The package you're thinking of is lm_sensors, available from
http://www.netroedge.com/~lm78
Unfortunately, I believe the new Intel Xeon and Pentium II motherboards
all now use a fancier scheme for hardware management, known as IPMI
(Intelligent Platform Management Interface). Details are at
http://developer.intel.com/design/servers/ipmi/
and on the various motherboard PDF files which came with your system.
IPMI is very nice - all sensor interfaces are abstracted, and an IPMI
conformant system has a NVRAM repository of sensor records and error logs
(errors like over-temperature). There's one of several local interfaces on
such a system, either one of two styles of I/O port interface, or a shared
memory interface. There's usually an I2C header which allows the hardware
management microcontroller (known as the Baseboard Management Controller, or
BMC) to monitor external components, such as a RAID disk chassis. On the
Intel motherboards, the BMC also connects to the Emergency Management
Port, which is COM2 if so enabled in the BIOS. Via COM2 an external
computer can do things like:
- read out error logs
- read sensor data records and sensors
- reset the node
- power up or power down the node
(power up requires an ATX power supply with a +5V standby line, which is
very common). Also, the EMP can be configured at boot time to send the
BIOS screens to COM2 (i.e., serial BIOS) - this works very well.
Of course, all the Intel software for IPMI is for NT and/or 95/98. I
downloaded all the documentation I could find, and with the help of a small
developer's debugging tool off the Intel site I put together some really
crude code to access the sensors from user space. This works fine on the
N440BX motherboards we've purchased. So far questions I've sent to the Intel
motherboards USENET site about these features and Linux have gone unanswered.
If you try the lm_sensors code and can't read out any sensors (on a
N440BX you see only a single temperature sensor, and it gives a bogus
reading), could you please try my code. It's available from
ftp://linux-rep.fnal.gov/pub/ipmi/
To build, you have to go get the Intel sample code and apply a patch,
then link with the additional code provided.
This may not work on an SC450NX because it might use one of the other two
interface types (though it is IPMI compliant). It does work on the 30
N440BX's I've tried here. I would appreciate any feedback (success or
failure) on other N440BX's. I'd also appreciate knowing whether the
lm_sensors code _does_ work on the SC450NX.
I've contacted the lm_sensors folk, and they're interested in adding IPMI
support. So, eventually we'll be able to look in /proc/sensors for the
data.
Don Holmgren
Fermilab
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
On Thu, 10 Dec 1998, Robert M. Hyatt wrote:
>
> I now have my shiny new SC450NX machine (quad xeon from Intel) up
> and running. Only thing I miss from my ALR is the front panel that keeps
> me posted about fans that slow down/stop, and such.
>
> Someone mentioned a linux driver/utility for probing this sort of
> data a while back I think. Can someone give me a pointer to this
> again?
>
> BTW the quad xeon flies. Still waiting on the 10K (IBM lvds) disks
> to show up, but even with old barracudas, it flies. About two more
> years of this kind of development and a kernel "make install" will
> take about as much time as a "cd" does today. :)
>
> Bob
>
> Btw if anyone has questions about the chassis/MB/etc, feel free to ask.
> I put this together for the following:
>
> chassis/MB/3x400watt power supplies, 4,200.
> (includes 6 drive hot swap cage, 2 ultra-2
> wide scsi channels, 1 narrow scsi channel)
>
> 4x xeon/400mhz/512k 1040 4,160.
> 4x 72 bit 128mb ECC buffered EDO 320 1,280.
> 3x 9.1 gig 10K rpm lvds (IBM) disks 700 2,100.
> 2x 4.3 gig seagates (legacy ultrawide disks) 0. (on hand)
> 32x toshiba CD 50.
> Intel EtherExpress Pro 100 50.
>
> using an existing 21" monitor with built-in cirrus logic
> video, plus existing keyboard and mouse...
>
> all in all not horribly expensive...
>
> Robert Hyatt Computer and Information Sciences
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] University of Alabama at Birmingham
> (205) 934-2213 115A Campbell Hall, UAB Station
> (205) 934-5473 FAX Birmingham, AL 35294-1170
>
> -
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>
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