CD\DVD Cache
 

When I am playing DVDs with VLC, the frame rate is very poor, and my drive is almost constantly reading the disk. How can I set the read-ahead or cache size in RH9 to speed up performance? :scratch:

Please give me any suggestions,
-LBB

Well you can get a utility called hdparm. Use it to make sure that dma is turned on for that drive and see what else you can do to it to make it run faster. The "-a" flag sets the read ahead but increasing this doesn't always help. Check out the "-u", "-E", and "-b" options.

I downloaded hdparm, install went smoothy. But when I try to run it, the shell says it's an invalid command ("hdparm"). However, 'man hdparm' shows the proper manual page. What is going on?

Thanks for that tip about hdparm, adz, I wouldnt have found it otherwise.

-LBB

You have to be root to run it. It gets installed into /sbin. Therefore, only root has it in his/her PATH.

Apparently I'm not that lucky:

"[root@LinuxBlackBox root]# hdparm
bash: hdparm: command not found
[root@LinuxBlackBox root]#"

-LBB

Do a find / -iname hdparm. Then type in the entire path to the file. It will be in /sbin or /usr/sbin most likely. For example you would type /sbin/hdparm from the prompt. If nothing comes up from the find command then something went wrong with the install. How did you install it? RPM?

Do a find / -iname hdparm. Then type in the entire path to the file. It will be in /sbin or /usr/sbin most likely. For example you would type /sbin/hdparm from the prompt.

If nothing comes up from the find command then something went wrong with the install. How did you install it? RPM? What was the exact name of the .rpm file?

Ahhh.. now I feel better:
"[root@LinuxBlackBox root]# /sbin/hdparm -a /dev/cdrom

/dev/cdrom:
readahead = 8 (on)
[root@LinuxBlackBox root]#"

And one more thing if you dont mind: how can I change it?

-LBB

Change the read ahead? Read the manpages on getting/setting values. To change that particular one type hdparm -a <value> /dev/cdrom. But like I said the read ahead doesn't help THAT much. Play around with the other settings I suggested.