On Thu, Nov 14, 2002 at 11:01:16PM -0800, nate wrote: > Sandip P Deshmukh said: > > > my question - why doesnt debian turn dma on by default? dont we like fast > > machines? > > safety. Theres a lot of systems out there that do not support DMA > or the driver is not mature enough. My mom's CTX laptop for example > will lock up hard if DMA is turned on. I stopped using the IDE on > VIA chipsets more then 2 years ago because of DMA problems(I now > use Promise ATA/100 PCI cards instead). I think its a good idea > to ship with it disabled though it would be nice if it was easier > to turn on for the newbies. > > > one small question - how do i know which kernel version am i using? i > > could not find anything that looks like kernel and has a version number of > > 2.4.19 in dselect > > the version you are running *now* can be determined from: > > uname -a > > (or more specifically uname -r) > > > > thanx a ton. does a discussion like this better suited in installation > > manuals of debian? > > not sure, I've never really used hdparm myself, I compile my own > kernels and enable DMA in the kernels themselves(2.2.19) if I need > them. Haven't played much with 2.4.x kernels yet. > > nate >
The more recent VIA chipsets appear to handle DMA without these problems, but I had a similar situation a few years back. At the time I thought it was the Western Digital drive, but that is now is working fine with DMA enabled on a newer motherboard with a VIA vt82c686b UDMA 100 controller. Bob -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]