FreeBSD 6.2 on Dell PowerEdge SC440

[Rob]

Lars Kristiansen wrote:
> Dominik Zalewski skrev:
>> I'm thinking of buying Dell PowerEdge SC440 for a small webserver. 
>> Anyone using this server with FreeBSD 6.2 -release ? Any issues? Some 
> 
> 6.2-release does not have a driver for the built-in network interface.
> So you probarly want to order it with extra gigabit nic.

I have last year's model, the SC430.  I don't know what they changed but the 440's specs still say "integrated Boardcom gigabit NIC".  The bge driver in 6.x has worked just fine for me.  You do need to either custom-compile it in, or load it at boot time.  See the man pages:

http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=bge&apropos=0&sektion=0&manpath=FreeBSD+6.2-RELEASE&format=html

Actually, looking at the 6.2-release i386/GENERIC kernel conf, it's compiled in by default.

The machine has been a very reliable "bare bones" server for us;  just what I wanted.  I think the system board is an Intel-OEM.  Intel SATA on it has been reliable.  The case is "BTX" -- a new standard pushed by Dell and some other Tier One manufacturers.

  -RW