> Always plug the EISA and/or PCI cards that need it most into the bus mastering
> slots. I think network cards certainly qualify. I thought everyone who added
> cards to his or her machine(s) and/or built his or her machine(s) from scratch
> was aware of this. This has been relevant to me for at least the past five
> years.
>
> To summarize, RTFM of your motherboard. Understand every word. You won't
> regret it.
The only difference (IMHO) between a mastering and a non mastering PCI
slot is whether its Request/Grant pair is wired to the MB PCI arbiter or
not. So the only reasonable reason manufacturers might have to install non
bus mastering PCI slots is that the arbiter does not have enough
Request/Grant pin pairs. If there is only one non bus mastering slot, you
should put your graphics adapter there first, since these are pure slave
devices who cannot use bus mastering (at least the ones I know).
If you have more than one non bus mastering slot (unlikely IMO), simply
type cat /proc/pci and look for non "Master capable." devices, there are not
many nowadays but if you find some put them in the non master capable slots.
In case of a multifunction device, check that all functions are not
master capable before inserting it into a non bus mastering slot.
Gabriel.