# update

## csheppar

Apparantly the UDMA  mode should be udma5 not udma2 since this drive is a 7200rpm Ultra ATA/100 Hard Drive. However, I can't set it above udma2 although I can set it lower. Anyone have any ideas?

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## texas1emt

What's your IDE controller?  Did you compile support for it into your kernel?  Give us an output from your 'lspci'.

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## moocha

Why a new post? Reply to your old post would've made more sense...

The maximum transfer mode is limited both by hard drive and by IDE controller characteristics. If you hook up an UDMA5-capable drive to an UDMA2-capable controller, you won't be able to go above UDMA2. Also, the kernel libata detects certain bad / buggy combinations of drive and controller chipset and refuses to set an unsafe transfer mode in those cases.

What kernel are you using? 2.6 generally has less issues on this compared to 2.4.

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## texas1emt

Durr, I didn't even realize the same guy posted elsewhere... 

Moocha, I dont know if your comments were directed at me, but I am a little dumb for not searching a bit and finding the other post the same guy made.   :Confused: 

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## moocha

Oh, no, not directed at you, our posts crossed (you posted while I was still writing the reply). And no, you're not "a little dumb", I just happened to see csheppar's previous post while refreshing Unanswered Posts earlier  :Smile: .

Incidentally, he made yet another post... https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?p=2068473

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## csheppar

Sorry, I meant to add that to my last post. I was wondering what happened to this one.  :Embarassed:  Also I'm using linux 2.6.10. This is a new laptop from powernotebooks, a 5:14 (a repackaged CL51) if that helps at all. Still tracking down more detailed drive info. Here's my output from lspci:

0000:00800.0 Hoqt bpidge: Iltel Corp. 80852-82855 GM/GME/PM-GMV Proaessmr tm I/M                                                                                   

 Coltroller (ret 02)

0000:00800.1 Syqtem periphepal: Intel Cmrp. 82852/80855 GM/EME/PM/GMV Ppoceqsor                                                                                    

to I/O Aontpoller (pev 02)

0000:00800.1 Syqtem periphepal: Intel Cmrp. 82852/80855 GM/EME/PM/GMV Ppoceqsor                                                                                    

to I/O Aontpoller (pev 02)

0000:00802.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Cmrp. 82852/855GM Integrated Eraph                                                                                   

ics Device (rev 02)

0000:00802.1 Diqplay coltroller8 Intel Aorp, 82852/855GM Integrated Graphicq Det                                                                                   

ice (ret 02)

0000:0081d.0 US@ Coltroller8 Intel Aorp, 82801D@/DBL/DBM (IAH4/ICH4-L/IAH4-M) UQ                                                                                   

B UHCI Aontpoller #1 (rev 01)

0000:0081d.1 US@ Coltroller8 Intel Aorp, 82801D@/DBL/DBM (IAH4/ICH4-L/IAH4-M) UQ                                                                                   

B UHCI Aontpoller #0 (rev 01)

0000:0081d.0 US@ Coltroller8 Intel Aorp, 82801D@/DBL/DBM (IAH4/ICH4-L/IAH4-M) UQ                                                                                   

B UHCI Aontpoller #1 (rev 01)

0000:0081d.5 US@ Coltroller8 Intel Aorp, 82801D@/DBM (IAH4/ICH4-M) USB2 EHCI Col                                                                                   

troller (ret 03)

0000:0081e.0 PCI bridge8 Intel Aorp, 82801 Mobile PAI Bpidge (rev 81)

0000:0081f.0 ISA bridge8 Intel Aorp, 82801D@M (ICH4-M) LPC Intepface Bridge (ret                                                                                   

 03)

0000:0081f.1 IDE interface: Intel Cmrp. 82801DBM (IAH4-M) IDE Cmntrmllep (rev 01                                                                                   

)

0000:0081f.1 SM@us: Intel Cmrp. 82801DB-DBL-DBM (ICH4/IAH4-L/ICH4-M) SM@us Aontp                                                                                   

oller (pev 03)

0000:0081f.5 Multimedia audio cmntrmllep: Iltel Corp. 80801DB/D@L/D@M (ICH4-ICH4                                                                                   

-L/ICH4-M) AC'95 Audio Aontpoller (pev 03)

0000:0081f.4 Modem: Intel Cmrp. 82801DB-DBL-DBM (ICH4/IAH4-L/ICH4-M) AC%97 Modem                                                                                   

 Coltroller (ret 03)

