UGN Security
Posted By: Le4rner Speeding up system by tweeking my HD - 10/04/02 10:33 PM
http://blacksun.box.sk/tutorials.php?id=51

Is this article still reliable or would you say newer versions of Linux already support this? I am now running Linux Mandrake 9.0
Posted By: hKzKnight Re: Speeding up system by tweeking my HD - 10/05/02 02:52 AM
c00 deal
Posted By: Le4rner Re: Speeding up system by tweeking my HD - 10/05/02 08:08 AM
Well I guess it dosen't work. When I type in

"hdparm" as the article said to do, I got something saying command not recognised.
hdparm, as I'm fairly sure you are aware after reading the article, is a utility that allows you to configure your hard drive for maximum performance. Chances are you still have it on your computer. Do a locate hdparm. That should give you the path name to it. Then, to run it. Just type the full path name. Probably something like /usr/sbin/hdparm. Then give it the options it loves and needs. The first option is probably the hard drive. So, /path/to/hdparm hda I'd imagine.
Unless you are running a SCSI hdd. Then it'd be sda. Whether the article works anymore, I believe it would. I can't see any real reason why it wouldn't / shouldn't. It should be fairly easy to tell for sure though by just looking at the parameters of your hard drive using the hdparm command. Oh yeah. You'll need to be running as root to do all these as well.
Hope that helps some.
Posted By: Le4rner Re: Speeding up system by tweeking my HD - 10/05/02 08:53 PM
Quote:
Originally posted by ReverendNinjaSox:
hdparm, as I'm fairly sure you are aware after reading the article, is a utility that allows you to configure your hard drive for maximum performance. Chances are you still have it on your computer. Do a locate hdparm. That should give you the path name to it. Then, to run it. Just type the full path name. Probably something like /usr/sbin/hdparm. Then give it the options it loves and needs. The first option is probably the hard drive. So, /path/to/hdparm hda I'd imagine.
Unless you are running a SCSI hdd. Then it'd be sda. Whether the article works anymore, I believe it would. I can't see any real reason why it wouldn't / shouldn't. It should be fairly easy to tell for sure though by just looking at the parameters of your hard drive using the hdparm command. Oh yeah. You'll need to be running as root to do all these as well.
Hope that helps some.
Yes it dose a bit. you said do a locate hdpram... YOu mean

$locate hdparm

Running as root isn't a problem. Thanks man.
Posted By: hKzKnight Re: Speeding up system by tweeking my HD - 10/05/02 09:01 PM
BTW link does work, lol eh... There are a lot of tweaks out there, just remember you gotta becareful what you do (don't [censored] up your system).
Posted By: Le4rner Re: Speeding up system by tweeking my HD - 10/05/02 11:15 PM
heh, I know the links works, I wanted to know if the tweek was still worth it.
Yeah I meant locate hdparm.
You can also issue a find command. However, more then likely you are using an up to date Linux distro with the locate utility. It automatically builds a database of all the files on your system once per day I believe. I can't remember off the top of my head and I'm a little sick so don't really feel like looking it up. So just type locate hdparm at the command line. If that doesn't work. Do a find for hdparm. That should point you to the right location for it. Hope that helps. Sorry I'm not as informative as I could otherwise be.
Posted By: Le4rner Re: Speeding up system by tweeking my HD - 10/07/02 08:17 PM
thanx! You've been plenty helpful. Locate returned 5 results.... I am at work now so I do not have them with me, but none of the results helped me. I will try find when I get home.
Posted By: Energy Re: Speeding up system by tweeking my HD - 10/08/02 10:22 PM
You can also do a:
# which hdparm
This will only search your path for the program so it may give you less files to choose from. In my distro it is in /sbin

By the way. Most shells do not provide all the sbin directories in the "normal" user's account. So I usually add them. For bash I add to the ~/.profile:
PATH=$PATH:/sbin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/sbin
Posted By: Skull Re: Speeding up system by tweeking my HD - 10/09/02 10:23 PM
Mine is in the /sbin/hdparm as well, just type it as su and it should give you bunch of options. I just logged in as su and typed which hdparm and it spit fowarth information.

