8 Gb Seagate Cf Drive

[mars]

I picked-up a Seagate 8GB CF drive. When placed in the CF slot on my 3100, under Cacko, playing media files (audio and video) is choppy -- like the media momentarily pauses while the CF drive spins back up?

The internal Hitachi microdrive doesn't have this problem.

Anyway, are there some settings for improving microdrive performance in the CF slot?

BTW, I tried the Seagate drive in my digital camera, and it is too slow in raw mode as to be unuseable. Well useable, if you don't care about getting a second shot.

Thanks.

[deluxe]

I upped the spped of my sl-c1000 to the max possible, using the seagate drive, and kino2 plays really smoothly.............at 416mhz it's a different story.

[mars]

Just a point of comparison: the Seagate 8GB CF card works without issue under pdaXrom Beta3. My ogg's play perfectly in xmms. In Cacko, the same files don't play too well because of the aforementioned stuttering (spin up of harddrive?).

Anyway, there must be some setting for how an external microdrive is accessed that is different between Cacko and pdaXrom Beta3.

[hvontres]

Just a point of comparison: the Seagate 8GB CF card works without issue under pdaXrom Beta3. My ogg's play perfectly in xmms. In Cacko, the same files don't play too well because of the aforementioned stuttering (spin up of harddrive?).

Anyway, there must be some setting for how an external microdrive is accessed that is different between Cacko and pdaXrom Beta3.
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=142681\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

try running hdparm -I /dev/hda (or whatever device it shows up as) both in Cacko and in pdaxrom. there might be some settings that are different. I have been using a 5GB drive for a while now without any stuttering problems.

[Da_Blitz]

perhaps it could be the prefetching settings for the drive, they might not be setup because the drive identifies itself as a segate rather than hitachi?

[Jon_J]

try running hdparm -I /dev/hda (or whatever device it shows up as) both in Cacko and in pdaxrom. there might be some settings that are different. I have been using a 5GB drive for a while now without any stuttering problems.
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=142682\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

Where may I find hdparm?
It's not in my busybox in Cacko 1.23
I googled for it with this string, hdparm zaurus and didn't find a file to download that contained hdparm.

[Da_Blitz]

you might have to go to handhelds.org and get it there or get it from pdaxrom or OZ and pray it works (it should, odds are 50:50 )

[mars]

The hdparm from pdaxrom beta1 works in Cacko. Look for it on the pdaxrom.org page.

The ipkg won't install, but if you manually deconstruct the ipkg you can run the hdparm binary (the ipkg for pdaxrom/cacko is I believe a tar.gz file).

[mars]

Results for hdparm -I with pdaxrom beta3 versus cacko (zaurus 3100):

* A Seagate 8GB CF in the CF slot yields the same values

* For the internal 4GB microdrive, pdaxrom has a Buffer size: 128.0kB (under capabilities), whereas cacko has Buffer size: 0.0kB. This is for /dev/hdc3

Below is the Cacko-internal microdrive (buffer size is only difference from pdaxrom beta3):

Code: [Select]

/dev/hdc3:

CompactFlash ATA device, with removable media
    Model Number:       HMS360604D5CF00                        
    Serial Number:      
    Firmware Revision:  DP4OC30H
Standards:
    Used: ATA/ATAPI-4 published, ANSI NCITS 317-1998
    Supported: 4 3 2 1 & some of 5
Configuration:
    Logical  max    current
    cylinders    7936    7936
    heads  16    16
    sectors/track    63    63
    --
    bytes/track: 32256    bytes/sector: 512
    CHS current addressable sectors:    7999488
    LBA    user addressable sectors:    7999488
    device size with M = 1024*1024:        3906 MBytes
    device size with M = 1000*1000:        4095 MBytes (4 GB)
Capabilities:
    LBA, IORDY(can be disabled)
    Buffer size: 0.0kB    bytes avail on r/w long: 4    Queue depth: 1
    Standby timer values: spec'd by Vendor
    R/W multiple sector transfer: Max = 32    Current = 0
    Advanced power management level: 96 (0x60)
    DMA: not supported
    PIO: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
      Cycle time: no flow control=120ns  IORDY flow control=120ns
Commands/features:
    Enabled    Supported:
    *    NOP cmd
    *    READ BUFFER cmd
    *    WRITE BUFFER cmd
    *    Look-ahead
    *    Write cache
    *    Power Management feature set
    *    Mandatory FLUSH CACHE command
    *    Advanced Power Management feature set
    *    CFA feature set
CFA power mode 1:
    enabled
    Maximum current = 256ma
And here is the Cacko-External Seagate Drive (same as for pdaxrom beta3):

Code: [Select]

/dev/hda1:

CompactFlash ATA device, with removable media
    Model Number:       ST68022CF                              
    Serial Number:      
    Firmware Revision:  3.01    
Standards:
    Likely used: 6
Configuration:
    Logical  max    current
    cylinders    15501    15501
    heads  16    16
    sectors/track    63    63
    --
    CHS current addressable sectors:   15625008
    LBA    user addressable sectors:   15625008
    device size with M = 1024*1024:        7629 MBytes
    device size with M = 1000*1000:        8000 MBytes (8 GB)
Capabilities:
    LBA, IORDY(cannot be disabled)
    bytes avail on r/w long: 4    Queue depth: 1
    Standby timer values: spec'd by Vendor
    R/W multiple sector transfer: Max = 16    Current = 0
    Advanced power management level: 64 (0x40)
    Recommended acoustic management value: 128, current value: 128
    DMA: not supported
    PIO: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
      Cycle time: no flow control=120ns  IORDY flow control=120ns
Commands/features:
    Enabled    Supported:
    *    NOP cmd
    *    READ BUFFER cmd
    *    WRITE BUFFER cmd
    *    Look-ahead
    *    Write cache
    *    Power Management feature set
    *    SMART feature set
    *    Mandatory FLUSH CACHE command
    *    Advanced Power Management feature set
    *    CFA feature set
HW reset results:
    CBLID- below Vih
    Device num = 0 determined by CSEL
CFA power mode 1:
    enabled
    Maximum current = 330ma
Checksum: correct

[mars]

I think I have found success in removing or greatly minimizing the stuttering from my external Seagate drive under cacko. By playing with the Advanced power management level of the drive, the performance seems to improve. If, I go with a higher hdparm -B value (e.g., -B255 turns off the power management), the oggs and xvid files that played fine under pdaxrom now seem to perform similarly under Cacko.

It is also interesting to note that the internal Hitachi 4GB drive defaults to -B96 and the the Seagte 8GB drive defaults to -B64 (lower number is more power management). Maybe this is because the Seagate card has a higher max current draw?

What would be the best way to make the changes permanent, since there is not a /etc/hdparm.conf (debian-like system) or /etc/sysconfig/harddisks (redhat-like system).?

[hvontres]

I think I have found success in removing or greatly minimizing the stuttering from my external Seagate drive under cacko. By playing with the Advanced power management level of the drive, the performance seems to improve. If, I go with a higher hdparm -B value (e.g., -B255 turns off the power management), the oggs and xvid files that played fine under pdaxrom now seem to perform similarly under Cacko.

It is also interesting to note that the internal Hitachi 4GB drive defaults to -B96 and the the Seagte 8GB drive defaults to -B64 (lower number is more power management). Maybe this is because the Seagate card has a higher max current draw?

What would be the best way to make the changes permanent, since there is not a /etc/hdparm.conf (debian-like system) or /etc/sysconfig/harddisks (redhat-like system).?
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=144222\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

I modified my /etc/pcmcia/ide.opts file:

Code: [Select]

# ATA/IDE drive adapter configuration
#
# The address format is "scheme,socket,serial_no[,part]".
#
# For multi-partition devices, first return list of partitions in
# $PARTS.  Then, we'll get called for each partition.
#
case "$ADDRESS" in
*,*,*,1)
    #INFO="Sample IDE setup"
    DO_FSTAB="n";
    #DO_FSCK="y";
    DO_MOUNT="y"
    #FSTYPE="msdos"
    #FSTYPE="auto"
    #OPTS=""
    #MOUNTPT="/mnt/ide"
   ;;
*,*,"3ME0547Y") #your drives serial no. here
    PARTS="1"
    HDPARM="-B255 -m16 -k1"
    /usr/sbin/hdparm $HDPARM /dev/hda
    # Card eject policy options
    NO_CHECK=n
    NO_FUSER=y
   ;;
*,*,*)
    PARTS="1"
    # Card eject policy options
    NO_CHECK=n
    NO_FUSER=y
   ;;
esac

Hope this helps

[Da_Blitz]

this is where it gets a bit funny, the values for many settings in hdparm are set by the manufacturer, that is there is no standard so -B64 will do diffrent things on diffrent drives (thats why some people hate the ATA spec as its not specific enough)

experimintation is the key here but enabling the buffer (mainly for writes) should give you a nice performance boost, on a PC reaad caching dosent yield a performance boost whovere it would be intresting to contrast this with a slow bus with slow accsess (ie the zaurus)

the default settings arent set in stone ethier but are what segate or the hard drive manufacturer recomends, many PC hard drives ship in "quiet" mode and tend to get crappy benchmarks unless you turn off acustic managment (ie APM)

another good one to try is the settings for spin up and down time, try to minimise ram usage and prefetch where possible. when this comes to MP3's or moives just increse your buffer cache. you might also want to look into laptop mode if running on a 2.6 kernel as this should reduce the amount of time the microdrive is on and can easily get you 20mins of battery on regular mp3 playback