Disk very slow with VIA KT400 in 2.4.18 (stock RedHat 8.0)

[Simon Posnjak <simon@activetools.si>]

Hi all,

I have a Kudoz 7x board (VIA KT400 (VT8377 and VT8235)) and a WD 80 GB
disk (7200, UDMA (http://www.wdc.com/products/Products.asp?DriveID=32)).

The problem is that disk operations are rally slow. Copying files goes
on with 1 MB/sec. 

At start up kernel complained:
 
VP_IDE: IDE controller on PCI bus 00 dev 89
PCI: No IRQ known for interrupt pin A of device 00:11.1. Please try using pci=biosirq.
VP_IDE: chipset revision 6

So I added pci=biosirq to kernel parameters at boot. An then I got:

Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 6.31
ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
VP_IDE: IDE controller on PCI bus 00 dev 89
PCI: No IRQ known for interrupt pin A of device 00:11.1.
VP_IDE: chipset revision 6
VP_IDE: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
VP_IDE: VIA vt8235 (rev 00) IDE UDMA133 controller on pci00:11.1
    ide0: BM-DMA at 0xe400-0xe407, BIOS settings: hda:DMA, hdb:pio
    ide1: BM-DMA at 0xe408-0xe40f, BIOS settings: hdc:DMA, hdd:DMA
hda: WDC WD800JB-00CRA1, ATA DISK drive
hdc: SAMSUNG CD-R/RW SW-216B BS05 20010727, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
hdd: SAMSUNG CD-ROM SC-152L, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
hda: 156301488 sectors (80026 MB) w/8192KiB Cache, CHS=9729/255/63, UDMA(100)

hdparm says:

/dev/hda:
 multcount    = 16 (on)
 IO_support   =  1 (32-bit)
 unmaskirq    =  1 (on)
 using_dma    =  1 (on)
 keepsettings =  0 (off)
 readonly     =  0 (off)
 readahead    =  8 (on)
 geometry     = 9729/255/63, sectors = 156301488, start = 0

hdparm -iI /dev/hda

/dev/hda:

 Model=WDC WD800JB-00CRA1, FwRev=17.07W17, SerialNo=WD-WCA8E5325146
 Config={ HardSect NotMFM HdSw>15uSec SpinMotCtl Fixed DTR>5Mbs FmtGapReq }
 RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=57600, SectSize=600, ECCbytes=40
 BuffType=DualPortCache, BuffSize=8192kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=16
 CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=16514064, LBA=yes, LBAsects=156301488
 IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:120,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}
 PIO modes:  pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
 DMA modes:  mdma0 mdma1 mdma2
 UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 *udma5
 AdvancedPM=no WriteCache=enabled
 Drive conforms to: device does not report version:  1 2 3 4 5


ATA device, with non-removable media
        Model Number:       WDC WD800JB-00CRA1
        Serial Number:      WD-WCA8E5325146
        Firmware Revision:  17.07W17
Standards:
        Supported: 5 4 3 2
        Likely used: 6
Configuration:
        Logical         max     current
        cylinders       16383   16383
        heads           16      16
        sectors/track   63      63
        --
        CHS current addressable sectors:   16514064
        LBA    user addressable sectors:  156301488
        device size with M = 1024*1024:       76319 MBytes
        device size with M = 1000*1000:       80026 MBytes (80 GB)
Capabilities:
        LBA, IORDY(can be disabled)
        bytes avail on r/w long: 40     Queue depth: 1
        Standby timer values: spec'd by Standard, with device specific minimum
        R/W multiple sector transfer: Max = 16  Current = 16
        Recommended acoustic management value: 128, current value: 254
        DMA: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2 udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 *udma5
             Cycle time: min=120ns recommended=120ns
        PIO: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
             Cycle time: no flow control=120ns  IORDY flow control=120ns
Commands/features:
        Enabled Supported:
           *    READ BUFFER cmd
           *    WRITE BUFFER cmd
           *    Host Protected Area feature set
           *    Look-ahead
           *    Write cache
           *    Power Management feature set
                Security Mode feature set
           *    SMART feature set
           *    Device Configuration Overlay feature set
                Automatic Acoustic Management feature set
                SET MAX security extension
           *    DOWNLOAD MICROCODE cmd
           *    SMART self-test
           *    SMART error logging
Security:
                supported
        not     enabled
        not     locked
        not     frozen
        not     expired: security count
        not     supported: enhanced erase
HW reset results:
        CBLID- above Vih
        Device num = 0 determined by CSEL
Checksum: correct

lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc.: Unknown device 3189
00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc.: Unknown device b168
00:09.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
00:0a.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
00:0b.0 Multimedia video controller: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Video Capture (rev 02)
00:0b.1 Multimedia controller: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Audio Capture (rev 02)
00:10.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB (rev 80)
00:10.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB (rev 80)
00:10.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB (rev 80)
00:10.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 82)
00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233A ISA Bridge
00:11.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586B PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 50)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV11 [GeForce2 MX] (rev b2)

lspci -n
00:00.0 Class 0600: 1106:3189
00:01.0 Class 0604: 1106:b168
00:09.0 Class 0200: 10ec:8139 (rev 10)
00:0a.0 Class 0200: 10ec:8139 (rev 10)
00:0b.0 Class 0400: 109e:036e (rev 02)
00:0b.1 Class 0480: 109e:0878 (rev 02)
00:10.0 Class 0c03: 1106:3038 (rev 80)
00:10.1 Class 0c03: 1106:3038 (rev 80)
00:10.2 Class 0c03: 1106:3038 (rev 80)
00:10.3 Class 0c03: 1106:3104 (rev 82)
00:11.0 Class 0601: 1106:3177
00:11.1 Class 0101: 1106:0571 (rev 06)
00:11.5 Class 0401: 1106:3059 (rev 50)
01:00.0 Class 0300: 10de:0110 (rev b2)

Im using RedHat 8.0 stock kernel (the updated version) 2.4.18-19.8.0.

	Regards Simon