I compiled the kernel on my laptop using the 2.6.14 kernel.
Right now, whenever I boot my laptop, I receive a message

*******************************************************
* Warning: The dma on your hard drive was turned off. *
* This may really slow down the fsck process. *
*******************************************************

So, what is the dma? And how to turn it on.
Besides, I also noticed that my laptop take longer when it run the command to update the shared library link
(It stopped longer at the line
Updating shared library links: /sbin/ldconfig
)

DMA = direct memory access as oppose to the older PIO = programmed input output. It means it accesses the memory directly instead of going through the CPU.

sorry, I only know how to enable it in windows so that isn't much help here. I would look through make menuconfig and see what you can find, although I'm pretty sure someone else could probably give you a better answer.

You can try hdparm -d 1 /dev/hda1 or whatever your disk drive is.
The other thing I can think of since its a new kernel compile, you forgot to enable DMA in the kernel.
In Device Drivers there is an ATA/ATAPI support (something to that effect) where you can find some generic DMA support options, maybe you forgot to enable these?

There probably is more to it that I can't think of off the top of my head. I'm sure someone will pop by that can help you out more.

Thanks Brian and Furlinastis.
I have some issue with my sound so I am going to build the kernel once again.
Besides, about the command you said, was it /dev/hda or /dev/hda1

Its the specific partition device name. /dev/hda1 or /dev/sda1 or /dev/hda2 etc... Whatever your partition that linux is on is named.

I just set this up today and used /dev/hda and /dev/hdc. I don't think you can make changes to the way the drive accesses certain partitions.

Device Drivers ---> ATA/ATAPI/MFM/RLL support --->

Enable PCI IDE chipset support and Generic PCI bus-master DMA support

this will provide a big list of drivers, choose the one for your motherboard chipset. You can find more info about your chipset with the command 'lspci'

Check out http://axljab.homelinux.org/Hdparm. It's written for gentoo but all that would change is how to install hdparm and possibly the location of the hdparm file in /etc to load the configuration on boot.

Hope this helps

Is this by any chance a relatively new Dell laptop? If so, it has a SATA controller and your machine will run like a three legged dog with a busted tail with the 2.4.x kernel. With the 2.4.x kernel you're emulating IDE on SATA and that's why the messages and why it's so bloody slow.

You might try the sata.i kernel, which is 2.4.x, on the distribution CD-ROM (in which case your disk drive will be sdaN, not hdN). I've had great luck with the 2.6.13 kernel, however, and I'd suggest that you try that (it's test26.s on the distribution CD-ROM) -- there's much, much better support of laptop stuff in 2.6.x than there is in any 2.4.x. If you haven't got too much invested with 2.4.x, try installing with test26.s and see what happens. If you do that, after it starts for the first time, you'll need to insert the disk with extra (or test, I'm sorry I don't have them in front of me), get into the linux-2.6.13 directory and "upgradepkg *.tgz"). That will upgrade all of the 2.4.x that was installed (whether you use the test26.s installation or not) and replace the source, headers, modules and all that. Reboot after doing that and you'll be pleasantly surprised.

It's not a Dell computers. I built the kernel again, this time made sure that I check the
Device Drivers ---> ATA/ATAPI/MFM/RLL support --->

Enable PCI IDE chipset support and Generic PCI bus-master DMA support

And that error did not show up again.

Glad you got it. If the machine seems to perform poorly -- meaning slow -- try the 2.6.13 kernel and see that improves things. Laptops (of whatever ilk) appear to work better with 2.6.x than they do with 2.4.x.

Best wishes for the new year.

Do you mean that the kernel 2.6.13 was known to perform better than the newer kernel?
Besides since I am thinking of installing Slackware 10.2 on a 64 bit laptop, then build a new 2.6 kernel, is there anything that I should pay attention, to avoid running into trouble. (I mean I don't want to end up with a 64 bit kernel after I build the kernel)

I meant that the 2.6.x kernel appears to perform better on a laptop than the 2.4.x kernel (newer or not). In my experience (a Dell Inspiron 6000), it does and others (people I work with and some folk using Dells and Gateways and a couple of I-don't-know-whats) have reported the same thing. The suggestion is to install Slackware 10.2 using the test26.s kernel on the CD-ROM, then, because the modules are not installed with the test26.s kernel (get it? test26?), you have to boot once, mount the Disk 2 CD-ROM and upgradepkg everything in the linux-2.6.13 directory on that disk; that will be

/mnt/cdrom/linux-2.6.13/alsa-driver-1.0.9b_2.6.13-i486-1.tgz
/mnt/cdrom/linux-2.6.13/kernel-generic-2.6.13-i486-1.tgz
/mnt/cdrom/linux-2.6.13/kernel-headers-2.6.13-i386-1.tgz
/mnt/cdrom/linux-2.6.13/kernel-modules-2.6.13-i486-1.tgz
/mnt/cdrom/linux-2.6.13/kernel-source-2.6.13-noarch-1.tgz

or simply "upgradepkg /mnt/cdrom/linux-2.6.13/*.tgz" and reboot.

You can, of course, get the latest 2.6.x kernel and build it after installing 2.6.13 (or, what the heck, after installing 2.4.x for that matter). Up to you.

Thanks. That sounds good. Best wishes for the new year. (Hopefully, I won't have to bother you before new year come)

No problem; hope it all works out the way you want.