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Date:      Tue, 15 Feb 2005 16:53:24 -0000
From:      "Alan Jay" <alan@cyclopsvision.co.uk>
To:        "'Jonathan A. Dama'" <jd@ugcs.caltech.edu>, "'Doug White'" <dwhite@gumbysoft.com>
Cc:        freebsd-amd64@freebsd.org
Subject:   RE: Possible problems with Broadcom BCM5704C 10/100/1000 on Tyan Motherboard
Message-ID:  <20050215165352.4452143D2D@mx1.FreeBSD.org>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.4.53.0502141729540.17073@groat.ugcs.caltech.edu>

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Thanks Jonathan for this, can I ask the unmentionalble (which Linux
implementation did you pick?).

I had major problems installing with more than 4Gb but once I moved to stable
we seemed to have a stable platform when doing basic stuff - we have two
databases (mySQL) one is reasonably heavily used and one very extensively
used.  They sit on different servers to maximise performance.  One worked
perfectly for a couple of weeks while the other more extensive one repeatedly
fell over.

I think I agree wholeheartedly with your comments being a great supporter of
FreeBSD it is a shame that the AMD release is not as super as the other
versions we have used extensively.

Thanks for your support.

Regards
ALan

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jonathan A. Dama [mailto:jd@ugcs.caltech.edu]
> Sent: Tuesday, February 15, 2005 1:47 AM
> To: Doug White
> Cc: Alan Jay; freebsd-stable@freebsd.org; freebsd-amd64@freebsd.org
> Subject: Re: Possible problems with Broadcom BCM5704C 10/100/1000 on Tyan
> Motherboard
> 
> We also have these boards, I've found them unusable under
> FreeBSD/5.3-STABLE with 8GB of RAM--other qualities appear to work okay.
> But I even saw some infrequent problems with 6GB.
> 
> FreeBSD/amd64 is not in my opinion not actually a stable tier 1 quality
> release under these configurations, too many problems remain--especially
> in regards to ia32 emulation.
> 
> Exigencies of the moment forced us to forgo further debugging and adopt
> linux/amd64.  (Sadly, some people actually have to get work done on their
> hardware...)
> 
> To anyone who wants to peg these problems on hardware, running linux these
> machines have operated without fault while under a mix of high
> computational and i/o load.   moreover, the machines were tested
> extensively using memtest+ in a controlled ambient temperature range from
> 60F to 80F.
> 
> This is a really lamentable situation.  We've been a primarily FreeBSD
> shop for 10 years now and for the past 4 years or so a pure FreeBSD shop.
> Switching to linux on just these machines has been quite the headache but
> I'm holding on to the hope that FreeBSD/amd64 will shape up.
> 
> FYI, most of the positive reports I've seen regarding FreeBSD and this
> motherboard are 2GB setups.  In my own testing that arrangement worked
> _very_ well.
> 
> Addendum: The RAM timing is a bit marginal on the second processor.  i.e.,
>           RAM that runs fine under extensive memtest+ ing has trouble
>           doing 400MHz DDR on the Second Processor.  We ended up running
>           it at 333MHz DDR
> 
> -Jon
> 
> 
> 
> On Mon, 14 Feb 2005, Doug White wrote:
> 
> > On Mon, 14 Feb 2005, Alan Jay wrote:
> >
> > > I have FreeBSD 5.3 STABLE onto our new twin operteron Tyan Thunder K8S
> Pro
> > > S2882 with 8Gb of RAM and had a reasonably stable operation for a few
> days we
> > > installed a couple of databases one worked fine but the other kept on
> causing
> > > the server to crash.
> >
> > I'm about to gain access to an S2881, which is a similar board (different
> > layout but same parts).
> >
> > > I have searched the archive and there were issues last year but I
> couldn't
> > > work out if these have been totally resolved?
> > >
> > > The adapter does work fine in low levels of loading but when pushed (it
> is
> > > connected to a Gigabit switch) it seems to be the cause of the reboot -
> a what
> > > appeared to be stable server with moderate Ethernet activity was fine
> upping
> > > the activity with a new service caused regular reboots.
> > >
> > > There is no console message at the point of reboot to help that we have
> > > spotted.
> >
> >
> > Hm, triple fault or other hardware reset. This usually indicates bad
> > hardware.  Have you tried swapping the RAM between the systems and seeing
> > if the problem follows?  An unrecoverable ECC fault can cause a reboot,
> > along with strangeness caused  by temperature/power supply/etc.  Or the
> > board could be Just Plain Bad.
> >
> > Considering you have one working machine, adn this is a very popular
> > board, I don't think it s abasic problem with FreeBSD and this hardware.
> > The worst thing reported is interrupt routing usually.
> >
> > --
> > Doug White                    |  FreeBSD: The Power to Serve
> > dwhite@gumbysoft.com          |  www.FreeBSD.org
> > _______________________________________________
> > freebsd-stable@freebsd.org mailing list
> > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable
> > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-stable-unsubscribe@freebsd.org"
> >



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