hdparm

nitro322 · Guru Joined: 24 Jul 2002 Posts: 594 Location: USA

Here something strange. Ie always used the following settings to optimize my disks:

hdparm -d 1 -u 1 -c 1 -k 1 -X66 /dev/hda
hdparm -d 1 -u 1 -c 1 -k 1 -X66 /dev/hdb
hdparm -d 1 -u 1 -c 1 -k 1 /dev/hdc

This has worked on every distribution before, and does indeed work in gentoo when I run it from the command line. However, if I add them to /etc/conf.d/local.start, my computer locks up immediately after printing the Starting local... message at boot. Any idea what causing the problem, or any workarounds? Thanks.

MacMasta · Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2002 6:43 am Post subject:

Two things - post /etc/conf.d/local.start, and make sure you haven't changed any devfs settings at the same time - I've had the system freeze (like my desktop is right now) because I mis-configured devfs. (It's an easy fix, thank goodness)

~Mac~

DArtagnan · Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2002 9:28 am Post subject: Re: hdparm

nitro322 · Guru Joined: 24 Jul 2002 Posts: 594 Location: USA

Well, I tried DArtagnan suggestion, but no luck. Here my local.start:

# This is a good place to load any misc.
# programs on startup ( 1>&2 )
#/sbin/hdparm -d1 -u1 -c1 -k1 -X66 /dev/hda >/dev/null
#/sbin/hdparm -d1 -u1 -c1 -k1 -X66 /dev/hdb >/dev/null
#/sbin/hdparm -d1 -u1 -c1 -k1 /dev/hdc >/dev/null
/usr/bin/kbdrate -r30 -d250 >/dev/null
/usr/sbin/emu-config -d -i -t=ACTIVE >/dev/null

I like to, of course, uncomment those hdparm lines without my computer locking up. You also mentioned something about making sure devfs didn get messed up. Sorry but this is the first time Ie messed with devfs, and I really not sure how I can tell. Thanks for the help!

DArtagnan · Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2002 12:26 pm Post subject:

DArtagnan · Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2002 12:29 pm Post subject:

dioxmat · Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2002 12:38 pm Post subject:

wondering, does it work after the boot sequence, when everything is loaded and running ?
_________________
mat

mksoft · l33t Joined: 28 May 2002 Posts: 844

dioxmat · Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2002 1:36 pm Post subject:

that's not *exactly* what I meant...
I know that this script is executed after everything else, but that might be a problem with a process trying to acces his disk while hes doing the optimisations...
_________________
mat

nitro322 · Guru Joined: 24 Jul 2002 Posts: 594 Location: USA

I'm at work right now so I can't try the -q suggestion, but I have tried it already without the >/dev/null and it still failed. I'll try again, though. As far as for dioxmat's question... I'm interpreting what you asked as "Does running the hdparms command after everything's finished (ie., after logging in) work?" If that's the case, yes it does. It only fails if I includ it in local.start.

dioxmat · Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2002 3:19 pm Post subject:

then its probably that another process is trying to acces the disks while the script is executing the hdparm commands... maybe you should try putting a small delay before the hdparm commands ?
_________________
mat

dmarien · Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2002 3:35 pm Post subject: yabut..

hdparm doesn't work on scsi drives.
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dmarien

nitro322 · Guru Joined: 24 Jul 2002 Posts: 594 Location: USA

dioxmat · Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2002 4:08 pm Post subject:

sleep n, where n is a second should do it
_________________
mat

Mr. Ust · n00b Joined: 16 Jun 2002 Posts: 45

I was fooling around with this recently because I noticed none of my drives were using DMA mode. Instead of using the hdparm command, you can compile the kernel with your IDE chipset as an option. That way, DMA mode is turned on by default. I have a VIA chipset, and after doing this, the only commands I needed in local.start were:

nitro322 · Guru Joined: 24 Jul 2002 Posts: 594 Location: USA

Well, good news. Putting 'sleep 3' at the top of my start.local file fixed the problem. Thanks, dioxmat! As far as Mr. Ust's suggestion, I do have Enable DMA by default enabled in the kernel. However, if I do a hdparm immediately after booting (without first enabling DMA through hdparm) to check the stats of the drives, it still shows them as not using DMA. So, for whatever reason, I need this script. Thanks, though.