# how to speed my disk up?[SOLVED]

## LittleLeo

It seems that DMA can not be enabled for my disk

```

# hdparm -d 1 /dev/hda

/dev/hda:

 setting using_dma to 1 (on)

 HDIO_SET_DMA failed: Operation not permitted

 using_dma    =  0 (off)

```

My hard disk keeps running always even the system is idle, especially when I do some I/O operations, such as

ftp, or copy files, the system gets too slow.

I do not know what is wrong.Last edited by LittleLeo on Tue Dec 06, 2005 2:36 am; edited 1 time in total

----------

## Spindle!

Hi,

this is a silly question, but are you invoking hdparm as root?

Bye!

----------

## LittleLeo

 *Spindle! wrote:*   

> Hi,
> 
> this is a silly question, but are you invoking hdparm as root?
> 
> Bye!

 

yes, of cause

----------

## Spindle!

Hi,

are you using the correct chipset driver?

Could you post some specs? Your motherboard, chipset, disks, Kernel version, etc?

Bye

----------

## LittleLeo

 *Spindle! wrote:*   

> Hi,
> 
> are you using the correct chipset driver?
> 
> Could you post some specs? Your motherboard, chipset, disks, Kernel version, etc?
> ...

 

Motherboard: Soltek-KT400-C (VIA-KT400+VT8235)

