Clitunno/Trevi
15 January 2004

See Debian.html for current updates.

2005-11-22 Status report

Issues
  • Reboot is working -- it was likely just a sysv misconfiguration
  • ln -sf /lib/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 ld-linux.so.2
    • not sure this was necessary -- for azureus
  • java now installs directly from repository
  • When updating libc6, first uncomment the chroot entries in
    /etc/ld.so.conf and run ldconfig; reverse changes when done
  • Got VMware 5 -- works
  • WinXP64 expired -- just use WinXP
  • for top to display per-CPU information, press 1 and W to save

To do
  • Install a pcHDTV3000 card and get the DVB stream working
    • work to get the closed captioning working
  • Sensors

To do -- not urgent
  1. Upgrade BIOS when version 3.xx is out -- you may be able to get more balanced CPU usage
  2. Configure the software to run the UPS (see /etc/hosts.allow for guidance)
  3. Figure out how to set up wake-on-LAN (see PXE in the mobo manual and this guide to start with)
  4. Get a KVM, for instance this
  5. Current fans are Y.S. Tech FD1280327B-2F 4.44W -- that is to say, Fan, DC 12V, 80mm, 32mm, high-speed, 2-ball bearing, Tachometer IC (3 wires)
  6. Consider replacing (some of) the current FD1280327B-2F DC12V 4.44W (4400RPM) Y.S. Tech fans with the super-quiet Sparkle DF1208BB-3 from Monarch or the much cheaper VANTEC SF8025L 80mm 2 Ball Cooling Fan from Newegg (I got four and installed one on 19 April 2006, but they're 2050 RPM), or the sufficiently powerful Thermaltake A1357 80mm SMART Case Fan II
Main pages
Software and guides
  1. Debian installation
    1. Debian AMD64
    1. Wiki
    2. Mailing list
  2. Boot CDs
    1. Debian netinstall
    2. Kanotix amd64 -- a Knoppix for amd64
      1. See forum for download addresses (has torrent, but allows few connections)
      2. wiki
    3. Knoppix64 (unofficial -- and may not be compatible with pure64)
  3. Monarch Computers support for clitunno
    1. System order 99883
    2. Serial Number 43172
    3. Invoice date 9 Feb 2004
    4. 1-800-611-0875
    5. MoBo Tyan Thunder K8S S2880GNR AMD 8131 Opteron DDR ECC 333
    6. System support forum
  4. Tyan support manuals
    1. Thunder K8S (pdf file of the manual you have)
    2. Thunder K8S SATA RAID manual (pdf file, Windows-oriented)
    3. Beep codes
  5. SuSE installation page
Specs
  • Monarch order 8 December 2003 (pdf)
  • Tyan Thunder K8S S2880GNR (see compatibility list and review with detailed specs)
    • CPU Opteron 240 x 2 -- Socket-940 (used by all Opterons so far)
      • Also supports Opteron 242, 244, 246, 248, 250 (1.4 - 2.4 GHz)
      • Opteron 252 unlikely to be supported -- watch the BIOS beta upgrades
      • In brief, you have some room for upgrades
        • I paid $191 for the Opteron 240 (OEM) in December 2003
        • the price a year later is $179 -- no real drop!
        • the Opteron 250 at 2.4 GHz costs $689 in February 2005,
          • down to $299 after 15 Feb 06 -- they reportedly cut prices by 35-55%
          • around $200 on Pricewatch September 2006 (Monarch still charges $300) -- see also eBay
        • the Opteron 252 supports the SSE3 instruction set -- but is not supported on this mobo
    • CPU cooler Thermaltake AMD K8 Venus 7+ Hi
      • cooler fan TT-7015T, axial DC-12V Brushless 0.5 amp, 5500rpm, 70x70x15mm
      • Y.S. Tech FD127015EB or YW07015012BS (may be hard to find)
      • Replaced with the fan from a new Thermaltake cooler on 13 October 2006
    • BIOS upgrades -- install version 2.4, released 8 August 2006
      • currently installed BIOS is 2.02, dated 14 October 2003
      • initial BIOS was a pre-release dated 06/06/03, number 08.00.08, ID 0ABCF007
      • this date is before the first listed released BIOS, version 1.07 from 06/10/03
      • the 2.01 BIOS allows you to ignore keyboard error (feature not working)
      • the 2.02 version
        • Added option for Promise RAID function
        • Added DDR400/PC3200 RAM Support
