Sunfire X2100 + sata_nv broken on 2.6.14?

pafisher · n00b Joined: 07 Dec 2005 Posts: 6

Anyone else having problems with gentoo-sources-2.6.14-(r3,r4) on the new Sunfire X2100? (The X2100 is a nForce4 Ultra with an Opteron 1xx processor. lspci looks like my DFI Athlon X2, except tha the nForce SATA is revision f3.)

If I have the full 4G of memory in the system then the boot freezes on loading the sata_nv module. If I remove 2G of memory then it does load the sata_nv module, but no drives are "seem" from the initrd (which seems to have changed to initramfs in a recent genkernel), so it stops just short of mounting the root.

This seems to be related to the sata_nv w/4G troubles that have been reported recently on LKML, but I am still having trouble after removing the memory. Incidentally, I have been able to boot and mount the SATA drives on the 2005.1-r1 install CD, which is 2.6.12-r10 based, so I *guess* I could revert back to that level for now.

any help appreciated,
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paul

pafisher · n00b Joined: 07 Dec 2005 Posts: 6

Well I've done more testing and it seems that I had two things going on, one of which was my error. The 2.6.14 kernels that I built originally were a little too aggressive on minimizing the modules built, so I had mistakenly disabled the I2C nForce stuff. With that enabled the 2.6.14-rx kernels work just fine.

The sata_nv+4G problem does exist on these boxes. Hopefully this gets worked out soon.

paul
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paul

killercow · Posted: Thu Dec 15, 2005 1:12 pm Post subject:

Hi,

Im looking into buying one of these systems.

But without the hdd or dvd player,

Could you give me some hints?

Im going to put 2 standart maxtor diamond max 200gb sata disks in the brackets, and hopefully will use a seperate (ide?) cd-rom player to install gentoo on it.

Could you tell me if the mobo has any ide cables? (and did you find any other problems with te machine?)

Il just use the default 512mb ram for now, but i might upgrade it later on.

pafisher · n00b Joined: 07 Dec 2005 Posts: 6

I replied in detail in a PM, but for anyone else looking at this topic these boxes are SATA only.

paul
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paul

willcodeforfoo · n00b Joined: 21 Dec 2005 Posts: 3

Is it possible to boot from a USB CD-ROM or even a USB flash drive?

killercow · Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2006 1:53 pm Post subject:

Yay,

got mine,

usb-cdrom gets detected just fine by both bios and live-cd's as old as 2004.3

looking inside does show a Pata connector, (didn't try to connect a normal cd drive though, the optional slim-line-dvd seems to connect to that port though. (im not sure if its plain P-ata, or that it has the extra power pins needed for slim-line players

i use two Western digital 200gb didks, since they are way cheeper than the sun options.