Direct Memory Access (DMA) Is Disabled on PCI-IDE Systems

By default, the Solaris ata device driver has the DMA feature disabled for ATA/ATAPI devices. Installing the Solaris 8 operating environment works properly with DMA disabled.

To enable the DMA feature for improved performance, follow the related instructions in the Installation Issues section. Replace step 1 of the "Direct Memory Access (DMA) is Disabled" On PCI-IDE System bug description in the "Performance Issue" section of the "Solaris Runtime Issues" chapter in the Solaris 8 (Intel Platform Edition) Online Release Notes with:

Run the Solaris (Intel Platform Edition) Device Configuration Assistant from the boot diskette or the installation CD (if your system supports CD-ROM booting).

When booting with the boot diskette, the new ata-dma-enabled property value will be preserved on the diskette. Therefore, the changed value is in effect when reusing the boot diskette

Replace step 5d of the "Direct Memory Access (DMA) is Disabled On PCI-IDE System" bug description in the "Performance Issue" section of the "Solaris Runtime Issues" chapter in the Solaris 8 (Intel Platform Edition) Online Release Notes with:

Select the device from which you want to install (network adapter or CD-ROM drive) and press F2_Continue.