I had a problem with a new dvd drive and although it turns out to be a hardware problem, I was wondering if dma is enabled by default, basically while isolinux loads the kernel on an install dvd? If so, is there is there a way to disable it (like in isolinux itself)? There are no dma or other bios settings for the drives that I can see on my Pentium 3 laptop.

The problem I had with the dvd drive initially seemed to be solved by using hdparm to disable dma after booting, which is why I was wondering. But it turns out the drive is just broken.

Thanks

AFAIK DMA gets enabled by the distro during install, or during boot if it's a live CD. You obviously know how to handle that anyhow...

If you want to disable DMA globally, you can add this option:
ide=nodma
to your grub line

Thanks to those who have replied. I'm hoping to have some more time to investigate the problems in a few weeks, but so far nothing I've tried has resolved the problem.

Paul