about to put albatron KM18G Pro nforce2 board in the trash

Jimill · n00b Joined: 17 Feb 2004 Posts: 10 Location: Sydney

i've previously posted here,
https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=138148&highlight=

and thought that i have solved my problem.
but i'm still getting kernel panics and various hangs while compling kde.

i've tried both
2.4.22-gentoo-r7
and da love
2.6.3-love3 patches.

as you can see in both of my configs i've disabled apic acpi and most other things.

http://home.swiftdsl.com.au/~jleech/config-2.4.22-gentoo-r7
http://home.swiftdsl.com.au/~jleech/config-2.6.3-love3

if anyone can see or think of something i've overlooked, it would be great to find out.

here is dmesg output from a hang in 2.6.3-love3
http://home.swiftdsl.com.au/~jleech/errors-2.6

though various other messages have appeared like this in 2.4.22;
<0> Kernel panic: Attempted to kill the idle task!
In idle task - not syncing

The only difference between 2.4 to 2.6 i've noticed is that 2.6 doesn't lockup hard just hangs with the above kernel panic but i can switch to another console and reboot. 2.4 locks up hard requiring a hard reset.

Failing anything else this board is smashed. Can anyone recommend another AMD platform board with onboard video,lan and sound that works with linux. via or sis? maker and model number would be good. yes i know some of you don't have problems with nforce2 boards but i'm not up for testing my luck with another nforce2 from a different maker.

This board installs winxp fine and from the 30mins once i had it setup until i wiped the hd to try linux again nothing went wrong.

Also when i startx using the onboard vga, the display has several corrupt lines part way across the screen. moving the default consoles around the screen causes them to disappear and reappear else where on the screen.
This happens using both the nv and nvidia drivers. this again has to be a linux issue as winxp installed and work profectly.

Jimill.

altorus · Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2004 8:13 am Post subject:

I love my KM18GPro its is a perfect board. I've had it running under both 2.4.22-ac4 and 2.6.3-rc2-mm1 with no problems. The only kernel thing i've had to disable has beem APIC, thats it

Yeah the on board gfx is a little funky, but from what i've heard a bios flash fixes it right up. This is an nforce2 igp and linux thing, its not only this board.

Pn reading your other post, i'll pull out my RAM comments.

So memtest gets no errors. odd.

Hows yout power? What type of power supply? wattage/brand plz

Is the livecd environment stable, or does that crash out on you to?

Jimill · n00b Joined: 17 Feb 2004 Posts: 10 Location: Sydney

Hey, yeah i loved my KM18G Pro it has everything i wanted, until i started installing...
I've flashed the bios to what seems to be the latest bios on the web v1.01a a couple of days ago but still all the same issues.

the livecd environment is unstable as well. even when passing noapic acpi=off on boot up.

the power supply is just a generic 300w 'er, which has worked fine for about two years with an athlon 1.4g in a asus a7v133-c board. that system was stable for weeks on end. only the odd kernel update took that machine down. i'm using it again now actually.

on the albatron board i'm trying to use a barton 2500+,corsair Value Select 256mb of ram and a leadtek 2000xp tuner card. do you think i need more than 300w?

i've read about people running the onboard graphics without issues, so there are some there though is there? i guess i'll definatlly be looking into other boards if someone can't help me.

sorry to be negative but linux has always just worked for me. i've never had to spend two weeks on something to get nowhere. i'm just i bit disappointed with nforce2 as it looks so good on paper. plus i've installed redhat 7.3 on a asus nforce2 board at work and didn't have a single issue. though that board doesn't have onboard graphics.

Jimill.

Jimill · n00b Joined: 17 Feb 2004 Posts: 10 Location: Sydney

mmmm, i just installed a geforce4mx into the nforce2 machine and now X and kde work. didn't have to change a thing with my configs.

now to test a compile of some thing.

this still isn't satisfactory as what is the point of having and paying for onboard vga if you can't use it.

Jimill

altorus · Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2004 1:47 am Post subject:

Hmm well gled you've finally resolved the issue. I've not been able to get the system stable while using the onboard gfx. ITs a very strange problem, but one thats easy to fix.

Depending on just how nasty that generic 300W is, it may be underpowering, but as long as your voltagews are ok (lm_sensors anyone?) then the system should be stable.

The deal with the onboard gfx (i found) was:
1. It runs on vesa/vga
2. It runs on nv driver
3. It runs on nvidia driver but anything near opengl will crash it.

I remember someone resolving this issue over at the nforcers.com linux forums, but it was on a shuttle nforce2 system, not an albatron.

The way i look at my board is: yes it was nice to save 60 bucks for a video card, but if its not stable.... As a result i'm running my old GF4MX 440 in it.

Jimill · n00b Joined: 17 Feb 2004 Posts: 10 Location: Sydney

what does the console use for video as it was unstable just on a console nowhere near X.

i'll have a look on nforcers, and now that the system is stable(i compiled open office last night without an issue) i'll get lm_sensors compiled and see how the voltages are.

my thinking was that the barton with a mb with sound and video on board would use less power than a athlon t'bird without sblive and gf4mx? what you think?

Anyways i hope someone else finds this thread before going though piles of do like i did trying to get the thing stable.

Jimiil

altorus · Posted: Tue Feb 24, 2004 2:40 am Post subject:

Its not so much the power rating thats imortant, its the actual current the power supply can deliver on certain rails. The AMD whitepaper on power supply requirements call for rather high ampage on your 3.3V line. Now i know for a fact that antec power supploes (well my 350 Value) anyway can deliver this no worries.

A lot of the cheaper PSUs however a sadly lacking

F