Hard Disk: Seagate 160G/7200rpm

Kernel: gentoo 2.6.13-gentoo-r5

----------

## Spindle!

Please post your

```
dmesg
```

and 

```
hdparm -I /dev/hda
```

----------

## LittleLeo

dmesg

```

ng Table [\_SB_.PCI0.AGPB._PRT]

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNK1] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 9 10 *11 12 14 15)

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNK2] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 9 10 11 12 14 15) *0, disabled.

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNK3] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 9 10 11 12 14 15) *0, disabled.

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNK4] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 9 *10 11 12 14 15)

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNK5] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 9 10 11 12 14 15) *0, disabled.

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LUBA] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 9 *10 11 12 14 15)

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LUBB] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 9 10 *11 12 14 15)

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LMAC] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 9 10 11 12 14 15) *0, disabled.

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LAPU] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 9 10 11 12 14 15) *0, disabled.

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LACI] (IRQs 3 4 *5 6 7 9 10 11 12 14 15)

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LMCI] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 9 10 11 12 14 15) *0, disabled.

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LSMB] (IRQs 3 4 *5 6 7 9 10 11 12 14 15)

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LUB2] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 *9 10 11 12 14 15)

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LFIR] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 9 10 11 12 14 15) *0, disabled.

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [L3CM] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 9 10 11 12 14 15) *0, disabled.

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LIDE] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 9 10 11 12 14 15) *0, disabled.

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [APC1] (IRQs *16), disabled.

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [APC2] (IRQs *17), disabled.

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [APC3] (IRQs *18), disabled.

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [APC4] (IRQs *19), disabled.

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [APC5] (IRQs *16), disabled.

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [APCF] (IRQs 20 21 22) *0, disabled.

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [APCG] (IRQs 20 21 22) *0, disabled.

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [APCH] (IRQs 20 21 22) *0, disabled.

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [APCI] (IRQs 20 21 22) *0, disabled.

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [APCJ] (IRQs 20 21 22) *0, disabled.

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [APCK] (IRQs 20 21 22) *0, disabled.

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [APCS] (IRQs *23), disabled.

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [APCL] (IRQs 20 21 22) *0, disabled.

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [APCM] (IRQs 20 21 22) *0, disabled.

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [AP3C] (IRQs 20 21 22) *0, disabled.

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [APCZ] (IRQs 20 21 22) *0, disabled.

Linux Plug and Play Support v0.97 (c) Adam Belay

pnp: PnP ACPI init

pnp: PnP ACPI: found 15 devices

PnPBIOS: Disabled by ACPI PNP

SCSI subsystem initialized

usbcore: registered new driver usbfs

usbcore: registered new driver hub

PCI: Using ACPI for IRQ routing

PCI: If a device doesn't work, try "pci=routeirq".  If it helps, post a report

pnp: 00:00: ioport range 0x1000-0x107f could not be reserved

pnp: 00:00: ioport range 0x1080-0x10ff has been reserved

pnp: 00:00: ioport range 0x1400-0x147f has been reserved

pnp: 00:00: ioport range 0x1480-0x14ff could not be reserved

pnp: 00:00: ioport range 0x1800-0x187f has been reserved

pnp: 00:00: ioport range 0x1880-0x18ff has been reserved

pnp: 00:01: ioport range 0x1c00-0x1c3f has been reserved

pnp: 00:01: ioport range 0x2000-0x203f has been reserved

PCI: Bridge: 0000:00:08.0

  IO window: 9000-9fff

  MEM window: e6000000-e6ffffff

  PREFETCH window: disabled.

PCI: Bridge: 0000:00:1e.0

  IO window: a000-afff

  MEM window: e4000000-e5ffffff

  PREFETCH window: c0000000-dfffffff

PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:08.0 to 64

Machine check exception polling timer started.

audit: initializing netlink socket (disabled)

audit(1133193041.117:1): initialized

NTFS driver 2.1.23 [Flags: R/W].

lp: driver loaded but no devices found

Real Time Clock Driver v1.12

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNK4] enabled at IRQ 10

PCI: setting IRQ 10 as level-triggered

ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:02:00.0[A] -> Link [LNK4] -> GSI 10 (level, low) -> IRQ 10

radeonfb: Found Intel x86 BIOS ROM Image

radeonfb: Retreived PLL infos from BIOS

radeonfb: Reference=27.00 MHz (RefDiv=12) Memory=250.00 Mhz, System=200.00 MHz

radeonfb: PLL min 20000 max 40000

radeonfb: Monitor 1 type CRT found

radeonfb: EDID probed

radeonfb: Monitor 2 type no found

Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 128x48

fbsplash: console 0 using theme 'gentoo'

fbsplash: switched splash state to 'on' on console 0

radeonfb (0000:02:00.0): ATI Radeon AS

vesafb: ATI Technologies Inc., V350, 01.00 (OEM: ATI RADEON 9600 PRO)

vesafb: VBE version: 2.0

vesafb: protected mode interface info at c000:5743

