SATA drives and DMA

SilverEagle · 06-25-2006, 06:03 AM

Hi,

I'm trying to enable DMA support in a SATA drive (I'm using a common Silicon Image 3112 controller). So far when I try to enable DMA:

Code:

sudo hdparm -d1 /dev/sda

I get this error:

Code:

/dev/sda:
 setting using_dma to 1 (on)
 HDIO_SET_DMA failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device

I found several posts where people are suggesting recompiling the kernel. On the other hand in the Ubuntu wiki there is an entry against doing this. To make things more confusing, there is a lot of outdated information about the DMA SATA support in the kernel.

Do you know any workaround for this without recompiling the kernel ?

Thanks in advance,

- Juan

ScottReed · 06-25-2006, 11:10 AM

hdparm does not work with SCSI or SATA disks...

spirit receiver · 06-25-2006, 11:14 AM

And, as far as I know, there's no such thing as turning DMA for SATA drives on and off.

SilverEagle · 06-26-2006, 01:58 PM

If there is no DMA for SATA I don't know what can be wrong... this is the drive info:

Code:

/dev/sda:
 IO_support   =  0 (default 16-bit)
 readonly     =  0 (off)
 readahead    = 256 (on)
 geometry     = 24321/255/63, sectors = 390721968, start = 0

When I copy a file the system gets heavily slowed down . That's why I thought it could be a DMA problem.

spirit receiver · 06-26-2006, 04:48 PM

It's pretty hard to find some quotable source for the SATA-(non)DMA thingy, but maybe this one points in the right direction:
http://www.gatago.com/linux/kernel/14699741.html

Some people with similar problems report that it was a driver issue, and recompiling the kernel helped (in German only: click, and note it's not a recent kernel).
You might also want to have a look at this: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=385371

Unfortunately, this is all I could find out.

adhenry · 04-03-2007, 01:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScottReed

hdparm does not work with SCSI or SATA disks...

I suspected this was the case and its ok if dma doesnt need enabling with SATA but what about 32bit IO? it is set to 16bit with hdparm.

How can I set this with SATA?

My main problem is that burning 700MB CD takes 6 mins and should take less than 2min. It takes 1.5min on older laptop with slower CD drive with DMA and 32bit IO enabled.

jakommo · 10-11-2007, 09:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by adhenry

I suspected this was the case and its ok if dma doesnt need enabling with SATA but what about 32bit IO? it is set to 16bit with hdparm.

How can I set this with SATA?

My main problem is that burning 700MB CD takes 6 mins and should take less than 2min. It takes 1.5min on older laptop with slower CD drive with DMA and 32bit IO enabled.

I don't know if this helps and I never used it but there is a tool called sdparm maybe it helps.