how to turn on hd dma acceleration

jasonmantey · 08-23-2004, 11:21 AM

I recently compiled my slackware kernel (first time ever - i was excited!) but my dma seems to be turned off (sound skips on xmms every now and then and other slow startup issues).

I would not only like to turn it on, but have it turned on automatically at each startup. how can i do this. thanks

tuxrules · 08-23-2004, 11:26 AM

I believe its

# hdparm -d 1

hdparm is to set hd parameters,
-d option to enable/disable dma
1 is on

try google "man hdparm" or type
$man hdparm at console

try
#hdparm -v

to print the current info on drives. You can also try doing

#hdparm -iv - little more info i believe.

jasonmantey · 08-23-2004, 11:29 AM

will that only turn it on once or each time? is there a config file somewhere that would have information like this. i will also google some more. thanks though.

tuxrules · 08-23-2004, 11:34 AM

here are the google search results

jasonmantey · 08-23-2004, 11:41 AM

i already did the google and found a lot. but i got this error:
============================
root@darkstar:/home/jason# hdparm -d 1 /dev/hdc

/dev/hdc:
setting using_dma to 1 (on)
HDIO_SET_DMA failed: Operation not permitted
using_dma = 0 (off)
=============================

what is this?

tuxrules · 08-23-2004, 11:46 AM

are you sure thats the drive you wanna set dma for?? I mean hard drive???

jasonmantey · 08-23-2004, 11:58 AM

jasonmantey · 08-23-2004, 12:03 PM

one of the sites i just found has someone saying
"looks like you forgot to enable via support"

is this possible? or does the via support mean a via chipset (which i do not have - i have nforce2)

tuxrules · 08-23-2004, 12:07 PM

I am not sure that could be the problem but likely it could be. I remember opting for dma option during my slack compile. Try compiling again...also save your current config file so that you dont have to make all the choices once again.

jasonmantey · 08-23-2004, 12:15 PM

how do i save the current config - and after, how do i use it during my compile. to compile i used a guide here at lq.... i have it printed out here..... thanks for all the help.

tuxrules · 08-23-2004, 12:21 PM

Go to /usr/src and you'll you see a directory named after your kernel version (something like linux-2.6.x).

cd into the directory
and type ls -a. You'll see a .config file. just save that file to another location (i generally save it in my home directory).

within the linux directory

type
# make mrproper
# make clean

and then copy the .config file again to the directory.

#make menuconfig and now you'll see all your options checked.

then the usual steps to follow.

jasonmantey · 08-23-2004, 12:25 PM

thanks a million.