Linux Debian support - ATI SB600 drivers

Author

ATI SB600 drivers

Gary Dale

2007-06-01, 1:13 pm

I've just put together a system using an older AMD64X2 (3800+) on an
ASUS M2A-VM HDMI micro-atx board. I had to change the BIOS to slow down
the RAM from 800MHz to 667 to get the board to handle the dual-channels
but otherwise the hardware was a piece of cake.

The Etch installer had some problems however. Firstly, I had to set
acpi=off to get anywhere. Otherwise, a quick kernel panic occurs.

Next, it wouldn't recognize the LG SATA DVD-RW so I had to hook up an
older CD-ROM reader to do the install.

Final problem was with the hard drive of all things. Although the
installer saw the drive, it wouldn't partition it. When it went to save
the partition information, it failed to write to the partitions.

I booted up Knoppix 5.1.1 and manually created the partitions. After
that the install went smoothly.

The machine is quite fast except for one issue. I'm getting large
numbers of SATA2 messages on boot - presumably from the hardware
identifier - that seem to be slowing the machine boot down to about half
the speed it should be doing.

Does anyone have a way of speeding up the SATA hardware detection with
an SB600?

Secondly, I tried to update the kernel to the SMP version. However, this
seems to be a meta-package that doesn't do much. Are the new AMD64
kernels all built for smp by default?

Thanks for any hints you can offer.

AJackson

2007-06-03, 1:13 am

On Jun 1, 4:00 pm, Gary Dale <garyd...@rogers.com> wrote:
(don't know anything about your problems, other that it used to be
some problems with SATA on Dell machines that had to set the SATA/IDE
in a special way to make it boot. Which I think got fixed in later
kernel)

> Secondly, I tried to update the kernel to the SMP version. However, this
> seems to be a meta-package that doesn't do much. Are the new AMD64
> kernels all built for smp by default?

Linux kernels i Debian comes all with SMP support activated. Kernel
detect and use all CPU that are in the system automaticly.

Good luck

Gary Dale

2007-06-03, 1:13 am

AJackson wrote:
> On Jun 1, 4:00 pm, Gary Dale <garyd...@rogers.com> wrote:
> (don't know anything about your problems, other that it used to be
> some problems with SATA on Dell machines that had to set the SATA/IDE
> in a special way to make it boot. Which I think got fixed in later
> kernel)
>
>
> Linux kernels i Debian comes all with SMP support activated. Kernel
> detect and use all CPU that are in the system automaticly.
>
> Good luck
>

I eventually switched to Ubuntu - resolved the SB600 and ACPI issues I
was having. I'm impressed by how easy Ubuntu has made things. I'll still
keep Debian for my use - esp. on servers - but I was putting this system
together for someone else who needs things to be easy.

Package management isn't very different, but the more up to date kernel
seems to have resolved a lot of issues. With Etch, I had to fight with
the machine. With Feisty Fawn, things just worked. Again, a lot of that
is probably the 2.6.20 kernel instead of the 2.6.18.

AJackson

2007-06-03, 1:13 pm

On Jun 3, 5:45 am, Gary Dale <garyd...@rogers.com> wrote:
> AJackson wrote:
>
>
>
>
> I eventually switched to Ubuntu - resolved the SB600 and ACPI issues I
> was having. I'm impressed by how easy Ubuntu has made things. I'll still
> keep Debian for my use - esp. on servers - but I was putting this system
> together for someone else who needs things to be easy.

Good choise if it isn't your machine. If it was, you could go to
testing instead of Etch, which is what Ubuntu is based on.

> Package management isn't very different, but the more up to date kernel
> seems to have resolved a lot of issues. With Etch, I had to fight with
> the machine. With Feisty Fawn, things just worked. Again, a lot of that
> is probably the 2.6.20 kernel instead of the 2.6.18.

It's basicly what Ubuntu is up to (and they only have support for
three architectures). It' s for desktop computers where there
probobly should be shorter turnarounds. But for servers, I would
defenitly recommend Debian (as I have tested running server as Ubuntu).

Gary Dale

2007-06-04, 1:13 am

>> I eventually switched to Ubuntu - resolved the SB600 and ACPI issues I
>
> Good choise if it isn't your machine. If it was, you could go to
> testing instead of Etch, which is what Ubuntu is based on.
>
>
> It's basicly what Ubuntu is up to (and they only have support for
> three architectures). It' s for desktop computers where there
> probobly should be shorter turnarounds. But for servers, I would
> defenitly recommend Debian (as I have tested running server as Ubuntu).
>

Actually, I'm running Lenny on my workstation based on my good
experience with Etch before it became Stable. However, even Lenny is
still based on the 2.6.18 kernel. You have to go to Sid to get anything
more recent.

I normally find that Testing is up to date enough for me. But apparently
the hardware is changing rapidly these days. My year-old AMD64 system
is two generations behind the times.

John Hasler

2007-06-04, 1:13 am

Gary Dale writes:
> Actually, I'm running Lenny on my workstation based on my good experience
> with Etch before it became Stable. However, even Lenny is still based on
> the 2.6.18 kernel. You have to go to Sid to get anything more recent.

2.6.2X kernels will work fine in Lenny.
--
John Hasler

AJackson

2007-06-05, 7:15 pm

On Jun 4, 4:36 am, Gary Dale <garyd...@rogers.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>
> Actually, I'm running Lenny on my workstation based on my good
> experience with Etch before it became Stable. However, even Lenny is
> still based on the 2.6.18 kernel. You have to go to Sid to get anything
> more recent.

http://packages.debian.org/cgi-bin/...all&release=all

Yes, you are right.

> I normally find that Testing is up to date enough for me. But apparently
> the hardware is changing rapidly these days. My year-old AMD64 system
> is two generations behind the times.

It has "always" changed fast (doubles each 18-month period).