Any known issues with an Asus K8V SE Deluxe?

[ANTant]

Hello! It is that time of the year to upgrade my aging gaming system to
an AMD Athlon 64. I need to know if this ASUS motherboard model is a
good fit for my needs. It uses VIA K8T800 Socket 754 and has ATX Audio,
GbLan, SATA, and 1394.

http://alpha.zimage.com/~ant/antfarm/about/computers.txt shows my
current configuration and setup for the primary/gaming computer. I will
be replacing/removing its CPU, motherboard, RAM, sound card, NIC, and
Red Hat Linux 7.2 (going to install Debian to coexists with XP Pro.). I
am planning to get a Sound Blaster Audigy 2 card. Everything else will
be the same and untouched, including my HDD partitions (planning a
repair install in Windows XP).

My biggest issue is how compatible will the motherboard be with Debian?
Will the latest Kernel 2.4 driver be enough? I hope this motherboard is
mature and stable enough with all issues out of the way with the latest
revision and BIOS.

I mainly use this box for gaming (newest and upcoming games)n both
Windows and Debian, Internet stuff, Debian, Windows, graphic work,
simple video editing, watching video from TV and movies, etc.

Any tips and suggestions are welcomed. Thank you in advance.
--
"Have I told you how much I like ants, huh? Especially fried in a
subtle blend of mech fluid and grated gears?" --Rampage to Inferno,
"Transmutate" in Transformers (Beast Wars)
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Phillip (Ant) @ http://antfarm.ma.cx & http://aqfl.net
| |o o| | E-mail: (e-mail address removed) or (e-mail address removed)
\ _ / Nuke ANT from e-mail address if your e-mail was returned.
( )

 

[Chris Cole]

Hello! It is that time of the year to upgrade my aging gaming system to
an AMD Athlon 64. I need to know if this ASUS motherboard model is a
good fit for my needs. It uses VIA K8T800 Socket 754 and has ATX Audio,
GbLan, SATA, and 1394.

http://alpha.zimage.com/~ant/antfarm/about/computers.txt shows my
current configuration and setup for the primary/gaming computer. I will
be replacing/removing its CPU, motherboard, RAM, sound card, NIC, and
Red Hat Linux 7.2 (going to install Debian to coexists with XP Pro.). I
am planning to get a Sound Blaster Audigy 2 card. Everything else will
be the same and untouched, including my HDD partitions (planning a
repair install in Windows XP).

My biggest issue is how compatible will the motherboard be with Debian?
Will the latest Kernel 2.4 driver be enough? I hope this motherboard is
mature and stable enough with all issues out of the way with the latest
revision and BIOS.

I can't really give you much regarding your choice of mobo advice (try
google?), but I why do you only want the 2.4 kernel. I would have thought
that you'd want to run linux in 64bit mode. If not, why buy an AMD64?

Chris.

 

[Alan Walpool]

ANTant> Hello! It is that time of the year to upgrade my aging gaming
ANTant> system to an AMD Athlon 64. I need to know if this ASUS
ANTant> motherboard model is a good fit for my needs. It uses VIA
ANTant> K8T800 Socket 754 and has ATX Audio, GbLan, SATA, and 1394.


http://www.debian.org/ports/amd64/

Go to the above link for information on hardware compatibility for
debian AMD64 port. There is more information concerning the status of
the port.

I would also look at the nvidia 250GB based motherboards also.

Good luck, and report back any success or failures.

Alan

 

[ANTant]

I can't really give you much regarding your choice of mobo advice (try
google?), but I why do you only want the 2.4 kernel. I would have thought
that you'd want to run linux in 64bit mode. If not, why buy an AMD64?

Isn't 2.4 the latest one in Debian? I briefly played with it in VMware 4.5
in Windows XP Home and on a Pentium 4. I think the kernel was at 2.4.21 or
something. And yes, I did an apt-get update and upgrade. So I assumed that
was the latest. I am also new to Debian since I am dumping old Red Hat
Linux 7.2.
--
"Have I told you how much I like ants, huh? Especially fried in a
subtle blend of mech fluid and grated gears?" --Rampage to Inferno,
"Transmutate" in Transformers (Beast Wars)
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Phillip (Ant) @ http://antfarm.ma.cx & http://aqfl.net
| |o o| | E-mail: (e-mail address removed) or (e-mail address removed)
\ _ / Nuke ANT from e-mail address if your e-mail was returned.
( )

 

[ANTant]

ANTant> Hello! It is that time of the year to upgrade my aging gaming
ANTant> system to an AMD Athlon 64. I need to know if this ASUS
ANTant> motherboard model is a good fit for my needs. It uses VIA
ANTant> K8T800 Socket 754 and has ATX Audio, GbLan, SATA, and 1394.


