Re: Epox EP-8RDA3+ motherboard

From: Rick Moen (rick_at_linuxmafia.com)
Date: 09/16/05 

Date: Fri, 16 Sep 2005 03:34:17 -0400

Adam <nospam@example.com> wrote:
>
> Epox EP-8RDA3+ motherboard with an Athlon 2500+ CPU
>
> http://www.epox.com.tw/eng/products_content.php?ps=230
>
> Has anyone anything bad to say about this
> motherboard/processor running Linux ?

Well, Nvidia motherboard chipsets just aren't Linux-friendly -- because
the company has been completely non-cooperative with the open source
community. They (the chipsets) remain very popular among (in
particular) gamers, nonetheless, on account of what is claimed to be
excellent raw I/O, RAM-access, and CPU performance.

On the plus side, because this isn't a really _new_ motherboard, the
open source community has done a lot to catch up despite Nvidia's lack of
cooperation. So, while someone buying an nForce4 in 2005 might have
significant problems, you buying an nForce2 in 2005 probably won't. But
let's get into specifics:

All modern x86 motherboards are best understood as a "north bridge"
chipset (servicing the CPU and RAM) connected to a "south bridge" one
(servicing the various I/O devices). The page you link to recognises
this breakdown, in saying:

> nVidia nForce2 Ultra 400 + MCP AGP set
                 ^ ^
            north bridge south bridge

Linux can deal with basically any ol' CPU and any ol' RAM circuitry;
therefore, you can pretty much ignore the north bridge. Support really
hinges on whether or not your Linux distribution of choice can deal with
the constitutent hardware device interfaces inside the south bridge --
and, of course, any ancillary equipment on the outer buses such as the
PCI, AGP, etc. expansion buses.

So, really, what you want to know is: What's Linux support like for the
devices comprising an Nvidia "MCP AGP set" south bridge?

The page goes on to say:

    onboard RealTek RTL8101L LAN controller

    Silicon Image Sil-3112A [SATA]

    VIA VT6307 [IEE1394 aka "Firewire"]

    Realtek ALC-655 [sound]

    Winbond W83627HF [PS/2, floppy, parallel, joystick, IrDA]

[...]

> Alternatively, where best should I check
> for Linux compatibility and such a motherboard ?

The best way is to google for the constituent chipset identities plus
the word "Linux" -- paying close attention to date stamps on things you
find (since data, even if it's not mistaken at the time someone posts
it, may well eventually become obsolete). That's what I do.

(Oh, by the way, your search results for many such chipsets will include
drivers published by and downloadable from manufacturers' ftp or Web
sites. Most such drivers will be proprietary and binary-only, often
implemented as a thin source-code sites. Most such drivers will be
proprietary and binary-only, most often implemented as a thin source-code
wrapper around a proprietary, binary-only core library. Use those only
as a last resort, where no driver exists and it's not cost-effective to
ignore the problematic chip and buy a cheap, better-supported card to
take its place.)

And remember, just because you can't find someone saying "I got Linux to
support this chip", doesn't mean _you_ can't.

Anyhow, doing that (googling), one finds:

RTL8101L: http://www.linuxtested.com/results/asus_p4bp-mx.html_old says
"passed", but doesn't list the driver. Based on experience, I'm
guessing it's the 8139too driver.

Some further googling suggests my guess is correct, including, bizarrely
enough, one of my own 2004 Web-forum posts:
http://www.webservertalk.com/message193416.html

Silicon Image 3112A SATA chip: sata_sil or siimage driver. Again, and
I hope you won't think this self-centered of me, one of the primary
information resources on the subject happens to be something of mine:
http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Hardware/sata.html#sil

In referring you to that, I'm sort of hoping and assuming that a 3112A
has the same driver interface as the preceding model 3112 -- which seems
likely enough.

Please note that this is a "fakeraid" chip, not real hardware RAID. You
can read more about that distinction elsewhere on the page. If you
really, really insist on loading Linux onto a BIOS-defined RAI0 (volume
striped across two drives for performance) or BIOS-defined RAID1 (volume
mirrored between two drives for data protection), it's possible using
the "medley" sub-driver mentioned on that page -- but it might be a lot
of trouble. See the notes about Linux's "md" software-RAID driver for
an alternative.

VIA VT6307 Firewire: [Fifteen minutes later, a whole lot of nothing --
but check section below, for more.]

Realtek ALC-655 sound: http://www.linux-tested.com/results/asus_p4ge-mx.html
says that the standard ALSA drivers should work.

Winbond W83627HF misc. I/O ports: These really just aren't a problem,
so don't worry about 'em.

More:

Sometimes, as noted above for the VIA VT6307 Firewire chip, googling
just doesn't yield useful hits, for whatever reason. So, it sometimes
pays to switch strategies and search _just_ primary driver information
sites, rather than the entire Web.

I happen to have a link-farm page, for this specific purpose:
"Help Resources" on http://linuxmafia.com/kb/Hardware/

Notice that page points to http://www.linux1394.org/ as the main
information site for Linux's Firewire (IEE1394) drivers.
[A few minutes later: Looks like that site's DNS is malfunctioning at
the moment. So, you might want to use that site later, when it's
reachable again.]

My link-farm page also shows the ALSA Project as reachable at
http://www.alsa-project.org/. Try that.

Hmm, the "SoundCards" search CGI, being a bit dumbed-down, doesn't
support searching on chipsets, but rather relies on regular consumer
information at the product level, i.e., makes/models of sound cards and
of motherboards with integrated sound chips. So: There's no RealTek
listings, but there is one for Nvidia, and it says that the ALSA driver
module is snd-intel8x0. That may or may not be accurate: It might
report to other (earlier?) Nvidia motherboards.

Taking a _third_ angle of attack, and googling for "ALC-655 ALSA", one
finds a Sept. 2003 note from one of the ALSA developers saying that the
ALC-655 shouldn't be too hard to _add_ support for, because it seems to
be similar to the (older?) ALC-650. Presumably, the ALC-655 was really
new, two years ago.

http://lwn.net/Articles/129240/ mentions a March 2005 patch to the
then-current kernel's ALSA driver set, to fix some bug in the ALC-655
support: Obviously, that means that there was some sort of support, by
then.

http://alsa.opensrc.org/AlsaTips confirms this, and gives you some tips
that are probably worth reading.

Anyhow, that's how we research driver support. I hope it helps. 

-- 
Cheers,                 "Due to circumstances beyond our control, we regret to
Rick Moen               inform you that circumstances are beyond our control."
rick@linuxmafia.com                                              --Paul Benoit

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