Angus, All of us like to see things snap at our beck and call. It's part of being human. Sometimes, there's a fix, though. You don't know unless you ask. ;-)
The answer to your question was provided earlier by a couple of people, but I like Tom Brinkman's earlier post, best. I have paraphrased and embellished what he wrote to make it make more sense out of context. Before you follow the steps outlined, you need to make sure that you have 'hardparm' installed. For whatever reason, I didn't, and had to figure this out to get my end to work. The RPM is on either CD1 or CD2, I can't remember, off hand. Once that is loaded, it will create the file 'harddisks': 1) Change over to the /etc/sysconfig directory 2) Edit the file, 'harddisks', and remove the # in front of 'USE_DMA=1' 3) Create a separate configuration file for each drive that you wish to give DMA access to (read-only devices, burners, etc.), with the appropriate drive letter added to the end of the file name. This is done by copying the original 'harddisks' to each new configuration name: 'cp harddisks harddiskhd?' (where ? is the drive letter for CD-ROM and/or CD-RW drives) examples: 'cp harddisks harddiskhdc' 'cp harddisks harddiskhdd' So far, everything is working find with my MDK 9 installation. I am tempted to do the same in my MDK 8.2 box to see what the affects of DMA is on my Acer CD-RW. I imagine I will be making some drink coasters to give out as gifts for Christmas! ;-D T On Monday 04 November 2002 18:53, Tom Brinkman wrote: > On Monday November 4 2002 11:08 am, Miark wrote: > > Wooky, > > > > MDK 9.0 turns DMA -off- for CD and DVDs by default. Go to the command > > line as root, and type "hdparm -d1 /dev/hdx" where x represents your > > DVD drive. (Use the hdx notation, even if you use scsi emulation). > > Your DVDs will now play as they did in 8.2. > > > > To make the change permanent, add it to /etc/rc.d/rc.local and you'll > > be good to go. I learned this on the expert list last night. > > > > Miark > > That'll work, but a better way is to (as root): > 'cd /etc/sysconfig' > (edit 'harddisks', and remove the # in front of 'USE_DMA=1') > 'cp harddisks harddiskhd?' > > where ? is the drive letter for CDrom and/or CD-RW drives, EG > 'cp harddisks harddiskhdc' > 'cp harddisks harddiskhdd' ----- Original Message ----- From: "Angus Auld" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, November 11, 2002 9:27 PM Subject: Re: [newbie] about DMA & Mdk Linux ----- Original Message ----- From: "Technoslick" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Mon, 11 Nov 2002 13:14:05 -0500 To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [newbie] about DMA & Mdk Linux > If you had it enabled in Windows and didn't experience any hard drive data > corruption or diffculties in read from your CD-ROM, the answer that all of > us would agree upon is....yes, it's OK to activate the use of DMA in Linux > for hard drives and CD-ROMs. The answer is in the fact that it was already > working for you in Windows. Concerns have only been with some > "questionanble" motherboards and some older devices that do not work through > DMA. I still use an Acer 2X2X4 CD-RW drive who's instructions specifically > forbid activiting DMA support. > > The advantage is speed, though this is no guarantee that everything you do > on your computer will be blinding fast. I have MDK 9.0 on an AMD-K6-2/500 > with 256 MB RAM, an S3 Savage 2000 video card with 64 MBs RAM, and it isn't > acting like a Spring chicken for me. Neither does Brand X (read as -- > Windows XP Pro) Still, I can't complain. I like KDE 2.x and 3. If I have to > wait a little, I'm OK with this. > > Have you checked to make sure that you have your video card properly > recognized and configured, and that your expectations are in line with the > computer you are running MDK on? If you continue to feel that you are not > running correctly, pass more information on to the listserv. Lots of brains > and tons of experience, here. :-) > > T > > > ---- Original Message ----- > From: "Angus Auld" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Sunday, November 10, 2002 10:01 PM > Subject: [newbie] about DMA & Mdk Linux > > > Greetings, > I would like to know if I should enable DMA for my hd and cdrom. > > I have a dual-boot system, Mdk 9.0 & WinME. In ME I have DMA enabled for > both cdrom drive and hd, and it seems to be working great. Does that mean > that DMA will be a good idea under Mdk?? Will it give me an appreciable > increase in performance? My system is working great now, but I use KDE and I > find it just a bit sluggish. Perhaps this is normal from what I am reading > about KDE. I use Mdk about 99% of the time. > > I know there has been some discussion on the list lately about DMA, and I > wonder just how much difference it really makes? > > TIA's for any feedback. > > > > --Angus >*************************************************************************** **** Thanks T for the great answer. I don't want to make it sound like I'm not happy with my Mdk 9.0......it rocks! It seems a tad slower than what I am used to when opening progs and things. No biggie though. I have a Dell Dimm with Celeron 900Mhz, 20gig Ultra ATA 7200 rpm hd, 256 megs ram. I have integrated video on my (82810 Intel 3D AGP graphics controller) processor, which seems correctly identified by Mdk. It works pretty slick actually. I had no real problems w/8.2 and now 9.0. My only real "problems" were with a Conexant HCF winmodem. But, even that is working beautifully, thanks to the great driver written by Marc Boucher at mbsi ( http://www.mbsi.ca/cnxtlindrv/ ). My Dell seems perfectly happy to run Mdk Linux. ;-) I use KDE most of the time, but also Blackbox a little. Blackbox is faster, but lacks some of the "creature comforts" of KDE. Maybe I should just leave well enough alone. If I wanted to try DMA enabled, is it a complicated thing? This is a great list! Thanks again T. --Angus "Let us not look back in anger or forward in fear, but around in awareness."--James Thurber *************************************** *Reg. Linux User #278931* *************************************** *Power by Mandrake Linux 9.0* *************************************** -- _______________________________________________ Get your free email from http://mymail.operamail.com Powered by Outblaze ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