Go to the above link for information on hardware compatibility for
debian AMD64 port. There is more information concerning the status of
the port.

Awesome, do I assume https://alioth.debian.org/docman/view.php/30192/27/mainboards.html
means the motherboards are fully compatible with Debian (Athlon 64
build)?

I would also look at the nvidia 250GB based motherboards also.

Why is that? ASUS has 6 IDE devices supported which I need.

Good luck, and report back any success or failures.

I am pretty sure I will have issues.
--
"Have I told you how much I like ants, huh? Especially fried in a
subtle blend of mech fluid and grated gears?" --Rampage to Inferno,
"Transmutate" in Transformers (Beast Wars)
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Phillip (Ant) @ http://antfarm.ma.cx & http://aqfl.net
| |o o| | E-mail: (e-mail address removed) or (e-mail address removed)
\ _ / Nuke ANT from e-mail address if your e-mail was returned.
( )

 

[ANTant]

I can't really give you much regarding your choice of mobo advice (try
google?), but I why do you only want the 2.4 kernel. I would have thought
that you'd want to run linux in 64bit mode. If not, why buy an AMD64?

Also, AMD64 = games in Windows. I am dual booting. I don't mind running
a 64-bit version of Debian if it is full supported and all programs
to download are available for it.
--
"Have I told you how much I like ants, huh? Especially fried in a
subtle blend of mech fluid and grated gears?" --Rampage to Inferno,
"Transmutate" in Transformers (Beast Wars)
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Phillip (Ant) @ http://antfarm.ma.cx & http://aqfl.net
| |o o| | E-mail: (e-mail address removed) or (e-mail address removed)
\ _ / Nuke ANT from e-mail address if your e-mail was returned.
( )

 

[Alan Walpool]

ANTant> Awesome, do I assume
ANTant> https://alioth.debian.org/docman/view.php/30192/27/mainboards.html
ANTant> means the motherboards are fully compatible with Debian
ANTant> (Athlon 64 build)?

Yes unless a "?" mark is in a box. I'm not clear what the question
mark notation means. You probably should post in the list to check. If
there are no "?" marks for a board it is fully compatible.

ANTant> Why is that? ASUS has 6 IDE devices supported which I need.

Just to look at another option. That's all. However, the board you are
looking at is rock solid for linux.

Hope that helps.

Alan

 

[ANTant]

ANTant> Awesome, do I assume
ANTant> https://alioth.debian.org/docman/view.php/30192/27/mainboards.html
ANTant> means the motherboards are fully compatible with Debian
ANTant> (Athlon 64 build)?

Yes unless a "?" mark is in a box. I'm not clear what the question
mark notation means. You probably should post in the list to check. If
there are no "?" marks for a board it is fully compatible.

ANTant> Why is that? ASUS has 6 IDE devices supported which I need.

Just to look at another option. That's all. However, the board you are
looking at is rock solid for linux.

Hope that helps.

Thanks Alan. Is the NVIDIA the NForce3 one?
--
"Have I told you how much I like ants, huh? Especially fried in a
subtle blend of mech fluid and grated gears?" --Rampage to Inferno,
"Transmutate" in Transformers (Beast Wars)
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Phillip (Ant) @ http://antfarm.ma.cx & http://aqfl.net
| |o o| | E-mail: (e-mail address removed) or (e-mail address removed)
\ _ / Nuke ANT from e-mail address if your e-mail was returned.
( )

 

[Alan Walpool]

ANTant> Thanks Alan. Is the NVIDIA the NForce3 one? -- "Have I told


http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2150


Read the above article because there is a major difference between
NForce3 boards. You want to look at the nForce3-250Gb boards.

Good luck,

Alan

 

[clifto]

My biggest issue is how compatible will the motherboard be with Debian?
Will the latest Kernel 2.4 driver be enough? I hope this motherboard is
mature and stable enough with all issues out of the way with the latest
revision and BIOS.

