copy and tar performance?

[Kevin Kempter]

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 at gmail.com

Thanks for the info.  How do I enable DMA on a SATA drive?