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k3b max burn speed

Hi all

Been burning a few DVD's off with k3b, and I noticed the maximum burn speed tops out at 4x. My burner can do 8x, as can the media.

How can I get it burn at 8?

Thanks

Hong

First, you need to make sure that the media can actually DO 8x. Blank DVD media has codes set to tell the writer which spec it adheres to. If you buy off-brand media it's possible that the media is mislabeled.

Secondly, is/are your hard drive(s) configured for DMA? If not, enable DMA.
Secondly, is/are your DVD drive(s) configured for DMA? If not, enable DMA.

Is your DVD drive on a channel that is separate from the HDD channel (e.g., is it on a different cable)? If not, move it to a different IDE channel.

Is your IDE cable any good? Try changing it.

What version of K3B are you running, and what version of cdrecord do you have installed? You may need to upgrade one or both to get 8x working.

Thanks

The media IS capable of doing 8x, works on Nero and is halfway thru the same pack of 50. verbatim if it makes a difference! Several DVD's tried.

How do I check if DMA is enabled?

Its on the same Channel. I will try moving it tomorrow if it isnt solved as I am moving some HDD's out anyway.

IDE cable seems good.

K3b is version 0.11.17, how do I find about cdrecord?

to check DMA, take a look at hdparm - here's a great article on it:

http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/...29/hdparm.html

have you looked at the cdrecord man page? ;)

cdrecord -version will tell you what the version is.

To see whether you are running with DMA use hdparm. hdparm --help will give you most of the options that hdparm can do for you.

To check speficially for DMA do this:

Code:

kim2p3lin:/home/kim # hdparm /dev/hdb

where /dev/hdb should be changed appropriately on your system, e.g., /dev/hda for your hdd, and /dev/hdb for your DVD-R drive

This will produce output similar to the following:

Code:

/dev/hdb:

 multcount    = 16 (on)

 IO_support  =  1 (32-bit)

 unmaskirq    =  1 (on)

 using_dma    =  1 (on)

 keepsettings =  0 (off)

 readonly    =  0 (off)

 readahead    = 1024 (on)

 geometry    = 65535/16/63, sectors = 117231408, start = 0

kim2p3lin:/home/kim #

The setting you are looking for us using_dma

If using_dma=0, then it is using PIO and data I/O is hogging the CPU. If using_dma=1, then DMA is enabled for that device. It should be enabled for both devices, but ideally in either case you want to put the DVD-R drive on its own controller.

To change the dma flag do this:

(again, replacing /dev/hda with whatever is appropriate)

Code:

host:#hdparm /dev/hda -d

From the hdparm man page:

Code:

      -d    Disable/enable the "using_dma" flag for this drive.

              This  option  now  works  with most combinations of

              drives and PCI interfaces  which  support  DMA  and

              which  are  known  to the IDE driver.  It is also a

              good idea to use the appropriate -X option in  com_

              bination  with  -d1 to ensure that the drive itself

              is programmed for the correct  DMA  mode,  although

              most  BIOSs  should  do  this for you at boot time.

              Using DMA nearly always gives the best performance,

              with  fast  I/O  throughput and low CPU usage.  But

              there are at least a few configurations of chipsets

              and  drives  for  which DMA does not make much of a

              difference, or may even slow things down (on really

              messed up hardware!).  Your mileage may vary.

Thanks all

Here it is:

Cdrecord-Clone 2.01.01a01 (i686-pc-linux-gnu)

And for DMA...

/dev/hda2:
IO_support = 0 (default 16-bit)
unmaskirq = 0 (off)
using_dma = 1 (on)
keepsettings = 0 (off)
readonly = 0 (off)
BLKRAGET failed: Invalid argument
HDIO_GETGEO failed: Invalid argument

So dma is enabled...

is my version of k3b ok for 8x?

I'll put it on its own controller in ohh, lets say about 1 HOUR.

Thanks all!