# 2.6.0 Kernel, Compaq Presario 2100 and DMA

## Biggles

I'm trying to get the 2.6.0 kernel going on my Compaq Presario 2100 laptop using the vanilla sources. Most stuff is fine, but I have a short list of things that just don't go. Top of the list at the moment is DMA.

I've compiled the kernel with the option to use DMA by default. lspci reports my IDE interface as an ALi Corporation M7101 PMU. The closest I could find in the kernel config to this was ALi M15x3 chipset support, which I doubt will work. I compiled it as a module anyway. I also chucked in the HPT34X and HPT36X/37X chipsets just for the hell of it (as modules).

When I boot, I get a message about DMA being disabled and how this will slow down fsck, etc when the root partition is mounted. I caught a glimpse of some IDE driver being loaded on boot, and found it again in /var/log/messages. It says "Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00alpha2". This suggests to me that it doesn't like the ALi driver I attempted to compile and is using a generic one that doesn't support DMA (at least not for my chipset).

Can anyone tell me what I should be compiling in the kernel to get DMA going?

Thanks in advance.

----------

## snkmoorthy

you should compile your IDE chipset driver built-in not as a module.

----------

## ptitman

hi! 

  got the same problem here. i've got a presario 2118ea, lspci gives me

```

00:00.0 Host bridge: ATI Technologies Inc: Unknown device cab0 (rev 13)

00:01.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc U1/A3 AGP Bridge [IGP 320M] (rev 01)

00:02.0 USB Controller: ALi Corporation USB 1.1 Controller (rev 03)

00:06.0 Multimedia audio controller: ALi Corporation M5451 PCI AC-Link Controller Audio Device (rev 02)

00:07.0 ISA bridge: ALi Corporation M1533 PCI to ISA Bridge [Aladdin IV]

00:08.0 Modem: ALi Corporation Intel 537 [M5457 AC-Link Modem]

00:0a.0 CardBus bridge: O2 Micro, Inc. OZ6912 Cardbus Controller

00:10.0 IDE interface: ALi Corporation M5229 IDE (rev c4)

00:11.0 Bridge: ALi Corporation M7101 PMU

00:12.0 Ethernet controller: National Semiconductor Corporation DP83815 (MacPhyter) Ethernet Controller

01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon Mobility U1

```

i tried to compile alim15x3 in the kernel but it appears that it only ca, be compiled as a module.

just add alim15x3 in /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6 , let u know what it says ! but i don't expect much as modules are loaded after the DMA check.

  it appears that when i modprobe alim15x3 it is written as unsafe.

 hey biggles, you were saying 

 *Quote:*   

>  lspci reports my IDE interface as an ALi Corporation M7101 PMU.

 

but my lspci report 

```
 IDE interface: ALi Corporation M5229 IDE (rev c4)
```

 as ide interface but M7101 as a bridge. and still ali m1533 still there ?!?

----------

## snkmoorthy

I once used to own a HP XT345, check out the URL below.

XT345

I remember doing a idebus=66 as kernel boot param, to get any work done.

----------

## Biggles

ptitman: My particular model is a 2143AP (it's a New Zealand model). Here's my lspci output:

00:00.0 Host bridge: ATI Technologies Inc AGP Bridge [IGP 320M] (rev 13)

00:01.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc PCI Bridge [IGP 320M] (rev 01)

00:02.0 USB Controller: ALi Corporation USB 1.1 Controller (rev 03)

00:06.0 Multimedia audio controller: ALi Corporation M5451 PCI AC-Link Controller Audio Device (rev 02)

00:07.0 ISA bridge: ALi Corporation M1533 PCI to ISA Bridge [Aladdin IV]

00:08.0 Modem: ALi Corporation Intel 537 [M5457 AC-Link Modem]

00:0a.0 CardBus bridge: O2 Micro, Inc. OZ6912 Cardbus Controller

00:0c.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments TSB43AB21 IEEE-1394a-2000 Controller (PHY/Link)

00:10.0 IDE interface: ALi Corporation M5229 IDE (rev c4)

00:11.0 Bridge: ALi Corporation M7101 PMU

00:12.0 Ethernet controller: National Semiconductor Corporation DP83815 (MacPhyter) Ethernet Controller

01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon Mobility U1

Ah, I see why you were confused now, ptitman. Looks like I copied the wrong line when I made my post.  :Smile: 

When I modprobe alim15x3 it goes in fine, and I can then turn on dma with hdparm. Not sure how to tell it's working though, but I'll try adding it to the automodules list and see what happens.

----------

## Biggles

OK, when I have the module autoloaded on boot I still get the message that dma is disabled.

----------

## ptitman

i did add it to the modules.autoload ... but has i said earlier , modules are loaded after the DMA is checked .... 

  how do u actually use hdparm?

   is the speed increased in transfert and burning?

----------

## Biggles

Check the man page for hdparm. To enable dma, I did this:

hdparm -d1 /dev/hda

----------

## Biggles

Well, I don't know what I did but dma seems to be going now. I don't get the message from gentoo during boot anymore and hdparm tells me it's enabled. Perhaps having that module loaded and turning it on with hdparm, then loading the module automatically at boot from then on did it.

----------

## ptitman

i enabled both HD and cdrDMA but still .... I actually doing a burning simulation but it still fluctuate between 7.5 and 8.5 x   :Confused: 

----------

## Biggles

I think I've figured out what I did. When I did as snkmoorthy said and compiled the driver built-in it appeared to fix it.

----------

## ptitman

i've got hdparm working now but still no improvement when it comes to burn   :Crying or Very sad: 

----------

## ptitman

well , last day i burnt an audio cd and was happyly surprised to see that it was burning at 24x , even having peaks to 40x , no buffer underrun problem ... all sweet.

   Then i decided to check how it was going for data cds .... finally , it is still the same, no more than 8x .

  I just dont understand how come ! i thought that audio cd were taking longer usually.

  has anybody any answers?

----------

## ptitman

it finally works !! but i dont have any idea of how it came  :Shocked: 

  just did some command line test and it started working again, i didn't change any config file or whatever * puzzled *

----------