<http://www.mozillaquest.com/Linux04/Asus_Sucks_Story-01.html>

The K8V SE is the motherboard that gave them problems.

Me, I'm eyeballing the Soyo Dragon boards for my next purchase.

 

[ANTant]

ANTant> Thanks Alan. Is the NVIDIA the NForce3 one? -- "Have I told



Read the above article because there is a major difference between
NForce3 boards. You want to look at the nForce3-250Gb boards.

Good luck,

Thanks. It is crazy that motherboards are bundled with everything now.
Soundcard, network, etc. I miss the days when I could keep stuff
separate and reuse them if possible. Right now, I wouldn't want to use
onboard soundcard because I am getting an Audigy 2 card (EAX and
gaming mainly).

--
"Have I told you how much I like ants, huh? Especially fried in a
subtle blend of mech fluid and grated gears?" --Rampage to Inferno,
"Transmutate" in Transformers (Beast Wars)
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Phillip (Ant) @ http://antfarm.ma.cx & http://aqfl.net
| |o o| | E-mail: (e-mail address removed) or (e-mail address removed)
\ _ / Nuke ANT from e-mail address if your e-mail was returned.
( )

 

[Wolfgang S. Rupprecht]

<http://www.mozillaquest.com/Linux04/Asus_Sucks_Story-01.html>
The K8V SE is the motherboard that gave them problems.

I have some issues with that board too (I have one). The issue with
the ethernet is more serious than the flipped bit in the eeprom.
Under BSD (net/open/free) the if_sk.c driver ignores the bad data in
the VPD. It essentially only looks at the first part of the string to
see if it has a syskonnect chip and then tries to initialize it. The
driver never looks at the bad bit.

Under both netbsd and openbsd the ethernet chip only works as long as
one doesn't push it very hard. Running NFS with the user's home
directory mounted across the net is a sure way to lock up the
ethernet. An "ifconfig down; sleep 1; ifconfig up" will unstick it,
but only up to the point where one pushes it hard the next time.
Anything above a few megabytes/sec triggers the lockup. Strangely the
same driver works just fine with a pair of Linksys EG1032 syskonnect
based PCI cards plugged into the same motherboard. There is something
funny about either the version of the chip that asus is using or with
the board layout. The issue is more serious than an eeprom that is
programmed badly.

-wolfgang

 

[ANTant]

I have some issues with that board too (I have one). The issue with
the ethernet is more serious than the flipped bit in the eeprom.
Under BSD (net/open/free) the if_sk.c driver ignores the bad data in
the VPD. It essentially only looks at the first part of the string to
see if it has a syskonnect chip and then tries to initialize it. The
driver never looks at the bad bit.

Under both netbsd and openbsd the ethernet chip only works as long as
one doesn't push it very hard. Running NFS with the user's home
directory mounted across the net is a sure way to lock up the
ethernet. An "ifconfig down; sleep 1; ifconfig up" will unstick it,
but only up to the point where one pushes it hard the next time.
Anything above a few megabytes/sec triggers the lockup. Strangely the
same driver works just fine with a pair of Linksys EG1032 syskonnect
based PCI cards plugged into the same motherboard. There is something
funny about either the version of the chip that asus is using or with
the board layout. The issue is more serious than an eeprom that is
programmed badly.

I talked to a friend who was into PC hardware industry and showed him
the article. He might had found the solution and maybe this fixes the
problem:

