im not quite sure how to explain this so i'll speak of some examples...

It seems that when transfering data and/or processing data my entire system locked up (doesn't crash) for about 1 second. This happend every 3-8 seconds of major transfer or file processing (like playing a video). But no matter what it is, if it's a large file/process it does this 1 sec lock up.


1 example that i've been having a lot is. Im transfering a lot of vorbis files from one HDD to another... like 5 seconds of hdd transfer w/system being fine then 1-2 second halt - <- repeat until transfer is done.

2 I'll be ripping CDs and it does this lock up thing. the rips are perfect tho, no skips or clicks.

now when i save a jpg or a file of small size, obviously there is no lockup of any sort.


Im thinking, perhaps it's like a buffer underrun of some sort? Can you guys help me out, I have no idea where to begin. At first I thought it was the scsi emulation on my CDr but HDD to HDD and even network does it too.

Thanks.

run top and see what's at the top of the list when it pauses, also look at the memory and see if it's getting low.

Do you have the parm's setup for dma to be on? Check out man hdparm, but you will want to look at:
hdparm -i /dev/hdX
And also do this to make sure:
hdparm -d1 /dev/hdX

This will turn it on. See the man for more options on doing things like this, you might see a difference.

Cool

had similar cases on red hat installed on machines with intel pro NICs using the eepro100 module. the problem appears every time the module is loaded. my fix is to use the e100 module. just a hunch....

[root@localhost bkeating]# hdparm
bash: hdparm: command not found
[root@localhost bkeating]# whereis hdparm
hdparm:
[root@localhost bkeating]#


this could be a problem eh? (=

things to check:
Have a look at the logs /var/log/messages, /var/log/warn...
How many master/slave drives are setup?
Is /, /var, mounted on any of the target/source drives?

Your list of distros in your profile suggest newer kernels so I doubt it's a kernel < 2.4.16 problem (had ide issues)

What kind of hardware are we dealing with?

Running:

http://us.shuttle.com/specs2.asp?pro_id=76

With Mandrake 9.0

I have only two partitions on a Seagate Baracudda IV (/ and swap)

One IDE (master) is running the 80gig baracudda and the second IDE is running the Liteon 48x12x48x CDR-W. No room to fit anything else in there

What should I be looking for in /var/log/ 's?

Look in the logs for anything... interesting at around the time you were doing the copying.

Also...
Punch in 'lspci -vb' so we can see what the guts look like.
Also let''s see what modules are loaded - 'lsmod'

Post that stuff here. I'm gonna have a look at the kernel options for the SiS stuff.

Your first post mentioned copying from one hdd to another; is this in that same mchine, from the DVD, or over a network?

[root@localhost bkeating]# lspci -vb
00:00.0 Host bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS]: Unknown device 0651 (rev 01)
Subsystem: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS]: Unknown device 0651
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32
Memory at d0000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable)
Capabilities: [c0] AGP version 2.0

00:01.0 PCI bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 5591/5592 AGP (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 64
Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=32
I/O behind bridge: 00009000-00009fff
Memory behind bridge: dc000000-dc0fffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: d8000000-dbffffff

00:02.0 ISA bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 85C503/5513 (rev 04)
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0

00:02.5 IDE interface: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 5513 [IDE] (prog-if 8a [Master SecP PriP])
Subsystem: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS5513 EIDE Controller (A,B step)
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 128, IRQ 11
I/O ports at 01f0
I/O ports at 03f4
I/O ports at 0170
I/O ports at 0374
I/O ports at 4000
Capabilities: [58] Power Management version 2

00:02.7 Multimedia audio controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS7012 PCI Audio Accelerator (rev a0)
Subsystem: Holco Enterprise Co, Ltd/Shuttle Computer: Unknown device f451
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 10
I/O ports at b400
I/O ports at b800
Capabilities: [48] Power Management version 2

00:03.0 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 7001 (rev 0f) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
Subsystem: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 7001
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 5
Memory at dc100000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable)

00:03.1 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 7001 (rev 0f) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
Subsystem: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 7001
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 10
Memory at dc101000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable)

00:03.2 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 7001 (rev 0f) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
Subsystem: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 7001
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 11
Memory at dc102000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable)

00:03.3 USB Controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS]: Unknown device 7002 (prog-if 20 [EHCI])
Subsystem: Holco Enterprise Co, Ltd/Shuttle Computer: Unknown device f451
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 9
Memory at dc103000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable)
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2

00:0f.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C (rev 10)
Subsystem: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RT8139
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 10
I/O ports at bc00
Memory at dc104000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable)
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2

00:10.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. IEEE 1394 Host Controller (rev 46) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
Subsystem: Unknown device 9712:25f0
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 5
Memory at dc105000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable)
I/O ports at c000
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Rage 128 RF/SG AGP (prog-if 00 [VGA])
Subsystem: ATI Technologies Inc Rage Fury
Flags: bus master, stepping, 66Mhz, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 11
Memory at d8000000 (32-bit, prefetchable)
I/O ports at 9000
Memory at dc020000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable)
Capabilities: [50] AGP version 2.0
Capabilities: [5c] Power Management version 1

[root@localhost bkeating]# lsmod
Module Size Used by Not tainted
isofs 25652 1 (autoclean)
inflate_fs 17892 0 (autoclean) [isofs]
nls_iso8859-1 2844 2 (autoclean)
udf 85472 0 (autoclean)
sr_mod 15096 2 (autoclean)
floppy 49340 0 (autoclean)
r128 75352 1
autofs4 9340 2 (autoclean)
snd-seq-oss 26176 0 (unused)
snd-seq-midi-event 3208 0 [snd-seq-oss]
snd-seq 33264 2 [snd-seq-oss snd-seq-midi-event]
snd-pcm-oss 36932 1
snd-mixer-oss 9016 1 [snd-pcm-oss]
snd-intel8x0 10880 2
snd-ac97-codec 25508 0 [snd-intel8x0]
snd-pcm 55808 0 [snd-pcm-oss snd-intel8x0]
snd-timer 9964 0 [snd-seq snd-pcm]
snd-mpu401-uart 2752 0 [snd-intel8x0]
snd-rawmidi 12864 0 [snd-mpu401-uart]
snd-seq-device 3836 0 [snd-seq-oss snd-seq snd-rawmidi]
snd 24804 0 [snd-seq-oss snd-seq-midi-event snd-seq snd-pcm-oss snd-mixer-oss snd-intel8x0 snd-ac97-codec snd-pcm snd-timer snd-mpu401-uart snd-rawmidi snd-seq-device]
soundcore 3780 0 [snd]
nfsd 66576 8 (autoclean)
lockd 46480 1 (autoclean) [nfsd]
sunrpc 60188 1 (autoclean) [nfsd lockd]
af_packet 13000 1 (autoclean)
8139too 14472 1 (autoclean)
mii 1152 0 (autoclean) [8139too]
ohci1394 16812 0 (unused)
ieee1394 31532 0 [ohci1394]
supermount 14340 1 (autoclean)
ide-cd 28712 0
cdrom 26848 0 [sr_mod ide-cd]
ide-scsi 8212 1
scsi_mod 90372 2 [sr_mod ide-scsi]
keybdev 1920 0 (unused)
mousedev 4116 0 (unused)
hid 18340 0 (unused)
usbkbd 3412 0 (unused)
input 3456 0 [keybdev mousedev hid usbkbd]
usb-ohci 18216 0 (unused)
usbcore 58304 1 [hid usbkbd usb-ohci]
rtc 6560 0 (autoclean)
ext3 74004 1
jbd 38452 1 [ext3]

It looks like hdparm did not get installed during initial install, go ahead and get it installed. The package is called hdparm

Cool

I can't find any kernel-specifoc info about that IDE controller in any of my kernel (2.4.18) stuff. (Yes, i know that i'm 2 patches behind)

hdparm is great for performance tuming, but I think you should make sure that we are error-free before we try and speed things up. hdparm on a hobbled interface would take you from annoying gitches to pandemoniun and chaos.

As far as the drive to drive goes - i did replace the CDROM with the second HDD for a transfer and thats all. It's not back to the CD-RW and there is no second HDD on the system.

The logs look ok, not sure what to look for exactly tho. I just ftp'd into a machine on the lan and started downloading some rather large vorbis files and the system locked up every other second, seemd the faster the transfer, the more it locks up... like an old crappy windows machine ahha... er.. no laugh this sucks *continues to check the logs*

ty for all your help so far. never knew about lspci (:

I was just thinking maybe it's having a rough time writing to the drive quickly, maybe it needed a boost to keep up. I've had similar problems clear right up with simply turning dma on. Though I totally agree if there are other problems causing this, hdparm won't exactly help.

Cool