via KT400 high cpu load

[ripper_svk]

hello,
i'm having problem with the via KT400 chipset. i have DMA working but accessing files causes high CPU load.
i'm using the 2.6.10-gentoo-r6 kernel. when i try to copy a large file it produces high load, and it's quite noticable on the performance. i use ksysguard to watch the load, and it shows about 30% user load and the remaining 70% system load. here is the output of top:

top - 13:50:01 up 4:46, 1 user, load average: 4.09, 1.91, 1.08
Tasks: 96 total, 3 running, 92 sleeping, 0 stopped, 1 zombie
Cpu(s): 9.6% us, 11.6% sy, 0.0% ni, 0.0% id, 76.7% wa, 2.0% hi, 0.0% s
Mem: 515448k total, 511460k used, 3988k free, 604k buffers
Swap: 505976k total, 300k used, 505676k free, 229804k cached

PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
9648 ripper 18 0 1404 396 340 D 7.6 0.1 0:01.10 cp


when i tested copying the same file with knoppix booted with the 2.4 kernel, the load was very low. when i tried it with konppix with 2.6 kernel, the load was high


my config:

#
# IO Schedulers
#
CONFIG_IOSCHED_NOOP=y
CONFIG_IOSCHED_AS=y
CONFIG_IOSCHED_DEADLINE=y
CONFIG_IOSCHED_CFQ=y

#
# ATA/ATAPI/MFM/RLL support
#
CONFIG_IDE=y
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDE=y

#
# Please see Documentation/ide.txt for help/info on IDE drives
#
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDE_SATA is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_HD_IDE is not set
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEDISK=y
# CONFIG_IDEDISK_MULTI_MODE is not set
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDECD=y
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDETAPE is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEFLOPPY is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDESCSI is not set
# CONFIG_IDE_TASK_IOCTL is not set

#
# IDE chipset support/bugfixes
#
# CONFIG_IDE_GENERIC is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_CMD640 is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEPNP is not set
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEPCI=y
# CONFIG_IDEPCI_SHARE_IRQ is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_OFFBOARD is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_GENERIC is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_OPTI621 is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_RZ1000 is not set
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEDMA_PCI=y
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEDMA_FORCED is not set
CONFIG_IDEDMA_PCI_AUTO=y
# CONFIG_IDEDMA_ONLYDISK is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_AEC62XX is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_ALI15X3 is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_AMD74XX is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_ATIIXP is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_CMD64X is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_TRIFLEX is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_CY82C693 is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_CS5520 is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_CS5530 is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_HPT34X is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_HPT366 is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_SC1200 is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_PIIX is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_NS87415 is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_PDC202XX_OLD is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_PDC202XX_NEW is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_SVWKS is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_SIIMAGE is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_SIS5513 is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_SLC90E66 is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_TRM290 is not set
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_VIA82CXXX=y
# CONFIG_IDE_ARM is not set
# CONFIG_IDE_CHIPSETS is not set
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEDMA=y
# CONFIG_IDEDMA_IVB is not set
CONFIG_IDEDMA_AUTO=y
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_HD is not set


%hdparm -iv /dev/hda

/dev/hda:
multcount = 16 (on)
IO_support = 1 (32-bit)
unmaskirq = 1 (on)
using_dma = 1 (on)
keepsettings = 0 (off)
readonly = 0 (off)
readahead = 8192 (on)
geometry = 65535/16/63, sectors = 81964302336, start = 0

Model=Maxtor 6Y080L0, FwRev=YAR41VW0, SerialNo=Y30ET07E
Config={ Fixed }
RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=57
BuffType=DualPortCache, BuffSize=2048kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=16
CurCHS=4047/16/255, CurSects=16511760, LBA=yes, LBAsects=160086528
IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:120,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}
PIO modes: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
DMA modes: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2
UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 udma5 *udma6
AdvancedPM=yes: disabled (255) WriteCache=enabled
Drive conforms to: (null):

* signifies the current active mode


%hdparm -tT /dev/hda

/dev/hda:
Timing cached reads: 1128 MB in 2.01 seconds = 562.40 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 134 MB in 3.08 seconds = 43.57 MB/sec


part of dmesg output:

ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
VP_IDE: IDE controller at PCI slot 0000:00:11.1
ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:00:11.1[A]: no GSI
VP_IDE: chipset revision 6
VP_IDE: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
VP_IDE: VIA vt8235 (rev 00) IDE UDMA133 controller on pci0000:00:11.1
ide0: BM-DMA at 0xfc00-0xfc07, BIOS settings: hda:DMA, hdb:pio
ide1: BM-DMA at 0xfc08-0xfc0f, BIOS settings: hdc:DMA, hdd:pio
Probing IDE interface ide0...
hda: Maxtor 6Y080L0, ATA DISK drive
ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
Probing IDE interface ide1...
hdc: _NEC CD-RW NR-9100A, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
hda: max request size: 128KiB
hda: 160086528 sectors (81964 MB) w/2048KiB Cache, CHS=65535/16/63, UDMA(133)
hda: cache flushes supported
/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0: p1 p2 < p5 p6 p7 >
hdc: ATAPI 40X CD-ROM CD-R/RW drive, 2048kB Cache, UDMA(33)


i was searching the web and more people seem to have the same problem, but i couldn't find a solution. is the via driver crappy? or am i expecting too much when i want that launching programs like Konsole while copying a large file doesn't take tens of seconds? i have an athlon XP 1800+, 512 MB RAM.

thank you for any help in advance...

[masteroftheuniverse]

part of this is how much memory you're using... you're cutting into swap with 512MB ram... on my box, i run kde with 512 ram and it doesn't cut swap unless i'm doing something big. also check what io scheduler you're using, i use the cfq scheduler.

[ripper_svk]

i recompiled the kernel with the cfq scheduler and didn't help.....i don't usually cut into swap, but sometimes when i have firefox opened, maybe eclipse and then launch some game (e.g. enemy territory) then something can get into swap