DMA

Differences between revisions 6 and 8 (spanning 2 versions)
Revision 6 as of 2005-07-21 17:30:34
Size: 2062
Editor: 200-171-140-32
Comment: copyedit
Revision 8 as of 2005-08-15 18:39:09
Size: 2434
Editor: ool-44c155e3
Comment:
Deletions are marked like this. Additions are marked like this.
Line 31: Line 31:
Sometimes step 3 above can fail with a "operation not permitted" message. You can fix this by editing the file /etc/modules:
For an intel cpu put the lines

piix

ide-core

above the line

ide-cd

For an amd cpu put the line

amd74xx

above

ide-cd

For a VIA Chipset put

via82cxxx

above

ide-cd

Then reboot and try steps 3-4 again....


Line 35: Line 66:
For a detailed description of DMAm visit the IEEE For a detailed description of DMA visit the IEEE

If you experience jumpy DVD playback, it may be because DMA is not enabled. DMA, or Direct Memory Access, lets hard drives and CD/DVD drives access the system memory.

Warning: Enabling DMA can be dangerous in some cases. Usually issues are directly related to faulty hardware, poorly written drivers, or using settings that are unsupported by your system. USING HDPARM INCORECTLY CAN CAUSE MAJOR DATA CORRUPTION AND/OR LOSS. Most systems newer than 3 years support DMA.

Enabling DMA

To enable DMA, you need to use the hdparm}} command and the configuration file {{{hdparm.conf.

These instructions assume that you are trying to enable DMA on hdc, usually the CD-rom drive.

  1. See the what the settings are on /dev/hdc

    •    sudo hdparm /dev/hdc
  2. If you get a line like  using_dma    =  1 (on), DMA is already enabled. Skip to step 4 to see if it has been enabled at boot time.

  3. Enable DMA on /dev/hdc

    •    sudo hdparm -d1 /dev/hdc
  4. You have now enabled DMA for the drive. However, in order for the settings to be automatically applied at boot there you need to edit the /etc/hdparm.conf} script. Add the following to the end of your hdparm.conf

    •    /dev/hdc {
         dma = on
         }

Troubleshooting

If your drives are configured in [Cable Select] mode and while running hdparm commands you receive errors related to timeouts or drive not ready, try changing the drive to be a master or slave device depending on your system configuration. This does require opening the case and as far as I know most drives are set to Cable Select from the manufacturer.

Sometimes step 3 above can fail with a "operation not permitted" message. You can fix this by editing the file /etc/modules: For an intel cpu put the lines

piix

ide-core

above the line

ide-cd

For an amd cpu put the line

amd74xx

above

ide-cd

For a VIA Chipset put

via82cxxx

above

ide-cd

Then reboot and try steps 3-4 again....

Further reading

The hdparm has a further options that may be more risky. They can be seen using the man hdparm command in the terminal.

For a detailed description of DMA visit the IEEE http://standards.ieee.org/reading/ieee/std_public/description/busarch/1212.1-1993_desc.html

IDE, EIDE and UDMA http://www.spcug.org/reviews/bl0108.htm

CategoryDocumentation

DMA (last edited 2008-08-06 16:20:37 by localhost)