7Mbytes/sec.

> > relevant dmesg:
> 
> Looks normal...
> 
> >  sdd: sdd1 sdd2 sdd3 sdd4 < sdd5 sdd6 sdd7 sdd8 sdd9 sdd10 sdd11 >
> 
> Damn, and I thought I made a lot of volumes.... ;->

yeah, its the way it has to be unfortunately.  This will eventually
become my internal HD, so I need it to dual boot, plus I added a few
more partitions for linux (/ /boot /usr /home) plus a couple for windows
- one for play and one for work... anyway.

> > $ zgrep USB /proc/config.gz | grep -v "^#"

> I think you need to turn on some of the options under USB Mass Storage
> support.  Particularly
> 
> CONFIG_USB_STORAGE_FREECOM=y
> 
> but I don't think there is any harm in turning all of them on...it is
> very likely that one of these will give you the best performance.

ok I'll try, thanks.

-- 
Iain Buchanan <iaindb at netspace dot net dot au>

Superior ability breeds superior ambition.
		-- Spock, "Space Seed", stardate 3141.9

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Re: [gentoo-user] usb1 performance out of usb2 external HD

[Trenton Adams]

Are you mounting with the "sync" option, or no?  Try it with, and
without.  If you do it without, time what it takes to do the copy, and
unmount.  unmount will do the actual sync.

I've noticed that linux in generall is extremely slow with USB devices
sometimes.  My external USB2 (ATA 100) drive gets 27M/sec on my
machine.  And with a relatively new driver, you should see speeds
about like that.

On 1/15/06, Iain Buchanan <iaindb@netspace.net.au> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I have a 2.5in usb HD and 2 external usb2 cases.  I've been getting
> pretty average performance with a 7200 rpm drive in both cases, but I
> just thought this was the way it is.
>
> However, I just did a test:
> $ time
> cp /usr/portage/distfiles/OOo_2.0.1_LinuxIntel_install.tar.gz /mnt/usb-storage/device-0/partition-5/
>
> real    1m20.903s
>
> which is pretty slow.  I copied the same file in winblows (without
> changing usb ports or anything) and it copies in about 15 seconds.
>
> I noticed I had uhci-hcd loaded (the usb 1 module?) so I unloaded it,
> and my keyboard stopped working!!!  So using the laptop keyboard, I
> replugged the HD (now without uhci-hcd) and it still goes slow...
>
> $ sudo hdparm -tT /dev/sdd
>
> /dev/sdd:
>  Timing cached reads:   3640 MB in  2.00 seconds = 1820.28 MB/sec
>  Timing buffered disk reads:   30 MB in  3.13 seconds =   9.60 MB/sec
>
> 9.6 is pretty slow! I should be able to get at least double that...
>
> And as I've said, I know this port is usb 2.0.
>
> Any hints?
> thanks,
> --
> Iain Buchanan <iaindb at netspace dot net dot au>
>
> IN MY OPINION anyone interested in improving himself should not rule out
> becoming pure energy.
>                 -- Jack Handley, The New Mexican, 1988.
>
> --
> gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
>
>

-- 
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Re: [gentoo-user] usb1 performance out of usb2 external HD

[Iain Buchanan]

On Mon, 2006-01-16 at 10:46 -0700, Trenton Adams wrote:
> Are you mounting with the "sync" option, or no?  Try it with, and
> without.  If you do it without, time what it takes to do the copy, and
> unmount.  unmount will do the actual sync.

hey, that sped it up heaps!

$ sudo mount -t vfat -o uid=iain,gid=users,async /dev/sdd6 /mnt/tmp/
$ time { cp /usr/portage/distfiles/OOo_2.0.1_LinuxIntel_install.tar.gz /mnt/tmp/; sudo umount /mnt/tmp/; }

real    0m11.134s

thats a huge increase (11s instead of 81s!), so how come hdparm still
reports 9MB/s?

> I've noticed that linux in generall is extremely slow with USB devices
> sometimes.  My external USB2 (ATA 100) drive gets 27M/sec on my
> machine.  And with a relatively new driver, you should see speeds
> about like that.

Is that calculating the times yourself, or with hdparm?

thanks,
-- 
Iain Buchanan <iaindb at netspace dot net dot au>

I've had a perfectly wonderful evening.  But this wasn't it.
		-- Groucho Marx

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Re: [gentoo-user] usb1 performance out of usb2 external HD

[Trenton Adams]

On 1/16/06, Iain Buchanan <iaindb@netspace.net.au> wrote:
> On Mon, 2006-01-16 at 10:46 -0700, Trenton Adams wrote:
> > Are you mounting with the "sync" option, or no?  Try it with, and
> > without.  If you do it without, time what it takes to do the copy, and
> > unmount.  unmount will do the actual sync.
>
> hey, that sped it up heaps!
>
> $ sudo mount -t vfat -o uid=iain,gid=users,async /dev/sdd6 /mnt/tmp/
> $ time { cp /usr/portage/distfiles/OOo_2.0.1_LinuxIntel_install.tar.gz /mnt/tmp/; sudo umount /mnt/tmp/; }
>
> real    0m11.134s
>
> thats a huge increase (11s instead of 81s!), so how come hdparm still
> reports 9MB/s?
>
> > I've noticed that linux in generall is extremely slow with USB devices
> > sometimes.  My external USB2 (ATA 100) drive gets 27M/sec on my
> > machine.  And with a relatively new driver, you should see speeds
> > about like that.
>
> Is that calculating the times yourself, or with hdparm?

