desktop dominance

Tue Mar 25 22:22:31 PDT 2008

On Tue, Mar 25, 2008 at 7:28 PM, Benjamin Cance
<the_plague at bloodborn.net> wrote:
> I have had Linux for a long time. I have a different desktop coming that
>  I am eager to play with FreeBSD on. It is a dual processored Intel Xeon
>  @ 3.2ghz (64-bit). How are HP workstations with FreeBSD?

Given the range of hardware combinations possible in a given vendor,
that's a painful question to try to answer. Generally speaking, you'll
probably have no problems, but it's a matter of the individual
components and their respective level of support. Find out details (as
in, __details__, like exact chipset used where possible) about the
various parts in your workstation and you can reference resources like
http://www.freebsd.org/releases/6.3R/hardware-amd64.html or
http://www.freebsd.org/releases/7.0R/hardware.html (or the list
archives, or ...) for information about them.

On a 64-bit platform you may notice issues with older drivers (which
you probably don't have) or more likely some third-party packages that
aren't quite 64-bit clean.

I've had a very successful experience with FreeBSD on the last two
modern high-end workstations I've run it on; my only problem has not
been with FreeBSD but with the binary blob NVIDIA driver on a Quadro
FX 3450/4000 SDI. Outside of that, everything has been stellar.

Copyright (c) 1992-2008 The FreeBSD Project.
Copyright (c) 1979, 1980, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994
        The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
FreeBSD is a registered trademark of The FreeBSD Foundation.
FreeBSD 7.0-STABLE #0: Mon Mar 17 18:04:24 MST 2008
    root at calamity.honeywell.com:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC
Timecounter "i8254" frequency 1193182 Hz quality 0
CPU: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU           E5345  @ 2.33GHz (2327.51-MHz 686-class CPU)
  Origin = "GenuineIntel"  Id = 0x6f7  Stepping = 7
  Features=0xbfebfbff<FPU,VME,DE,PSE,TSC,MSR,PAE,MCE,CX8,APIC,SEP,MTRR,PGE,MCA,CMOV,PAT,PSE36,CLFLUSH,DTS,ACPI,MMX,FXSR,SSE,SSE2,SS,HTT,TM,PBE>
  Features2=0x4e3bd<SSE3,RSVD2,MON,DS_CPL,VMX,EST,TM2,SSSE3,CX16,xTPR,PDCM,DCA>
  AMD Features=0x20100000<NX,LM>
  AMD Features2=0x1<LAHF>
  Cores per package: 4
real memory  = 3219169280 (3070 MB)
avail memory = 3136241664 (2990 MB)
ACPI APIC Table: <DELL   B8K    >
FreeBSD/SMP: Multiprocessor System Detected: 8 CPUs
 cpu0 (BSP): APIC ID:  0
 cpu1 (AP): APIC ID:  1
 cpu2 (AP): APIC ID:  2
 cpu3 (AP): APIC ID:  3
 cpu4 (AP): APIC ID:  4
 cpu5 (AP): APIC ID:  5
 cpu6 (AP): APIC ID:  6
 cpu7 (AP): APIC ID:  7
ioapic0: Changing APIC ID to 8
ioapic1: Changing APIC ID to 9
ioapic0 <Version 2.0> irqs 0-23 on motherboard
ioapic1 <Version 2.0> irqs 24-47 on motherboard
kbd1 at kbdmux0
netsmb_dev: loaded
ath_hal: 0.9.20.3 (AR5210, AR5211, AR5212, RF5111, RF5112, RF2413, RF5413)
acpi0: <DELL B8K    > on motherboard
acpi0: [ITHREAD]
acpi0: Power Button (fixed)
Timecounter "ACPI-fast" frequency 3579545 Hz quality 1000
acpi_timer0: <24-bit timer at 3.579545MHz> port 0x808-0x80b on acpi0
acpi_hpet0: <High Precision Event Timer> iomem 0xfed00000-0xfed003ff on acpi0
Timecounter "HPET" frequency 14318180 Hz quality 900
cpu0: <ACPI CPU> on acpi0
est0: <Enhanced SpeedStep Frequency Control> on cpu0
est: CPU supports Enhanced Speedstep, but is not recognized.