        • Added Opteron 248 CPU support
        • Fix PXE issue with onboard GbE Controller
        • installed
      • the 2.03 version, dated 11 March 2005, adds
        • MPS v1.4 support
          • "MPS v1.4 defines a specification where all of the processors in the system work and function together similarly" (Novell)
        • Fixes issues with the Promise RAID option ROM
        • Updated CPU Module
      • the TYAN  Thunder K8S (S2880) V2.04 dated 8 August 2006 adds:
        • Updated PCI slot DMI information
        • Updated the CPU Hyptertransport link speed
        • Fixed a MPT Initialization error
        • Fixes a SCSI HD detection issue
      • For flashing, use a Windows 98 boot disk
        • I got one from bootdisk.com
        • Press F5 on boot and select command prompt
        • I installed 2880_202 on 24 November 2004, dated 14 October 2003
        • ID 0ABCF007 and 08 00 08 and 2.02
    • RAM 6 x DDR-DIMM slots, 2GB installed, 12GB maximum Capacity (ECC Registered Only)
      • Up to PC-2700 Clock Speed, 5.3 GB/s Peak Bandwidth
      • The primary CPU has four DDR DIMM slots, the secondary CPU only two
      • the memory configuration is based upon a non-uniform memory architecture (NUMA)
      • this allows each CPU can access memory from the other CPU's banks
    • Chipsets -- AMD-8111 and AMD-8131 PCI-X Bridge
      • AMD-8131™ HyperTransport™ PCI-X Tunnel
      • AMD-8111™ HyperTransport™ I/O Hub
      • Winbond™ W83627HF Super I/O ASIC -- see lm-sensors (local)
      • Analog Devices ADM1027 Hardware Monitoring IC
    • Intelligent Platform Management Interface Header (I don't have this optional card)
      • Tyan Server Management Daughter card (optional) supports features listed below via IPMI header
      • QLogic™ Zircon Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) based on powerful ARM7 technology
      • Tailored for IPMI highest 1.5 Spec.
      • Supports KCS and BT styles
      • Flexible Windows or Linux Management Solution
      • Supports RMCP and SNMP protocols
      • Supports ASF standard and EMP
      • I2C serial multi-master controllers and UARTs
      • Build-in IPMB connector
      • Remote power on/off and reset support (IPMI-over-LAN)
    • PCI slots
      • 2 x PCI-X (133 MHz -- one of these is used by the nVidia FX-5500 card, which is not optimal)
      • 2 x PCI-X (66 MHz -- one of these is used by the Adaptec raid card, which is not optimal)
      • 1 x 32-bit (33 MHz -- the only old-style slot, currently used for the digital or analog TV card)
      • "most 32-bit PCI cards will work fine in a 64-bit PCI-X slot" source
        • confirmed -- SoundBlaster Audigy2 Value 24-bit audio card fits and is in place
        • older sound cards, TV cards, NICs, USB cards don't fit
        • Detailed guide to the emu10k1 driver
      • "Conventional PCI graphics boards WILL function as normal PCI 2.x devices in any PCI-X system" source
        • confirmed -- see VGA below
    • IDE -- Ultra ATA/133
      • /dev/hda -- OS
      • /dev/hdb -- broke1-4 (showed some errors, used for storage)
      • /dev/hdc -- DVD burner SONY DW-Q58A 8X Slim DVD+/-RW Drive
      • rebadged LiteOn SOSW-8?3S
      • Dell guide
      • firmware and firmware
    • SATA -- serial ATA/150
      • Built-in sata_promise, not used and currently disabled in bios
      • Promise PDC20378, supports 2 drives, connected via 32-bit PCI
      • The PCI ID repository says this is "FastTrak 378/SATA 378"
        • Needs libata's sata_promise driver  (Device drivers | SCSI | Low-lever drivers)
        • See SATA overview at LinuxMafia
      • Put the operating system on this SATA chip -- no need to run RAID
      • It's faster than the IDE channel you're currently using -- just swap out those drives
      • You could also use it for RAID-0 games -- but then without AGP it's not much fun
    • NIC Broadcom NetXtreme BCM5704 x 2, tg3 driver (the chip is BCM5704CKRB)
