Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2004 21:24:47 -0800 From: mikeobrien@spamcop.net (Mike O'Brien) To: freebsd-smp@freebsd.org Subject: Dual Xeons on Iwill DP533 motherboard Message-ID: <200401230524.i0N5OlPu000268@c-24-130-251-202.we.client2.attbi.com>
next in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
I run -STABLE (4.9) on an Iwill DP533 motherboard with dual 2.4GHz Xeon processors. I enable hyperthreading, and till now, I've had to put an ugly little hack into the mp_machdep.c file because the Iwill BIOS reported funny APIC ID numbers for the processors. This note, which is more or less for the archives, is to say that I just upgraded the BIOS on this motherboard to the latest release on the Iwill web site (http://www.iwillusa.com). I had not previously done this because no sane person upgrades the BIOS if it's not giving them any problems. To my shock, it turns out I _was_ having BIOS problems. There have been occasional odd hangs of this machine under XP (it's a dual-boot) though FreeBSD has been solid as a rock. The clincher came when the client for Second Life started hanging the machine every five minutes. In desperation I upgraded the BIOS to the June, 2003 (latest as of this message) release, and the problem went away completely. Apparently interrupts were being misvectored or something. That isn't all. FreeBSD would no longer boot until I disabled hyperthreading in the BIOS setup. On a hunch, I backed out my hack, reenabled hyperthreading, and FreeBSD-STABLE now correctly finds the four virtual processor cores without it. Apparently this update fixes the funny APIC numbering. Anyone running an Iwill DP533 motherboard should install this BIOS upgrade, it seems. Mike O'Brien
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?200401230524.i0N5OlPu000268>