est: cpu_vendor GenuineIntel, msr 721072106000721
device_attach: est0 attach returned 6
p4tcc0: <CPU Frequency Thermal Control> on cpu0
cpu1: <ACPI CPU> on acpi0
est1: <Enhanced SpeedStep Frequency Control> on cpu1
est: CPU supports Enhanced Speedstep, but is not recognized.
est: cpu_vendor GenuineIntel, msr 721072106000721
device_attach: est1 attach returned 6
p4tcc1: <CPU Frequency Thermal Control> on cpu1
cpu2: <ACPI CPU> on acpi0
est2: <Enhanced SpeedStep Frequency Control> on cpu2
est: CPU supports Enhanced Speedstep, but is not recognized.
est: cpu_vendor GenuineIntel, msr 721072106000721
device_attach: est2 attach returned 6
p4tcc2: <CPU Frequency Thermal Control> on cpu2
cpu3: <ACPI CPU> on acpi0
est3: <Enhanced SpeedStep Frequency Control> on cpu3
est: CPU supports Enhanced Speedstep, but is not recognized.
est: cpu_vendor GenuineIntel, msr 721072106000721
device_attach: est3 attach returned 6
p4tcc3: <CPU Frequency Thermal Control> on cpu3
cpu4: <ACPI CPU> on acpi0
est4: <Enhanced SpeedStep Frequency Control> on cpu4
est: CPU supports Enhanced Speedstep, but is not recognized.
est: cpu_vendor GenuineIntel, msr 721072106000721
device_attach: est4 attach returned 6
p4tcc4: <CPU Frequency Thermal Control> on cpu4
cpu5: <ACPI CPU> on acpi0
est5: <Enhanced SpeedStep Frequency Control> on cpu5
est: CPU supports Enhanced Speedstep, but is not recognized.
est: cpu_vendor GenuineIntel, msr 721072106000721
device_attach: est5 attach returned 6
p4tcc5: <CPU Frequency Thermal Control> on cpu5
cpu6: <ACPI CPU> on acpi0
est6: <Enhanced SpeedStep Frequency Control> on cpu6
est: CPU supports Enhanced Speedstep, but is not recognized.
est: cpu_vendor GenuineIntel, msr 721072106000721
device_attach: est6 attach returned 6
p4tcc6: <CPU Frequency Thermal Control> on cpu6
cpu7: <ACPI CPU> on acpi0
est7: <Enhanced SpeedStep Frequency Control> on cpu7
est: CPU supports Enhanced Speedstep, but is not recognized.
est: cpu_vendor GenuineIntel, msr 721072106000721
device_attach: est7 attach returned 6
p4tcc7: <CPU Frequency Thermal Control> on cpu7
acpi_button0: <Power Button> on acpi0
pcib0: <ACPI Host-PCI bridge> port 0xcf8-0xcff on acpi0
pci0: <ACPI PCI bus> on pcib0
pcib1: <ACPI PCI-PCI bridge> at device 2.0 on pci0
pci1: <ACPI PCI bus> on pcib1
pcib2: <ACPI PCI-PCI bridge> irq 16 at device 0.0 on pci1
pci2: <ACPI PCI bus> on pcib2
pcib3: <ACPI PCI-PCI bridge> irq 16 at device 0.0 on pci2
pci3: <ACPI PCI bus> on pcib3
pcib4: <PCI-PCI bridge> irq 16 at device 1.0 on pci2
pci4: <PCI bus> on pcib4
pcib5: <ACPI PCI-PCI bridge> at device 0.3 on pci1
pci5: <ACPI PCI bus> on pcib5
fwohci0: <Lucent FW322/323> mem 0xdceff000-0xdcefffff irq 26 at device
5.0 on pci5
fwohci0: [FILTER]
fwohci0: OHCI version 1.0 (ROM=1)
fwohci0: No. of Isochronous channels is 8.
