CardBus support has always been lacking as opposed to PCMCIA (hey Ben, what's PCMCIA stand for again? :) According to the pcmcia-cs page (http://pcmcia-cs.sourceforge.net/ftp/SUPPORTED.CARDS), the Shining card is supported only as PCMCIA, not as cardbus.
Compgeeks has an IBM CardBus IEEE1394 card for $26 that has Linux support (yay IBM!). http://www.compgeeks.com/details.asp?invtid=IBM1394 http://linux1394.sourceforge.net/view_device.php?id=216 Since the FW and USB drives show up as SCSI devices, hdparm does not give me a lot of tuning ability, but both presumably crank the speed up as high as possible, turn DMA on, etc. I'm not sure you would be able to do that with a PCMCIA/CB card. For hdparm equvalent to windows, you can do some tuning by winding your way through the control panel and "system", select the disk, then see what happens. Then reboot (of course). -Mark On Sun, Mar 24, 2002 at 10:36:36AM -0500, Mark Polhamus wrote: > I just acquired a Kanguru 60G portable external drive. The drive supports > USB, Firewire and PCMCIA/CardBus interfaces, depending on which cable you > buy. Total cost was $273. I bought the PCMCIA/CardBus cable since it was > the easiest way to connect it to my Dell Inspiron 7500 laptop. > > The PCMCIA (PC Card, whatever) cable has a switch for plain PCMCIA / > CardBus mode. When I tried it in CardBus mode Linux (RH 7.0) didn't > recognize it, Win98 did see it and installed a driver, but locked up soon > after. Switching back to plain PCMCIA mode it seems to work fine (but > slow!) under both OSes. > > Is there an hdparm equivalent for windows? I would like to see what modes > Kanguru's driver is setting. I did some experiments with hdparm and ended > up with an uninterruptible hdparm process that couldn't be killed. > > Here's what I see now: > > ------------------------------------------------------------------ > [root@granite ~ 4]# cardctl ident 1 > product info: "Shining", "PMIDE-ASC", "Rev 1.04" > function: 4 (fixed disk) > [root@granite ~ 5]# hdparm /dev/hde > > /dev/hde: > multcount = 0 (off) > I/O support = 0 (default 16-bit) > unmaskirq = 0 (off) > using_dma = 0 (off) > keepsettings = 0 (off) > nowerr = 0 (off) > readonly = 0 (off) > readahead = 8 (on) > geometry = 7297/255/63, sectors = 117231408, start = 0 > [root@granite ~ 6]# hdparm -i /dev/hde > > /dev/hde: > > Model=WDC WD600AB-00BVA0, FwRev=21.01H21, SerialNo=WD-WMA7E1602543 > Config={ HardSect NotMFM HdSw>15uSec SpinMotCtl Fixed DTR>5Mbs FmtGapReq } > RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=57600, SectSize=600, ECCbytes=40 > BuffType=DualPortCache, BuffSize=2048kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=off > CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=-66060037, LBA=yes, LBAsects=117231408 > 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 > [root@granite ~ 7]# hdparm -Tt /dev/hde > > /dev/hde: > Timing buffer-cache reads: 128 MB in 1.09 seconds =117.43 MB/sec > Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 44.70 seconds = 1.43 MB/sec > [root@granite ~ 8]# > ------------------------------------------------------------ > > Not great :( > > I wonder if there is any hope of CardBus support under Linux -- or win98 > for that matter :( > > Any ideas about how to speed up this unit? It's usable as is for what I > want it for, but faster would be nicer. I suppose I could buy a Firewire > PCMCIA card (they make those, don't they?) and the Firewire cable for the > drive. > > > -- Mark Polhamus > > > > Mark Komarinski wrote: > >So I got bored enough to do some testing with external drives. SCSI is > >a bit expensive, USB is slow, and Firewire is still in progress. > > > >Firewire is the best choice of [USB, USB2, Firewire] as FW has a top > >speed of 400MB/s, and drivers are included with the more recent 2.4 > >releases. USB tops out at 12Mb, USB2 is 480MB, but the drivers are only > >available in 2.5.x kernels. Also, availability of USB2 cards is more > >limited than FW, since you can usually find FW items in the > >Mac section of stores or catalogs. > > > >I picked up a