I've produced a 2.6.26 based kernel with the DMA engine patches from Intel. Your Thecus N2100 will have considerably better hard drive performance with this kernel. However, the patches are experimental and not in the mainline kernel. I haven't seen any data corruption with the current version of the patches, but please watch out for problems if you decide to install this kernel.
I intend to maintain a 2.6.26 kernel with these DMA patches throughout the lifetime of Debian lenny. When a new kernel update is made to lenny, I will update my repository accordingly. If you want to install this kernel, put the following line in /etc/apt/sources.list deb http://people.debian.org/~tbm/dma lenny main Then run apt-get update When you upgrade your system (e.g. with apt-get upgrade), the kernel with the DMA patches will be installed. Please note that you'll receive a warning that the linux-image-2.6.26-1-iop32x package cannot be authenticated. This is because my repository is not signed. You can simply ignore this warning. FWIW, here are some numbers I see on my Thecus N2100 (but the numbers highly depend on your hard drive): 2.6.22 Timing cached reads: 62 MB in 2.02 seconds = 30.72 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 58 MB in 3.02 seconds = 19.21 MB/sec Timing cached reads: 64 MB in 2.02 seconds = 31.75 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 58 MB in 3.03 seconds = 19.13 MB/sec 2.6.25 Timing cached reads: 126 MB in 2.02 seconds = 62.26 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 66 MB in 3.09 seconds = 21.35 MB/sec Timing cached reads: 126 MB in 2.01 seconds = 62.71 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 62 MB in 3.01 seconds = 20.57 MB/sec 2.6.25 DMA Timing cached reads: 328 MB in 2.00 seconds = 163.68 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 80 MB in 3.03 seconds = 26.40 MB/sec Timing cached reads: 330 MB in 2.01 seconds = 164.38 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 82 MB in 3.04 seconds = 27.01 MB/sec 2.6.26 Timing cached reads: 126 MB in 2.01 seconds = 62.65 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 66 MB in 3.08 seconds = 21.40 MB/sec Timing cached reads: 126 MB in 2.01 seconds = 62.57 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 66 MB in 3.09 seconds = 21.39 MB/sec 2.6.26 DMA Timing cached reads: 346 MB in 2.00 seconds = 173.00 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 82 MB in 3.06 seconds = 26.77 MB/sec Timing cached reads: 350 MB in 2.01 seconds = 174.53 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 80 MB in 3.08 seconds = 25.94 MB/sec -- Martin Michlmayr http://www.cyrius.com/ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
