ASUS A8N-VM CSM guide

[brento]

I just spent the last few days building a Gentoo system on an ASUS A8N-VM CSM MB and thought I would share my experiences to help others. Everything is working, for the most part. I am not adding a lot of new info, but more compiling info found in different forums into this post. I will do my best to give credit where credit is due, but it I can't guarantee I won't accidentally leave someone out.

Specs:
ASUS A8N-VM CSM
AMD64 Athlon 3200+
1 GB Kingston RAM (128MB of it is allocated for onboard video)
160 Seagate SATA HD
CDROM
ANTEC ARIA case

First and foremost, Gentoo 2006.0 made life much easier for me. I was able to boot the liveCD without any kernel options and the forcedeth driver loaded, hence my internet connection was available.

The first thing I did was update my BIOS to 0702. The problem was that the ARIA case power supply didn't have a floppy drive power connector (unless I somehow missed it) - I needed an adapter. I tried making a boot CD to avoid the floppy drive problem, but that didn't work out. I also needed a 20-24 pin adapter for the MB power. As mentioned in other forums, the 0702 BIOS did not fix the ACPI problem.

I fixed ACPI by downloading the 0702 DSDT (original) from acpi.sourceforge.net, editing the SystemMemory line for 1GB and compiling it with IASL. I then followed the info in the README (from acpi.sourceforge.net) for incorporating a custom DSDT in the kernel. (Note: I spent many hours trying to disassemble my DSDT using pmtools and tools from iasl with no luck. Somebody, SiliconFiend I believe, figured it out and posted it to help everyone out)

I then followed the Gentoo Handbook for the rest of the installation.

TIP: Before chrooting into the new environment, use links to download the new DSDT, IASL (link off of acpi.sourceforge.net) and the NVIDIA and NFORCE drivers from www.nvidia.com ( I am using NFORCE 0310 and NVIDIA 8178 successfully). That way you can install them once you chroot. Or, once you chroot, you can use emerge to get them. If packages are masked, become familiar with "/etc/portage/package.keywords"

[Fejimush]

Thanks for posting this. I have been thinking about getting one of these M/Bs for a while. It's nice to see it working well for someone.

Fej

[j4ck455]

brento, thanks for this thread - after having ripped out all my hair trying to get nvsound working
[nvsound has by far been the most difficult|near-impossible & frustrating thing for me]
I am going to try what you've posted here...

One other small niggly problem I have, is trying to use a 2nd NIC [ordinary old PCI] along with the builtin 1Gbits/s NIC, the problem is that after [possibly regular intervals] traffic stops flowing on both eth0 and eth1 ['destination unreachable'] - despite nothing visibly changing in the routing table [except that when it's all pear shaped /sbin/route takes an awful long time time to dump anything out]...I suspect that it has something to do with dhcpcd dying during a lease renewal [I have tried increasing the lease times on my DHCP server - and all that seems to do is give me extra time before it all goes wrong again & restart doesn't work - I have to reboot].

In case this helps the gurus help me, here is my setup:

• I emerge[d] dhcpcd as part of the chroot installation, and that is what both NICs are currently using, which could be where the problem is coming from... [opinions?]
• My 2nd NIC doesn't work with 8139cp but does work with 8139too, and forcedeth seemed to get automagically loaded & caused me more problems with the onboard NIC, so I used menuconfig to remove <n> both 8139cp and forcedeth, and included 8139too as a module [otherwise 8139cp always got loaded after 8139too was already loaded from /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6].
• Installed NFORCE-Linux-x86_64-1.0-0310-pkg1.run [and NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-1.0-8178-pkg2.run for onboard GPU] - yes I know I tainted the kernel here...
• My /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6 looks like this:

  Code:

  nvnet nvsound 8139too

  with nvnet above 8139too, which forces the onboard NIC to be eth0 [which is what I wanted].
• DHCP server on my LAN is IPCop v1.4.10, although I don't think it matters what it is...

As my next step, I am considering changing /etc/conf.d/net to use:

[brento]

Well, over the past few weeks I have made more additions and thought I would share.

First, as I was aware and I am sure many of you have thought, editing the kernel source isn't exactly the brightest idea for enabling sound. This became evident when I tried to patch the kernel and realized that my edited file wouldn't match what it was expecting. None the less, it is an effective workound, just annoying. At the same time, it does prevent me from needing to re-install alsa every time I change something in my kernel config.