Siig FW card (PCI, 3 external ports) for $39, and an ACOM > >60GB external drive for $229. Like the external USB drives, these > >drives are not self-powered, meaning you have to have a spare power plug > >available. Fortunately, the power supply is built into the drive, so > >no bulky transformers. You can probably pick up the chassis alone > >and add your own IDE HDD or CD-R for about $99. > > > >Both USB and FW drives show up as SCSI drives, meaning you have extra > >overhead of going through the FW/USB drivers, then through the SCSI > >drivers, and so on. > > > >So here's some of the testing I have. System is a Celeron 700 running > >Debian with the 2.4.17 kernel. Latest IEEE1394 drivers from > >http://linux1394.sourceforge.net > > > >The first number of the result of hdparm -Tt is the timing of the cache > >to memory which doesn't appear to have much difference between the > >drives. The second number is what you actually want to pay attention > >to. > > > >IDE drive: > ># hdparm /dev/hda > > > >/dev/hda: > > multcount = 16 (on) > > I/O support = 3 (32-bit w/sync) > > unmaskirq = 0 (off) > > using_dma = 1 (on) > > keepsettings = 0 (off) > > nowerr = 0 (off) > > readonly = 0 (off) > > readahead = 8 (on) > > geometry = 1216/255/63, sectors = 19541088, start = 0 > > busstate = 1 (on) > > > ># hdparm -Tt /dev/hda > > > >/dev/hda: > > Timing buffer-cache reads: 128 MB in 1.10 seconds =116.36 MB/sec > > Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 3.56 seconds = 17.98 MB/sec > > > >Pretty impressive. Actually pretty good as I've got DMA turned on. > >With DMA turned off, I was getting about 3MB/s. Using multicount > >and I/O support does not have much effect, but I have them turned > >on anyway. > > > >Now for the USB drive. Just a plain 'ol USB chassis with a 30GB WD > >drive in. > > > ># hdparm -Tt /dev/sda > > > >/dev/sda: > > Timing buffer-cache reads: 128 MB in 1.18 seconds =108.47 MB/sec > > Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 86.87 seconds =754.41 kB/sec > > > >Yow! Real slow. On the good side, I'm just storing MP3s on here. Here > >is also the reason why most USB 1.x CD-ROMs are limited to 4x > >(600kB/sec). > > > >Now for the Firewire drive. 400MB, here we come! > > > ># hdparm -Tt /dev/sdb > > > >/dev/sdb: > > Timing buffer-cache reads: 128 MB in 1.11 seconds =115.32 MB/sec > > Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 9.56 seconds = 6.69 MB/sec > > > >Hey! This is half as slow as IDE! What gives? Well, part of it is > >that I needed the latest drivers to work with the ACOM drive, otherwise > >the SCSI drivers think the drive is a scanner or printer. I also think > >some of the overhead of FW/SCSI drivers is another part. > > > >The thing to remember about this, though, is you can daisy-chain FW > >drives all you want. The external chassis I have has two FW ports on it > >so you can use multiple drives on the same FW chain, and using multiple > >drives at once will not cause the troubles that multiple drives on a IDE > >chain will. > > > >I would add some dd timings, but I'm using a mix of EXT3 and EXT2, which > >would taint the results somewhat. When I got all EXT3 (probably next > >time I get around to rebooting) I may try it. > > > >In the end, FW is a pretty nice way to expand the storage of your system > >without requiring a reboot (if you already have the drivers), not have > >to pay for SCSI prices, and not fool around with IDE drives. The cost > >to entry is pretty low (cards run from $39-$99, 60G drive for $229) and > >the performance is adequate and hopefully improving. > > > >-Mark > > > > > >***************************************************************** > >To unsubscribe from this list, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >with the text 'unsubscribe gnhlug' in the message body. > >***************************************************************** > > > > > ***************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the text 'unsubscribe gnhlug' in the message body. *****************************************************************
