IRQ problem with PCMCIA

IRQ problem with PCMCIA

[Hesse, Christian]

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Hello everybody,

seems like I have a problem with PCMCIA/PCCARD. If I transfer data to or from 
a CF card inserted via adapter system waits for interrupts most of the time:

Cpu(s): 21.2% us,  7.9% sy,  0.0% ni,  0.0% id,  1.7% wa, 69.2% hi,  0.0% si

This results in a very unresponsive system and a transfer rate of up to 1MB/s 
(my new camera writes with up to 10MB/s on the card...).

Any idea what could be the reason? This is with 2.6.12/pcmcia-cs and with 
2.6.13-rc*/pcmciautils. The CF card is a Lexar 1GB.

root@logo:~# cat /proc/interrupts | grep yenta
 11:    5914154          XT-PIC  yenta, yenta, uhci_hcd:usb2, Intel 
82801DB-ICH4, ide2

-- 
Regards,
Christian

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Re: IRQ problem with PCMCIA

[David Hinds]

On Sun, Aug 21, 2005 at 08:43:50PM +0200, Hesse, Christian wrote:
> Hello everybody,
> 
> seems like I have a problem with PCMCIA/PCCARD. If I transfer data
> to or from a CF card inserted via adapter system waits for
> interrupts most of the time: Cpu(s): 21.2% us, 7.9% sy, 0.0% ni,
> 0.0% id, 1.7% wa, 69.2% hi, 0.0% si This results in a very
> unresponsive system and a transfer rate of up to 1MB/s (my new
> camera writes with up to 10MB/s on the card...).

The drivers are working correctly; the problem is with the CF flash
adapter you're using.  There are two kinds of CF-to-PCMCIA adapters.
Some are 16-bit PCMCIA cards, which are in most cases limited to a bus
throughput of ~1 MB/sec, regardless of what the CF card is capable
of.  There are also 32-bit CF adapter cards, that are much faster,
limited only by the speed of the CF device.  Here are two:

http://www.delkin.com/delkin_products_adapters_cardbus.html
http://www.lexarmedia.com/readers/cf32bit.html

-- Dave

Re: IRQ problem with PCMCIA

[David Hinds]

On Sun, Aug 21, 2005 at 03:17:39PM -0700, David Hinds wrote:
> 
> The drivers are working correctly; the problem is with the CF flash
> adapter you're using.  There are two kinds of CF-to-PCMCIA adapters.
> Some are 16-bit PCMCIA cards, which are in most cases limited to a bus
> throughput of ~1 MB/sec, regardless of what the CF card is capable
> of.  There are also 32-bit CF adapter cards, that are much faster,
> limited only by the speed of the CF device.  Here are two:
> 
> http://www.delkin.com/delkin_products_adapters_cardbus.html
> http://www.lexarmedia.com/readers/cf32bit.html

One caveat: I'm not sure if CardBus IDE devices are working under
Linux??  I'd think they should work with 2.6, but don't actually know
that for a fact.

-- Dave

Re: IRQ problem with PCMCIA

[Alan Cox]

On Sul, 2005-08-21 at 15:19 -0700, David Hinds wrote
> One caveat: I'm not sure if CardBus IDE devices are working under
> Linux??  I'd think they should work with 2.6, but don't actually know
> that for a fact.

They work with some patches to the core IDE code I did, but I've given
up ever getting those into the kernel. Please wait instead for the new
SATA/ATA layer to develop hotplug support.

Re: IRQ problem with PCMCIA

[Bartlomiej Zolnierkiewicz]

On 8/22/05, Alan Cox <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk> wrote:
> On Sul, 2005-08-21 at 15:19 -0700, David Hinds wrote
> > One caveat: I'm not sure if CardBus IDE devices are working under
> > Linux??  I'd think they should work with 2.6, but don't actually know
> > that for a fact.

CardBus IDE devices work just fine but there are still issues with
hotplug support (work in progress).

> They work with some patches to the core IDE code I did, but I've given

Alan has been living in his own reality for some time:

http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/5/2/123

> up ever getting those into the kernel. Please wait instead for the new
> SATA/ATA layer to develop hotplug support.

This is just a FUD to discourage people from working on IDE drivers.
Alan is doing this on purpose and doesn't really want to improve things.

Bartlomiej

Re: IRQ problem with PCMCIA

[Alan Cox]

On Llu, 2005-08-22 at 11:25 +0200, Bartlomiej Zolnierkiewicz wrote:
> CardBus IDE devices work just fine but there are still issues with
> hotplug support (work in progress).

"work in progress". Yes because I submitted working IDE cardbus hotplug
support, and Mark Lord submitted a Delkin driver both of which worked
months ago rather nicely and neither of which hit the Bartlomiej stone
wall and never got in and are now stale patches.

> > up ever getting those into the kernel. Please wait instead for the new
> > SATA/ATA layer to develop hotplug support.
> 
> This is just a FUD to discourage people from working on IDE drivers.
> Alan is doing this on purpose and doesn't really want to improve things.

Its a realistic assessment based upon over ten years working on the
Linux kernel. I do not believe you are capable of fixing the old IDE
code. But don't take that personally I am sceptical than anyone can fix
the old IDE code.

Alan

Re: IRQ problem with PCMCIA

[Bartlomiej Zolnierkiewicz]

On 8/22/05, Alan Cox <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk> wrote:
> On Llu, 2005-08-22 at 11:25 +0200, Bartlomiej Zolnierkiewicz wrote:
> > CardBus IDE devices work just fine but there are still issues with
> > hotplug support (work in progress).
> 
> "work in progress". Yes because I submitted working IDE cardbus hotplug
> support, and Mark Lord submitted a Delkin driver both of which worked
> months ago rather nicely and neither of which hit the Bartlomiej stone
> wall and never got in and are now stale patches.

