ep-mvp3c2 linux with no dma

Discussion relating to Socket 7 hardware.
mbmulkey
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ep-mvp3c2 linux with no dma

Post by mbmulkey »

i recently installed redhat 9 on my ep-mvp3c2 computer. when I boot i get the following messages

error waiting for dma
dma timeout retry status=0x58

since I'm new to linux i'm not sure what to make of them but it seems to implys that my system isn't using dma. i've read enough to change the HARDISKS config entry in /etc/sysconfig to turn the dma setting on but it doesn't seem to make any difference. a web search suggests others have had the problem but i can't find any resolutions short of recompiling the kernal with some changes...which is well beyond where i want to go.

does anyone know if there is an issue with the mp3 chipset and dma or are familiar with this issue and might have a resolution?

my config
ep-mvp3c2
k6-III+
wd 10g hd master on ide 1
generic cd master on ide 2
georgep1
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Re: RH9 and DMA

Post by georgep1 »

I've got RH9 on my EP-MVPG5 and don't notice that error. Where are you seeing it? Does it result in a delay during bootup?

The RH9 messages that scroll across the screen as the OS loads go by too fast for me to see any errors.
mbmulkey
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Post by mbmulkey »

This is the section I cut from the Kernel Startup Log. It does pause after the partition check. Everything seems to run okay when it does boot up.

RAMDISK driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 4096K size 1024 blocksize
Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00beta3-.2.4
ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
VP_IDE: IDE controller at PCI slot 00:07.1
VP_IDE: chipset revision 6
VP_IDE: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
VP_IDE: VIA vt82c596b (rev 12) IDE UDMA66 controller on pci00:07.1
ide0: BM-DMA at 0xd000-0xd007, BIOS settings: hda:DMA, hdb:DMA
ide1: BM-DMA at 0xd008-0xd00f, BIOS settings: hdc:DMA, hdd:DMA
hda: WDC WD102BA, ATA DISK drive
blk: queue c0399460, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff)
hdc: LTN403, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
hda: attached ide-disk driver.
hda: host protected area => 1
hda: 20028960 sectors (10255 MB) w/2048KiB Cache, CHS=1246/255/63, UDMA(66)
ide-floppy driver 0.99.newide
Partition check:
hda:<4>hda: dma_timer_expiry: dma status == 0x61
hda: error waiting for DMA
hda: dma timeout retry: status=0x58 { DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest }

hda1 hda2 hda3
hda: dma_timer_expiry: dma status == 0x61
hda: error waiting for DMA
hda: dma timeout retry: status=0x58 { DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest }

i also get the error later in the boot process

Journalled Block Device driver loaded
hda: dma_timer_expiry: dma status == 0x61
hda: error waiting for DMA
hda: dma timeout retry: status=0x58 { DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest }

hda: dma_timer_expiry: dma status == 0x61
hda: error waiting for DMA
hda: dma timeout retry: status=0x58 { DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest }

kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.

i'm assuming that dma has be deactivated. is there a way i can tell for sure?
georgep1
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Re: DMA and RH9

Post by georgep1 »

I'm sure there's some other way to check, but I would load up "System Monitor" and check CPU usage during disk transfers. Normally the CPU usage would be low for copying large files, but if DMA is turned off, it would spike up.

