[SOLVED] Weird untar problem

edtate · n00b Joined: 27 Aug 2003 Posts: 30

Hey people,
I have development kernel 2.6, and everytime i untar an archive it lags up my computer completely(the mouse starts stuttering and the sound stops), like everytime i emerge, when it unpacks the archive. Has anyone else experienced this? Is there a way to fix it, or is this meant to happen :/?

fctk · Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2004 10:21 am Post subject:

have you enabled DMA?

edtate · n00b Joined: 27 Aug 2003 Posts: 30

DMA... a lil more specific?

fctk · Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2004 12:30 pm Post subject:

edtate · n00b Joined: 27 Aug 2003 Posts: 30

It says :
using_dma = 0 (off)
is this what i'm supposed to enable? What is DMA and why is it causing me this problem? (sorry am v curious)

fctk · Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2004 1:10 pm Post subject:

i don't know exactly what's DMA, but i know if you enable it your hard disks will un 10 times faster...
try running:

edtate · n00b Joined: 27 Aug 2003 Posts: 30

root@kyro malune # hdparm -tT /dev/hdb

/dev/hdb:
Timing buffer-cache reads: 888 MB in 2.01 seconds = 442.74 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 22 MB in 3.07 seconds = 7.17 MB/sec

fctk · Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2004 7:01 pm Post subject:

7 mb/s is too slow... my hd can do 40mb/s and is 2 years old.
you have to activate DMA. do this:

edtate · n00b Joined: 27 Aug 2003 Posts: 30

Now it gives me this error :

fctk · Posted: Wed Aug 11, 2004 5:34 pm Post subject:

yes... i had this problem too. probably you have to enable the support for your chipset...

go in device drivers:
Y generic pci bus master dma support
Y use pci dma by default when available
Y <your chipset>

my chipset, for example, is via82cxxx... you have to find yours.

hope it helps...

edtate · n00b Joined: 27 Aug 2003 Posts: 30

hey, i've enabled support for my chipset in the kernel, and all the features you told me to enable, but it still won't let me enable dma, i still get the same error. Any suggestions???

Steven Robertson · Posted: Wed Aug 11, 2004 9:30 pm Post subject:

Stop me if you've heard all this before.

What kind of cable connects your HD to your motherboard? If it's an old 40-conductor, 40-pin cable, you can't use DMA. Any newer 80-conductor, 40-pin cable should work fine.

Look inside your case, and identify both the cable that runs to your floppy drive and the cable that runs to your hard drive. Compare the thickness of each conductor (each individual bump in the ribbon part is one conductor). If they are approximately the same, it's an old 40-conductor cable. If the hard drive's are significantly smaller, but greater in number, it's probably an 80-conductor.

If you have a 40-conductor, run down to any common tech store that carries computer parts. Radioshack or CompUSA should do fine. Pick up a cable that is described as either an IDE, EIDE, or ATAPI interface cable, which has three connectors, and says '80-conductor'. It can be either 40 or 39 pin. Rounded or ribbon type are both acceptable, although IMO rounded are better from an asthetic and practical view (makes no difference on performance).

If you're already using an 80-conductor, check two things. Is there a hard drive on the end of the IDE cable you're using now, or is there exactly one hard drive set to be master of that cable (set using the jumpers on the back)? If not, make either condition (or both) true. If that's not it, I'd check in the BIOS to make sure that there's not some weird error.

The last possibility, if it's a really old drive, is that the drive doesn't support DMA. This is the least likely, but it's possible.

HTH.

edtate · n00b Joined: 27 Aug 2003 Posts: 30

It's definitely an 80-conductor 40-pin cable. There is a hard drive connected to the end of the IDE cable, i built the computer myself though and i think it's set as slave(it was hdb instead of hda whilst setting up gentoo), and i don't think there is a master for that cable, because i never messed about with the jumpers. Is there any kind of guide to mess about with that? And what am i trying to achieve, to set the hard drive as master?

Rafje · Posted: Wed Aug 11, 2004 9:59 pm Post subject:

edtate · n00b Joined: 27 Aug 2003 Posts: 30

yeah, i checked that about 5 times, it starts up the correct chipset driver when booting the kernel, when it starts up it says HPT37xx.. something something, so it is enabled.

iamben · Apprentice Joined: 10 May 2004 Posts: 278

try changing the drive to master, some ide controllers have trouble with funny master/slave setups, even when the drives show up. the drive may show up, but its really not proper to have a slave w/o a master on an ide channel.

just look on the hard drive itself, you should find a table showing jumper settings for master/slave/single/CS/whatever

if you cant handle that try just putting the drive on the end of the cable and setting the jumper to CS (cable select), that should work too.

fctk · Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2004 7:58 am Post subject:

edtate · n00b Joined: 27 Aug 2003 Posts: 30

Ok, my motherboard is an ABIT AT7-MAX2, here is what the manual says about it :

fctk · Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2004 9:15 am Post subject:

Southbridge VT8235
i think you have to enable this chipset instead of the other...

John5788 · Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2004 10:15 am Post subject:

its the VIA one. someone mentioned it above, use it
via82cxxx
_________________
John5788

edtate · n00b Joined: 27 Aug 2003 Posts: 30

...and the problem is fixed, it was the via82xxx chipset that i was supposed to enable in my kernel, all tar archives are now extracting fine, without lag!!! Thanks to all of you for your help, and fctk in particular for your time!

fctk · Posted: Thu Aug 12, 2004 1:43 pm Post subject:

i'm glad you solved the problem...
anyway pls put [SOLVED] to the title...