fwohci0: EUI64 00:00:d1:00:80:35:7a:57
fwohci0: Phy 1394a available S400, 3 ports.
fwohci0: Link S400, max_rec 2048 bytes.
firewire0: <IEEE1394(FireWire) bus> on fwohci0
fwe0: <Ethernet over FireWire> on firewire0
if_fwe0: Fake Ethernet address: 02:00:d1:35:7a:57
fwe0: Ethernet address: 02:00:d1:35:7a:57
fwip0: <IP over FireWire> on firewire0
fwip0: Firewire address: 00:00:d1:00:80:35:7a:57 @ 0xfffe00000000,
S400, maxrec 2048
sbp0: <SBP-2/SCSI over FireWire> on firewire0
dcons_crom0: <dcons configuration ROM> on firewire0
dcons_crom0: bus_addr 0xbc400000
fwohci0: Initiate bus reset
fwohci0: BUS reset
fwohci0: node_id=0xc800ffc0, gen=1, CYCLEMASTER mode
pcib6: <ACPI PCI-PCI bridge> at device 3.0 on pci0
pci6: <ACPI PCI bus> on pcib6
pcib7: <ACPI PCI-PCI bridge> at device 4.0 on pci0
pci7: <ACPI PCI bus> on pcib7
nvidia0: <Quadro FX 3450/4000 SDI> mem
0xdd000000-0xddffffff,0xc0000000-0xcfffffff,0xde000000-0xdeffffff irq
16 at device 0.0 on pci7
nvidia0: [GIANT-LOCKED]
nvidia0: [ITHREAD]
pcib8: <ACPI PCI-PCI bridge> at device 5.0 on pci0
pci8: <ACPI PCI bus> on pcib8
pcib9: <ACPI PCI-PCI bridge> at device 6.0 on pci0
pci9: <ACPI PCI bus> on pcib9
pcib10: <ACPI PCI-PCI bridge> at device 7.0 on pci0
pci10: <ACPI PCI bus> on pcib10
pcm0: <Intel 631x/632xESB High Definition Audio Controller> mem
0xdfffc000-0xdfffffff irq 16 at device 27.0 on pci0
pcm0: [ITHREAD]
pcib11: <ACPI PCI-PCI bridge> irq 16 at device 28.0 on pci0
pci11: <ACPI PCI bus> on pcib11
bge0: <Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet Controller, ASIC rev.
0x6002> mem 0xdccf0000-0xdccfffff irq 16 at device 0.0 on pci11
miibus0: <MII bus> on bge0
brgphy0: <BCM5752 10/100/1000baseTX PHY> PHY 1 on miibus0
brgphy0:  10baseT, 10baseT-FDX, 100baseTX, 100baseTX-FDX, 1000baseT,
1000baseT-FDX, auto
bge0: Ethernet address: 00:1a:a0:ac:eb:69
bge0: [ITHREAD]
uhci0: <Intel 631XESB/632XESB/3100 USB controller USB-1> port
0xff80-0xff9f irq 21 at device 29.0 on pci0
uhci0: [GIANT-LOCKED]
uhci0: [ITHREAD]
usb0: <Intel 631XESB/632XESB/3100 USB controller USB-1> on uhci0
usb0: USB revision 1.0
uhub0: <Intel UHCI root hub, class 9/0, rev 1.00/1.00, addr 1> on usb0
uhub0: 2 ports with 2 removable, self powered
uhci1: <Intel 631XESB/632XESB/3100 USB controller USB-2> port
0xff60-0xff7f irq 22 at device 29.1 on pci0
uhci1: [GIANT-LOCKED]
uhci1: [ITHREAD]
usb1: <Intel 631XESB/632XESB/3100 USB controller USB-2> on uhci1
usb1: USB revision 1.0
uhub1: <Intel UHCI root hub, class 9/0, rev 1.00/1.00, addr 1> on usb1
uhub1: 2 ports with 2 removable, self powered
uhci2: <Intel 631XESB/632XESB/3100 USB controller USB-3> port