[03:41:02 AM] O: hrm..that is interesting.
[03:41:04 AM] O: i wonder.
[03:41:13 AM] A: yes?
[03:41:20 AM] A: wonder wha?
[03:41:57 AM] O: asus's dl page for the k8vse.....has drivers for linux stuff for other things on the board..i'm wondering if the driver is related to the manufacturer (marvell) not doing something properly
[03:42:13 AM] A: [looks too]
[03:44:10 AM] O: look how they have promise drivers.
[03:44:13 AM] O: for linux.
[03:44:33 AM] A: ah
[03:44:34 AM] A: wow 2003
[03:44:53 AM] A: only at v1.00!
[03:45:19 AM] A: didn't the guys say the later revisions of mobos messed up?
[03:45:20 AM] O: but you see what i'm saying though..right?
[03:45:23 AM] A: yea
[03:45:32 AM] O: i'm wondering if it falls on marvell.
[03:46:02 AM] A: What does Marvell do? make hardware?
[03:46:17 AM] O: aye..controller chips...most notable..SATA controller chips
[03:46:25 AM] A: hm
[03:46:28 AM] A: who knows =)
[03:46:48 AM] A: Never heard of them either.
[03:46:52 AM] A: well except for Marvel Comics heh
[03:47:18 AM] O: (Link: http://www.marvell.com/drivers/driv...edDriverPlatformId=10&submit.x=117&submit.y=3
[03:47:22 AM] O: released a few days ago
[03:47:24 AM] O: i wonder.
[03:47:30 AM] A: ooh
[03:47:37 AM] A: and kernel 2.6!
[03:47:39 AM] O: aye.
[03:47:45 AM] A: what they were talkinmg about
[03:47:47 AM] O: so i'm wondering if it REALLY is an asus issue.
[03:47:57 AM] O: the k8v se..i know has been out a while.
[03:47:58 AM] A: Yukon GigE Linux Driver. <<--- WEIRD NAME
[03:48:05 AM] O: it really could have been a driver issue
[03:48:11 AM] O: yukon is the chip family
[03:48:13 AM] A: [downloads]
[03:48:14 AM] A: ah
[03:49:08 AM] A: This document describes the installation of the sk98lin driver
on your Linux system. It describes how the installation script works
and how it can be used to either install the sk98lin driver or to
create a Linux kernel patch. The installation script can be used on
any Linux kernel version from 2.4.13 or higher.
[03:49:22 AM] O: lol
[03:49:23 AM] A: I wonder what sk98lin is. heh must be a linux name
[03:49:23 AM] O: so there.
[03:49:30 AM] O: probably
[03:49:41 AM] O: but that looks familiar from your other post.
[03:49:45 AM] O: so i'm thinking it's fixed now
[03:50:04 AM] A: all created on august 26th
[03:50:20 AM] O: the 940 version of the k8v..is the sk8v
[03:50:29 AM] A: ah makessense
[03:50:29 AM] O: probably where the sk comes from
[03:50:31 AM] A: yea
[03:50:38 AM] A: sk8v + linux
[03:50:44 AM] A: hey check this out
[03:50:45 AM] A: Installation script for Marvell Chip based Ethernet Gigabit Cards
$Revision: 1.36 $
$Date: 2004/08/17 15:29:07 $
[03:51:03 AM] A: OOH
[03:51:05 AM] A: verion history
[03:51:08 AM] O: ah.
[03:51:09 AM] O: lol
[03:51:11 AM] O: what's it say?
[03:51:17 AM] A: pasting
[03:51:17 AM] A: History:
2004-07-23 - Insert likely() if not available
Display driver version in the log files
Parameter check changed
Use /proc/config.gz if available
2004-07-01 - Better version.h check
2004-04-26 - New parameter configuration
2004-04-26 - Support for Intel x86_64 arch
2004-02-15 - Support for yukon2 chipsets
Support for kernel 2.6
Support for parallel make on SMP-Hosts
Make a patch against the current kernel
Added help option.
[03:51:20 AM] O: "fix problems with asus boards"
[03:51:21 AM] O: lol
[03:51:32 AM] A: More command line parameters for auto installation
Better SMP detection
Highmem detection
[03:51:44 AM] A: support for kernel 2.6?
[03:51:45 AM] A: hm
[03:51:48 AM] A: mayhe that's it?
[03:52:00 AM] O: *shrugs*
[03:52:10 AM] A: hehe let me email this find to the author
[03:52:22 AM] A: good research, man!


Anyone want to try that driver update?
--
"Oh, look what Kyle got me, it's a red Mega... Ants in the pants? Ants
in the pants?! Ants in the Pants?!! ..." --Eric Cartman in South Park's
Damien Episode (Season 1; Episode 8)
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Phillip (Ant) @ http://antfarm.ma.cx & http://aqfl.net
| |o o| | E-mail: (e-mail address removed) or (e-mail address removed)
\ _ / Nuke ANT from e-mail address if your e-mail was returned.
( )

 

[Nico Kadel-Garcia]

I talked to a friend who was into PC hardware industry and showed him
the article. He might had found the solution and maybe this fixes the
problem:

[03:41:02 AM] O: hrm..that is interesting.
[03:41:04 AM] O: i wonder.
[03:41:13 AM] A: yes?
[03:41:20 AM] A: wonder wha?
[03:41:57 AM] O: asus's dl page for the k8vse.....has drivers for linux

stuff for other things on the board..i'm wondering if the driver is related
to the manufacturer (marvell) not doing something properly

[03:42:13 AM] A: [looks too]
[03:44:10 AM] O: look how they have promise drivers.
[03:44:13 AM] O: for linux.
[03:44:33 AM] A: ah
[03:44:34 AM] A: wow 2003
[03:44:53 AM] A: only at v1.00!

