Thanks for the reply. No, DMA mode wasn't already set. I have however just found the (somewhat obscure) solution (thanks to lkml archives) - looks like I needed to compile in support for my VIA chipset (CONFIG_BLK_DEV_VIA82CXXX needed to be set). Don't know how that came to be switched off, d'oh. I should google before I post - sorry folks :-/
Cheers, Gareth > Is DMA already set? > I have a feeling (but no proof) that new kernels automagically put all > harddisks into DMA mode (when it can), whereas older kernels didn't. > > I know that new kernels (probably 2.6 or 3.0 or whatever) will have a > different way of interacting with/controling IO devices. Moving away from > ioctl system calls to /proc entries. SO.... you may need to update your > hdparm (probably not a bad idea anyway, after a kernel build). > > Hope this helps. > > Later > Lee
