gentoo performance issues

[mesman00]

i really haven't thought to ask about this until now, but i've been using gentoo pretty much all the time now for the past couple of months. anyway, my question is this. On my computer it takes a real long time to move big files (60 mb) to other locatiosn. Like to cut a paste a 60 mb file from one folder to another will take a couple of minutes. It is the same way when sending large files to the trash bin, if i try to move a folder with ten files that are 60 mb each to the trash, it can take upwards of 20 minutes. In windows this takes no time at all, maybe a minute and half at most. But in gentoo it takes very long for some reason. Is this just becuase of the linux architecture/filesystem (i am using ext3 on my root partition by the way), or is it my computer only. Just to let you know i installed from the stage3 tarbell. Could that have something to do with it? Any input would be great. Thanks alot.

 

[The Khan Artist]

Have you enabled DMA on the drive? I don't remember whether Gentoo does it by default or not.

 

[Lex]

I don't remember whether Gentoo does it by default or not.

The ide driver decides if it is on or not.


can you do: hdparm /dev/hd* < your hd and: hdparm -tT /dev/hd* < your hd
and post the results

 

[mesman00]

The ide driver decides if it is on or not.


can you do: hdparm /dev/hd* < your hd and: hdparm -tT /dev/hd* < your hd
and post the results

when i run that command i get the error:

bash: hdparm: command not found

is there a package that i need to install in order to use this command. i installed the hdparm package available on the gentoo's emerge database, but to no avail.

 

[mesman00]

Have you enabled DMA on the drive? I don't remember whether Gentoo does it by default or not.

in the kernel i have the following compiled:

USE PCI DMA by default when available

is compiled as an option for

Generic PCI bus-mater DMA support

which is also enabled. this leads me to believe that DMA is enabled? Thanks.

 

[Falcon4ever]

in the kernel i have the following compiled:

USE PCI DMA by default when available

is compiled as an option for

Generic PCI bus-mater DMA support

which is also enabled. this leads me to believe that DMA is enabled? Thanks.

you should do " hdparm /dev/hd* " with your root account .
(mine wasn't on either the first time i used gentoo)

And about the chipset, nope, you need to add your chipset like Via82xx or nforce...

 

[Slougi]

To turn on dma on boot add the hdparm init script to some runlevel.

 

[mesman00]

the results of hdparm:

dev/hda:
 multcount    = 16 (on)
 IO_support   =  0 (default 16-bit)
 unmaskirq    =  0 (off)
 using_dma    =  0 (off)
 keepsettings =  0 (off)
 readonly     =  0 (off)
 readahead    = 256 (on)
 geometry     = 65535/16/63, sectors = 156301488, start = 0

it seems like i'm not using dma, so how do i turn it on...slougi how do i add the hdparm init script?

 

[The Khan Artist]

Maybe search the Gentoo forums?

http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=142134&highlight=hdparm+dma looks promising...

 

[mesman00]

thanks, very noticeable difference.

 

[Slougi]

thanks, very noticeable difference.

I have it added to the boot runlevel:

rc-update add hdparm boot

It should run at every boot amongst the first things now.