Wim De Smet said: > Hi, > > I've noticed in my (woody based) testing/unstable that when I access block > devices such as (very obvious off course) my hard disk or my cd-rom > device, my system hangs for short moments. Meaning heavier and longer than > you would expect it to on an ide system. My kernel version is 2.2.20, I > have an ata 133 ide interface if that helps any. It's especially annoying > when ripping a cd and in the mean time trying to play some music (with > xmms for example). My system is pretty fast in and of its own so the > hardware shouldn't be an issue. > > Can anybody help me out, maybe something to do with buffers or the likes?
sounds like it could be a DMA issue. What kind of controller? my Promise ATA/100 controllers have a proc entry in /proc/ide which gives a good deal of info about the controller, the DMA mode etc.. cat /proc/ide/pdc202xx PDC20267 Chipset. ------------------------------- General Status --------------------------------- Burst Mode : enabled Host Mode : Normal Bus Clocking : 66 External IO pad select : 10 mA Status Polling Period : 0 Interrupt Check Status Polling Delay : 2 --------------- Primary Channel ---------------- Secondary Channel ------------- enabled enabled 66 Clocking enabled disabled Mode PCI Mode PCI FIFO Empty FIFO Empty --------------- drive0 --------- drive1 -------- drive0 ---------- drive1 ------ DMA enabled: yes yes yes yes DMA Mode: UDMA 4 UDMA 4 NOTSET NOTSET PIO Mode: PIO 4 PIO 4 NOTSET NOTSET hdparm can be used to manipulate IDE settings, though honestly I have never really used it. I turn on DMA in my kernel config(I compile my own kernels) and never had to use HD parm as far as I can remember. your controller may have a similar entry in /proc/ide where you can see the status ..not sure though. I am runing kernel 2.2.19 + ide patch from www.linux-ide.org. nate -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]