vesafb: pmi: set display start = c00c57d7, set palette = c00c5823

vesafb: pmi: ports = a010 a016 a054 a038 a03c a05c a000 a004 a0b0 a0b2 a0b4

vesafb: monitor limits: vf = 0 Hz, hf = 0 kHz, clk = 0 MHz

vesafb: scrolling: redraw

vesafb: cannot reserve video memory at 0xc0000000

vesafb: framebuffer at 0xc0000000, mapped to 0xf9c00000, using 10240k, total 131072k

fb1: VESA VGA frame buffer device

ACPI: Power Button (FF) [PWRF]

ACPI: Power Button (CM) [PWRB]

ACPI: CPU0 (power states: C1[C1])

PNP: PS/2 Controller [PNP0303:PS2K,PNP0f13:PS2M] at 0x60,0x64 irq 1,12

serio: i8042 AUX port at 0x60,0x64 irq 12

serio: i8042 KBD port at 0x60,0x64 irq 1

Serial: 8250/16550 driver $Revision: 1.90 $ 4 ports, IRQ sharing disabled

ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A

ttyS1 at I/O 0x2f8 (irq = 3) is a 16550A

ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A

ttyS1 at I/O 0x2f8 (irq = 3) is a 16550A

parport: PnPBIOS parport detected.

parport0: PC-style at 0x378 (0x778), irq 7 [PCSPP(,...)]

lp0: using parport0 (interrupt-driven).

mice: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice

io scheduler noop registered

io scheduler anticipatory registered

io scheduler deadline registered

io scheduler cfq registered

Floppy drive(s): fd0 is 1.44M

FDC 0 is a post-1991 82077

RAMDISK driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 4096K size 1024 blocksize

loop: loaded (max 8 devices)

8139too Fast Ethernet driver 0.9.27

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNK1] enabled at IRQ 11

PCI: setting IRQ 11 as level-triggered

ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:01:0b.0[A] -> Link [LNK1] -> GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11

eth0: RealTek RTL8139 at 0x9000, 00:0d:61:9a:4c:77, IRQ 11

eth0:  Identified 8139 chip type 'RTL-8100B/8139D'

Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00alpha2

ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx

Probing IDE interface ide0...

input: AT Translated Set 2 keyboard on isa0060/serio0

logips2pp: Detected unknown logitech mouse model 89

input: ImExPS/2 Logitech Explorer Mouse on isa0060/serio1

hda: ST3160021A, ATA DISK drive

hdb: ST3160021A, ATA DISK drive

Probing IDE interface ide1...

hdc: SAMSUNG CD-ROM SC-152A, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive

ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14

ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15

hda: max request size: 1024KiB

hda: Host Protected Area detected.

        current capacity is 312579695 sectors (160040 MB)

        native  capacity is 312581808 sectors (160041 MB)

hda: Host Protected Area disabled.

hda: 312581808 sectors (160041 MB) w/2048KiB Cache, CHS=19457/255/63

hda: cache flushes supported

 hda: hda1 hda2 hda3 hda4 < hda5 hda6 hda7 hda8 >

hdb: max request size: 1024KiB

hdb: Host Protected Area detected.

        current capacity is 312579695 sectors (160040 MB)        native  capacity is 312581808 sectors (160041 MB)

hdb: Host Protected Area disabled.

hdb: 312581808 sectors (160041 MB) w/2048KiB Cache, CHS=19457/255/63

hdb: cache flushes supported

 hdb: hdb1 hdb2 < hdb5 hdb6 hdb7 hdb8 >

hdc: ATAPI 52X CD-ROM drive, 128kB Cache

Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20

ieee1394: raw1394: /dev/raw1394 device initialized

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LUB2] enabled at IRQ 9

PCI: setting IRQ 9 as level-triggered

ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:02.2[C] -> Link [LUB2] -> GSI 9 (level, low) -> IRQ 9

PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:02.2 to 64

ehci_hcd 0000:00:02.2: nVidia Corporation nForce2 USB Controller

ehci_hcd 0000:00:02.2: debug port 1

ehci_hcd 0000:00:02.2: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1

ehci_hcd 0000:00:02.2: irq 9, io mem 0xe7005000

PCI: cache line size of 64 is not supported by device 0000:00:02.2

ehci_hcd 0000:00:02.2: USB 2.0 initialized, EHCI 1.00, driver 10 Dec 2004

hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found

hub 1-0:1.0: 6 ports detected

116x: driver isp116x-hcd, 08 Apr 2005

ohci_hcd: 2005 April 22 USB 1.1 'Open' Host Controller (OHCI) Driver (PCI)

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LUBA] enabled at IRQ 10

ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:02.0[A] -> Link [LUBA] -> GSI 10 (level, low) -> IRQ 10

PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:02.0 to 64

ohci_hcd 0000:00:02.0: nVidia Corporation nForce2 USB Controller

ohci_hcd 0000:00:02.0: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 2

ohci_hcd 0000:00:02.0: irq 10, io mem 0xe7003000

hub 2-0:1.0: USB hub found

hub 2-0:1.0: 3 ports detected

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LUBB] enabled at IRQ 11

ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:02.1[B] -> Link [LUBB] -> GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11

PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:02.1 to 64

ohci_hcd 0000:00:02.1: nVidia Corporation nForce2 USB Controller (#2)

ohci_hcd 0000:00:02.1: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 3

ohci_hcd 0000:00:02.1: irq 11, io mem 0xe7004000

hub 3-0:1.0: USB hub found

hub 3-0:1.0: 3 ports detected

USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver v2.3

usbcore: registered new driver usblp

drivers/usb/class/usblp.c: v0.13: USB Printer Device Class driver

Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...

usbcore: registered new driver usb-storage

USB Mass Storage support registered.

usbcore: registered new driver usbhid

drivers/usb/input/hid-core.c: v2.01:USB HID core driver

usbcore: registered new driver ldusb

Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.9b (Thu Jul 28 12:20:13 2005 UTC).

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LACI] enabled at IRQ 5

PCI: setting IRQ 5 as level-triggered

ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:06.0[A] -> Link [LACI] -> GSI 5 (level, low) -> IRQ 5

PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:06.0 to 64

intel8x0_measure_ac97_clock: measured 50720 usecs

intel8x0: clocking to 47426

ALSA device list:

  #0: NVidia nForce2 with ALC655 at 0xe7001000, irq 5

oprofile: using timer interrupt.

NET: Registered protocol family 2

IP route cache hash table entries: 32768 (order: 5, 131072 bytes)

TCP established hash table entries: 131072 (order: 8, 1048576 bytes)

TCP bind hash table entries: 65536 (order: 6, 262144 bytes)

TCP: Hash tables configured (established 131072 bind 65536)

TCP reno registered

ip_conntrack version 2.1 (7168 buckets, 57344 max) - 212 bytes per conntrack

ip_tables: (C) 2000-2002 Netfilter core team

ipt_recent v0.3.1: Stephen Frost <sfrost@snowman.net>.  http://snowman.net/projects/ipt_recent/

arp_tables: (C) 2002 David S. Miller

TCP bic registered

TCP highspeed registered

TCP vegas registered

NET: Registered protocol family 1

NET: Registered protocol family 17

Using IPI Shortcut mode

ACPI wakeup devices:

HUB0 HUB1 USB0 USB1 USB2 F139 MMAC MMCI UAR1

ACPI: (supports S0 S1 S4 S5)

EXT3-fs: INFO: recovery required on readonly filesystem.

EXT3-fs: write access will be enabled during recovery.

Losing too many ticks!

TSC cannot be used as a timesource.

Possible reasons for this are:

  You're running with Speedstep,

  You don't have DMA enabled for your hard disk (see hdparm),

  Incorrect TSC synchronization on an SMP system (see dmesg).

Falling back to a sane timesource now.

EXT3-fs: recovery complete.

kjournald starting.  Commit interval 5 seconds

EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.

VFS: Mounted root (ext3 filesystem) readonly.

Freeing unused kernel memory: 204k freed

Adding 506036k swap on /dev/hda2.  Priority:-1 extents:1

EXT3 FS on hda3, internal journal

Linux agpgart interface v0.101 (c) Dave Jones

agpgart: Detected NVIDIA nForce2 chipset

agpgart: AGP aperture is 64M @ 0xe0000000

fglrx: module license 'Proprietary. (C) 2002 - ATI Technologies, Starnberg, GERMANY' taints kernel.

[fglrx] Maximum main memory to use for locked dma buffers: 803 MBytes.

ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:02:00.0[A] -> Link [LNK4] -> GSI 10 (level, low) -> IRQ 10

[fglrx] module loaded - fglrx 8.19.10 [Nov  9 2005] on minor 0

[fglrx] ACPI power management is initialized.

EXT3-fs warning: maximal mount count reached, running e2fsck is recommended

kjournald starting.  Commit interval 5 seconds

EXT3 FS on hda5, internal journal

EXT3-fs: recovery complete.

EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.

EXT3-fs warning: maximal mount count reached, running e2fsck is recommended

kjournald starting.  Commit interval 5 seconds

EXT3 FS on hda6, internal journal

EXT3-fs: recovery complete.

EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.

NTFS volume version 3.1.

NTFS-fs error (device hdb7): load_system_files(): Volume is dirty.  Mounting read-only.  Run chkdsk and mount in Windows.

fbsplash: console 1 using theme 'gentoo'

fbsplash: switched splash state to 'on' on console 1

fbsplash: console 2 using theme 'gentoo'

fbsplash: switched splash state to 'on' on console 2

fbsplash: console 3 using theme 'gentoo'

fbsplash: switched splash state to 'on' on console 3

fbsplash: console 4 using theme 'gentoo'

fbsplash: switched splash state to 'on' on console 4

fbsplash: console 5 using theme 'gentoo'

fbsplash: switched splash state to 'on' on console 5

fbsplash: console 6 using theme 'gentoo'

fbsplash: switched splash state to 'on' on console 6

fbsplash: console 7 using theme 'gentoo'

fbsplash: switched splash state to 'on' on console 7

fbsplash: console 8 using theme 'gentoo'

fbsplash: switched splash state to 'on' on console 8

fbsplash: console 9 using theme 'gentoo'

fbsplash: switched splash state to 'on' on console 9

fbsplash: console 10 using theme 'gentoo'

fbsplash: switched splash state to 'on' on console 10

eth0: link up, 100Mbps, full-duplex, lpa 0x45E1

[fglrx] Kernel AGP support doesn't provide agplock functionality.

[fglrx] AGP detected, AgpState   = 0x1f00421b (hardware caps of chipset)

agpgart: Found an AGP 3.0 compliant device at 0000:00:00.0.

agpgart: Putting AGP V3 device at 0000:00:00.0 into 8x mode

agpgart: Putting AGP V3 device at 0000:02:00.0 into 8x mode

[fglrx] AGP enabled,  AgpCommand = 0x1f004312 (selected caps)

[fglrx] free  AGP = 51113984

[fglrx] max   AGP = 51113984[fglrx] free  LFB = 120172544

[fglrx] max   LFB = 120172544

[fglrx] free  Inv = 0

[fglrx] max   Inv = 0

[fglrx] total Inv = 0

[fglrx] total TIM = 0

[fglrx] total FB  = 0

[fglrx] total AGP = 16384

[fglrx] AGP detected, AgpState   = 0x1f00421b (hardware caps of chipset)

agpgart: Found an AGP 3.0 compliant device at 0000:00:00.0.

agpgart: Putting AGP V3 device at 0000:00:00.0 into 8x mode

agpgart: Putting AGP V3 device at 0000:02:00.0 into 8x mode

[fglrx] AGP enabled,  AgpCommand = 0x1f004312 (selected caps)

[fglrx] free  AGP = 51113984

[fglrx] max   AGP = 51113984

[fglrx] free  LFB = 120172544

[fglrx] max   LFB = 120172544

[fglrx] free  Inv = 0

[fglrx] max   Inv = 0

[fglrx] total Inv = 0

[fglrx] total TIM = 0

[fglrx] total FB  = 0

[fglrx] total AGP = 16384

[fglrx] AGP detected, AgpState   = 0x1f00421b (hardware caps of chipset)

agpgart: Found an AGP 3.0 compliant device at 0000:00:00.0.

agpgart: Putting AGP V3 device at 0000:00:00.0 into 8x mode

agpgart: Putting AGP V3 device at 0000:02:00.0 into 8x mode

[fglrx] AGP enabled,  AgpCommand = 0x1f004312 (selected caps)

[fglrx] free  AGP = 51113984

[fglrx] max   AGP = 51113984

[fglrx] free  LFB = 120172544

[fglrx] max   LFB = 120172544

[fglrx] free  Inv = 0

[fglrx] max   Inv = 0

[fglrx] total Inv = 0

[fglrx] total TIM = 0

[fglrx] total FB  = 0

[fglrx] total AGP = 16384

psmouse.c: Explorer Mouse at isa0060/serio1/input0 lost synchronization, throwing 1 bytes away.

psmouse.c: Explorer Mouse at isa0060/serio1/input0 lost synchronization, throwing 3 bytes away.

