Disappointed with version 6.0

[Chris]

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?

Chris