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Help Installing VIA SATA driver


hanez
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I have MDK 10.0 official and Im trying to install the SATA driver for the HD my mdk is currently booting off of. Its a VIA VT8237 and I downloaded the Linux/Mandrake driver but Im having some problems.

 

1. Using the precompile binary

I try the precompile but the instructions are for MDK9.2

it says to:

 

cp viamraid.o /lib/modules/2.4.22-10mdk/misc (dont have this directory so I cp to /lib/modules/2.6.3-7mdk/)

 

depmod -a

 

modprobe viamraid

 

But I get this error:

root@localhost hanes]# modprobe viamraid

FATAL: Module viamraid not found.

 

 

2. Compiling the driver

When I try to "make" the driver, i get errors,

 

[root@localhost driver]# make

gcc -c -DVIA_LINUX -DMULTIPLE_CARD_SUPPORT -DMODULE -D__KERNEL__=1 -O -DMODVERSIONS -I/usr/src/linux/include -I/usr/src/linux/include/asm -I/usr/src/linux/drivers/scsi -Wall viapubraid.c

In file included from viapubraid.h:6,

from viapubraid.c:21:

/usr/include/linux/version.h:2:2: #error "======================================================="

/usr/include/linux/version.h:3:2: #error "You should not include /usr/include/{linux,asm}/ header"

/usr/include/linux/version.h:4:2: #error "files directly for the compilation of kernel modules."

/usr/include/linux/version.h:5:2: #error ""

...

...

viapubraid.c:551:25: scsi_module.c: No such file or directory

make: *** [viapubraid.o] Error 1

(it basically prints out the whole file...)

 

Anyways I've got a driver I cant install (and I think my HD is abnormally slow because of this...)

 

Anyone have a solution? Thanks in advance.

 

Gino

PS Attached are the instructions for the driver

via_ml9.2_raid_combo_driver_ver0.8a.pdf

Edited by hanez
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I think your particular error is because you don't have your kernel source installed, but I tried to install this driver as well (to help you), but it seems it is not compatible with 2.6 kernels, only 2.4.*. Maybe they'll release a new driver soon?

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BTW, have you tested the drive to make sure it really is abnormally slow? A quick test that's good enough for ballpark figures is:

 

# hdparm -Tt /dev/hdX

 

(where hdX is the device for the drive you want to test). Cache reads depend on your memory speed and can vary a lot, should be anywhere from 300 up to 800. Disk reads are the important thing, these should be somewhere in the 40-70 range. Anything a lot lower than that means you do have some kind of speed problem.

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[root@localhost hanes]# hdparm -Tt /dev/hda

 

/dev/hda:

Timing buffer-cache reads: 1120 MB in 2.00 seconds = 559.81 MB/sec

Timing buffered disk reads: 146 MB in 3.02 seconds = 48.30 MB/sec

 

Does that just mean I have to live with speeds 2-3 times slower then xp on the same box? Darn it, I love MDK but it runs very slow on a 2.7 Athlon, oddly enough I was using a server at work (700MHz running Red Hat 9) and they were about the same speed.

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Nobody is getting 100 to 150MB/sec sustained disk transfer speeds with a sata drive whether in winxp or anywhere else. Your speeds, while a little on the slow side, are within the normal range for a sata drive. For example, I get 56MB/sec. Something else is going on here; I'm sure it's not a disk performance issue. Post the amount of your system ram. Before getting too deep into this, if you don't have a lot invested in your mdk10 install, you might want to try mdk10.1.

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Try running lsmod in a terminal as root

 

If you don't see the entry sata_via then edit your /etc/modprobe.preload file (again as root) and add it at the end.

 

For what it's worth, you're getting better speed from your sata drive than I am from mine. I cannot compare it with Windows, cause my XP installation has no access to that drive.

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Welll, I dont know exactly what is going on. I installed 10.1 and it was SLOWER than 10.0. ALOT SLOWER. So I start going crazy right? I think hey maybe MDK is just slow, maybe I should try gentoo and compile everything from scratch, maybe userfriendly is just for windows...

 

Well instead I install MDK10.1 on an IDE drive I had lying around (on the same box). Well its a speedemon now... 2-3 times faster then MDK (same version) on my sata drive was, maybe more....

 

Dont you think this means it MUST be a driver issue? I have 256 RAM on a 2.7 Athlon, Radeon 9200 btw.

Edited by hanez
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The driver you are talking about downloading and installing is for raid. The sata_via driver that comes with MDK is sufficient. I use an Asus A7V600 with the via vt8237 sata controller as well and I get about 50-70 avg. Bear in mind that if you run hdparm -tT /dev/sda several times in succession, you'll get a faster speed each time, till it levels/tops out...

[root@desktop omar]# hdparm -tT /dev/sda
/dev/sda:
Timing buffer-cache reads:   1228 MB in  2.00 seconds = 613.48 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads:  166 MB in  3.01 seconds =  55.16 MB/sec
[root@desktop omar]# hdparm -tT /dev/sda
/dev/sda:
Timing buffer-cache reads:   1228 MB in  2.00 seconds = 613.79 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads:  220 MB in  3.04 seconds =  72.45 MB/sec
[root@desktop omar]# hdparm -tT /dev/sda
/dev/sda:
Timing buffer-cache reads:   1220 MB in  2.01 seconds = 608.27 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads:  290 MB in  3.01 seconds =  96.33 MB/sec
[root@desktop omar]# hdparm -tT /dev/sda
/dev/sda:
Timing buffer-cache reads:   1224 MB in  2.00 seconds = 610.87 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads:  262 MB in  3.01 seconds =  87.06 MB/sec

 

Of course I get these errors in between the two tests:

BLKFLSBUF failed: Operation not supported

HDIO_DRIVE_CMD(null) (wait for flush complete) failed: Operation not supported

 

but I don't know if that is strictly because I'm using Cooker or if it is a driver issue, or normal output for trying to hdparm a SATA drive.

 

Here's the relevent modules loaded for my drive:

 

sd_mod

sata_via

libata

scsi_mod

 

One of the versions of MDK did not use scsi emulation for this controller and called it /dev/hde, so you wouldn't need sd_mod or scsi_mod for it.

 

For what it's worth, here's hdparm -tT results for an IDE drive on the same computer connected alone on the primary IDE channel:

[root@desktop omar]# hdparm -tT /dev/hda

/dev/hda:
Timing buffer-cache reads:   1220 MB in  2.00 seconds = 609.48 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads:   52 MB in  3.08 seconds =  16.87 MB/sec
[root@desktop omar]# hdparm -tT /dev/hda

/dev/hda:
Timing buffer-cache reads:   1220 MB in  2.01 seconds = 608.27 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads:   52 MB in  3.05 seconds =  17.07 MB/sec
[root@desktop omar]# hdparm -tT /dev/hda

/dev/hda:
Timing buffer-cache reads:   1212 MB in  2.00 seconds = 605.18 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads:   52 MB in  3.05 seconds =  17.04 MB/sec
[root@desktop omar]# hdparm -tT /dev/hda

/dev/hda:
Timing buffer-cache reads:   1220 MB in  2.00 seconds = 609.48 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads:   52 MB in  3.04 seconds =  17.13 MB/sec

 

What file system are you using? Are you, by any chance, using a journalled filesystem on the IDE drive and not on the SATA, or vice versa?

Edited by Steve Scrimpshire
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hdparm is a fairly rough-and-ready test; it might not catch some problems. Maybe there's some kind of more fine-grained problem going on here. Hard to know *what*, though...

 

btw, what results do you get with hdparm on the IDE drive? just for comparison.

Edited by adamw
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