EDIT 4/11/06: I thought I included this the first time, but I didn't. Incredibly important to note when it comes to the following SystemMemory value is that I have 1GB of RAM, with 128MB allocated for video.

Second, my DSDT fix turned out to not be 100% correct. As mentioned in the documentation, you need to adjust the value for SystemMemory for your machine. Well, I took an educated guess by looking at other users files. I took the value 0x37FCE000. This was close, but the correct value (I think) turned out to be 0x37FCE064. After spending a few hours digging through the ACPI spec, I learned a lot about the addressing. Turns out my original value actually belonged to another system table, FACS. I found the correct value by using pmtools to do an acpidump and then I traced through the hex code to see what address the original DSDT used. Now everything seems fine. The new address actually starts with the byte in memory immediately following the header of the OEMB table.

The reason I mention all of that is because everything seemed fine originally except for one minor annoyance - the computer wouldn't shut off. I issued the shutdown command just like always, but the last thing on the screen was "power shutdown" (I think) and it would remain on until I either pulled the plug or held the power button for about 5 seconds. But now that I am not overwriting the FACS table, all is well.

Finally, I added a Hauppage PVR-500 and a PVR-350. I am running kernel 2.6.16 and ivtv 0.6.1. It took some time to get it working, but I finally found (http://gentoo-wiki.com/HARDWARE_PVR_500_Setup) that apparently AMD64 has issues loading the modules, so I had to load them all manually. I still get errors about modules not loading when ivtv starts, but since the modules are already loaded, it seems to work anyway. All 3 tuners are working like a champ.

EDIT: 4/11/06 I probably should have mentioned this the first time, but it didn't effect me, so I didn't think much of it. The problem is specific to the MB/Case combo. There happens to be a capacitor (or inductor, I forget which) that sits right by the PCI-E(x1) slot. The PVR-500 has an "expansion" card which gives you composite and S-video in for the second tuner, and this "expansion" card takes up a PCI slot. I intended on putting it in my empty PCI-E slot, however that capacitor hits the R audio-in jack, preventing me from putting the "expansion" card in the case. After looking at the "expansion" card on my desk for a month, I thought I would add this in case it effects someone else.

-brento

[j4ck455]

Sadly I haven't found time to make much sense of DSDTs & ACPI, consequently I still haven't got any sound, but I did abandon nvsound & OSS in favour of snd-hda-intel and ALSA, but obviously I still need to correct the problems with this A8N-VM CSM's DSDT...

A couple of questions:

1. I don't have a /proc/acpi folder or file, ACPI 2 is enabled in the BIOS, and ACPI is enabled in menuconfig. Why don't I have a /proc/acpi folder?
   
   From /proc/config.gz{/config}:

   Code:

   # # ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) Support # CONFIG_ACPI=y CONFIG_ACPI_SLEEP=y CONFIG_ACPI_SLEEP_PROC_FS=y # CONFIG_ACPI_SLEEP_PROC_SLEEP is not set CONFIG_ACPI_AC=y CONFIG_ACPI_BATTERY=y CONFIG_ACPI_BUTTON=y CONFIG_ACPI_VIDEO=y # CONFIG_ACPI_HOTKEY is not set CONFIG_ACPI_FAN=y CONFIG_ACPI_PROCESSOR=y CONFIG_ACPI_THERMAL=y # CONFIG_ACPI_ASUS is not set # CONFIG_ACPI_IBM is not set # CONFIG_ACPI_TOSHIBA is not set CONFIG_ACPI_BLACKLIST_YEAR=0 CONFIG_ACPI_DEBUG=y CONFIG_ACPI_EC=y CONFIG_ACPI_POWER=y CONFIG_ACPI_SYSTEM=y # CONFIG_ACPI_CONTAINER is not set

   I didn't enable CONFIG_ACPI_ASUS bcos it was described as only being for ASUS laptops|notebooks in menuconfig, but maybe I should enable it to get a /proc/acpi folder???
   
