Re: Request for Hardware Compatability Resources.
From: Andrew McGuinness (andrew_at_arobeia.co.uk)
Date: 07/27/03
- Previous message: Debian User: "Re: DISK BOOT FAILURE"
- In reply to: Dan Hunt: "Request for Hardware Compatability Resources."
- Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ]
Date: Sat, 26 Jul 2003 23:29:49 +0000 To: debian-user@lists.debian.org
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
Dan Hunt wrote:
| I have been looking for resources to evaluate two motherboards,
| for my main system, where stable is the main feature / requirement,
| and quality audio output next, performance / cutting edge features
| are a distant third.
|
| ASUS A7S333-WA with a 1800+ V.S. ASUS A7V8X-X something faster.
| These motherboards alone are priced around $100.00 Canadian,
| my spending limit.
|
| How would you compare these two for use with Debian. I have searched the
| archives using google, with the keywords debian and "model-#". The lucky
| board will be very Microsoft Windows(TM) free. It has been suggested
| that I look at the "chip sets" and see if they are supported in the
| Debian kernel. Where do I look to find that information?
| Would one grep in the kernel source? The Asus A7S333-WA has
| a SiS745 chiip set and the Asus A7V8x-x has a VIA KT400.
|
The detailed spec for the A7V8X-X is at:
http://www.asus.com/prog/spec.asp?m=A7V8X-X&langs=01
Northbridge is VIA KT400
Southbridge is VIA VT8235
The Northbridge handles the memory and the AGP, and integrated graphics
if any (not applicable in this case). The Southbridge handles most
other interfaces: IDE, USB, integrated sound,network etc.etc.
These chips are supported by the latest stable kernels. Grepping
through the kernel source as you suggest is workable, but difficult to
understand. Looking through the kernel changelogs for recent releases
is probably more useful. Searching through the Linux Kernel Mailing
List archives is also worthwhile.
If you look in the current thread "Can't enable DMA" theres some more
info on the VT8235 support.
If you're planning on running Debian stable with kit this new, you'll
have to use a newer kernel, probably by compiling it yourself. There's
tons of documentation on doing this, and it's (unexpectedly) the easiest
bit of stable to replace, as it doesn't break any dependencies either way.
The equivalent asus page for the A7S333
http://www.asus.com/prog/spec.asp?m=A7S333
lists c-media 8738 audio, as well as the SiS745
Digging in the kernel source, the SiS745 is supported by the agp module,
and by the ide module. The ide support is not in 2.4.20, but is in
2.4.22pre5 which I am using. (I don't know if it's in 2.4.21 because I
don't have it handy and http://lxr.linux.no/ doesn't have that yet).
The ide support is in sis5513.c (moved from drivers/ide/ in 2.4.20 to
drivers/ide/pci/ in 2.4.22pre5) The agp support is in
drivers/char/agp/agpgart_be.c The c-media 8738 audio is supported by
OSS (it's listed in Configure.help).
So that looks much the same: the main motherboard features are
supported, but only in the most recent stable kernel, or possibly only
in a pre-release of the next stable kernel (but that should be a stable
release in a couple of weeks).
I have a motherboard with the VIA 8235 southbridge, and all its
components are working: USB2, UDMA133, audio, ethernet (uses the
via-rhine driver). I have no experience of an SiS-based motherboard.
In general, VIA seem to give slightly more help to linux developers than
SiS do, at least recently.
| Please post the URL of your favorite hardware information source for
| these two motherboards / chip sets so the next fellow who google's for
| Debian and ASUS will find some good information to make a purchase.
|
| With kind regards,
| Dan Hunt
| Pitch in and help with the Debian Weekly News,
| send your news to dwn@debian.org Read it at
| http://debian.org/News/weekly/current/issue/
|
|
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.0.6 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org
iD8DBQE/Iw7tqEms0aLHW4URAoHOAJ9VZNq1tu+lFcJW207dS3kp/x4xmwCeMMSl
bN4KZEQockU6AddzsZIMB4k=
=p4Da
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
-- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-request@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@lists.debian.org
- Previous message: Debian User: "Re: DISK BOOT FAILURE"
- In reply to: Dan Hunt: "Request for Hardware Compatability Resources."
- Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ]
Relevant Pages
|
