In the Vmware newsletter which has just been sent around I saw this: "If you're a Linux-host user, don't forget to also turn on DMA on your host operating system. If you have IDE disks, use the command "/sbin/hdparm -d 1 /dev/hda" to enable DMA. The result: VMware, and all your other applications, will run faster." It never occured to me that my disks might not be using DMA transfers. I checked my system here at work (SuSE-6.2, 2 IDE disks), and both disks are using DMA transfers. My Dell laptop (SuSE-6.4) has DMA switched off. I'll check my machines at home tonight. What decides, in a SuSE distro, whether DMA is being used? The hdparm man pages suggests (under the -X section) that the drive switches to it's fastest mode at power on, which, if true, would make the above tip irrelevant. Can someone fill me in? -- To unsubscribe send e-mail to suse-linux-e-unsubscribe@suse.com For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the FAQ at http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/