0xff40-0xff5f irq 18 at device 29.2 on pci0
uhci2: [GIANT-LOCKED]
uhci2: [ITHREAD]
usb2: <Intel 631XESB/632XESB/3100 USB controller USB-3> on uhci2
usb2: USB revision 1.0
uhub2: <Intel UHCI root hub, class 9/0, rev 1.00/1.00, addr 1> on usb2
uhub2: 2 ports with 2 removable, self powered
uhci3: <Intel 631XESB/632XESB/3100 USB controller USB-4> port
0xff20-0xff3f irq 23 at device 29.3 on pci0
uhci3: [GIANT-LOCKED]
uhci3: [ITHREAD]
usb3: <Intel 631XESB/632XESB/3100 USB controller USB-4> on uhci3
usb3: USB revision 1.0
uhub3: <Intel UHCI root hub, class 9/0, rev 1.00/1.00, addr 1> on usb3
uhub3: 2 ports with 2 removable, self powered
ehci0: <Intel 63XXESB USB 2.0 controller> mem 0xff980800-0xff980bff
irq 21 at device 29.7 on pci0
ehci0: [GIANT-LOCKED]
ehci0: [ITHREAD]
usb4: waiting for BIOS to give up control
usb4: EHCI version 1.0
usb4: companion controllers, 2 ports each: usb0 usb1 usb2 usb3
usb4: <Intel 63XXESB USB 2.0 controller> on ehci0
usb4: USB revision 2.0
uhub4: <Intel EHCI root hub, class 9/0, rev 2.00/1.00, addr 1> on usb4
uhub4: 8 ports with 8 removable, self powered
pcib12: <ACPI PCI-PCI bridge> at device 30.0 on pci0
pci12: <ACPI PCI bus> on pcib12
isab0: <PCI-ISA bridge> at device 31.0 on pci0
isa0: <ISA bus> on isab0
atapci0: <Intel 63XXESB2 UDMA100 controller> port
0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6,0x170-0x177,0x376,0xffa0-0xffaf irq 16 at device
31.1 on pci0
ata0: <ATA channel 0> on atapci0
ata0: [ITHREAD]
ata1: <ATA channel 1> on atapci0
ata1: [ITHREAD]
atapci1: <Intel 63XXESB2 SATA300 controller> port
0xfe00-0xfe07,0xfe10-0xfe13,0xfe20-0xfe27,0xfe30-0xfe33,0xfec0-0xfedf
mem 0xff970000-0xff9703ff irq 20 at device 31.2 on pci0
atapci1: [ITHREAD]
atapci1: AHCI called from vendor specific driver
atapci1: AHCI Version 01.10 controller with 6 ports detected
ata2: <ATA channel 0> on atapci1
ata2: [ITHREAD]
ata3: <ATA channel 1> on atapci1
ata3: [ITHREAD]
ata4: <ATA channel 2> on atapci1
ata4: [ITHREAD]
ata5: <ATA channel 3> on atapci1
ata5: [ITHREAD]
ata6: <ATA channel 4> on atapci1
ata6: [ITHREAD]
ata7: <ATA channel 5> on atapci1
ata7: port not implemented
ata7: [ITHREAD]
pci0: <serial bus, SMBus> at device 31.3 (no driver attached)
fdc0: <floppy drive controller> port 0x3f0-0x3f5,0x3f7 irq 6 drq 2 on acpi0
fdc0: [FILTER]
fd0: <1440-KB 3.5" drive> on fdc0 drive 0
sio0: <16550A-compatible COM port> port 0x3f8-0x3ff irq 4 flags 0x10 on acpi0
sio0: type 16550A
sio0: [FILTER]
sio1: <16550A-compatible COM port> port 0x2f8-0x2ff irq 3 on acpi0
sio1: type 16550A
sio1: [FILTER]
pmtimer0 on isa0
orm0: <ISA Option ROMs> at iomem
