Date: Tue, 14 Mar 2006 22:22:06 -0900 From: Beech Rintoul <akbeech@alaskaparadise.com> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Cc: Chris <chrcoluk@gmail.com>, Peter <petermatulis@yahoo.ca>, Ted Mittelstaedt <tedm@toybox.placo.com> Subject: Re: Disappointed with version 6.0 Message-ID: <200603142222.24149.akbeech@alaskaparadise.com> In-Reply-To: <3aaaa3a0603142300i26d87a09q@mail.gmail.com> References: <20060311045759.89723.qmail@web60014.mail.yahoo.com> <LOBBIFDAGNMAMLGJJCKNGEICFDAA.tedm@toybox.placo.com> <3aaaa3a0603142300i26d87a09q@mail.gmail.com>
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[-- Attachment #1 --] On Tuesday 14 March 2006 22:00, Chris wrote: > On 14/03/06, Ted Mittelstaedt <tedm@toybox.placo.com> wrote: > > >-----Original Message----- > > >From: owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org > > >[mailto:owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org]On Behalf Of Peter > > >Sent: Friday, March 10, 2006 8:58 PM > > >To: freebsd-questions > > >Subject: Disappointed with version 6.0 > > > > > > > > >I'm setting up a new server on 6.0 I've been planning for a long time > > >and I am very disappointed with two critical issues. My motherboard is > > >the ASUS K8V-X SE that I chose because it was listed as compatible at > > >the FreeBSD/amd64 Project: > > > > > >http://www.freebsd.org/platforms/amd64/motherboards.html > > > > Peter, > > > > That's really a poor choice as a server board. That is basically > > a low-end desktop board. VIA isn't known for making top of the > > line chipsets. > > > > I don't know if you have a particular favorite of ASUS, but if your > > selecting a motherboard to build a server around from ASUS's product > > line you have to dig a bit. ASUS has some server motherboards but > > they bury them in their product linueup. Some of the keys to look for > > are the existence of RAID on the motherboard, or the name "Premium" > > and stay away from any board marketed "for gamers" as a lot of ASUS > > boards are. > > > > For example, a typical ASUS motherboard positioned for the server > > market is the P5WD2-E Premium > > > > >I wonder if going back to 5.4 might help? > > > > > >Onto the problems... > > > > > >1. I have 4 IDE drives: > > > > > >primary controller: Maxtor 40 GB hd (master) and LG cdrom (slave) > > >secondary controller: Seagate Barracuda 200 GB hd (master) and Seagate > > >Barracuda 300 GB (slave) > > > > > >Problem: The 300 GB drive is unusable. > > > > > >I set it up ok with sysinstall during the installation but the system > > >will not boot properly if it has an entry in /etc/fstab. I get many > > >errors like: > > > > > >"ad3: WARNING - READ_DMA UDMA ICRC error (retrying request) LBA=63" > > > > What happens if you set the 300GB as the master on that controller > > and do not plug in the 200GB unit? > > > > >I also get input/output error if I try to examine its label with > > >disklabel. > > > > > >dmesg output is at the end of this post when I booted without fstab > > >line. > > > > > >The strange thing is that the two drives on the secondary controller > > >are so similar. Same manufacturer, same product line, the speeds are > > >the same. Everything is the same except the size. I ran dos-level > > >diagnostics on it and no problems were found. > > > > > >2. I can't use my USB ports! > > > > What in God's name is a USB peripheral doing on a server? > > > > I've said it before and I'll say it again, this is why you pay people > > to build clones for you. The motherboard manufacturers these days are > > coming out with a huge variety of products, and you have to do a lot of > > digging through their stuff to find the gems among the junk. > > > > The professional white box builders out there deal with problems like > > yours by returning the motherboard to their distributors and getting > > a different model, and testing that. Sometimes they will go through > > 4 -5 motherboard models before they find one they feel is a good one. > > Then 6 months later the motherboard manufacturers discontinue that model > > and they have to go through the same process again. If you want to play > > in that space you need to do it the same way they do. If you don't have > > the financial resources to do that, then you shouldn't be doing it. > > Instead, find a local computer shop that you can pay a few hundred > > bucks more than it would cost you to get all the little parts and pieces > > separately, and who will warranty the thing. It is well worth it. > > > > >I get a line like this for each of my ports: > > > > You are wasting time. Return the motherboard and get another. Repeat > > the process until it works. > > > > Ted > > Sounds harsh, a low end board may have performance problems and less > capability but it shouldnt justify an operating system not working, or > are only high end boards supported? > Actually, FreeBSD will support most boards with mainstream chipsets. But that was good advice from Ted. I tried that same board a couple of months ago. I had many of the same problems. After banging my head on that brick wall for a few days I took it back. A high end board wasn't in the budget so I went with a MSI KT-8 Neo which I have had 0 problems with. Beech -- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Beech Rintoul - Sys. Administrator - akbeech@alaskaparadise.com /"\ ASCII Ribbon Campaign | Alaska Paradise Travel \ / - NO HTML/RTF in e-mail | 201 East 9Th Avenue Ste.310 X - NO Word docs in e-mail | Anchorage, AK 99501 / \ - Please visit Alaska Paradise - http://www.alaskaparadise.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [-- Attachment #2 --] -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.2.2 (FreeBSD) iD8DBQBEF8Cv1HPO4IQJSE0RAnNkAJ9MlhW4T8qIs4d30NJVOW0mWwCJOgCfRmCD D1Be1AfvgNvl+6DYOYJGivE= =L1Rm -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
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