Here's my excerpt from /var/log/messages

Jul 28 10:03:29 localhost kernel: RAMDISK driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 4096K size 1024 blocksize
Jul 28 10:03:29 localhost kernel: Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00beta3-.2.4
Jul 28 10:03:29 localhost kernel: ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
Jul 28 10:03:29 localhost apmd[2334]: Version 3.0.2 (APM BIOS 1.2, Linux driver 1.16)
Jul 28 10:03:29 localhost kernel: VP_IDE: IDE controller at PCI slot 00:07.1
Jul 28 10:03:29 localhost apmd: apmd startup succeeded
Jul 28 10:03:29 localhost kernel: VP_IDE: chipset revision 16
Jul 28 10:03:29 localhost kernel: VP_IDE: not 100%% native mode: will probe irqs later
Jul 28 10:03:29 localhost kernel: VP_IDE: VIA vt82c596b (rev 22) IDE UDMA66 controller on pci00:07.1
Jul 28 10:03:29 localhost kernel: ide0: BM-DMA at 0xe000-0xe007, BIOS settings: hda:DMA, hdb:DMA
Jul 28 10:03:30 localhost autofs: automount startup succeeded
Jul 28 10:03:30 localhost kernel: ide1: BM-DMA at 0xe008-0xe00f, BIOS settings: hdc:DMA, hdd:DMA
Jul 28 10:03:30 localhost kernel: hda: WDC WD800JB-00CRA1, ATA DISK drive
Jul 28 10:03:30 localhost kernel: hdb: WDC WD300BB-32CCB0, ATA DISK drive
Jul 28 10:03:30 localhost kernel: blk: queue c0399460, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff)
Jul 28 10:03:30 localhost kernel: blk: queue c03995a4, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff)
Jul 28 10:03:30 localhost kernel: hdc: TOSHIBA DVD-ROM SD-M1612, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
Jul 28 10:03:30 localhost kernel: hdd: 12X8X32, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
Jul 28 10:03:30 localhost kernel: ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
Jul 28 10:03:30 localhost kernel: ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
Jul 28 10:03:30 localhost kernel: hda: attached ide-disk driver.
Jul 28 10:03:30 localhost kernel: hda: host protected area => 1
Jul 28 10:03:30 localhost kernel: hda: 156301488 sectors (80026 MB) w/8192KiB Cache, CHS=9729/255/63, UDMA(66)
Jul 28 10:03:30 localhost kernel: hdb: attached ide-disk driver.
Jul 28 10:03:30 localhost kernel: hdb: host protected area => 1
Jul 28 10:03:30 localhost kernel: hdb: 58633344 sectors (30020 MB) w/2048KiB Cache, CHS=3649/255/63, UDMA(66)
Jul 28 10:03:30 localhost kernel: ide-floppy driver 0.99.newide
Jul 28 10:03:30 localhost kernel: Partition check:
Jul 28 10:03:30 localhost kernel: hda: hda1
Jul 28 10:03:30 localhost kernel: hdb: hdb1 hdb2 hdb3
Jul 28 10:03:30 localhost kernel: ide-floppy driver 0.99.newide
Jul 28 10:03:30 localhost kernel: md: md driver 0.90.0 MAX_MD_DEVS=256, MD_SB_DISKS=27
Jul 28 10:03:30 localhost kernel: md: Autodetecting RAID arrays.
Jul 28 10:03:30 localhost kernel: md: autorun ...
Jul 28 10:03:30 localhost kernel: md: ... autorun DONE.
Jul 28 10:03:30 localhost kernel: NET4: Linux TCP/IP 1.0 for NET4.0
Jul 28 10:03:30 localhost kernel: IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP, IGMP
Jul 28 10:03:30 localhost kernel: IP: routing cache hash table of 2048 buckets, 16Kbytes
Jul 28 10:03:30 localhost kernel: TCP: Hash tables configured (established 16384 bind 32768)
Jul 28 10:03:30 localhost kernel: Linux IP multicast router 0.06 plus PIM-SM
Jul 28 10:03:30 localhost kernel: NET4: Unix domain sockets 1.0/SMP for Linux NET4.0.
Jul 28 10:03:30 localhost kernel: RAMDISK: Compressed image found at block 0
Jul 28 10:03:30 localhost kernel: Freeing initrd memory: 144k freed
Jul 28 10:03:30 localhost kernel: VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
Jul 28 10:03:30 localhost kernel: Journalled Block Device driver loaded
Jul 28 10:03:30 localhost kernel: kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
Jul 28 10:03:30 localhost kernel: EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
mbmulkey
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Re: DMA and RH9

Post by mbmulkey »

well i guess i don't have it enabled. i did the copy and watched the cpu utilization shoot up to 100 percent and stayed there until the copy completed.

can't be the chipset since we have the same.

did you make any os changes outside of the rh9 install?
georgep1
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Re: RH9 and DMA

Post by georgep1 »

Nope, no changes to the default install. Two questions...

Are you overclocking?