Note: ASUS Linux support is ghods-awful. When they bother, they basically
slap together something at least 2 years old, never test it, never
acknowledge it exists, don't explain how to integrate them gracefully, don't
explaiin where they copied the bundles from so you can get updates, (such as
Hendrick's work with the Promise controllers or the ALSA bundle for the
newer audio chipsets), etc.

They are always so old as to be utterly useless and the company does not
acknowledge the existence of updates for the software bundles they use.
Worse, if you call them to get the chipset of a board you're interested in
buying, even if it's several thousand boards, they tell you that the chipset
is the name of the board. (A Promise UltraTrak Controller is clearly not a
chipset name...)

 

[ANTant]

I talked to a friend who was into PC hardware industry and showed him

the article. He might had found the solution and maybe this fixes the
problem:

[03:41:02 AM] O: hrm..that is interesting.
[03:41:04 AM] O: i wonder.
[03:41:13 AM] A: yes?
[03:41:20 AM] A: wonder wha?
[03:41:57 AM] O: asus's dl page for the k8vse.....has drivers for linux

stuff for other things on the board..i'm wondering if the driver is related
to the manufacturer (marvell) not doing something properly

[03:42:13 AM] A: [looks too]
[03:44:10 AM] O: look how they have promise drivers.
[03:44:13 AM] O: for linux.
[03:44:33 AM] A: ah
[03:44:34 AM] A: wow 2003
[03:44:53 AM] A: only at v1.00!

Note: ASUS Linux support is ghods-awful. When they bother, they basically
slap together something at least 2 years old, never test it, never
acknowledge it exists, don't explain how to integrate them gracefully, don't
explaiin where they copied the bundles from so you can get updates, (such as
Hendrick's work with the Promise controllers or the ALSA bundle for the
newer audio chipsets), etc.

They are always so old as to be utterly useless and the company does not
acknowledge the existence of updates for the software bundles they use.
Worse, if you call them to get the chipset of a board you're interested in
buying, even if it's several thousand boards, they tell you that the chipset
is the name of the board. (A Promise UltraTrak Controller is clearly not a
chipset name...)

All technical support are like that!! So, did you try that Marvel driver?
--
"Oh, look what Kyle got me, it's a red Mega... Ants in the pants? Ants
in the pants?! Ants in the Pants?!! ..." --Eric Cartman in South Park's
Damien Episode (Season 1; Episode 8)
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Phillip (Ant) @ http://antfarm.ma.cx & http://aqfl.net
| |o o| | E-mail: (e-mail address removed) or (e-mail address removed)
\ _ / Nuke ANT from e-mail address if your e-mail was returned.
( )

 

[chrisv]

Hello!

Why don't you cross-post to a few more groups, you idiot?

 

[ANTant]

(e-mail address removed) wrote:

Why don't you cross-post to a few more groups, you idiot?

Would you rather me to post in each group separately?
--
"Oh, look what Kyle got me, it's a red Mega... Ants in the pants? Ants
in the pants?! Ants in the Pants?!! ..." --Eric Cartman in South Park's
Damien Episode (Season 1; Episode 8)
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Phillip (Ant) @ http://antfarm.ma.cx & http://aqfl.net
| |o o| | E-mail: (e-mail address removed) or (e-mail address removed)
\ _ / Nuke ANT from e-mail address if your e-mail was returned.
( )

 

[Rick Moen]

[Followups set.]

Would you rather me to post in each group separately?

How about NEITHER?

Welcome to Usenet; it's now time for you to learn some netiquette, or
get used to being killfiled. Pick ONE newsgroup to post an issue into.
If you absolutely cannot restrain yourself, crosspost to a second one
and set followups.

Your recent posting pattern is inexcusable. Fix it.