Yes, calculating myself.  And I don't know why hdparm would report
that other time.

>
> thanks,
> --
> Iain Buchanan <iaindb at netspace dot net dot au>
>
> I've had a perfectly wonderful evening.  But this wasn't it.
>                 -- Groucho Marx
>
> --
> gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
>
>

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Re: [gentoo-user] usb1 performance out of usb2 external HD

[Trenton Adams]

On 1/16/06, Iain Buchanan <iaindb@netspace.net.au> wrote:
> On Mon, 2006-01-16 at 10:46 -0700, Trenton Adams wrote:
> > Are you mounting with the "sync" option, or no?  Try it with, and
> > without.  If you do it without, time what it takes to do the copy, and
> > unmount.  unmount will do the actual sync.
>
> hey, that sped it up heaps!
>
> $ sudo mount -t vfat -o uid=iain,gid=users,async /dev/sdd6 /mnt/tmp/
> $ time { cp /usr/portage/distfiles/OOo_2.0.1_LinuxIntel_install.tar.gz /mnt/tmp/; sudo umount /mnt/tmp/; }
>
> real    0m11.134s
>
> thats a huge increase (11s instead of 81s!), so how come hdparm still
> reports 9MB/s?

I'm wondering if we should be reporting this to the kernel guys.  I
see this on *all* linux systems with kernel 2.6, but I'm not sure
about 2.4.  But, I think I'll try enabling some options that Richard
mentioned first.

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Re: [gentoo-user] usb1 performance out of usb2 external HD

[b.n.]

> I'm wondering if we should be reporting this to the kernel guys.  I
> see this on *all* linux systems with kernel 2.6, but I'm not sure
> about 2.4.  But, I think I'll try enabling some options that Richard
> mentioned first.

Kernel guys know it very well. They recently implemented the sync option 
for FAT filesystems, and this is turned on by default.

Unluckly, sync is really OK for FAT partitions on an HD, but not for USB 
devices. I hope they will realize soon that not only it degrades 
performance of USB drives, but it also wears out flash memories really fast.

m.
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Re: [gentoo-user] usb1 performance out of usb2 external HD

[Trenton Adams]

On 1/16/06, b.n. <brullonulla@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > I'm wondering if we should be reporting this to the kernel guys.  I
> > see this on *all* linux systems with kernel 2.6, but I'm not sure
> > about 2.4.  But, I think I'll try enabling some options that Richard
> > mentioned first.
>
> Kernel guys know it very well. They recently implemented the sync option
> for FAT filesystems, and this is turned on by default.
>
> Unluckly, sync is really OK for FAT partitions on an HD, but not for USB
> devices. I hope they will realize soon that not only it degrades
> performance of USB drives, but it also wears out flash memories really fast.

Actually, that's a good point.  All that writing to the FAT would use
those flash blocks a lot, which would indeed wear it out.

Windows does sync by default as well.  But, it's sync is extremely
fast for some reason.

>
> m.
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>
>

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Re: [gentoo-user] usb1 performance out of usb2 external HD

[Neil Bothwick]

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On Mon, 16 Jan 2006 20:06:50 -0700, Trenton Adams wrote:

> Actually, that's a good point.  All that writing to the FAT would use
> those flash blocks a lot, which would indeed wear it out.

I trashed a Crucial 1GB drive in a few weeks, until I found out about
this change.

> Windows does sync by default as well.  But, it's sync is extremely
> fast for some reason.

It's not whether it does sync be default, that is down you your
(auto)mounter, nothing to do with the kernel. The change is that in sync
mode, the kernel used to update the FAT after each file, now it does it
after each block. That's why it is so slow and destructive.


-- 
Neil Bothwick

Top Oxymorons Number 44: Advanced BASIC

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Re: [gentoo-user] usb1 performance out of usb2 external HD

[b.n.]

>>Actually, that's a good point.  All that writing to the FAT would use
>>those flash blocks a lot, which would indeed wear it out.
> 
> 
> I trashed a Crucial 1GB drive in a few weeks, until I found out about
> this change.

I think this problem should find its way in the official Gentoo docs (if 
it isn't already there). It affects all recent Linux distros anyway. 
It's quite crucial -trashing usb flash drives is NOT good marketing for 
our beloved penguin.

Anyone knows if on the LKML the devs gave some opinion about this side 
effect?

m.
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