[plug] hdparm troubles

[Steve Boak]

On Sat, 17 Jul 2004 04:20 pm, Bernd Felsche wrote:
>
> Just for you, I've just assembled a system with EPIA V C3 at 1GHz;
> and 512MB -- gross overkill but components were on the shelf except
> for the mainboard which was cheaper than the Eden.

Wish I had that sort of kit 'just laying around' :-) Your processor is twice 
the speed of mine, but that shouldn't make significant difference to the dma 
speed. I also have 512MB of Ram.

I've disabled the hdparm I was using at startup, now running on the system 
defaults. No change in cache or disk read speeds.
>
> I've booted with SuSE Linux's 7.3 kernel; a firewall system
> now moved to a new-ish drive...
>
> clutch:~ # uname -a
> Linux clutch 2.4.16-4GB #1 Wed Dec 19 09:08:41 GMT 2001 i686 unknown
>
> clutch:~ # hdparm /dev/hda
> /dev/hda:
>  multcount    = 32 (on)
>  I/O support  =  1 (32-bit)
>  unmaskirq    =  1 (on)
>  using_dma    =  1 (on)
>  keepsettings =  0 (off)
>  nowerr       =  0 (off)
>  readonly     =  0 (off)
>  readahead    =  8 (on)
>  geometry     = 16708/16/63, sectors = 16841664, start = 0
>
Identical to mine, except for the disk geometry.

> Those are the default settings detected at boot-up. I've not forced
> any parameters. Just let the drivers do their thing.
>
> clutch:/proc/ide # cat via
> ----------VIA BusMastering IDE Configuration----------------
> Driver Version:                     3.29
I have version 3.37

> South Bridge:                       VIA vt8231
> Revision:                           ISA 0x10 IDE 0x6
> Highest DMA rate:                   UDMA100
> BM-DMA base:                        0xe000
and 0xd000 here

> PCI clock:                          33MHz
> Master Read  Cycle IRDY:            0ws
> Master Write Cycle IRDY:            0ws
> BM IDE Status Register Read Retry:  yes
> Max DRDY Pulse Width:               No limit
> -----------------------Primary IDE-------Secondary IDE------
> Read DMA FIFO flush:          yes                 yes
> End Sector FIFO flush:         no                  no
> Prefetch Buffer:              yes                 yes
> Post Write Buffer:            yes                 yes
> Enabled:                      yes                  no
> Simplex only:                  no                  no
> Cable Type:                   80w                 40w
> -------------------drive0----drive1----drive2----drive3-----
> Transfer Mode:       UDMA       PIO       PIO       PIO
> Address Setup:       30ns     120ns     120ns     120ns
> Cmd Active:          90ns      90ns     480ns     480ns
> Cmd Recovery:        30ns      30ns     480ns     480ns
> Data Active:         90ns     330ns     330ns     330ns
> Data Recovery:       30ns     270ns     270ns     270ns
> Cycle Time:          30ns     600ns     600ns     600ns
> Transfer Rate:   66.0MB/s   3.3MB/s   3.3MB/s   3.3MB/s

all the rest are the same.

min:~# hdparm -i /dev/hda
/dev/hda:
 Model=WDC WD800BB-75FJA1, FwRev=14.03G14, SerialNo=WD-WMAJ93861386
 Config={ HardSect NotMFM HdSw>15uSec SpinMotCtl Fixed DTR>5Mbs FmtGapReq }
 RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=58
 BuffType=unknown, BuffSize=2048kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=16
 CurCHS=4047/16/255, CurSects=16511760, LBA=yes, LBAsects=156250000
 IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:120,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}
 PIO modes:  pio0 pio3 pio4
 DMA modes:  mdma0 mdma1 mdma2
 UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 *udma5
 AdvancedPM=no WriteCache=enabled
 Drive conforms to: device does not report version:
 * signifies the current active mode

Hmmm - it's gone to udma5 on it's own now.

>  Timing buffer-cache reads:   128 MB in  1.25 seconds =102.40 MB/sec
>  Timing buffered disk reads:  64 MB in  3.16 seconds = 20.25 MB/sec

 Timing buffer-cache reads:   180 MB in  2.04 seconds =  88.24 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:   12 MB in  3.27 seconds =   3.67 MB/sec

>
> i.e. It looks like DMA works. Indeed more automagically than with
> the EPIA-M I tested earlier.

Wish it did on mine :-)

Now I'll go and try Craig's suggestions...

Steve
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