From owner-freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Dec 14 18:57:20 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: hardware@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DBC5E16A403 for ; Thu, 14 Dec 2006 18:57:20 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jdp@polstra.com) Received: from blake.polstra.com (blake.polstra.com [64.81.189.66]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CD13C43F39 for ; Thu, 14 Dec 2006 18:51:55 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from jdp@polstra.com) Received: from strings.polstra.com (strings.polstra.com [64.81.189.67]) by blake.polstra.com (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id kBEIrJe7029657 for ; Thu, 14 Dec 2006 10:53:19 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from jdp@polstra.com) Message-ID: X-Mailer: XFMail 1.5.5 on FreeBSD X-Priority: 3 (Normal) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: Date: Thu, 14 Dec 2006 10:53:19 -0800 (PST) From: John Polstra To: hardware@freebsd.org Cc: Subject: RE: Is Dell SC1435 likely to work with FreeBSD? X-BeenThere: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: General discussion of FreeBSD hardware List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 14 Dec 2006 18:57:20 -0000 On 09-Nov-2006 John Polstra wrote: > Do any of you have an opinion as to whether the new Dell SC1435 is > likely to work with FreeBSD (either 6.x or -current)? I don't think > they're shipping yet, so I doubt anybody has actually tried it. The > machine has Opteron 2200 series CPUs with a Broadcom HT-2100 and > HT-1000 chipset, according to the spec sheet. For the archives: I bought one of these systems, a fairly inexpensive version with a SATA disk controller rather than the more expensive SAS controller. It works fine with the i386 version of -current. (I haven't tried an amd64 kernel.) The on-board gigabit NICs work well with the bge driver. I have been told that the mpt driver works with the SAS controller on the more expensive configurations of this box. Like most Dell servers I have used, the box is pretty loud. There is one strange thing with the SATA controller. In the boot messages I get this: atapci0: port 0xecb0-0xecb7,0xeca0-0xeca3,0xecb8-0xecbf,0xeca4-0xeca7,0xece0-0xecef mem 0xefdfe000-0xefdfffff irq 6 at device 14.0 on pci3 ata2: on atapci0 ata3: on atapci0 [...] ad4: DMA limited to UDMA33, device found non-ATA66 cable ad4: 238418MB at ata2-master UDMA33 As far as I know, the message doesn't make any sense, since it's a SATA drive. I don't know whether it has any actual effect or is simply a bogus warning. The drive doesn't seem slow to me so far. John