Alternative to k3b? or why is everything soooooo slow?

[Bruce Labitt]

Ben Scott wrote:

>On 11/6/05, Bruce Labitt <bruce.labitt at verizon.net> wrote:
>  
>
>>Thanks for some insight on the problem.  hdparm -i returns
>># hdparm -i /dev/hdc
>>    
>>
>
>  For finding out what hdparm "features" are set, the output of
>"hdparm /dev/hda" tends to be somewhat more useful, and certainly more
>concise.
>
>  
>
>>It looks like it is udma4, doesn't it?
>>    
>>
>
>  That's what that appears to say.  I'm not entirely sure how well
>that relates to the "-d" switch, though.  IDE is screwy.  For all I
>know, it could be in UDMA4 mode but not actually using DMA.
>
>  
>
>>hdparm -c1 -d1 -u1 /dev/hdc means set IDE32 bit mode, set dma mode on,
>>and set unmaskirq flag?
>>    
>>
>
>  Yuppers.  I find those three yield a great performance boost. 
>Furthermore, I've never had any serious trouble with any of them on
>any hardware made in the past five years.  The worst I've seen are
>systems that, upon the first access, immediately emit a message to the
>effect of "DMA didn't work, turning it back off".  Never any data
>corruption or other nastiness.  YMMV, of course, but I feel these
>three are pretty safe in this day and age.
>
>  The link Ted posted also suggested "-c3", which I haven't been
>using.  That might be worth trying.
>
>  Said link also pointed out something I tend to just assume: *ALWAYS*
>back up your data.  (I won't even say "...before trying anything." 
>You should have backups.  Period.  If you don't, sooner or later, you
>will loose data.  Guaranteed.)
>
>  
>
>>What does set unmaskirq flag do?
>>    
>>
>
>  As Ted posted, it lets the system do other things while servicing
>the IDE bus at the same time.  It results in a huge boost in
>interactive responsiveness, and should solve your clock lossage
>problem, at least.
>
>  
>
>>Will the command string above change the dma mode?
>>    
>>
>
>  I'm not really sure.  My guess is that "-X" sets the
>PIO/DMA/whatever mode, and "-d" tells the IDE driver to actually use
>DMA features.  But that's just a guess.
>
>  
>
>>It still thinks it is in udma4 mode, not  PIO.  Hmmm.
>>    
>>
>
>  PIO is "bad", so using UDMA is a good thing.  One can ass-ume that
>the higher the number, the faster it is.  :)
>
>  As I understand it: PIO (programmed I/O) means the CPU has to handle
>feeding data to the IDE controller, in very small chunks.  DMA (direct
>memory access) means the CPU just says "Hey controller -- transfer
>to/from this memory".  That being said, when talking IDE, "UDMA" seems
>to sometime refer to the controller/drive interface, not the
>controller/RAM interface.  I'm not sure how all that works.
>
>  
>
>>As for media, I bought a bunch of RiDATA  DVD+R's.  I suppose I'll have
>>to pick up some other media to try, maybe some -R's...
>>    
>>
>
>  Like I said, check with the drive manufacturer for recommended
>media.  It's not (just) a question of media quality -- it appears some
>drives just like certain media manufacturing methods/materials better.
>
>-- Ben "Backup often" Scott
>_______________________________________________
>gnhlug-discuss mailing list
>gnhlug-discuss at mail.gnhlug.org
>http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
>
>  
>
Thanks Ben.  When I ran hdparm on /dev/hda [my hard drive] I got a 
respectable

# hdparm -tT /dev/hda

/dev/hda:
 Timing buffer-cache reads:   3616 MB in  2.00 seconds = 1808.90 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  174 MB in  3.00 seconds =  57.90 MB/sec

However, on /dev/hdc which is my optical drive I got only
# hdparm -tT /dev/hdc

/dev/hdc:
 Timing buffer-cache reads:   3588 MB in  2.00 seconds = 1794.00 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:   10 MB in  3.29 seconds =   3.04 MB/sec

This is pitiful, compared to the advertised 22MB/sec sustained read.  
The above timing was performed after the following command:
# hdparm -X66 -c3 -u1 -d1 /dev/hdc

/dev/hdc:
 setting 32-bit IO_support flag to 3
 setting unmaskirq to 1 (on)
 setting using_dma to 1 (on)
 setting xfermode to 66 (UltraDMA mode2)
 IO_support   =  3 (32-bit w/sync)
 unmaskirq    =  1 (on)
 using_dma    =  1 (on)

Anymore ideas?  I really don't know where to go from here.  Thanks for 
all the help so far!

Bruce