Your hotplug support was bad from design/maintainability/workability
POVs so got NAK-ed for a good reasons.  Delkin driver can be integrated
soon.

"working nice" != "acceptable for kernel.org"

Because of "working nice" attitude IDE driver became such a mess.

> > > up ever getting those into the kernel. Please wait instead for the new
> > > SATA/ATA layer to develop hotplug support.
> >
> > This is just a FUD to discourage people from working on IDE drivers.
> > Alan is doing this on purpose and doesn't really want to improve things.
> 
> Its a realistic assessment based upon over ten years working on the
> Linux kernel. I do not believe you are capable of fixing the old IDE
> code. But don't take that personally I am sceptical than anyone can fix
> the old IDE code.

I'll keep trying you can keep whining.

Bartlomiej

Re: IRQ problem with PCMCIA

[Alan Cox]

On Llu, 2005-08-22 at 12:32 +0200, Bartlomiej Zolnierkiewicz wrote:
> I'll keep trying you can keep whining.

Actually I'm rather busy porting the old ATA drivers over to the new
SATA layer right now. HPT and VIA will be nasty to do but the simpler
drivers are moving over quite nicely. 

Now back to ata_serverworks.c

Re: IRQ problem with PCMCIA

[Bartlomiej Zolnierkiewicz]

On 8/22/05, Alan Cox <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk> wrote:
> On Llu, 2005-08-22 at 12:32 +0200, Bartlomiej Zolnierkiewicz wrote:
> > I'll keep trying you can keep whining.
> 
> Actually I'm rather busy porting the old ATA drivers over to the new
> SATA layer right now. HPT and VIA will be nasty to do but the simpler
> drivers are moving over quite nicely.

Porting drivers is the easiest part.
The hard part is providing all needed infrastructure.

> Now back to ata_serverworks.c

Good, it will make also my work easier (merging IDE/libata).
It is a bit shame that you haven't started with ata_821x.c.

Bartlomiej

Re: IRQ problem with PCMCIA

[Erik Mouw]

On Mon, Aug 22, 2005 at 12:30:15PM +0100, Alan Cox wrote:
> Actually I'm rather busy porting the old ATA drivers over to the new
> SATA layer right now. HPT and VIA will be nasty to do but the simpler
> drivers are moving over quite nicely. 

Is there any place where we can get your current patches?


Erik

-- 
+-- Erik Mouw -- www.harddisk-recovery.com -- +31 70 370 12 90 --
| Lab address: Delftechpark 26, 2628 XH, Delft, The Netherlands

Re: IRQ problem with PCMCIA

[Andre Hedrick]

Alan,

The old code can be fixed, just I don't have the time or any desire to
look at it again, still.  The burn out from the last issues from
2001-2003, cost me some health problems over the stress.  

If I encounter these problems and become annoyed enough, I will fix it.
However, if it is cheaper to buy working hardware, that is the route I
will take.

You (Alan), if anyone knows anything can be done in Linux, otherwise none
of us would have ever put this much effort into its success.

Cheers,

Andre


On Mon, 22 Aug 2005, Alan Cox wrote:

> On Llu, 2005-08-22 at 11:25 +0200, Bartlomiej Zolnierkiewicz wrote:
> > CardBus IDE devices work just fine but there are still issues with
> > hotplug support (work in progress).
> 
> "work in progress". Yes because I submitted working IDE cardbus hotplug
> support, and Mark Lord submitted a Delkin driver both of which worked
> months ago rather nicely and neither of which hit the Bartlomiej stone
> wall and never got in and are now stale patches.
> 
> > > up ever getting those into the kernel. Please wait instead for the new
> > > SATA/ATA layer to develop hotplug support.
> > 
> > This is just a FUD to discourage people from working on IDE drivers.
> > Alan is doing this on purpose and doesn't really want to improve things.
> 
> Its a realistic assessment based upon over ten years working on the
> Linux kernel. I do not believe you are capable of fixing the old IDE
> code. But don't take that personally I am sceptical than anyone can fix
> the old IDE code.
> 
> Alan
> 
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Re: IRQ problem with PCMCIA

[Alan Cox]

On Maw, 2005-08-23 at 09:49 +0200, Erik Mouw wrote:
> Is there any place where we can get your current patches?

Which ones - the PATA IDE ones are in 2.6.11-ac, a subset in Fedora
(other changes in the core IDE code make forward porting stuff for
hotplug really tricky past 2.6.11).

The SATA ones I can certainly put up if there is interest. I don't want
to put them somewhere too available yet because this right now is stuff
you only want to use under controlled circumstances for development
until both they and the core SATA layer have some improvements.

Alan

Re: IRQ problem with PCMCIA

[Erik Mouw]

On Tue, Aug 23, 2005 at 11:31:58AM +0100, Alan Cox wrote:
> On Maw, 2005-08-23 at 09:49 +0200, Erik Mouw wrote:
> > Is there any place where we can get your current patches?
> 
> Which ones - the PATA IDE ones are in 2.6.11-ac, a subset in Fedora
> (other changes in the core IDE code make forward porting stuff for
> hotplug really tricky past 2.6.11).

I know about those and have been using them on my laptop.

> The SATA ones I can certainly put up if there is interest. I don't want
> to put them somewhere too available yet because this right now is stuff
> you only want to use under controlled circumstances for development
> until both they and the core SATA layer have some improvements.

That's the one I'm interested in. Yes, I do understand it can erase all
my partitions, etc.


Erik

-- 
+-- Erik Mouw -- www.harddisk-recovery.com -- +31 70 370 12 90 --
| Lab address: Delftechpark 26, 2628 XH, Delft, The Netherlands