```

```

gentoo xrn # hdparm -I /dev/hda

/dev/hda:

ATA device, with non-removable media

    Model Number:       ST3160021A

    Serial Number:      5JS5CDPN

    Firmware Revision:  8.01

Standards:

    Used: ATA/ATAPI-6 T13 1410D revision 2

    Supported: 6 5 4 3

Configuration:

    Logical     max current

    cylinders   16383   65535

    heads       16  1

    sectors/track   63  63

    --

    CHS current addressable sectors:    4128705

    LBA    user addressable sectors:  268435455

    LBA48  user addressable sectors:  312581808

    device size with M = 1024*1024:      152627 MBytes

    device size with M = 1000*1000:      160041 MBytes (160 GB)

Capabilities:

    LBA, IORDY(can be disabled)

    bytes avail on r/w long: 4  Queue depth: 1

    Standby timer values: spec'd by Standard, no device specific minimum

    R/W multiple sector transfer: Max = 16  Current = 16

    Recommended acoustic management value: 128, current value: 0

    DMA: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2 udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 *udma5

         Cycle time: min=120ns recommended=120ns

    PIO: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4

         Cycle time: no flow control=240ns  IORDY flow control=120ns

Commands/features:

    Enabled Supported:

       *    READ BUFFER cmd

       *    WRITE BUFFER cmd

       *    Host Protected Area feature set

       *    Look-ahead

       *    Write cache

       *    Power Management feature set

        Security Mode feature set

        SMART feature set

       *    FLUSH CACHE EXT command

       *    Mandatory FLUSH CACHE command

       *    Device Configuration Overlay feature set

       *    48-bit Address feature set

        SET MAX security extension

       *    DOWNLOAD MICROCODE cmd

       *    General Purpose Logging feature set

       *    SMART self-test

       *    SMART error logging

Security:

    Master password revision code = 65534

        supported

    not enabled

    not locked

    not frozen

    not expired: security count

    not supported: enhanced erase

HW reset results:

    CBLID- above Vih

    Device num = 0 determined by the jumper

Checksum: correct