      • Connected via PCI-X (100 MHz)
      • For WinXP, get the Broadcom Advanced Control Suite (I got the driver off their site)
      • PXE capable (Pre-boot eXecution Environment)
        • Argon PXE Boot Agent v. 2.02 (BIOS integrated)
    • Case fans Y.S. Tech FD1280327B-2F 4.44W (Fan, DC 12V, 80mm, 32mm, high-speed, 2-ball bearing, tachometer IC (3 wires)) -- cf. ModelCodes) -- looks like 4400 RPMs)
      • Fan mounting bracket RM30901-50
    • RAID 3ware 8506-12 Escalade harware SATA raid (7000-series driver)
    • SCSI -- LSI 53C1030 Ultra320 SCSI, dual channel, supports 30 Drives, on PCI-X (100 MHz)
      • Not on this motherboard, disabled in bios
    • VGA -- built-in ATI Rage XL PCI w/ HD-15 Out, 8MB SDRAM Memory Onboard
      • PNY GeForce FX-5500 added in one of the PCI-X slots -- see nVidia
    • serial ports
    • no built-in audio
      • SoundBlaster Audigy2 Value 24-bit audio card in one of the 64-bit PCI-X slots
      • See http://www.lmahd.com/cinelerra.html for high-end capture cards from AJA
        • Or an external USB sound controller, the Tascam 122 (linux driver) -- $200
PCI-X means a 64-bit PCI bus -- nothing to do with PCI-X (PCI-Express) graphics cards.
Each Opteron CPU has a dedicated dual channel 64-bit (128-bit total) memory interface. This means that if you have two CPU's installed on this board with at least four memory modules (two per CPU), you can have dual channel DDR operation for each CPU. When using DDR-400 memory modules, one could reach peak bandwidth levels of 12.8 GB/s. Of course, to make full use of this memory architecture, one would need a NUMA (Non-Unified Memory Architecture) aware operating system, such as newer Linux builds or Windows Server 2003 64-bit Edition. Source
BIOS settings
  • Press DEL on boot to access
  • I activated Promise Sata and IO-APIC (apicid-pin) 2-17 appeared in dmesg, along with this lspci:
    • 0000:03:05.0 RAID bus controller: Promise Technology, Inc. PDC20378 (FastTrak 378/SATA 378)
    • Not terribly significant -- means you could put two more drives off that controller
    • You can already put twelve drives on the 3ware card, and four on the PATA controllers
    • In practice that's more than there is room for in the case -- you'll never use this Promise chip
    • You could I suppose use it for the two surface drives, currently PATA
Broadcom NIC
  • User guide and engineering brief (Dell)
  • NIC Broadcom NetXtreme BCM5704 x 2, tg3 driver (the chip is BCM5704CKRB)
  • Connected via PCI-X (100 MHz)
  • For WinXP, get the Broadcom Advanced Control Suite (I got the driver off their site)
  • PXE capable -- Argon PXE Boot Agent v. 2.02 (BIOS integrated)

    Since the machine is always running, controlling it via PXE isn't a big deal.
  • Broadcom Advanced Server Program -- installed file name bacstray.exe
What is BASP (Broadcom Advanced Server Program)?
BASP is a Broadcom intermediate software driver for Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000, Windows NT, NetWare, and Linux that provides load-balancing, fault-tolerance, and VLAN features. These features are provided by creating teams (virtual adapters) that consist of multiple NIC interfaces. A team can consist of one to eight NIC interfaces, and each interface can be designated as primary or standby. All primary interfaces in a team will participate in Load-balancing operations by sending and receiving a portion of the total traffic. Standby interfaces will take over in the event that all primary interfaces have lost their links. VLANs can be added to a team to allow multiple VLANs with different VLAN IDs. A virtual adapter is created for each VLAN added. Load-balancing and fault-tolerance features will work with any third party's NIC adapters. VLANs only work with Broadcom NIC adapters. Source

Installation instructions
Get the software -- for Linux64 -- seems like Broadcom only distributes the bare driver for WinXP32
UPS


  

 

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