   If it helps, I have the USE variable in /etc/make.conf set to:

   Code:

   USE="3dnow acpi alsa arts cdr clamav -cups doc -gnome hal -ieee1394 kde kdexdeltas qt unicode X"

2. I downloaded ASUS-A8N-VM_CSM-0702_1GB_64M-custom.asl.gz from acpi.sourceforge.net [assuming the '64' matches up with the 64MB allocated in my BIOS settings to the onboard nVidia GPU???], anyways the file ASUS-A8N-VM_CSM-0702_1GB_64M-custom.asl has this line:

   Code:

   OperationRegion (BIOS, SystemMemory, 0x3BFCE000, 0xFF)

   Do I need to change that to:

   Code:

   OperationRegion (BIOS, SystemMemory, 0x3BFCE064, 0xFF)

   ???

[brento]

1. I had the same problem you did with the /proc/acpi. However, I am 99% sure that is because with the bad DSDT, ACPI gets disabled during the boot (check dmesg), hence no /proc/acpi. Once I got the correct DSDT and ACPI worked, /proc/acpi appeared. I wound't mess with the kernel config options until you have a good DSDT and ACPI loads.

2. This one is a little bit trickier. I found the 0x37FCE064 by looking at the value in the bad DSDT. To do this, I had to download pmtools. I dumped all the tables into a file. You can see the hex addresses in the 8 different tables. RSDT points to XSDT, which in turn points to FACP, APIC, MCFC, and OEMB. FACP points to FACS and DSDT. The 0x37FCE064 byte is the one immediately following the header information (required by ACPI spec) in the OEMB table. On my system, the 0x37FCE000 actually pointed to the FACS table, so I have a feeling that entire table was getting overwritten by other information, which prevented my computer from shutting down (among other problems I may not have been aware of).

Without dumping the system tables, you won't know for sure. FYI, I have mine set up with 1GB of RAM, 128MB used for the integrated video.

Also, I should point out that addresses are read backwards. So, 0x37FCE064 will look like this in the hex file:

[RubyFan]

brento: Thanks for the info. So how did you go about updating the bios if you do not have a floppy drive on your system?

My system is similarly configured to yours (except that I have 2Gig of RAM, Athlon64 X2 3800 and a WD 250GB SATAII drive).
It looks like the bios rev on my mb is 601. Should I bother updating the bios?

Also, could you give a little more detail on how you got ACPI working (including where you found the file you mentioned)?

[RubyFan]

Using the 2006.0 experimental LiveCD (amd64) I used the graphical installer tool and got to the Stage 3 install. Told it to fetch tarball from amd64 experimental branch. It gets through mounting the partitions and downloading/unzipping the tarball. It gets down to emerging the bootloader (grub) and then I get:

"Exception received during 'configuring and installing bootloader': FATAL: _configure_grub: Error making the new device map."

(same configuration as my previous post)

Any ideas?

[Icer]

I dont have asus board but I know how to flash bios without floppy. There's at least 2 ways. One is to setup a bootable dos partition just for flashing. The other one is to burn bootable cd with the bios and the flasher on it. I did the cd trick. Search the net and you'll find instructions. It was easier than I thought.

[brento]

To update my BIOS, I borrowed the floppy drive from an old computer and made an adapter to get power to it. I tried a bootable CD first, but unfortunately it didn't boot. Plus, using a disk allowed me to back up my BIOS before flashing it, in case there was a problem. The bootable DOS partition is a neat idea, especially if you decide to upgrade the BIOS again.

As far as ACPI, start with acpi.sourceforge.net. In the DSDT section, you can view other people's DSDT's (although a few of them wouldn't compile with IASL.) I would emerge IASL (you will probably have to unmask it) and download PMTools from the link off of the acpi site. Then download a good DSDT from the acpi site and edit the value for SystemMemory as mentioned above. The acpi site has a good readme on how to do all this and incorporate the correct DSDT into your kernel. I can give you more info if you get stuck in the process.

As for your grub problem, it sounds like you are going through a different method than I did during the install. You mentioned a graphical install - I just went step by step through the handbook. I am not sure why it would fail with grub.

-brento

[j4ck455]

Also didn't have a floppy disk drive [as well as no disks] to use for flashing the BIOS, I had to setup dual-boot with Windoze [followed GRUB FAQ] on another HDD anyway, so I ended up using the "ASUS Update" Windoze utility - also made a backup [to file] of the BIOS before flashing...