```

----------

## LittleLeo

 *LittleLeo wrote:*   

> dmesg
> 
> ```
> 
> ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
> ...

 

----------

## Spindle!

That's it! I've also seen that in your dmesg:

```
Possible reasons for this are:

  You're running with Speedstep,

  You don't have DMA enabled for your hard disk (see hdparm),

  Incorrect TSC synchronization on an SMP system (see dmesg).
```

Do you have DMA enabled in your kernel?

I think you should have the following options built into the kernel:

```
Generic PCI bus-master DMA support: CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEDMA

Use DMA by default when available: CONFIG_IDEDMA_AUTO
```

You can do a grep CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEDMA in your kernel config file to check if its enabled or not. The same for the other kernel option. If you use genkernel et al look at /etc/kernel/ for anything named *config*. If not, look into /usr/src/kernel-x.y.z/.config.

If not, you must enable it.

----------

## LittleLeo

 *Spindle! wrote:*   

> 
> 
> I think you should have the following options built into the kernel:
> 
> ```
> ...

 

This is from my config file, and it seems they are enabled

```

[xrn@gentoo linux-2.6.13-gentoo-r5]$ cat .config | grep DMA

CONFIG_GENERIC_ISA_DMA=y

CONFIG_ISA_DMA_API=y

CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEDMA_PCI=y

# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEDMA_FORCED is not set

CONFIG_IDEDMA_PCI_AUTO=y

# CONFIG_IDEDMA_ONLYDISK is not set

CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEDMA=y

# CONFIG_IDEDMA_IVB is not set

CONFIG_IDEDMA_AUTO=y

```

----------

## Spindle!

What about this:

```
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEDMA_FORCED is not set
```

You could try forcing IDE DMA and see what happens, don't you think?

----------

## NTT

You also have a VIA IDE driver in the kernel for your chipset that enables the DMA and such as default (i have the same chipset). as far as I have quickly looked over the dmesg, you are running the generic IDE interface driver.

----------

## Spindle!

 *NTT wrote:*   

> You also have a VIA IDE driver in the kernel for your chipset that enables the DMA and such as default (i have the same chipset). as far as I have quickly looked over the dmesg, you are running the generic IDE interface driver.

 

Wow! I cannot find that. Can you show me the line?

