[PlanetCCRMA] FC4 on older machine?

[Len]

--- Fernando Lopez-Lezcano <nando at ccrma.Stanford.EDU> wrote:

> On Wed, 2006-02-22 at 18:16 -0800, Len wrote:
> > I've been running FC1 (2.4.26-1.ll.rhfc1.ccrma) on an older 
machine:
> > P3 800MHz processor
> > 512MB RAM
> > 19GB primary HD
> > 40GB secondary (audio)
> > Echo Layla 24/96 audio interface (PCI slot 2, not shared - IRQ 10)
> > Graphics integrated in MOBO (64MB)
> > 
> > I dual-boot Windows and Linux, and the audio drive is formatted as 
FAT32 so it can be accessed
> > from either OS.
> > 
> > I've gotten decent results, and multi-tracking in Ardour hasn't 
been a problem.  Most of the
> stuff
> > I've recorded by myself, and I've played all the instruments and 
vocal tracks, so I never used
> > more than a few tracks simultaneously, though I've overdubbed lots 
more tracks, up to 10 or
> so. 
> > No problems.
> > 
> > Recently, I racked my computer and took it over to a friend's house 
to record our band.  I
> enabled
> > 7 or 8 tracks and hit record.  After a few seconds of recording, 
Ardour tells me that "the
> disk
> > was not able to keep up with Ardour" and the recording is hosed.
> 
> Have you checked to see if dma is turned on for the hard disk you are
> using to record?
> 
>   hdparm /dev/hdx (where x is your hard disk)
> 
> Should tell us more..
> I have not tried fat32 so I don't know about its performance. 
> -- Fernando


Yes, dma is turned on.  Here's the output of hdparm, and the benchmark 
test result follows.

# hdparm /dev/hdb5

/dev/hdb5:
 multcount    = 16 (on)
 IO_support   =  0 (default 16-bit)
 unmaskirq    =  0 (off)
 using_dma    =  1 (on)
 keepsettings =  0 (off)
 readonly     =  0 (off)
 readahead    =  8 (on)
 geometry     = 5606/255/63, sectors = 71681967, start = 16128

# hdparm -tT /dev/hdb5

/dev/hdb5:
 Timing buffer-cache reads:   552 MB in  2.00 seconds = 275.31 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  108 MB in  3.04 seconds =  35.56 MB/sec




> 
> > Since I haven't tried recording this many tracks at the same time, 
I don't know if this is a
> new
> > problem or if it's been there all along.  I guess it's possible 
that the audio disk format
> (FAT32)
> > is a contributing factor.  I added a USB2.0 PCI card a while back, 
and no matter what I do it
> > wants to share an IRQ with Layla (even if I assign Layla to a 
different IRQ).  I haven't tried
> > removing the USB card and recording, but I guess that would be a 
no-brainer and something I
> should
> > have tried already.
> > 
> > I am considering the move up to FC4.  Is my system up to it?  
Anyone running FC4 successfully
> on
> > an older machine with good results?
> 
> 
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