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I think its a DMA issue, but i need help.

Hi,

I am curious to know why my OS is running so slow. Infact, pretty much every distro i have installed has run real slow, except Mandrake 9 for some reason.

I have now installed UBUNTU, and i really like it. It seems to be a lot snappier, but still really slow compared to what my windows used to do.

This is why i say it is slow :

When i set my screensaver to something like FIREWORKX, i get like 1 second pauses between each move it makes. I thought maybe its my video card thats the issue (i had a fx5200). So i got rid of that, and popped in a Quadro FX500 128mb card, but i am still getting the same thing.

Even if i copy a large file from one folder to another, it will take minutes to compelete the task.

I searched the forums and found that it could be a DMA issue.

This is what i get:

Code:



hdparm /dev/hda



/dev/hda:

 multcount    =  0 (off)

 IO_support  =  1 (32-bit)

 unmaskirq    =  1 (on)

 using_dma    =  1 (on)

 keepsettings =  0 (off)

 readonly    =  0 (off)

 readahead    = 256 (on)

 geometry    = 65535/16/63, sectors = 78156288, start = 0

Is there anything wrong with this? it says DMA is on. I dont understand.

these are the specs of my computer:

MB : MSI K7N2 Delta-L
Ram: pc3200 512Mb
CPU: athlon XP 2800+
HDD: 40GB Western Digital 7200rpm
Video: Quadro FX500 128MB

Distro: UBUNTU (downloaded it today)

im pretty new with linux still, but im ok with computers in general, but i just dont understand what the hold up is.

Any help?

Thanks.

Try using sudo hdparm -c1 -d1 -m16 /dev/hda use hdparm -Tt /dev/hda both before and after to see if it makes any difference if it does then add a section in the file /etc/hdparm.conf for a dev/hda using the examples provided in the file as your guide. For the video/screen saver issue you may want to go to or search to find the Ubuntu wiki then follow the instructions to install the nVidia driver from their repository.

Edit: You will probably want to add section(s) to turn on DMA on your CD/DVD drive(s) they seem to always default to off for some reason.

thanks for the reply!

ok, i didn't see a difference before and after the code.

either way, the times are almost equal. This is what i got.

Code:

 Timing cached reads:  1592 MB in  2.00 seconds = 795.72 MB/sec

 Timing buffered disk reads:  172 MB in  3.01 seconds =  57.19 MB/sec

Does that seem slow?

Quote:

Originally Posted by stangn99

thanks for the reply!

ok, i didn't see a difference before and after the code.

either way, the times are almost equal. This is what i got.

Code:

 Timing cached reads:  1592 MB in  2.00 seconds = 795.72 MB/sec

 Timing buffered disk reads:  172 MB in  3.01 seconds =  57.19 MB/sec

Does that seem slow?

For an IDE drive that is damn fast mine only get about mid 30s that is even faster than my SATA which is in the mid 50s anytime I try the command. I would say you need the nVidia drivers installed then.

Quote:

Originally Posted by HappyTux

hmm..yes i have IDE drive..80Gb if it makes a difference. Ok..ill see if i can install the Nvidia Drivers and see what that does.

I will post back..thanks again!

Ok,
i tried to install the NVIDIA drivers that i doiwnloaded from NVIDIA.COM..but not luck.

Im stuck at the install part.

UBUNTU needs BINUTILS (which i was able to install), and it also needs the KERNEL SOURCE and some other stuff. I am pretty new to linux and was not able to get all these things instlaled.

Is there an easy to follow instruction guide on installing Nvidia drivers for my FX500 on UBUNTU?

Thanks again,

Quote:

Originally Posted by stangn99

Yes search on "ubuntu wiki nvidia driver install" they already have pre-compiled driver modules for you to install, you just have to enable a line in the sources.list update then install.

Ok,

i got this link here.

http://ubuntuguide.org/#installnvidiadriver

is that all i need? i still need to know how to get the headers g++ or something..sorry i dont remember what it was called.

Is there a command to use to download it from APTget or do i have to download manually?

Thanks again..

Quote:

Originally Posted by stangn99

Just use the steps in "Q: How to install Graphics Driver (NVIDIA)?" that should be all you need to do using apt-get.

cool,
thanks happy...ill try it tonight and post back my results

thanks.

ok..
i did a fresh install of Ubuntu and redid the drivers the new way...and its all good...the drivers are there fine and all the settings/options are available.

however, the firewokx still looks pretty bad....

