# Warning DMA is turned off...(SOLVED)...sort of

## southpaw

I was wondering if anybody else had this problem, upon reboot of the system installation I get that warning message about my DMA being disabled and as the text continues to scroll by hdparm fails to initialize. I think it might be a kernel issue but I don't know what I did wrong, after all I've installed and reinstalled gentoo several times over the past 8 or 9 months and I've never encountered this problem. I've enabled and built in the necessary DMA options in the kernel, I'm sure that I'm overlooking something. Any suggestions are always appreciated.

       thanx

----------

## jdgill0

southpaw,

We need a little more information.  What kind of system are you running?  Are you using IDE or SATA drives?  Can you post the "errors" from hdparm?  What did you setup hdparm to do?  You say you never had this problem before, then likely you have made a mistake in your kernel config.

----------

## southpaw

Well here is my emerge info:

Portage 2.0.51.19 (default-linux/x86/2005.0, gcc-3.4.3, glibc-2.3.4.20041102-r1, 2.6.11-gentoo-r6 i686)

=============================================================

System uname: 2.6.11-gentoo-r6 i686 Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1500MHz

Gentoo Base System version 1.4.16

Python: dev-lang/python-2.3.4-r1 [2.3.4 (#1, Mar 11 2005, 15:25:47)]

dev-lang/python: 2.3.4-r1

sys-apps/sandbox: [Not Present]

sys-devel/autoconf: 2.59-r6, 2.13

sys-devel/automake: 1.7.9-r1, 1.8.5-r3, 1.5, 1.4_p6, 1.6.3, 1.9.4

sys-devel/binutils: 2.15.92.0.2-r1

sys-devel/libtool: 1.5.10-r4

uirtual/os-headers: 2.6.8.1-r2

ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86"

AUTOCLEAN="yes"

CFLAGS="-O3 -march=pentium3 -fforce-addr -momit-leaf-frame-pointer -fomit-frame-pointer -ftracer -pipe"

CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"

CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/kde/2/share/config /usr/kde/3/share/config /usr/share/config /var/qmail/control"

CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/gconf /etc/terminfo /etc/env.d"

CXXFLAGS="-O3 -march=pentium3 -fvisibility-inlines-hidden -fforce-addr -momit-leaf-frame-pointer -fomit-frame-pointer -ftracer -pipe"

DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles"

FEATURES="autoaddcvs autoconfig -strict ccache distlocks sandbox sfperms strict userpriv usersandbox"

GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://open-systems.ufl.edu/mirrors/gentoo http://gentoo.osuosl.org http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/gentoo"

MAKEOPTS="-j2"

PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages"

PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"

PORTDIR="/usr/portage"

PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage"

SYNC="rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage"

USE="x86 X alsa apm arts avi berkdb bitmap-fonts crypt cups emboss encode foomaticdb fortran gdbm gif gnome gpm gtk gtk2 imlib ipv6 jpeg kde libg++ libwww mad mikmod motif mp3 mpeg ncurses nls nptl oggvorbis opengl oss pam pdflib perl png python qt quicktime readline sdl spell ssl svga tcpd truetype truetype-fonts type1-fonts xm12 xmms xv zlib userland_GNU kernel_linux libc_glibc"

Unset: ASFLAGS, CBUILD, CTARGET, LANG, LC_ALL, LDFLAGS, LINGUAS

...and as far as the error goes, while the system is booting and checking the file systems:

################################

# Warning: DMA on your harddrive is turned off #

#This may really slow down fsck process           #

################################

*Running hdparm on /dev/discs/disc0/disc...

HDIO_SET_DMA failed: Operation not permitted

*Running hdparm on /dev/cdroms/cdrom0...

HDIO_SET_DMA failed: Operation not permitted

...Now this is how I have my hdparm set in /etc/conf.d/hdparm file:

disc0_args="-a256A1c1d1m16u1"

cdrom0_args="d1c1u1"

...I think this is everything you for, if I left somthing out please let me know.

               thanx

----------

## jdgill0

southpaw,

I take it you have IDE drives and not SATA since this is a Pentium3 machine? If so, most likely you do not have the kernel configured correctly -- i.e. the permission denied error.  Are you using genkernel?

----------

## southpaw

No, no genkernel here brother, if you want I can post the sections of the kernel config file that would pertain to DMA.

