[Lincs] Hdparm commands

[Carl Inglis]

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Chris Adams wrote:
> My laptop (ide drive) is listed as /dev/sda

/dev/sda isn't an IDE device as far as I'm aware - I suspect your drives
may be SCSI or SATA.

> I try to do:
> 
> root# hdparm -d1 -S60
> 
> and i get
> 
> 
> /dev/sda:
>  setting using_dma to 0 (off)
>  HDIO_SET_DMA failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device
>  setting standby to 60 (5 minutes)
>  HDIO_GET_DMA failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device
> 
> Do i need a diffrent program program for this ?

A google for "HDIO_SET_DMA failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device"
strongly suggests that it's a SATA drive. Reading further points to:

sdparm - http://linux.die.net/man/8/sdparm

I would personally start with the --inquiry option to see what it returns.

Disclaimer: All advice I give is used at your own risk! :-)

Additional information from the memory banks for those who don't know (I
knew this old stuff would come in useful):

ioctl - input/output control codes
DMA - Direct Memory Access - a fast method of accessing memory for bus
devices.
HDIO - Hard Drive Input/Output

:-)
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