[mythtv-users] Installed an ATA133 PCI card. True ATA100 speeds/DMA question

Dave and Lisa Hofstra lisadaveh at comcast.net
Thu Mar 25 16:53:21 EST 2004


I had a Best Buy Giftcard burning a hole in my pocket, so I bought a PCI 
Controller for ATA 133 to expand the total harddrives for my Myth 
System.  It is made by SIIG and is model CN2487.  It does not claim 
Linux compatibility (but then what does, really)  Mandrake 9.2 booted up 
just fine, and installed some generic/other driver for this card without 
even asking me, so I assume it is a fairly common piece of equipment 
that works with the standard Linux drivers.

I just installed this card, and I am wanting to know if I am getting 
true ATA 100 ish speeds (my drives are Western Digital, and do not 
utilize the ATA 133 interface).  But I am confused from the following 
output:

[root at HTPCLinux lisadaveh]# dmesg |grep DMA
AMD_IDE: nVidia Corporation nForce2 IDE (rev a2) UDMA133 controller on 
pci00:09.0
    ide0: BM-DMA at 0xf000-0xf007, BIOS settings: hda:DMA, hdb:DMA
    ide1: BM-DMA at 0xf008-0xf00f, BIOS settings: hdc:DMA, hdd:DMA
    ide2: MMIO-DMA , BIOS settings: hde:pio, hdf:pio
    ide3: MMIO-DMA , BIOS settings: hdg:pio, hdh:pio
hda: 195371568 sectors (100030 MB) w/2048KiB Cache, CHS=12161/255/63, 
UDMA(100)
hdb: 234441648 sectors (120034 MB) w/8192KiB Cache, CHS=14593/255/63, 
UDMA(100)
hde: 195371568 sectors (100030 MB) w/8192KiB Cache, CHS=193821/16/63, 
UDMA(100)
hdc: ATAPI 48X DVD-ROM drive, 512kB Cache, UDMA(33)

THE NEW DRIVE ON THE NEW CARD IS hde AND IS ide2 in the above clip

1) Is this telling me that DMA is not enabled in line 4 above (hde:pio, 
hdf:pio   etc)? 
2) What is the MMIO-DMA mean that it is different than the BM-DMA
3) Is the 2nd to last line telling me that I have DMA enabled?  "UDMA(100)"
4)  Is all OK as is for myth capture, or do I have to configure things 
some more by hand
5)  Should I just return the card, and get  ***INSERT BRAND HERE*** card 
that has better Linux support?


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