[I'm responding to several cut-n-pastes from different letters, if it's bad behavior flame me (one time is enough though) or read the original posts, then it should make sense. ]
mdevin wrote: > > On Mon, Nov 18, 2002 at 16:16:57 +0100, Emil Pedersen wrote: > > > So are the read times as expected for an IDE ATA133, 7200RPM, 40GB drive? > > > > Certainly not. Bellow is what I got from my IBM 7200 rpm disk, (using > > UDMA66): > > > I only just got this computer and hard drive 1 week ago and it is > supposed to be quite reasonable. Then you got warranty, backup the data and abuse hdparm options;-) No, seriously. Something is really wrong, I think you should get it fixed before whatever's causing the problem starts corrupting your data anyway. > Then checking in syslog I see: > Nov 19: hda: timeout waiting for DMA > Nov 19: ide_dmaproc: chipset supported ide_dma_timeout func only: 14 > Nov 19: hda: status error: status=0x58 { DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest } > Nov 19: hda: drive not ready for command > Nov 19: hda: status timeout: status=0xd0 { Busy } > Nov 19: hda: drive not ready for command > Nov 19: ide0: reset: success There you go, the "ide0: reset" sets your controller to PIO mode (because it's safer? I think). Then you got the lousy performance. [...] > hdparm -c1 -m16 -d1 -X34 -X12 -X69 -a8 /dev/hda You should not need to fiddle with the -X<##> option, I think. I also think you try to set it to several modes at the same time, resulting in only the last specified. > But then syslog shows: > Nov 19: ide0: Speed warnings UDMA 3/4/5 is not functional. [and from the next letter] > Actually, some more digging shows some new support in the 2.5 kernel for > the VIA VT8235 chipset which is on my mobo. It seems that udma6 can > then be enabled by passing 'ide0=ata66' to the kernel at boot time. Does udma66 mode work (not giving you errors in the syslog)? Then you at least got a useful mode, although not the theoretical max (which you won't reach with one drive anyway). I would stick with it until 2.5.z becomes 2.6.x. [and a new one] > My other computer is older and its motherboard doesn't have support for > ATA133 (80pin cable), but I guess it would just be treated as ATA100. I Supposedly only ATA66, higher modes require the new 80 wire cables. [and a new] > > So it seems that the drive gets reset for some reason. > > IIRC, this tends to happen when DMA is not fully supported for the > drive's controller. Or (as above indicate) not supported modes, or bad cables, or most other faulty hardware. (At least I've been told so, I've never been able to verify the fault when I got the resets.) [and the last one] > I think I will stop for now and maybe look into getting another hard > disk first. I really don't want to get burnt and lose my data and I can > deal with the relatively pathetic performance. Since this is the last mail, I guess the udma66-mode mentioned in a former mail didn't work? This might be on time that actually the -X -options could be useful. Try one mode at a time and stop at the last that don't reset the channel (ide0). I tried just know, it seems that you want at least 34: emilp@emil:home/emilp> sudo hdparm -X 65 /dev/hda /dev/hda: setting xfermode to 65 (UltraDMA mode1) emilp@emil:home/emilp> sudo hdparm -Tt /dev/hda /dev/hda: Timing buffer-cache reads: 128 MB in 0.81 seconds =158.02 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 3.47 seconds = 18.44 MB/sec emilp@emil:home/emilp> sudo hdparm -X 34 /dev/hda /dev/hda: setting xfermode to 34 (multiword DMA mode2) emilp@emil:home/emilp> sudo hdparm -Tt /dev/hda /dev/hda: Timing buffer-cache reads: 128 MB in 0.81 seconds =158.02 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 4.20 seconds = 15.24 MB/sec emilp@emil:home/emilp> sudo hdparm -X 33 /dev/hda /dev/hda: setting xfermode to 33 (multiword DMA mode1) emilp@emil:home/emilp> sudo hdparm -Tt /dev/hda /dev/hda: Timing buffer-cache reads: 128 MB in 0.84 seconds =152.38 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 5.19 seconds = 12.33 MB/sec emilp@emil:home/emilp> sudo hdparm -X 32 /dev/hda /dev/hda: setting xfermode to 32 (multiword DMA mode0) emilp@emil:home/emilp> sudo hdparm -Tt /dev/hda /dev/hda: Timing buffer-cache reads: 128 MB in 0.81 seconds =158.02 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 16.25 seconds = 3.94 MB/sec If nothing else work, the 2.5.x kernel might be worth a try after all. Sincerely, Emil -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]