[ltp] Re: T43 report

[Jeff Lessem]

"morpheus" <morpheus@post.harvard.edu> writes:

> On Mar 17, 2005 5:26 PM, Jeff Lessem wrote:
>
>>Note:  The 80GB Fujitsu drive is SATA, so I used the Intel ICH SATA
>
>>driver, and the drive is detected as /dev/sda.  The DVD writer is
>
>>/dev/hdc and uses the normal PIIX IDE driver.  Without the SATA driver
>
>>the hard disk is detected as /dev/hda, but runs degraded with no DMA.
>
>
>
> Interesting...I have a t42p with 60GB drive.  How can I tell if I am running degraded and should be using the Intel ICH SATA driver? 

The older Centrino chipset does not support SATA, so you are
definately using a PATA (parallel) drive on a T42.  The newer ICH6
based Centrino used in the T43 can use PATA or SATA.  Some
manufacturers are using older PATA drives, but apparently IBM is using
a SATA drive.  All that really means at the moment is that it will
cost more if I want to replace the drive...

hdparm /dev/hda

should tell you if dma is enabled (using_dma = 1 (on))

In the dark ages DMA enabling used to be an important manual tweak on
Linux, but all modern kernels on any remotely modern hardware should
automatically use DMA---ancient disks and broken CDROM drives being
the exception.