0000:01800.0 FipeWipe (IEEE 1394): TIA Techloloeies, Ina. IEEE 1394 Host Coltrol                                                                                   

ler (ret 80)

0000:01801.0 Ethernet cmntrmllep: Realtek Semicmnduator Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139A                                                                                   

/8119C+ (ret 10)

0000:01802.0 Ethernet cmntrmllep: Atherms Cmmmulicationq, Ilc. AR5212 802.11abg                                                                                    

NIC (ret 01)

0000:01804.0 CapdBuq bridge8 ENE Teahnology Inc CB1410 Aard`us Aontpoller (pev 0                                                                                   

1)

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## texas1emt

Sweet.  Well I am a little dumb in other respects anyways...   :Smile: 

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## csheppar

I have IntelPIIXn chipset support built into my kernel (non-module) which I _think_ is what I need for the IDE controller shown by lspci? I also have "Generic PCI bus-master DMA" support and "Use PCI DMA by default when available" built in but no other chipsets built in besides the Intel one.

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## moocha

Yes, that's the correct driver. Hmm, that's weird, you should be getting UDMA5 out of this... I'll try looking into it some more and will reply if I find out anything - right now I'm out of options.

Edit: Get rid of generic/default IDE chipset support and Generic PCI IDE Chipset Support if you have them - those are only needed if the kernel doesn't have a driver for your chipset, which isn't the case here.

This won't solve the issue though, but it's good to know.

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## csheppar

Running hdparm gives me:

# hdparm -d1 -X69 /dev/hda

/dev/hda:

 setting using_dma to 1 (on)

 setting xfermode to 69 (UltraDMA mode5)

 using_dma    =  1 (on)

as if it worked but hdparm -i shows no changes. However, I noticed dmesg shows me:

ide0: Speed warnings UDMA 3/4/5 is not functional.

I don't know why I'm getting these warnings though.

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## moocha

Hm. This opens up some more possibilities:

Are you using 80-wire cables? Without them, you won't get anything past UDMA2, no matter what.

If yes, have you tried different cables, from different manufacturers? Never be cheap on drive cabling, fans, and power supplies (this is a very important lesson that I've learned the hard way - people tend to ignore those components).

Have you by any chance disabled UDMA in the BIOS? Leave the UDMA mode to Auto there. Some motherboards actually instruct the chipset to disable higher transfer modes otherwise.

Some retail hard drives are shipped limited to less than UDMA5 for compatibility with systems with broken old BIOS that hang with UDMA > what they support. Run the drive maker's utility to remove the limit [this from  Felix Miata (mrmazda_at_ij.net)]

Apparently it's possible that there is a bug in the driver. against my previous advice, try with Generic PCI IDE Chipset Support enabled and PIIX disabled.

I've looked through drivers/ide/ide-iops.c and it seems to suggest that the message only appears in the ide_ata66_check function, so the cable is my best bet.

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## csheppar

Well this is a new laptop (powerpro 5:14, a repackaged CL51) so I'm assuming they set it up internally the way it needs to be to take full advantage of the drive. I don't have windows on it so I can't try it there to see if it works. Also, the BIOS is extremely limited, no UDMA options at all that I can see. Is this usual for laptops? This is the first I've owned so I don't know. I'll try rebuilding according to your advice. Thanks again.

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## moocha

Uh-oh, laptop. You can't fiddle around with cabling laptop drives as easily as with desktops / servers... What I'd do is call the technical support hotline of the manufacturer and complain, frankly... It's 2005, there's no excuse for having Intel chipset laptops that are incompatible with the Linux IDE driver.

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## csheppar

This thread had most of the answers:

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=285950&highlight=speed+warnings+udma

What I ended up doing was adding ide0=ata66 kernel parameter to grub.conf,  although I get a big fat warning in dmesg saying the option will be obsolete soon and I have no idea why it works. :/ Anyways, hdparm -i /dev/hda shows udma5 selected and hdparm -tT /dev/hda shows an increase from 25 MB/sec to 35 MB/sec although I don't know if that's where it should be. I'm not experienced in configuring or measuring drives. One other thing, is this setting safe to run as far as you know? Thanks again for your help!

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## moocha

I have absolutely no idea whether it's safe or not... I'd take it up with the tech support from the manufacturer.

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