# cd-burning is sucking the life out of my system

## rommel

i am not sure what the problem is...but when i use xcdroast to (which uses cdd2wav adn cdrecord) to copy a cd it really takes way to much resource from the pc...this is an nforce2 mainboard, amd 2800+ cpu, 512megs of cosair xms pc3500....is this just a common problem? any suggestions?...i am using the 2.4.20 kernel and was gonna try downgrading to 2.4.19 or the gentoo-r10 but wanted to post this first for some input.

thanks

----------

## AlterEgo

Yesterday, I used my humble duron 1200 to copy a CD, and, just for fun, had top visible alongside. I used k3b to copy the CD, and never saw the burning process eat more than 5% CPU usage (2.4.20-pre-empt BTW).  

Are you sure there's not something wrong with the way your mean machine   :Cool:   handles your harddisks or writer?

----------

## Target

Don't use gentoo r10 if you have a ps2 mouse. You'll lose /dev/misc/psaux. :p

----------

## chrish01

I had this problem with a 2Ghz p4 with 1gb Ram..

the problem might be that DMA is not enabled on your drive. (also make sure you have an 80pin IDE cable connected to the CD-RW if it is faster than 10x). you can use hdparm to turn on DMA with this:

   >  hdparm -d1c3k1 /dev/hdc  (assuming that your cdrw doesnt use scsi emulation)

another possibility is that the kernel has problems with your motherboard.  Mine (845E) doesnt work with 2.4.19 well, being that it can only do 2.9mb per second. but in 2.4.20, i get 40mb/sec =)

hope that helps

----------

## chrish01

another thing to try to see is how fast your motherboard is transfering data to your hard disk...ie   hdparm -t /dev/hda   ...with your system, im guessing it should be around 35 to 40 (especially if you got an ata133 harddrive)

----------

## anarchist

i actually have got the same problem, and i cant do anything against it because i have scsi emu activated...... or is there a solution? 

BTW which mainboard do you have rommel? i got the a7n8x and i really love it  :Wink: 

----------

## anarchist

@rommel 

i think i found a solution for our problem..... look at the ac-sources, they haven't got supermount, but they have got nforce ide chipset support! it shall work im testing it in a couple of minutes  :Smile: 

----------

## rommel

well post what you find....i am using the 2.4.19 kernel now and the same issue as with the 2.4.20....i am not sure how to use a cdrw in linux without scsi emulation enabled...i thought that was the only way...freebsd is differant but for linux i thought scsi-em was it.

----------

## anarchist

well there are some progs which can burn without scsi emu .... koncd ... but i actually don't know any other.....

im just trying the lost logic kernel sources he hast nforce support enabled too, and his kernel is as good as the gentoo sources ...... well i'll post my result in a few minutes when my kernel is ready  :Smile: 

but could you tell me which board you got?

----------

## chrish01

in a way, yes scsi emu is the only way... that is if you only use cdrecord... cdrdao uses atapi, so in thery, it should work with out it. k3b .75 uses cdrdao nearly exclusively....

it seems your problem is the same type of problem i had. Intel and nvida decided to go for the WHQL qualification which causes problems with dma transfers in linux. the newer kernels should be able to fix this in the near future, as i said earlier, 2.4.20 took care of my problem.

hope you find a solution, i know how much it sucks...

----------

## rommel

i bought the epox 8rda+....maybe k3b and cdrdao will be worth a try ....but there must be something i am missing..this system is way too strong for that crap.....and chris i am running LSR raid 0 on scsi cheetahs...hdparm -tT gives up 500mb/s cache reads adn 100mb/s disk reads.

so i would think anarchist is on th right track with nforce support

----------

## chrish01

i drool at the speed, ive only got a 133 ata raid, (but only have one 80gb drive, im hoping for another for christmas =)...

so i agree, it must be hte nForce that is lagging you down, i still think that your cdrw doesnt have dma enabled....so that should fix the problem (but the reason that you might not be able to do it is because of the nForce problem, as was for me)...

----------

## rommel

well i cant enable dma since i am running scsi emulation at the moment but i am emerging k3b as i am writing this...i enabled dma through local.start for my dvd player that corrected the issue i had with xine once i installed this board...so will have to see.

btw you can get similar performance from ide in LSR....i just have the scsi drives...but ide drives like wd800jb or ibms 180gxps would give you really good performance when striped using LSR.

----------

## rommel

hey anarchist....how was your trial of the ac-sources...i installed i think the latest one rc4-r? and i am not able to even set dma on the dvd player now but the -t function gives a similar out put of 3mbs ....this is gonna drive me nuts

----------

## anarchist

yap same here those ac sources are shit..... im wanted to try the lolo-sources but i can't get them to boot, but i dont know why ..... im figuring it out.

Is there any possiblitly to patch the gentoo kernel so that it has nforce support?

----------

## rommel

i dont know...i ahve had no luck and have compiled too many kernels today....i am back to the vanilla 2.4.20...lol...i posted on the nvidia linux forums so maybe someone will offer some insight to this....anyway....i'll post if i find anything worthwhile.

----------

## anarchist

mhhh shit i think the nvidia ide kernel driver isn't really a good one at that time. lost logic even removed it from his newest kernel...... thats not too good news i think :-/ well the last possibility right now would be to use a 2.5 kernel.... but i'll think im gonna stick to 2.4.19-gentoo-r10 i like it  :Smile:  well and the burning needs to wait for some time  :Wink: 

but im going to search some forums in the meantime  :Smile: 

has your board got a second nic like the a7n8x?

----------

## rommel

no this board is sparse...(which is why i liked it)....just one builtin ethernet and none of that crappy ide raid stuff...does have ofcorse ieee and usb2.0....as for the 2.5.x kernel....i tried building one and it died at the nforce driver...lol

----------

## anarchist

well same problem here, i tried to built the 2.5 driver and it died at the nforce driver, well seems like we have to wait some time :-/

----------

## kerframil

 *rommel wrote:*   

> well i cant enable dma since i am running scsi emulation at the moment 

 

You can ... by using the /proc interface. See my thread on CD burning in Tips & Tricks, about half-way down the first page I explain exactly how to do it, without needing hdparm.

----------