What BIOS are you running (I'm running 08/06/2001 BIOS)?
mbmulkey
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Post by mbmulkey »

The latest bios for the ep-mvp3c2 on the epox web site is 12/21/2000 which I was running. I downloaded and reflashed just to be sure.

Yes I am, was, overclocking. I set the fsb speed back down to 100 but that didn't make any difference either. I could reduce the multiplier, currently set at 5.5, if you think that would make a difference but then is the tradeoff worth it...616 vs 500 or 450mhz? I don't use it for much more than playing with linux and running seti workunits.

I'm swapping my sons 20gb for a 40gb next weekend. Could it be that linux just doesn't like this drive?
georgep1
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Re: DMA and RH9

Post by georgep1 »

Could be the drive, could be the cable, possibly.

Might as well set it down to 550 just to see if it has any effect. I was thinking overclocking the FSB as a possible problem.

Could flash to the BIOS I'm using. It's on the www.epox.nl site. Changes for HDs up to 128 GB and some ACPI stuff. I'm not sure if there's anything else.

Quite strange to be sure.
mbmulkey
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Post by mbmulkey »

I tried flashing with the bios from the link you provided but that didn't change things either. Guess I''ll have to wait and see what replacing the drive will do.
mbmulkey
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Post by mbmulkey »

well i give up...
i tried a different drive and cable with no luck. there must be a problem with my board. guess i should be glad it's still working at all
thanks georgep1 for the effort.
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His Royal Majesty King V
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Post by His Royal Majesty King V »

I've never gotten any version of RedHat (up to 8.x) to successfully even complete the install process on my FIC board with AMD CPUs.

Mandrake 9.0 is what I settled on. No problems.
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mbmulkey
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Post by mbmulkey »

I have the iso's for mandrake (and suse and debian), just haven't given it a try yet. Redhat 9 went on without a hitch (except for dma) so i decided to play with it for a while. So far, i like it. I have a couple of other machines that i could load mandrake on so i might just step up the time frame. Thanks for the thought.
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His Royal Majesty King V
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Post by His Royal Majesty King V »

Well, I'm considering RH9 myself, so it's good to hear that it'll work on an AMD CPU . .

Managed to bugger up my Mandrake 9 system, so I'm downloading 9.1 now . .

All I wanted was to get the GAIM rpm to install . . had so many dependencies that I went around upgrading packages, which eventually caused rpm itself to start segfaulting.

Ugh.

Ah well, maybe with 9.1, GAIM will work, and hopefully even ALSA will work with my Ensoniq AudioPCI card (ES1370, pre-creative labs buyout).
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mbmulkey
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Post by mbmulkey »

I can't help you much with linux. I'm amazed that an old guy like me has it up and running. That has a lot to do with how easy Redhat made the install.

I had no problems with the sound drivers for my soundblaster live card and Redhat comes with a winamp look-a-like called xmms which works pretty well. Redhat didn't include mp3 support in there distribution so you have to go to the the xmms website and download the mpg123 rpm for it. They have a link to it on their home page.

http://www.xmms.org/

I don't know much about gaim since I never use instant messaging. But it's included in the Redhat distribution. If it's like everything else, i suspect you won't have any problems with it.
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His Royal Majesty King V
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Post by His Royal Majesty King V »

Well, did an Upgrade install of Mandrake 9.1 . . seems to have solved my problems.

I'm still not entirely sure if ALSA is in there correctly. The ALSA package is installed, GAIM seems happy, but trying to do the alsamixer command spits up error messages.

But as long as aumix works, I guess I'm ok.

Anyhoo.. been using Xmms for a little while actually. I like it. Just recently figured out how to get it to play an audio CD.

Now the only problems I have left fall under the categories of either:

1) Slight annoyances... or
2) I don't know what I'm doing.

Particularly since I didn't use one of the Desktop managers (KDE or Gnome) but insisted on using an older Window Manager (specifically fvwm2). Further, insisting on configuring everything by hand. Not because I'm a masochist, but because I'm actually trying to figure out exactly how things work......

Eventually I'll just cut out that nonsense and use the nice, convenient tools that developers have put so much effort into making.. :)
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