[linux-audio-user] xruns vs. disk activity

[Jack O'Quin]

rob fell <robin.fell at ntlworld.com> writes:

> > This sounds like an interrupt problem, or else a bad set of hard disk
> > device drivers. If you sound card want to interrupt, it should get
> > serviced even if the hard disk was on the bus. Possibly the DMA
> > controller in this ATA chipset isn't very efficient....
> 
> this is sounding expensive...
> 
> surely others in the LL audio world are using the "IDE interface: VIA 
> Technologies, Inc. VT82C586/B/686A/B PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)" - has 
> anyone anything good/bad to say about this (BTW: i did enable all the 'fix 
> borken VIA' stuff in the kernel options).

I haven't been following this thread closely.  So, pardon me if I'm
going over old ground.  My ASUS A7V333 mobo has a similar IDE
controller...

  00:11.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. Bus Master IDE (rev 06) (prog-if 8a [Master SecP PriP])
	Subsystem: Asustek Computer, Inc.: Unknown device 808c
	Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32
	I/O ports at a000 [size=16]
	Capabilities: [c0] Power Management version 2

It's works well at fairly low latencies.  But, to get that working, I
had to upgrade my kernel to 2.4.19.  The 2.4.18 (and earlier) IDE
device driver unable to do DMA with this chip.  Fixing that made a
dramatic improvement in disk performance.

Have you already gone through all the hdparms rigamarole?
-- 
  Jack O'Quin
  Austin, Texas, USA