Re: Identifying/activating faster ATAxx modes (WAS kernel config tale of woe)

[Tomas Szepe <szepe@pinerecords.com>]

> /dev/hda:
> 
>  Model=Maxtor 6E030L0, FwRev=NAR61590, SerialNo=E106SZLE
>  Config={ Fixed }
>  RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=57
>  BuffType=DualPortCache, BuffSize=2048kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=16
>  CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=16514064, LBA=yes, LBAsects=60058656
>  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 *udma6
>  AdvancedPM=yes: disabled (255) WriteCache=enabled
>  Drive conforms to: (null):  1 2 3 4 5 6 7
> 
> Output from hdparm -tT
> 
> /dev/hda:
>  Timing buffer-cache reads:   128 MB in  0.44 seconds =290.91 MB/sec
>  Timing buffered disk reads:  64 MB in  8.11 seconds =  7.89 MB/sec

This is weird.  Your disk seems to be set up for udma6 (UATA133),
which should provide for transfer rates of at least 40MiB/s.

Could you try a recent -ac kernel?  It comes with a significantly
more modern IDE driver that fixes lots of issues with newer chipsets.

ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/alan/linux-2.4/2.4.20/patch-2.4.20-rc2-ac3.gz
(apply on top of patch-2.4.20-rc2 found in /pub/linux/kernel/v2.4/testing/)

-- 
Tomas Szepe <szepe@pinerecords.com>