I remember there is supposed to be a Workbench prefs program to change UBoot settings in OS4. A quick search indicates it should be called UBoot (?), but I see nothing like that in the Prefs drawer, and there is a suspicious gap between the Timezone & USB icons (as if it was supposed to be there but isn't).

Does anyone else have this problem, or should I just try reinstalling? I wanted to check if DMA was enabled...

Last edited by ChrisH on 20-Sep-2011 at 09:46 AM.
Last edited by ChrisH on 04-Nov-2008 at 01:07 PM.

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@ChrisH

Prefs/Uboot has been dropped on OS4.1 for Sam.
You can use c:nvgetvar and c:nvsetvar from a shell to get/set Uboot vars.
Anyway the suggested way to check if DMA is enabled is to use idetool this way:

c:idetool -u sii3114ide.device 0 (or the unit number you need to check)

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@ChrisH

Quote:

I remember there is supposed to be a Workbench prefs program to change UBoot settings in OS4. A quick search indicates it should be called UBoot (?), but I see nothing like that in the Prefs drawer, and there is a suspicious gap between the Timezone & USB icons (as if it was supposed to be there but isn't).

It is called UBoot and it should be exactly there where you said.

Quote:

Does anyone else have this problem, or should I just try reinstalling? I wanted to check if DMA was enabled...

Try cleaning up the icons. Then if that fails look at the dir in a dir util. After that you could try reinstall. Save your WBStartup icons!

You didn't do my trick and accidently drag UBoot to somewhere else on the Workbench? And I've been told we don't need an Undo WB operation. Oh it was only me? Okay never mind.

@m3x
Ah, that explains some slowness - I seem to be using PIO mode. Again, sucks that this is the default in OS4, as people will think OS4 is slow. Now I just need to work out how to change it, since Prefs/UBoot is not provided....

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@ChrisH

Quote:

Now I just need to work out how to change it, since Prefs/UBoot is not provided....

Have a look in Sys:Documentation/IDE.

_________________
Peter Swallow.
A1XEG3-800 [IBM 750FX PowerPC], running OS4.1FE, using ac97 onboard sound.

"There are 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't."

@Swoop
OK, thanks. Here's what I did, in case anyone else wants to enable DMA (and you do!) :
* hard reset (i.e. reset button)
* pressed enter as soon as UBoot stuff appears
* at command prompt typed this:
setenv sii3114ide_xfer GGGG
saveenv
* then since I did not know how to quit UBoot, I took the risky option of pressing the reset button. (WARNING: WAIT UNTIL SAVING HAS FINISHED!). edit: I believe that "reset" should have quit Uboot, but it didn't.

Now everything (HD & DVD) defaults to the highest supported DMA mode

Last edited by ChrisH on 04-Nov-2008 at 05:32 PM.

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@ChrisH

Interesting. Thanks for the info. How you can go back to PIO mode, just in case?

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@Phantom
Looking at the docs Swoop pointed out, I believe that this should do it:
setenv sii3114ide_xfer 0000
saveenv

However, I have not tested it.
(Also, note that "0000" is ZeroZeroZeroZero NOT OhOhOhOh).

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@ChrisH

Quote:

(Also, note that "0000" is ZeroZeroZeroZero NOT OhOhOhOh).

That's obvious...

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@Phantom

Or you can simply delete the variable by entering "setenv sii3114ide_xfer", and then "saveenv", which effectively sets it to nothing.

In order to continue with the boot into OS4.x after making UBoot adjustments, simply type "boota" at the UBoot prompt

Simon

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Simon

Comments made by me on any public fora are not representative of, or on behalf of, any company I may have, or assumed by the reader to have, any association with.

Any comments are a personal opinion, and should be accepted as such.

@ChrisH

Quote:

then since I did not know how to quit UBoot

boota will get you out of U-Boot and into OS4 (and, yes, reset should work)

Odd that U-Boot prefs has been dropped, I know it's orphaned but is pretty useful and doesn't really need to be updated for SAM AFAIK.

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@Chris_Y

Quote:

Odd that U-Boot prefs has been dropped, I know it's orphaned but is pretty useful and doesn't really need to be updated for SAM AFAIK.

I have too agree as well Chris, I hate having to go into the shell to do that sort of thing If you make a mistake what happens? What about brand new user's could your Mother/Brother/Sister change it via The Shell, at least with a Button to click you can see what your doing and know where to go to undo it.
I like it to be EASY
"KISD" Keep it simple developers

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@all

Why has uboot been removed??? I think that was a nice program to change/see dma etc on hds.. Strange...

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I'm an antique. Don't light my fuse

@Antique
My guess is that there was some last-minute bug (software or hardware) preventing Prefs/UBoot from working reliably on the Sam440, so they dropped it - or else it was just considered a low priority for porting to the Sam440. In any case, I hope that they can restore it later, when they have more time....

Last edited by ChrisH on 04-Nov-2008 at 07:56 PM.

_________________
Author of the PortablE programming language.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue...

@ChrisH

Quote:

setenv sii3114ide_xfer GGGG

...this is for what unit? Or it applies to all units.

_________________

Using the idetool on C: I got these.

For unit=0 which is my HD.

LBA48 used, supports DMA, ATA, supports cache flush, interrupts used.
best pio 12 (PIO 4, 16MB/s) / best dma 70 (UDMA 6, 133MB/s) / current 12 (PIO 4, 16MB/s)

For unit=2 and unit=3 which are my DVD-ROM and DVD-RW, of course the result is the same.

supports DMA, removable media, ATAPI, interrupts used.
best pio 12 (PIO 4, 16MB/s) / best dma 69 (UDMA 5, 100MB/s) / current 12 (PIO 4, 16MB/s)

So all my units are set to PIO mode. Time to get to DMA mode.

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@Phantom
It sets units 0 to 3 (i.e. all of them), as there is one "G" for each unit.

_________________
Author of the PortablE programming language.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue...

@Phantom

For DMA:
setenv sii3114ide_xfer GFF0
saveenv
boota

Get Ranger from OS4 Depot, it has a bios tab that will show all the uboot variables set.

DiskSpeed (OS4 Depot) shows that the JXFS is a tad faster then SFS/00. JXFS only works with a block size of 512, it won't show up with any other setting.

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DMA mode enabled.

@sundown

Thanks for mentioning these 2 tools.

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@sundown
There is no need to use "GFF0" as UBoot will not got above the highest supported speed of each drive, so "GGGG" is the idiot-proof solution

edit: But "GFF0" could be used if "GGGG" somehow causes problems (only if there was some UBoot bug I think).

Last edited by ChrisH on 04-Nov-2008 at 09:47 PM.

_________________
Author of the PortablE programming language.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue...