Thanks for the help Steve,I'll double check my .config, but it would surprise me if I missed one of the kernel DMA options. I can write a FreeBSD kernel configuration in my sleep but as I'm new to Debian/Linux I used menuconfig to make my kernel. I looked at every option and double checked the help text to make sure each option did what I thought it would...
Right now I am sticking with the 2.4 install, as it at least gives moderate performance (~5Mb/sec UP/DOWN) as it stands, whereas the 2.2 install was unusable with those slow uploads. Hopefully with a little work the 2.4 kernel can fully exploit the capabilities of the hardware.
*** It's looks like this may be a known issue (just did another google on vt8233a+linux) *** I checked the 2.4.19 changelog (http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.4/ChangeLog-2.4.19) and it says:
<SNIP> <vojtech@suse.cz> (02/03/29 1.307) [PATCH] Update the VIA driver to support the vt8233a <SNIP>Looks like I stick with 2.4.18 and then .19 or .20 should fix this for me.
Thanks again, CCBTW I can confirm that between the make options and kernel-package, it's pretty easy to generate and install your own .deb kernel image. Together with apt-get, Debian's got me hooked.
On Thursday, August 29, 2002, at 09:22 , Stephen Gran wrote:
This one time, at band camp, Colonelkorn said:So my question is which problem do I tackle? The NIC not working in 2.2idepci or the VIA southbridge in 2.4? I'd really appreciate any help the list can offer.I'd say stay with the newer kernel, if it's detecting the NIC for you - I would roll your own kernel to deal with the disk slowdown. There's a couple options in the kernel config for dealing with DMA, and they seem to do the trick. I'm using a VIA chipset board with a Maxtor drive here, no hdparm tweakig, and I get: gashuffer:# hdparm -t -T /dev/hda /dev/hda: Timing buffer-cache reads: 128 MB in 0.76 seconds =168.42 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 1.59 seconds = 40.25 MB/sec The relevant options are: CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEDMA_PCI=y CONFIG_IDEDMA_PCI_AUTO=y CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEDMA=y CONFIG_BLK_DEV_ADMA=y CONFIG_IDEDMA_AUTO=y in your kernel config. If you're not familiar with rolling your own kernel, there are a number of good howto's online, and debian uses kernel-package for it - there are also a number of good howto's available. I hear that takes all the work out of it, but I haven't converted to that yet. HTH, Steve -- He that bringeth a present, findeth the door open. -- Scottish proverb.