Maybe this will help...for the GL GEARS screen saver..the FPS shows 43fps is this low? or is it just me?

thanks again.

Quote:

Originally Posted by stangn99

Nah that is way too low for that or any card for that matter. Can you post the /etc/X11/xorg.conf you are using plus the /var/log/Xorg.0.log file you may have to split this in too two parts for it to be posted it is rather large.

Thanks again for the reply,

I am at work now, once i get home i will post the info. It did seem really low to me too..its really choppy. For a Quadro Fx500 i figure it should be a lot better.

Could be a bios setting or something?

Thanks.

Quote:

Originally Posted by stangn99

Could be but I am thinking somewhere along the lines of a simple configuration error. If you get looking in the BIOS about the only things in there would be making sure it is set too 8x AGP and the Fast Writes being turned on. Also can you post the output of COLUMNS=125 dpkg -l | grep nvidia so I can what packages it installed.

Me again,

Sorry for the delay. Here is whats in my xorg.conf file.

Code:

# /etc/X11/xorg.conf (xorg X Window System server configuration file)

#

# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using

# values from the debconf database.

#

# Edit this file with caution, and see the /etc/X11/xorg.conf manual page.

# (Type "man /etc/X11/xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)

#

# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*

# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg

# package.

#

# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated

# again, run the following command:

#  sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg



Section "Files"

        FontPath        "/usr/share/X11/fonts/misc"

        FontPath        "/usr/share/X11/fonts/cyrillic"

        FontPath        "/usr/share/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled"

        FontPath        "/usr/share/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled"

        FontPath        "/usr/share/X11/fonts/Type1"

        FontPath        "/usr/share/X11/fonts/CID"

        FontPath        "/usr/share/X11/fonts/100dpi"

        FontPath        "/usr/share/X11/fonts/75dpi"

        # paths to defoma fonts

        FontPath        "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType"

        FontPath        "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/CID"

EndSection



Section "Module"

        Load        "GLcore"

        Load        "i2c"

        Load        "bitmap"

        Load        "ddc"

        Load        "dri"

        Load        "extmod"

        Load        "freetype"

        Load        "glx"

        Load        "int10"

        Load        "type1"

        Load        "vbe"

EndSection



Section "InputDevice"

        Identifier        "Generic Keyboard"

        Driver                "kbd"

        Option                "CoreKeyboard"

        Option                "XkbRules"        "xorg"

        Option                "XkbModel"        "pc104"

        Option                "XkbLayout"        "us"

EndSection



Section "InputDevice"

        Identifier        "Configured Mouse"

        Driver                "mouse"

        Option                "CorePointer"

        Option                "Device"                "/dev/input/mice"

        Option                "Protocol"                "ImPS/2"

        Option                "Emulate3Buttons"        "true"

        Option                "ZAxisMapping"                "4 5"

EndSection



Section "Device"

        Identifier        "NVIDIA Corporation NV34GL [Quadro FX 500]"

        Driver                "nvidia"

        BusID                "PCI:2:0:0"

EndSection



Section "Monitor"

        Identifier        "EN-775e"

        HorizSync              30-72

        VertRefresh            50-160

        Option                "DPMS"

EndSection



Section "Screen"

        Identifier        "Default Screen"

        Device                "NVIDIA Corporation NV34GL [Quadro FX 500]"

        Monitor                "EN-775e"

        DefaultDepth        24

        SubSection "Display"

                Depth                1

                Modes                "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"

        EndSubSection

        SubSection "Display"

                Depth                4

                Modes                "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"

        EndSubSection

        SubSection "Display"

                Depth                8

                Modes                "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"

        EndSubSection

        SubSection "Display"

                Depth                15

                Modes                "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"

        EndSubSection

        SubSection "Display"

                Depth                16

                Modes                "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"

        EndSubSection

        SubSection "Display"

                Depth                24

                Modes                "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"

        EndSubSection

EndSection



Section "ServerLayout"

        Identifier        "Default Layout"

        Screen                "Default Screen"

        InputDevice        "Generic Keyboard"

        InputDevice        "Configured Mouse"

EndSection



Section "DRI"

        Mode        0666

EndSection

im not too sure what the other one is you want to see. i will search and see if i can find out what you need.

Thanks so much.