HDD in Linux

Command-line tools

• Use hdparm to manage hdd in Linux

% hdparm /dev/sda            # print summary information on device
% hdparm -l /dev/sda         # print information on device
% hdparm -tT /dev/sda        # benchmark device performance
% hdparm -d 1 /dev/sda       # set DMA for devices

OpenSUSE

• In OpenSUSE, DMA can also be set through YaST → /etc/sysconfig Editor → parameter DEVICES_FORCE_IDE_DMA.

Troubleshooting DMA issues

Switched to OpenSUSE 11 on Gryphon, not sure that DMA is enabled. hdparm /dev/sda gives the following error:

/dev/sda:
 ...
 HDIO_GET_DMA failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device
 ...

Googling for HDIO_GET_DMA failed gives:

• Might need to add module piix' (PCI IDE/ISA Xcelerator (Intel IC)) (see here).
• Looking into /var/log/boot.msg, it seems however that DMA is correctly set. May be hdparm is not up-to-date anymore. One day I shall investigate this...

% cat /var/log/boot.msg | egrep "dma|DMA"
...
<6> ata1.00: Configured for UMDA/100
<6> ata1.01: Configured for UMDA/100
...
<6> ata2.00: Configured for UMDA/66
<6> ata2.01: Configured for UMDA/100