Oh, and btw, this is a Dell inspiron 600M notebook w/ 40gb seagate ATA drive. Sorry I forgot about that one.

----------

## jdgill0

southpaw,

It's not just the settings for DMA that I was referring to, but also the ATA chipset that you selected in the kernel.  Run lspci -v and look for what chipset you have for IDE.  Make sure that chipset is enabled in your kernel. You can also post your DMA stuff in your config as well.

If you don't have lspci -v, emerge pciutils.

----------

## southpaw

I tried playing around with the device drivers section of the kernel but nothing seems to match my "Intel IDE chipset" that was listed under lspci -v. I also played around with my /etc/conf.d/hdparm file and still nothing... :Crying or Very sad:   (bummer)

----------

## jdgill0

southpaw,

For my Pentium3 system I use Intel PIIXn chipsets support in its kernel.

----------

## southpaw

I tried that and still no go...

----------

## jdgill0

southpaw,

Can you post the output of lspci -v?

----------

## dsd

 *Quote:*   

> I tried that and still no go...

 

also run "uname -v" - it will give you the date and time that the running kernel was compiled. mentally check that it matches the date and time when you posted the post quoted above...

----------

## southpaw

In reference to your question jdgillo,

I've been trying to figure out how to post my consoles output, I've already asked for help in another thread here: https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-335962-highlight-.html

Of course, I don't want to take a chance and screw up by re-typing the output by hand verbatim, after all, the --verbose argument sure puts out a staggering amount of text  :Shocked:  ...

----------

## dsd

if you have web hosting, you can use command-line ftp tools to upload files and then just post URL's here. this is much favoured as posting entire logs to the forums a) decreases readability and b) kills the forums

every ISP seems to provide webhosting nowadays, and you can delete the logs once the problem is solved

----------

## trendzetter

I am expiering the same with a SATA disc.

```

bash-2.05b# cat /proc/ide/ide1/hdc/driver

ide-disk version 1.18

bash-2.05b# uname -a

Linux 2.6.11-gentoo-r8 #1 SMP Fri May 13 23:49:27 CEST 2005 i686 Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.40GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

bash-2.05b# lspci

0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82865G/PE/P DRAM Controller/Host-Hub Interface (rev 02)

0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82865G/PE/P PCI to AGP Controller (rev 02)

0000:00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)

0000:00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)

0000:00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI #3 (rev 02)

0000:00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 02)

0000:00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 02)

0000:00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev c2)

0000:00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 02)

0000:00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801EB (ICH5) SATA Controller (rev 02)

0000:00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) SMBus Controller (rev 02)

0000:00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 02)

0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV31 [GeForce FX 5600] (rev a1)

0000:02:06.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)

0000:02:07.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 43)

0000:02:08.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. IEEE 1394 Host Controller (rev 80)

bash-2.05b# /etc/init.d/hdparm start

 * Starting hdparm...                                                                                                                                                         [ ok ] 

 * Running hdparm on /dev/discs/disc0/disc...

 HDIO_SET_DMA failed: Operation not permitted

 * Running hdparm on /dev/cdroms/cdrom0...

 HDIO_SET_DMA failed: Operation not permitted

```

My kernelconfig can be viewed here: http://users.pandora.be/diskworld/DMA/config

----------

## jdgill0

southpaw,

You don't have to post everything from lspci -v to the forums.  Just take a look and see what it tells you for your IDE interface.

trendzetter,

Are you trying to use hdparm with SATA drives?  If so, you can not do so, hdparm only works with IDE drives, futhermore SATA drives have DMA turned on always period.

----------

## southpaw

Sorry about not writing back sooner but I had alot of things to take care this weekend. Anyway I have say that I tried many different kernel adjustments which left me frustrated(no I could'nt find anything that I thought matched my IDE chipset and yes I did try enabeling "Intel PIIXn chipsets support" and still nothing). Then after I noticed that "Bob P" had finished his "Jackass 2005.0" website, I said to hell with it and burned an ISO CD, backed up anything important, wiped my drive completely (full zero out 5x's over, yes I'm a little paranoid  :Rolling Eyes:   and yes it was worth it). So now I am happy to report that everything is humming along just fine. Unfortunately I really never could figure out what went wrong before but oh well, I am far more satisfied with this result anyway. Thanks again to everyone who chimed in their support it is much appreciated....

----------