0xc0000-0xcbfff,0xcc000-0xcdfff,0xce000-0xd2fff,0xd3000-0xd3fff pnpid
ORM0000 on isa0
atkbdc0: <Keyboard controller (i8042)> at port 0x60,0x64 on isa0
atkbd0: <AT Keyboard> irq 1 on atkbdc0
kbd0 at atkbd0
atkbd0: [GIANT-LOCKED]
atkbd0: [ITHREAD]
ppc0: <Parallel port> at port 0x378-0x37f irq 7 on isa0
ppc0: SMC-like chipset (ECP/EPP/PS2/NIBBLE) in COMPATIBLE mode
ppc0: FIFO with 16/16/8 bytes threshold
ppbus0: <Parallel port bus> on ppc0
ppbus0: [ITHREAD]
plip0: <PLIP network interface> on ppbus0
lpt0: <Printer> on ppbus0
lpt0: Interrupt-driven port
ppi0: <Parallel I/O> on ppbus0
ppc0: [GIANT-LOCKED]
ppc0: [ITHREAD]
sc0: <System console> at flags 0x100 on isa0
sc0: VGA <16 virtual consoles, flags=0x300>
vga0: <Generic ISA VGA> at port 0x3c0-0x3df iomem 0xa0000-0xbffff on isa0
uhub5: <Dell Dell USB Keyboard Hub, class 9/0, rev 1.10/48.01, addr 2> on uhub0
uhub5: 3 ports with 2 removable, bus powered
ukbd0: <Dell Dell USB Keyboard Hub, class 0/0, rev 1.10/48.00, addr 3> on uhub5
kbd2 at ukbd0
uhid0: <Dell Dell USB Keyboard Hub, class 0/0, rev 1.10/48.00, addr 3> on uhub5
umass0: <Lexar USB Flash Drive, class 0/0, rev 2.00/11.00, addr 4> on uhub5
ums0: <vendor 0x0461 USB Optical Mouse, class 0/0, rev 2.00/2.00, addr
5> on uhub5
ums0: 3 buttons and Z dir.
Timecounters tick every 1.000 msec
firewire0: 1 nodes, maxhop <= 0, cable IRM = 0 (me)
firewire0: bus manager 0 (me)
acd0: DVDR <PHILIPS DVD+/-RW DVD8801/AD21> at ata0-master UDMA33
ad4: 152587MB <WDC WD1600ADFS-75SLR2 21.07Q21> at ata2-master SATA300
ad6: 152587MB <WDC WD1600ADFS-75SLR2 21.07Q21> at ata3-master SATA300
pcm0: <HDA Codec: Sigmatel STAC9220>
pcm0: <HDA Driver Revision: 20071129_0050>
acd0: FAILURE - INQUIRY ILLEGAL REQUEST asc=0x24 ascq=0x00
acd0: FAILURE - INQUIRY ILLEGAL REQUEST asc=0x24 ascq=0x00
ar0: 152585MB <Intel MatrixRAID RAID1> status: READY
ar0: disk0 READY (master) using ad4 at ata2-master
ar0: disk1 READY (mirror) using ad6 at ata3-master
SMP: AP CPU #5 Launched!
SMP: AP CPU #7 Launched!
SMP: AP CPU #4 Launched!
SMP: AP CPU #6 Launched!
SMP: AP CPU #1 Launched!
SMP: AP CPU #3 Launched!
SMP: AP CPU #2 Launched!
cd0 at ata0 bus 0 target 0 lun 0
cd0: <PHILIPS DVD+-RW DVD8801 AD21> Removable CD-ROM SCSI-0 device
cd0: 33.000MB/s transfers
cd0: Attempt to query device size failed: NOT READY, Medium not present
da0 at umass-sim0 bus 0 target 0 lun 0
da0: <Lexar USB Flash Drive 1100> Removable Direct Access SCSI-0 device
da0: 1.000MB/s transfers
da0: 1920MB (3932160 512 byte sectors: 255H 63S/T 244C)
Trying to mount root from ufs:/dev/ar0s1a

-- 
Darren Spruell
phatbuckett at gmail.com