Regards,

Skull
Posted By: Le4rner Re: Speeding up system by tweeking my HD - 10/10/02 01:34 PM
Something isn't right. Logged in as root I did a locate hdparm and I got the following...

Quote:
$ locate hdparm
/etc/sysconfig/apm-scripts/resume.d/1hdparm
/etc/sysconfig/apm-scripts/resume.d/9hdparm
/etc/sysconfig/apm-scripts/suspend.d/2hdparm
/usr/share/webmin/fdisk/apply_hdparm.cgi
/usr/share/webmin/fdisk/edit_hdparm.cgi
mad This is getting to piss me off. it is a command right? What is the chance this didn't install when I installed everything?
Pretty decent I'd imagine if it isn't showing up in their. I'm not sure whether Mandrake ships with it by default, however, hopping on over to Mandrakes page shows me you can download hdparm from a mirror ftp. Go here to get it.
ftp://ftp.nmt.edu/pub/linux/mandrake/9.0/i586/Mandrake/RPMS/hdparm-5.2-1mdk.i586.rpm
Hope that helps some.
Posted By: Le4rner Re: Speeding up system by tweeking my HD - 10/14/02 06:32 PM
Code
 
[root$] hdparm

hdparm - get/set hard disk parameters - version v5.2

Usage:  hdparm  [options] [device] ..

Options:
 -a   get/set fs readahead
 -A   set drive read-lookahead flag (0/1)
 -b   get/set bus state (0 == off, 1 == on, 2 == tristate)
 -B   set Advanced Power Management setting (1-255)
 -c   get/set IDE 32-bit IO setting
 -C   check IDE power mode status
 -d   get/set using_dma flag
 -D   enable/disable drive defect-mgmt
 -E   set cd-rom drive speed
 -f   flush buffer cache for device on exit
 -g   display drive geometry
 -h   display terse usage information
 -i   display drive identification
 -I   detailed/current information directly from drive
 -Istdin  similar to -I, but wants /proc/ide/*/hd?/identify as input
 -k   get/set keep_settings_over_reset flag (0/1)
 -K   set drive keep_features_over_reset flag (0/1)
 -L   set drive doorlock (0/1) (removable harddisks only)
 -M   get/set acoustic management (0-254, 128: quiet, 254: fast) (EXPERIMENTAL)
 -m   get/set multiple sector count
 -n   get/set ignore-write-errors flag (0/1)
 -p   set PIO mode on IDE interface chipset (0,1,2,3,4,...)
 -P   set drive prefetch count
 -q   change next setting quietly
 -Q   get/set DMA tagged-queuing depth (if supported)
 -r   get/set readonly flag (DANGEROUS to set)
 -R   register an IDE interface (DANGEROUS)
 -S   set standby (spindown) timeout
 -t   perform device read timings
 -T   perform cache read timings
 -u   get/set unmaskirq flag (0/1)
 -U   un-register an IDE interface (DANGEROUS)
 -v   defaults; same as -mcudkrag for IDE drives
 -V   display program version and exit immediately
 -w   perform device reset (DANGEROUS)
 -W   set drive write-caching flag (0/1) (DANGEROUS)
 -x   tristate device for hotswap (0/1) (DANGEROUS)
 -X   set IDE xfer mode (DANGEROUS)
 -y   put IDE drive in standby mode
 -Y   put IDE drive to sleep
 -Z   disable Seagate auto-powersaving mode
 -z   re-read partition table

[root]#  hdparm -I /dev/hda

/dev/hda:

ATA device, with non-removable media
	Model Number:       WDC WD200BB-75AUA1                      
	Serial Number:      WD-WMA6Y3079642[root@pcp02498864pcs root]# 
[root]# hdparm -t /dev/hda

/dev/hda:
 Timing buffered disk reads:  64 MB in  2.03 seconds = 31.53 MB/sec
[root]# hdparm -t /dev/hda

/dev/hda:
 Timing buffered disk reads:  64 MB in  2.01 seconds = 31.84 MB/sec
[root]# hdparm -t /dev/hda

