From owner-freebsd-hardware Thu Sep 14 7:50:28 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Received: from ipamzlx.physik.uni-mainz.de (ipamzlx.Physik.Uni-Mainz.DE [134.93.180.54]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D9A6E37B422; Thu, 14 Sep 2000 07:50:22 -0700 (PDT) Received: from ipamzlx.Physik.Uni-Mainz.DE (ipamzlx.Physik.Uni-Mainz.DE [134.93.180.54]) by ipamzlx.physik.uni-mainz.de (8.11.0/8.9.3) with ESMTP id e8EEqvS11961; Thu, 14 Sep 2000 16:52:58 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from ohartman@ipamzlx.physik.uni-mainz.de) Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2000 16:52:57 +0200 (CEST) From: "O. Hartmann" To: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org, freebsd-smp@freebsd.org Subject: TYAN Thunder 2500-80 and FreeBSD 4.1 Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Dear Sirs. I need a little bit help and assistance in some hardware/smp questions. At the moment, one of our main servers is based on a dual-gigabyte intel 440BX chipset based mainboard. These days we change, we want to swapp over to a new mainboard and new CPUs. The mainboard has been choosen from TYAN, TYAN Thunder 2500-80. I watched out for compatibility reasons not to obtain the Symbios Logic 53C1010 (SCSI-3/160) based board, because SymbiosLogic 53C896 seems to be fully supported. I heard about many problems of using SMP kernel on ServerWorks III HE chipset based boards in spring this year, a lot about problems with i820 and i840 (Carmel) based SMP boards, but that was shortly after the change towards FreeBSD 4.0. Now we have much more ServerWorks III chipsets based mainboards on market as a replacement for the memory demanding server market because of the problems with i820/i840 and ECC RAM or due to the enormous costs of RIMM modules. It seems, that the TYAN Thunder 2500 is one of the best mainboards on market - but has anyone tested it using FBSD? Well, because we ordered such a mainboard and I never got an answer of my posted questions related to this hardware, it seems that I will be on my own when trying the first time to migrate from the old hardware to the new one. At the moment I try to configure a suitable kernel and because we do not already use hardware RAID 5 technology (I have an simple array of RAID 0 bundled drives using vinum, and thats in some cases really slow, maybe due the fact being a software solution), I use simply a main drive from which all bootsrap is done before starting vinum and the array. Well, that's besides that what makes me afraid of swapping over to the new hardware. I read a lot about failures of starting SMP kernel or kernel does not recognize all the hardware although these kind of mainboards all use standard and proofen hardware like intel ether 10/100+ Pro lan chip, LSI/SymbiosLogic 53C896 dual channel LVD SCSI controller, ES 3173 sound chip ... well, only the chipset seems to be the point of problems. Does anybody know, whether this chipset runs with FreeBSD 4.1? I think some PowerEdge solutions based on this chipset and also some Proliance systems. If there is anybody out here who's some experiences, especially in how to avaoid a non starting kernel, please contact me. I think, I will leave SMP facilities first time out to make myself sure, that the system will boot with one of booth 866EB Coppermines. Thanks in advance, Gruss O. Hartmann ------------------------------------------------------------------- ohartman@ipamzlx.physik.uni-mainz.de Klimadatenserver des IPA, Universitaet Mainz Netzwerk- und Systembetreuung To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hardware" in the body of the message