Disappointed with version 6.0

[Beech Rintoul]

On Tuesday 14 March 2006 22:00, Chris wrote:
> On 14/03/06, Ted Mittelstaedt <tedm at toybox.placo.com> wrote:
> > >-----Original Message-----
> > >From: owner-freebsd-questions at freebsd.org
> > >[mailto:owner-freebsd-questions at 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
-- 

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Beech Rintoul - Sys. Administrator - akbeech at alaskaparadise.com
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