Well, I've applied the IDE patches for 2.2.17, and everything appears to be working with my VIA board much better now. I'm not sure it is totally optimal yet though. My CDROM's are on the second channel, and I don't much care about them. Can I configure it somehow to optimize it for single channel operation with 2 Quantum Fireballs? Leaving the second channel UDMAless? I read something about tweaking FIFO, but don't have a clue about it and don't want to risk anything. Plus could y'all look at the data below and tell me if anything is wrong or should be changed? I'm a bit worried about the hdd failure warning/error messages on /dev/hdd (my 4x Toshiba CDROM). I'm using: hdparm -X66 -m16c1d1k1 Also, if there is a linux-ide mailing list, where is it? I couldn't find one on linux-ide.org nor on www.liszt.com... Any help appreciated. 1 root@asdf:/proc# cat ide/via Command register = 0x7 Master Read Cycle IRDY 1 Wait State Master Write Cycle IRDY 1 Wait State FIFO Output Data 1/2 Clock Advance: off Bus Master IDE Status Register Read Retry: on Latency timer = 32 (max. = 0) Interrupt Steering Swap: off ------------------Primary IDE------------Secondary IDE----- both channels togth: yes yes Prefetch Buffer : on on Post Write Buffer: on on FIFO Conf/Chan. : 08 08 Threshold Prim. : 1/2 1/2 Read DMA FIFO flush: on on End Sect. FIFO flush: on on Max DRDY Pulse Width: No limitation Bytes Per Sector: 512 512 --------------drive0------drive1-------drive0------drive1---- DMA enabled: yes yes yes no Act Pls Width: 03 03 04 07 Recovery Time: 01 01 02 06 Add. Setup T.: 4T 4T 4T 4T ------------------UDMA-Timing-Control------------------------ Enable Meth.: 0 0 0 0 Enable: yes yes no no Transfer Mode: PIO PIO DMA DMA Cycle Time: 2T 2T 5T 5T 1 root@asdf:/proc# hdparm -v /dev/hd[abcd] /dev/hda: multcount = 16 (on) I/O support = 1 (32-bit) unmaskirq = 0 (off) using_dma = 1 (on) keepsettings = 1 (on) nowerr = 0 (off) readonly = 0 (off) readahead = 8 (on) geometry = 935/255/63, sectors = 15032115, start = 0 /dev/hdb: multcount = 16 (on) I/O support = 1 (32-bit) unmaskirq = 0 (off) using_dma = 1 (on) keepsettings = 1 (on) nowerr = 0 (off) readonly = 0 (off) readahead = 8 (on) geometry = 524/255/63, sectors = 8418816, start = 0 /dev/hdc: HDIO_GET_MULTCOUNT failed: Input/output error I/O support = 0 (default 16-bit) unmaskirq = 0 (off) using_dma = 1 (on) keepsettings = 0 (off) HDIO_GET_NOWERR failed: Input/output error readonly = 0 (off) BLKRAGET failed: Input/output error HDIO_GETGEO failed: Invalid argument hdd: set_drive_speed_status: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error } hdd: set_drive_speed_status: error=0x04 hdd: ATAPI 4X CD-ROM drive, 256kB Cache /dev/hdd: HDIO_GET_MULTCOUNT failed: Invalid argument I/O support = 0 (default 16-bit) unmaskirq = 0 (off) using_dma = 0 (off) keepsettings = 0 (off) HDIO_GET_NOWERR failed: Invalid argument readonly = 1 (on) readahead = 8 (on) HDIO_GETGEO failed: Invalid argument Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 6.30 ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx VP_IDE: IDE controller on PCI bus 00 dev 39 VP_IDE: chipset revision 16 VP_IDE: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later VT 82C598 Apollo MVP3 Chipset Core ATA-33 Split FIFO Configuration: 8 Primary buffers, threshold = 1/2 8 Second. buffers, threshold = 1/2 ide0: BM-DMA at 0xe000-0xe007, BIOS settings: hda:DMA, hdb:DMA ide0: VIA Bus-Master (U)DMA Timing Config Success ide1: BM-DMA at 0xe008-0xe00f, BIOS settings: hdc:DMA, hdd:pio ide1: VIA Bus-Master (U)DMA Timing Config Success hda: QUANTUM FIREBALL EL7.6A, ATA DISK drive hdb: QUANTUM FIREBALL SE4.3A, ATA DISK drive hdc: HP CD-Writer+ 7200, ATAPI CDROM drive hdd: TOSHIBA CD-ROM XM-5302TA, ATAPI CDROM drive hdd: set_drive_speed_status: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error } hdd: set_drive_speed_status: error=0x04 ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14 ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15 hda: QUANTUM FIREBALL EL7.6A, 7339MB w/418kB Cache, CHS=935/255/63, UDMA(33) hdb: QUANTUM FIREBALL SE4.3A, 4110MB w/80kB Cache, CHS=524/255/63, UDMA(33) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Mike A. Harris - Linux advocate - Open source advocate Computer Consultant - Capslock Consulting Copyright 2000 all rights reserved ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [Mike A. Harris Linux tip #1 - 50 line mode] Is the 80x25 line screen too small for you? If you want more screen real estate, you can set 50 column mode by editing your /etc/lilo.conf file, and adding a new line with "vga=ext" to the global section near the top. Save and exit, then run "lilo". Next time you boot, you'll have a nice big 80x50 screen. - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/