Gentoo HD speed vs. Mandrake (help)

rak3 · n00b Joined: 06 Mar 2003 Posts: 7

I'm having a problem with my harddrive speed under gentoo compared to mandrake 9. Here's my results for Gentoo:
Timing buffer-cache reads: 128 MB in 4.52 seconds = 28.33 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 4.43 seconds = 14.45 MB/sec
Hmm.. suspicious results: probably not enough free memory for a proper test.

And my results for mandrake:
Timing buffer-cache reads: 128 MB in 0.91 seconds =140.66 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 3.71 seconds = 17.25 MB/sec

I know hdparm isn't the problem, because the system is responding a lot slower than other gentoo systems i have. Any ideas? I tried both the stock 2.4.20 kernel and the gentoo 2.4.20-r1 kernel to no avail. Thanks!
-- rak3

Here's my settings via hdparm:
/dev/hda:
multcount = 16 (on)
IO_support = 0 (default 16-bit)
unmaskirq = 1 (on)
using_dma = 1 (on)
keepsettings = 0 (off)
readonly = 0 (off)
readahead = 64 (on)
geometry = 3648/255/63, sectors = 58605120, start = 0

pilla · Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2003 6:07 pm Post subject:

have you enabled your specific chipset in the kernel configuration?
_________________
"I'm just very selective about the reality I choose to accept." -- Calvin

DiskDoc · Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2003 7:23 pm Post subject: I/O settings

Try setting 32-bit I/O support by using hdparm -c2 /dev/hdx. -c2 is safer (but a bit slower) than -c1, just in case you have some incompatible/flawed hardware.
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- Kallak, leader of the royal mystics

easykill · Apprentice Joined: 07 Dec 2002 Posts: 230

here are my settings/results just in case it helps you

Malakin · Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2003 11:07 pm Post subject:

Is your cpu utilization at zero when you do these tests in Gentoo?

easykill · Apprentice Joined: 07 Dec 2002 Posts: 230

mine was probably around a few percent since i did the tests in fluxbox, with a bunch of tabs in mozilla open and a bunch of Eterms open