very slow transfer speed in hardy with SATA drives

[deepclutch]

Hello,
with latest hardy,when I tried copying a 10GB directory ,it took around 35minutes to complete!
hdparm for both SATA drives showed dma is activated.what will be the problem?I am on a 915GV based mobo with 2 seagate sata hdds.

lspci:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82915G/P/GV/GL/PL/910GL Memory Controller Hub (rev 0e)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 04)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #1 (rev 04)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #2 (rev 04)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #3 (rev 04)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #4 (rev 04)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 04)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev d4)
00:1e.2 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 04)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FR (ICH6/ICH6R) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 04)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) IDE Controller (rev 04)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FW (ICH6/ICH6W) SATA Controller (rev 04)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 04)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation G70 [GeForce 7300 GT] (rev a1)
02:05.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)

here is lsmod :

Module                  Size  Used by
xt_TCPMSS               4160  1 
xt_tcpmss               2240  1 
iptable_mangle          2944  1 
pppoe                   8896  2 
pppox                   3532  1 pppoe
ppp_generic            20316  6 pppoe,pppox
slhc                    5504  1 ppp_generic
binfmt_misc             7816  1 
ipv6                  234108  18 
video                  16464  0 
output                  3136  1 video
eee                     4968  0 
container               3712  0 
fuj02b1_acpi            5572  0 
sbs                    11336  0 
sbshc                   5440  1 sbs
wmi                     6632  0 
ac                      4420  0 
asus_acpi               6880  0 
battery                10308  0 
ipt_REJECT              3008  2 
xt_tcpudp               3072  5 
iptable_filter          2880  1 
ip_tables              10448  2 iptable_mangle,iptable_filter
x_tables               13828  5 xt_TCPMSS,xt_tcpmss,ipt_REJECT,xt_tcpudp,ip_tables
microcode               8688  0 
firmware_class          7232  1 microcode
fuse                   44444  3 
gspca                 609380  0 
videodev               28480  1 gspca
v4l1_compat            12484  1 videodev
it87                   17936  0 
hwmon_vid               2944  1 it87
snd_intel8x0           26076  3 
snd_pcsp                8800  1 
snd_ac97_codec         87524  1 snd_intel8x0
ac97_bus                1984  1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_pcm_oss            33056  0 
snd_pcm                62340  4 snd_intel8x0,snd_pcsp,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss
snd_mixer_oss          12736  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_seq_dummy           2948  0 
snd_seq_midi            6048  0 
snd_rawmidi            18784  1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_oss            25372  0 
snd_seq_midi_event      6656  2 snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_oss
snd_seq                41704  6 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_timer              18184  2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_seq_device          6668  5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq
i2c_i801                8016  1 
iTCO_wdt                9636  0 
hci_usb                12444  0 
button                  6288  0 
psmouse                32144  0 
parport_pc             22228  0 
i2c_core               20052  2 eee,i2c_i801
evdev                   8256  3 
snd                    45816  19 snd_intel8x0,snd_pcsp,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss,snd_pcm,snd_mixer_oss,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
bluetooth              45476  1 hci_usb
parport                31380  1 parport_pc
serio_raw               4996  0 
soundcore               6856  1 snd
agpgart                29044  0 
rng_core                4164  0 
snd_page_alloc          8008  2 snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm
ext3                  105608  3 
jbd                    42388  1 ext3
mbcache                 7428  1 ext3
ide_cd_mod             27652  0 
cdrom                  30680  1 ide_cd_mod
sd_mod                 22168  6 
ata_generic             4868  0 
ata_piix               15300  6 
libata                139688  2 ata_generic,ata_piix
piix                    6792  0 [permanent]
8139cp                 16896  0 
scsi_mod              130748  2 sd_mod,libata
dock                    8528  1 libata
8139too                20352  0 
mii                     5184  2 8139cp,8139too
uhci_hcd               18832  0 
ide_pci_generic         4164  0 [permanent]
ehci_hcd               28108  0 
ide_core               92696  3 ide_cd_mod,piix,ide_pci_generic
usbcore               116624  5 gspca,hci_usb,uhci_hcd,ehci_hcd
thermal                15196  0 
processor              33456  1 thermal
fan                     4420  0

[prshah]

tried copying a 10GB directory ,it took around 35minutes to complete!

[/code]here is lsmod :

Module                  Size  Used by
ide_cd_mod             27652  0 
cdrom                  30680  1 ide_cd_mod
scsi_mod              130748  2 sd_mod,libata
ide_pci_generic         4164  0 [permanent]
ide_core               92696  3 ide_cd_mod,piix,ide_pci_generic

You have a number of "ide" entries whereas I don't have any; I think you are also running fujitsu.

Maybe you have the "all_generic_ide" kernel parameter set in your grub menu bootup options; you can confirm with

cat /boot/grub/menu.lst | grep -i generic_ide

Or if not that, maybe you have the BIOS options for SATA set to "Legacy", or "IDE mode" or "IDE compatiable" or something similar.

[deepclutch]

no I dont have any fujitsu things.no ide setup too.

I think these modules are for the ide port used by my DVD writer drive.

libata 140136 3 ata_generic,pata_acpi,ata_piix

^these are the modules that are loaded for sata I think.

[prshah]

I think these modules are for the ide port used by my DVD writer drive.

My ATAPI (IDE) DVD writer drives are also treated as SCSI (non-ide), eg. /dev/sr0, /dev/sr1.

Just to make it clear: on my system, I have a SATA drive and 2 IDE DVD-RM drives:

Thu Jun 12 05:11:17 ~:$ lsmod | grep -i ide
video                  19856  0 
output                  4736  1 video
videobuf_dma_sg        14980  2 saa7134_alsa,saa7134
videobuf_core          18820  2 saa7134,videobuf_dma_sg
videodev               29440  1 saa7134
v4l2_common            18304  3 tuner,saa7134,videodev
v4l1_compat            15492  2 saa7134,videodev

You can observe from the above that I have no IDE modules loaded, inspite of having IDE drives.

Can you post your "/etc/modules" file? I'm convinced that your SATA drive is being treated as IDE.

Can you also post the output of

dmesg | grep -i dma

[sdennie]

Can you post the output of:

sudo hdparm -tT /dev/sda

[deepclutch]

/dev/sda:
Timing cached reads: 1432 MB in 2.00 seconds = 715.49 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 82 MB in 3.02 seconds = 27.16 MB/sec

and :

/dev/sdb:
Timing cached reads: 1438 MB in 2.00 seconds = 718.74 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 150 MB in 3.03 seconds = 49.55 MB/sec

Let me know the kernel option to enable the full DMA and transfer speed support option

Thank you!

[underground]

I am trying to copy files between two partitions of the same sata drive and the speed is 11mb/sec.

Is this speed good or it should be higher?

[deepclutch]

^low

[underground]

Is there any solution to make it higher???

[sdennie]

deepclutch, are both of your disks identical? The ratio of the hdparm results is very similar to the ratio you'd see if you had one 4200rpm disk and one 7200rpm disk.