----------

## NTT

I dont have a 2.6 kernel near to check out the actual line, but its really very easy to find...its right there in the same configuration page with the rest of the IDE/DMA options...somewhere near the bottom of the list.

----------

## Spindle!

I mean in the dmesg.

Could be this?

```
Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00alpha2

ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx 
```

----------

## NTT

Yeah that, and the fact there is no DMA enabled reported automatically when it probes&finds the disks.

You should be using the VIA driver.

----------

## LittleLeo

 *NTT wrote:*   

> Yeah that, and the fact there is no DMA enabled reported automatically when it probes&finds the disks.
> 
> You should be using the VIA driver.

 

Minutes ago, I tried to enable the VIA driver:

```

CONFIG_BLK_DEV_VIA82CXXX=y

```

But dmesg still outputs:

```

Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00alpha2

ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx

```

and hdparm failed.

Could you please post your kernel config file?

----------

## Spindle!

Try disabling the generic ide driver if you enable the via driver. Maybe the generic driver is blocking the vendor specific detection.

----------

## LittleLeo

 *Spindle! wrote:*   

> Try disabling the generic ide driver if you enable the via driver. Maybe the generic driver is blocking the vendor specific detection.

 

I have got  DMA to work fine   :Smile: 

My chipset is nvidia, that's why I can not enable it with VIA supporting

----------

## augury

-M   get/set acoustic management (0-254, 128: quiet, 254: fast) (EXPERIMENTAL)

```
Recommended acoustic management value: 128, current value: 0
```

 DMA is on  

```
    DMA: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2 udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 *udma5 
```

Losing too many ticks! 

The kernel suggests acpi Power Management Timer Support   :Confused: 

hdparm -X 66-69 will set idebus timing but it seems to already be at udma5.

 *Quote:*   

> NTFS driver 2.1.23 [Flags: R/W].

 

WTF do you expect?>

----------

## Spindle!

 *LittleLeo wrote:*   

> My chipset is nvidia, that's why I can not enable it with VIA supporting

 

We could cat /proc/pci or issue a lspci at the very beginning to know that...  :Smile: 

Prepend [Solved] to the title if you think so.

Edit: Typo

----------

## Moriah

I am having the same problem with an AMD-64 box that I *KNOW* behaved better once upon a time.  Apparently, someone "improved" the disk driver setup for the VIA chipset, and messed it all up big time.  This used to be my fasted machine, and now it takes 4 times a s long to run a particularly disk-intensive build as another, slower, box.  This box in an AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3000+ with 1.5 GB of ram, and the other box is a AMD Duron clocked at 1.6 GHz with 512 MB ram.  The disk drives arte identical on both boxes (250 GB IDE Western Digital).  The 2 boxes look like this"

```

Linux shaphan 2.6.13-gentoo-r5 #2 Thu Nov 17 14:51:11 EST 2005 x86_64 AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3000+ AuthenticAMD GNU/Linux

0000:00:0f.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)

Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00alpha2

ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx

Probing IDE interface ide0...

input: AT Translated Set 2 keyboard on isa0060/serio0

input: ImExPS/2 Generic Explorer Mouse on isa0060/serio1

hda: WDC WD2500JB-00GVA0, ATA DISK drive

```

And the system that works properly, even though it should be slower:

```

Linux neweli 2.6.14-gentoo-r2 #2 PREEMPT Thu Nov 17 21:19:44 EST 2005 i686 AMD Duron(tm) processor AuthenticAMD GNU/Linux

0000:00:0f.0 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)

Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00alpha2

ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx

Probing IDE interface ide0...

hda: WDC WD2500JB-00GVA0, ATA DISK drive

ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14

```

So given that both boxes look pretty similar, other than the misbehaving one is an AMD-64, what should be making the difference?  I am baffled.   :Evil or Very Mad: 

The 2.6.14-r2 kernel is finally available for the AMD-64, so I will upgrade to that and see if it makes any difference.  If not, I will try to fiddle with IDE drivers.   :Surprised: 

----------

