use/cause of ide=nodma boot parameter?

[John Best]

Through my difficult time trying to get started with FC2, I found that I
needed to use the ide=nodma boot parameter to get things to work.   Failure
to do so resulted in a system hang while loading the appropriate disk/io
drivers during boot/install.  My question to the group is..

Is this caused by a misconfiguration of the IDE environment or other HW
problem?  Or is this just something that happens?  Does use of this
parameter cause/create any other issues (disable functionality, increase
risk, compatibility?)

Computer is ASUS p4pe with 2.4Ghz, 512M

IDE Setup
IDE 1
MASTER West Dig - 160 G (2 - 80 G partitions) for Windows  C & D drives
SLAVE  Maxtor 40G for Fedora

IDE2
Master HP 9300i CDWRITER
Slave Generic 50x CDRom

Some thoughts included improper jumper settings (Master, slave, Cable
Select) or improper devices as Master slave, or
a hw compatibility issue (like with the generic 50x cdrom not supporting the
correct spec)...


Though I had no problem with Redhat 9 nor with windows...

Thanks.

John Best
jbest at insightbb.com