SATA->IDE emulation on IBM P4 bogs down on HD writes

From	Mike Spencer <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere>
Newsgroups	comp.os.linux.hardware
Subject	SATA->IDE emulation on IBM P4 bogs down on HD writes
Date	2016-05-19 20:23 -0300
Organization	Bridgewater Institute for Advanced Study - Blacksmith Shop
Message-ID	<87a8jl7htw.fsf@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> (permalink)

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This probably isn't a hardware matter per se but maybe a hardware
wizard here will have a solution.

IBM P4 desktop came with an IDE HD.  HD failed.  Mobo has two plugs
labeled "SATA IDE n" where n is "1" and "2".  Plugging a SATA drive
into one of those (suitable cable and power adapter) results in the
SATA drive being seen by Linux as hda. (?!) It works just fine in
every respect except one:

Large writes to the HD, e.g. cp bigfile-from-foo /dir/on/HD, runs as
expected for a few seconds, then the system bogs down.  X cursor gets
jerky, key strokes may take a minute to elicit visible response.
Copy proceeds at an acceptable speed but the box is unusable until the
copy is finished and sync'd.

This happens for any foo from which bigfile is copied -- USB thumb
drive, HD mounted over USB or another partition on the HD.  Does *not*
happen with no HD writes, viz. cp /dir/on/HD/bigfile /mnt/usb/other-media
or cp /mnt/usb/thumb/bigfile /mnt/usb2/other-thumb.

I've tried various things -- tweaking bits in /proc/... according to
Documentation/sysctl/vm.txt, runnning mbuffer. Looks (to me; but what
do I know?) like RAM is filling up with reads and stays filled up
until writes to HD are completed.

Aynone know about this?

Using SLackware 11 with 2.4.33 kernel.  A (much) newer kernel might
very well fix it.  I need to continue with the 2.4 kernel on this box.

-- 
Mike Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada

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SATA->IDE emulation on IBM P4 bogs down on HD writes Mike Spencer <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> - 2016-05-19 20:23 -0300
  Re: SATA->IDE emulation on IBM P4 bogs down on HD writes Bobbie Sellers <bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com> - 2016-05-19 16:32 -0700
    Re: SATA->IDE emulation on IBM P4 bogs down on HD writes Mike Spencer <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> - 2016-05-20 12:28 -0300
      Re: SATA->IDE emulation on IBM P4 bogs down on HD writes Bobbie Sellers <bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com> - 2016-05-20 09:10 -0700
  Re: SATA->IDE emulation on IBM P4 bogs down on HD writes Pascal Hambourg <boite-a-spam@plouf.fr.eu.org> - 2016-05-22 11:37 +0200
  Re: SATA->IDE emulation on IBM P4 bogs down on HD writes "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@invalid.es> - 2016-05-24 21:52 +0200
    Re: SATA->IDE emulation on IBM P4 bogs down on HD writes Mike Spencer <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> - 2016-05-28 04:07 -0300
      Re: SATA->IDE emulation on IBM P4 bogs down on HD writes Henrik Carlqvist <Henrik.Carlqvist@deadspam.com> - 2016-05-28 11:09 +0000
        Re: SATA->IDE emulation on IBM P4 bogs down on HD writes "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@invalid.es> - 2016-05-28 17:12 +0200
        Re: SATA->IDE emulation on IBM P4 bogs down on HD writes Mike Spencer <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> - 2016-05-29 01:50 -0300
          Re: SATA->IDE emulation on IBM P4 bogs down on HD writes ANTant@zimage.com (Ant) - 2016-05-29 11:41 -0500
        Re: SATA->IDE emulation on IBM P4 bogs down on HD writes Mike Spencer <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> - 2016-05-29 02:41 -0300
          Re: SATA->IDE emulation on IBM P4 bogs down on HD writes "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@invalid.es> - 2016-05-29 14:06 +0200
            Re: SATA->IDE emulation on IBM P4 bogs down on HD writes ANTant@zimage.com (Ant) - 2016-05-29 11:42 -0500
              Re: SATA->IDE emulation on IBM P4 bogs down on HD writes "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@invalid.es> - 2016-05-29 21:09 +0200
                Re: SATA->IDE emulation on IBM P4 bogs down on HD writes Aragorn <thorongil@telenet.be.invalid> - 2016-05-30 10:57 +0200
                Re: SATA->IDE emulation on IBM P4 bogs down on HD writes "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@invalid.es> - 2016-05-30 14:21 +0200
                Re: SATA->IDE emulation on IBM P4 bogs down on HD writes Aragorn <thorongil@telenet.be.invalid> - 2016-05-30 15:49 +0200

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