*sigh* After a lot of coaching from everyone here it was decided that ext3 probably has nothing at all to do with my disk performance problems. More likely it was that DMA is not enabled on my drive. This is true, as shown...
[EMAIL PROTECTED]:~# hdparm -d /dev/hdb /dev/hdb: using_dma = 0 (off) But, unfortunately, I can't turn it on, either: [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~# hdparm -d1 /dev/hdb /dev/hdb: setting using_dma to 1 (on) HDIO_SET_DMA failed: Operation not permitted using_dma = 0 (off) Here is the whole dump from hdparm -i: [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~# hdparm -i /dev/hdb /dev/hdb: Model=Maxtor 6Y200L6, FwRev=YAR41VW0, SerialNo=M0000000000000000000 Config={ Fixed } RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=57 BuffType=DualPortCache, BuffSize=7936kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=16 CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=16514064, LBA=yes, LBAsects=268435455 IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:120,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120} PIO modes: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4 DMA modes: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2 udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 *udma5 udma6 AdvancedPM=yes: disabled (255) WriteCache=enabled Drive Supports : ataATA-1 ATA-2 ATA-3 ATA-4 ATA-5 ATA-6 ATA-7 It looks like the drive supports it... I believe that because it's brand spankin' new and 200 gigs. After surfing a lot of other mailing list archives and groups online, it looks like this information is also pretty important: [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~# lspci -v 00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8363/8365 [KT133/KM133] (rev 03) Subsystem: ABIT Computer Corp.: Unknown device a401 Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0 Memory at d0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=64M] Capabilities: [a0] AGP version 2.0 Capabilities: [c0] Power Management version 2 00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8363/8365 [KT133/KM133 AGP] (prog-if 00 [Normal decode]) Flags: bus master, 66Mhz, medium devsel, latency 0 Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=0 I/O behind bridge: 00009000-00009fff Memory behind bridge: d8000000-d9ffffff Prefetchable memory behind bridge: d4000000-d7ffffff 00:07.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 [Apollo Super South] (rev 40) Subsystem: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686/A PCI to ISA Bridge Flags: bus master, stepping, medium devsel, latency 0 Capabilities: [c0] Power Management version 2 00:07.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. Bus Master IDE (rev 06) (prog-if 8a [Master SecP PriP]) Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32 I/O ports at a000 [size=16] Capabilities: [c0] Power Management version 2 [snip] I'm running: [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~# uname -a Linux chimera 2.4.21 #4 Mon Jun 23 17:44:47 EDT 2003 i686 unknown And if you want a dump of my dmesg or my .config, let me know. I have enabled everything in my kernel that seemed relevant to VIA or DMA, including "VIA82CXXX chipset support" (although that doesn't match my chipset model, which I suspect to be close to my problem), and "PCI IDE chipset support", "Generic PCI bus-master DMA support", and "Use PCI DMA by default when available." So does my VIA chipset have support? I'd love to have UDMA... Thanks! -- Aaron Bieber - Graphic Design // Web Design http://www.core-dev.com/ [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]