/dev/hda:
 Timing buffered disk reads:  64 MB in  2.01 seconds = 31.84 MB/sec
[root]# hdparm /dev/hda

/dev/hda:
 multcount    = 16 (on)
 IO_support   =  0 (default 16-bit)
 unmaskirq    =  0 (off)
 using_dma    =  1 (on)
 keepsettings =  0 (off)
 readonly     =  0 (off)
 readahead    =  8 (on)
 geometry     = 2434/255/63, sectors = 39102336, start = 0
 
[root]# hdparm -c3 -m16 /dev/hda

/dev/hda:
 setting 32-bit IO_support flag to 3
 setting multcount to 16
 multcount    = 16 (on)
 IO_support   =  3 (32-bit w/sync)
[root]# hdparm -t /dev/hda

/dev/hda:
 Timing buffered disk reads:  64 MB in  2.02 seconds = 31.68 MB/sec
[root]# hdparm -d1 /dev/hda

/dev/hda:
 setting using_dma to 1 (on)
 using_dma    =  1 (on)
[root]# hdparm -d1 -X34 /dev/hda

/dev/hda:
 setting using_dma to 1 (on)
 setting xfermode to 34 (multiword DMA mode2)
 using_dma    =  1 (on)
[root]# hdparm -u1 /dev/hda

/dev/hda:
 setting unmaskirq to 1 (on)
 unmaskirq    =  1 (on)



-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Right here you can see I am slower than before...
I went from 31.53 mb/s to 13.79 mb/s more than half the performance I had previously
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-




[root]# hdparm -t /dev/hda

/dev/hda:
 Timing buffered disk reads:  64 MB in  4.64 seconds = 13.79 MB/sec

[root]# hdparm -t /dev/hda

/dev/hda:
 Timing buffered disk reads:  64 MB in  4.63 seconds = 13.82 MB/sec


[root]# hdparm -i -I /dev/hda  

/dev/hda:

 Model=WDC WD200BB-75AUA1, FwRev=18.20D18, SerialNo=WD-WMA6Y3079642
 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=16
 CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=16514064, LBA=yes, LBAsects=39102336
 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 
 UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 udma5 
 AdvancedPM=no WriteCache=enabled
 Drive conforms to: device does not report version:  1 2 3 4 5


ATA device, with non-removable media
	Model Number:       WDC WD200BB-75AUA1                      
	Serial Number:      WD-WMA6Y3079642
[root]# hdparm -p4 /dev/hda

/dev/hda:
 attempting to set PIO mode to 4
[root]# hdparm -t /dev/hda

/dev/hda:
 Timing buffered disk reads:  64 MB in  4.63 seconds = 13.82 MB/sec
[root]# hdparm -t /dev/hda

/dev/hda:
 Timing buffered disk reads:  64 MB in  4.64 seconds = 13.79 MB/sec


-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Still slower after I made all changes... 
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-


 
Luckily these changes aren't permanet if I read right. I didn't edit my etc/rc.local script, so they will not take place on every boot up.

I am curious though why this didn't work. It should have spead me up, but instead did the opposite. any ideas?
Posted By: Le4rner Re: Speeding up system by tweeking my HD - 10/14/02 07:37 PM
got it. The tut covered a lower mode than my box supports for UDMA modes

I modified

Code
hdparm -d1 -X34 /dev/hda
to

Code
hdparm -d1 -X udma5 /dev/hda
Now look at my times

Code
/dev/hda:
 Timing buffered disk reads:  64 MB in  2.01 seconds = 31.84 MB/sec
[root@pcp02498864pcs root]# hdparm -t /dev/hda

/dev/hda:
 Timing buffered disk reads:  64 MB in  2.01 seconds = 31.84 MB/sec
[root@pcp02498864pcs root]# hdparm -t /dev/hda

/dev/hda:
 Timing buffered disk reads:  64 MB in  2.01 seconds = 31.84 MB/sec
nothing ground breaking as far as improvement goes, but slightly better.
Posted By: hKzKnight Re: Speeding up system by tweeking my HD - 10/14/02 10:18 PM
c00
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