On Wednesday 27 December 2006 13:17, Les Mikesell wrote:
On Wed, 2006-12-27 at 11:42 -0800, Dave Stevens wrote:
> > Whenever I copy large files (>2G) or create large tar archives I
> > basically loose control of my box (2.1Gz Laptop running FC5) until the
> > copy or tar is complete. I can still try and work but the mouse
> > movements are delayed several seconds, other programs take minutes to
> > respond, etc.
> >
> > Is there a way I can overcome this so I can still work as normal during
> > these
> >
> > operations, maybe a way to limit the amount of cpu or system resources
> > that a
> >
> > cp or tar process can have? Other ideas?
> >
> > Thanks in advance
>
> man nice
I doubt if that will help much. Cp/tar, etc. do very little work in
the main process - it's all read()/write() system calls. I'd guess the
problem is that your disk interface is taking all the CPU and
what you need to do is enable dma if it can handle it. If it is IDE,
it might be worth adding a new card.
--
Les Mikesell
lesmikesell(a)gmail.com
Thanks for the info. How do I enable DMA on a SATA drive?