Some Linux problems..

[shaihulud]

The kernel, as I noted earlier, has DMA enabled by default. If you notice within the dmesg the kernel detects the drive correctly and sets DMA for your SATA drives. What I am thinking maybe the problem is the issue with the mixture of native and compatible mode controllers and the latter kernels. This is just one of the few web sites you can search for. Good luck getting Linux to work for it is not always easy due to is limited support at times for hardware. Problems with SATA and Linux - ThinkWiki

You maybe able to resolve this issue by doing a update, which any modern distro should have. In the update a newer kernel should be available. But I remember reading that this issue wasn't going to be “resolved” due to very particular facts. Do not hold me to that, this was a time ago and good few major, minor, and patches later.

This affected any controller that had a hybrid ability, such as the ICH5R. Even nVidia's controller was affected. Note, SATA uses the SCSI modules. So, no need to freak out about that. If anything the website link will get you started in the direction you need to go, but I cannot help you any further since this is the limitation of my knowledge on the subject matter. Hopefully, I have you going in, at least, the right direction.


Here is your DMA configuration:
ata1: PATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xEFE0 ctl 0xEFAE bmdma 0xEF90 irq 169
ata2: PATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xEFA0 ctl 0xEFAA bmdma 0xEF98 irq 169
ata1: dev 0 cfg 00:0c5a 49:2f00 82:346b 83:7d01 84:4003 85:3469 86:3c01 87:4003 88:207f 93:0000
ata1: dev 0 ATA-6, max UDMA/133, 390721968 sectors: LBA48
sata_get_dev_handle: SATA dev addr=0x1f0002, handle=0xdffe6300
ata1: dev 0 configured for UDMA/133
sata_get_dev_handle: SATA dev addr=0x1f0002, handle=0xdffe6300
scsi0 : ata_piix
ata2: dev 0 cfg 00:0c5a 49:2f00 82:346b 83:7d01 84:4003 85:3469 86:3c01 87:4003 88:207f 93:0000
ata2: dev 0 ATA-6, max UDMA/133, 156301488 sectors: LBA48
sata_get_dev_handle: SATA dev addr=0x1f0002, handle=0xdffe6300
ata2: dev 0 configured for UDMA/133
sata_get_dev_handle: SATA dev addr=0x1f0002, handle=0xdffe6300
scsi1 : ata_piix

[FearFactory]

Thanks shaihulud, the problem are not with my SATA drives, but my ide drives, hd and optical drives, no DMA for them. I was looking to xconfig, but it seems all ok to me

[shaihulud]

The link I provided in my previous post does have the description in similarity to your issue or is it. I have read many of these years ago, yes years ago. But I am unsure how the kernel was patched for it, and the supported hardware. As I said, my Linux knowledge becomes a bit limited to this extent. I have copied the contents of the link:

No DMA on DVD drive

Using the IDE driver, DMA support cannot be enabled on an Ultrabay optical drive:
# hdparm -d1 /dev/hdc

/dev/hdc:
setting using_dma to 1 (on)
HDIO_SET_DMA failed: Operation not permitted
using_dma = 0 (off)

As a result, the optical drive is slow, and in particular, too slow to play video DVDs.

One workaround is to use the ata_piix driver (instead of the IDE driver) for the optical drive. This requires enabling the ATAPI support of the ata_piix driver, which is under active development and not yet stable. You must also make sure that the IDE driver (ide-generic) does not grab the devices before ata_piix. Using this will probably devour all your data and go on to eat all the food in your fridge. But if you have full backups and an empty fridge, do the following:
Grab the latest kernel (must be 2.6.14 or newer; the relevant code is under active development).
Do one of the following:
Enable the ata_piix and libata drivers as built-in, and add libata.atapi_enabled=1 to your kernel command line (e.g., in /boot/grub/menu.lst or /etc/lilo.conf. Don't forget to run lilo after changes).
Enable ata_piix and libata as modules (this is often the default) and add "options libata atapi_enabled=1" to your /etc/modprobe.conf (or the equivalent in your distribution).
Do one of the following:
Disable the IDE system.
Build the IDE driver as built-in (this is often the default) and add the hdc=noprobe kernel argument (e.g., in in /boot/grub/menu.lst or /etc/lilo.conf. Don't forget to run lilo after changes).
Build the IDE driver as module and add "options ide hdc=noprobe" to your /etc/modprobe.conf (or the equivalent in your distribution).
If you chose to use modules above, regenerate your initrd file.

Note : If you are using a Debian Sid system, and want to use Debian precompiled kernels, then type the following command in a root shell (This creates a new initrd with enabled ATAPI support of ata_piix and loads ata_piix before the IDE driver):
# echo options libata atapi_enabled=1>/etc/modprobe.d/atapienable && update-initramfs -u

Note : If your work was successful, your CD-ROM drive will no longer be accesiible through /dev/hdc, but /dev/scd0.

If this all doesn't work, use lspci -vn to check whether one of the following chipsets is used in the Thinkpad: PCI ID Name
8086:7111 Intel 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 IDE
8086:24db Intel 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) IDE Controller
8086:25a2 Intel 6300ESB PATA Storage Controller


If yes, enable support for these chipsets has to be enabled by setting
#define ATA_ENABLE_PATA

in include/linux/libata.h (and report your ThinkPad model in the discussion page).

There have been reports that DVD burning doesn't work under this configuration, but it seems to work with kernel 2.6.14 and later (tested on a ThinkPad T43 and T43p with a UltraBay Slim DVD Multi-Burner Plus).
[edit]
Problem with kernel 2.6.16 kernel and suspend2 2.2.1

DVD access fails with kernel 2.6.16.* and suspend2 2.2.1. Thia is fixed by later versions of suspend2, or by deleting the 4000-libata-rollup-2616-rc3.patch (see this post notice by Alexander E. Patrakov).
[edit]
Links
RedHat Bugzilla bug 163418: "can't enable DMA on DVD drive"
Enabling DMA on a SATA DVD drive, kernel 2.6.18 [1]
[edit]


No DMA on system hard disk

In recent Linux kernels, there are two modules capable of handling the ICH6 disk controller:
ata_piix: the disk shows as /dev/sda and DMA is enabled.
Generic IDE driver (ide-disk): the disk shows as /dev/hda and DMA is disabled.

The simplest way to enable DMA is to force the IDE driver to ignore the system hard disk by passing the hda=noprobe kernel argument. The driver will then be handled by the ata_piix driver. Note that this will change its device name to /dev/sda (which may require changes in /etc/fstab and the boot loader) and may cause other problems as listed above.

[FearFactory]

i tried the steps on the link you gave me but still no go well, im not a Linux expert, maybe i have donne something wrong! I'm sad because i really like this Linux Caixa Magica, it works great with my USB Speedtouch Adsl modem and it has a great online update feature. I like Mandrake and Suse too but everytime i tried to setup my modem... no luck.