# setting dma on hpt370a

## rommel

managed to get the hpt370a controller working using just the hpt36x driver thus far to enable the controller to be used like regular ide channels ....i am trying to tweak the drives though using hdparm and am not getting any love from enabling the dma (-d1) command....system locks up i guess hdrive light never comes on....as the drives are now i can get about 4.00mb/s using hdparm -c3 -m16 /dev/hdx 

anyone know of an issue with the onboard controller or the driver that wont allow dma to be enabled...i am getting 38.8mb/s using an identicle drive on ide0 which is the via chipset controller or /dev/hda

just an edit but i ran hdparm -I on each of the drives on the hpt370a and they are set at *mdma2 but other then that all the information is identicle to the drive on the ide0 via controller.

----------

## Lnx_dork

I don't know if you tried before but there is a built in hpt370 driver in the kernel.

If you enable the "Support for IDE Raid Controllers" it will give you an option to enable the hpt370 driver.  That may fix your problem.  Also did you enable "use dma by default" when you configured your kernel?

Hope this helps

----------

## Guest

yeah i have dma enabled in the kernel....and the reason i didnt add the raid support is cuz i didnt want the hpt370 software raid driver...so i enabled the hpt366 which has in the string the 370 and enables it as a controller but not raid enabled...i didnt think you could enable the hpt software raid unless you ahd the drives set up in some raid level

----------

## amigadave

I have the HPT370 setup with DMA successfully, using the following hdparm commandline:

```
hdparm -c1 -k1 -u1 -m 16 -d1 -X69 /dev/hde

hdparm -c1 -k1 -u1 -m 16 -d1 -X69 /dev/hdg
```

Both my drives work fine with these options, and I'm using the kernel ataraid support for my RAID-0 array. The Highpoint controller is a bit slower than the VIA for throughput - only ~38MB/s compared to ~40MB/s.

You might want to check whether any other devices are sharing IRQs with the Highpoint controller, as the other devices might not be tolerant of IRQ sharing (expecially a NIC).

----------

## Guest

hey dave....man its the -d1 setting that kicks my ass everyt time i set it....i had the array up and running but it was really flakey....so i was trying to just set up and use the hpt370 as two extra ide channels but i still cant get that working well enough to be really of any use...the best i can get is about 4.02mb/s and thats with -c3 -m16 /dev/hde or hdg...but if i try -d1 on either drive and then run hdparm -t it just goes into a state of confusion...blinking cursor and no hdd led activity....maybe its the motherboard

the via is working fine and shows up at boot at udma5

in order for me to even boot i have set ide=noautotune and ide3=noautotune or it hangs at boot on a partition check.....strange how it seems to be different for different people....but it must be the motherboards and bios's or something.....i am not giving up yet though.....i was hoping maybe to get the dma enabled and the throughput a up so i could switch and place the dvd and a cdrw on the high point and use the via ide0 and ide1 for a linux software raid 0 array....that i think would be the most stable and the fastest but its not likely to ahppen unless i can figure out what the problem is.

anything you suggest i have and will try though...thanks for all your input 

rommel

----------

## amigadave

Hi again, you mentioned that BIOS versions may be the problem. If so, are you using the latest Highpoint and motherboard BIOS? I'm running on an ABit KT7A-RAID with 2.31 HPT BIOS. This is not the same as the BIOS that ABit have released themselves - I got it from http://www.biosmods.com. This version is supposed to give better performance (really?!) but may solve your problems. Also, have you gone into the Highpoint BIOS setup utility (by pressing CTRL-h during system bootup) and changed the DMA mode of the drives to UDMA5? I'd imagine that you have but if not that could be causing problems!

----------

## Lnx_dork

you should try and enable the hpt370 raid driver instead of the hpt366.  The hpt370 is a raid controller which is why it's under the raid menu, but you don't have to have your drives in a raid array for it to work.  I speak from personal experience, I have a 40gb and 20gb drive hooked up to my hpt370 controller and I didn't raid them, and the kernel configured with the hpt370 support runs perfectly.

----------

## Guest

hey...ok i'll look at doing both...just emerged kde last night and just emerged the nvidia drivers...that failed...so i downloaded and installed the glx and kernel tar files from nvidia....ran quake 3 perfectly ....this is all on the drive that is on ide0 thats controlled by the via chipset...but back to  your suggestions i'll try what each of you said when i get back from running...i got to get out of this chair....lol

ciao 

rommel

thanks for the input!

----------

## Guest

hey dave...you know i think i might have used the bios file from that page you linked...cant remember which but i know i got cbrom from them and inserted the 2.31 using it into the iwill bios for my board...anyway...i'll keep trying cuz i really hate it when stuff doesnt work...lol

----------