[Icer]

Using the floppy drive is propably the safest way, no doubt about it.

I also have Antec Aria case and you know what? Once I got everything crammed in the case and the pc seemed to work I didnt want to install floppy drive just for flashing.
_________________
Everything can be done. There's just a longer delivery time for impossible projects.

[gerick]

Flashing BIOS:
I have had luck being able to flash the bios with a bootable USB Stick. Works kinda like having a bootable CD-ROM.

AUDIO on the A8N-VM CSM:
ALSA 1.0.11rc4 is supposed to have fixes for this board and the AD1986A chipset.

Is anybody using Alsa 1.0.11rc4 and SPDIF to a AV Receiver that has 5.1 (or 6 channel) audio working?

[RubyFan]

Ok, I haven't flashed the BIOS yet, but I figured that maybe I wouldn't need to.

I booted up with the 2006.0 live CD and ethernet works fine (can even browse the net ). Then I tried installing it using the included graphical install tool. But when I try booting into the installed system when it gets to the point where it says "Bringing up eth0... dhcp... eth0 does not exist". Not sure why that's the case given that it worked fine with the liveCD.

Then it continues to boot:
* starting up sshd ...
* Starting up vixie-cron ...
* starting up kdm ...
* starting local ...
INIT: no more processes left in this runlevel

...and there it just hangs.

Any ideas?

[one_red_eye]

Did you set coldplug to start at boot?

[RubyFan]

[one_red_eye]

It prepares devices like the network adapter, else they don't work.
_________________
"99% of the people in this world are fools, and the rest of us are in great danger of contagion."

[brento]

[gerick]

[brento]

Well, after another afternoon of trying different ALSA options, here is what I have found:

I was able to successfully get sound to work without any patch, but the following bug appeared:

0001458 hda - High frequency noise in background and muting when changing volume

One fix I have seen is that after applying the no-surround patch, I no longer have to apply the position-fix option mentioned earlier to fix:

0001678 nForce (10de:026c) left channel squeals, right channel mostly okay

For now, I am back to the original fix of disabling surround.

-brento

[RubyFan]

OK, it took me a few days to get around to trying this:

[brento]

RubyFan,
Here are a few ideas for you.

1. For your network, visit this website - http://dev.gentoo.org/~dsd/nforce-net-to-forcedeth.htm It guides you through selecting the Forcedeth driver for your kernel, which I have a feeling is not currently being used.

2. Try removing kdm from your init script and just boot into a terminal. That will at least get you to the point where you can verify all of your X settings. The following command will work:

[Nightmist]

Thanks, mate. Your last post saved the day! I got internet!!!1!1!

[RubyFan]

Brento,

What I did was to totally start over with the 2006.0 universal install CD (amd64) and go through the stock install instructions. Previously, I was using the 2006.0 LiveCD (from experimental) to install...

One thing I noticed is that the install CD booted up with eth1 configured (not eth0). I'm now booting fine into the install and eth1 is connected to the internet.

Now I'm off to get X configured and KDE installed.

A couple of things:

1) You mention:

[brento]

RubyFan,
To be honest, I am not sure what won't work if ACPI doesn't work. I am 99% sure that if you don't dig into the DSDT, IASL and PmTools, you will find that ACPI gets disabled during the boot ("dmesg | grep ACPI"). Since ACPI assigns the IRQ's (among other things), I am not sure if that will lead to problems or not. Since you haven't dug into that yet, maybe you can let us all know. I filled the 2 PCI slots with a PVR-350 and PVR-500, so I was concerned I might have issues if ACPI was disabled.

As for the NVIDIA drivers, there is a nice guide at http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/nvidia-guide.xml Fortunately for you, portage has the latest NVIDIA drivers in the stable branch. If you "emerge -s nvidia", you should see nvidia-glx-1.0.8756 and nvidia-kernel-1.0.8756. You will need both of those and the guide tells you exactly how to configure your kernel. You don't need to even worry about the NFORCE drivers because the sound won't work and you don't need nvnet.

As for SMP, I thought it was included in genkernel, but I am not using genkernel, so I can't be sure. I am not sure on this, but I am guessing that you won't see more processors unless you are running a dual core (or greater) processor setup. I honestly haven't delved into SMP at all, so that is just my guess.

-brento