Richard Smith wrote: > On 5/9/06, Eric Poulsen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> I've been researching the IDE/DMA/Linux issue that appears to plague the >> VT8235 southbridge. Seems there is _no_ reliable fix for this issue, >> which has been known to exhibit itself even in Windows if you're using >> the old/stock via drivers. Even if I do get the LB issues figured >> out, the DMA issue (as far as I can tell) is _unfixable_. Reliability >> is a huge thing for me (hence the use of Linux). The Epia board is >> bound for Ebay. > > > Wow thats a major bummer. Can you summarize up everthing you have > found? If that is really true that its _unfixable_ then it probally > needs to be up on the wiki. Save someone else the trouble.
Not "unfixable" per se, but no fix that I could find that actually works 100%. There a bunch of hoops you can jump through that mostly involve recompiling the kernel and turning off several features (or turning off DMA -- not an option). In the end, you'll only reduce the likelyhood of a crash. > What epia boards does this affect? Well, there's a known issue with the VT8235 Southbridge under heavy DMA usage. typically: Heavy IDE usage + Network | PVR | Audio. >From 'http://www.viaarena.com/default.aspx?PageID=22&DCatType=3&DSCat=155', I gather that these boards have the problem: VIA EPIA-MS10000E EPIA-M mainboards EPIA-MII mainboards EPIA-TC mainboard EPIA-PD mainboard VIA EPIA M mainboard VIA EPIA MII mainboard VIA EPIA SP mainboard VIA EPIA CL mainboard Note that the "fix" is a new BIOS, which is useless to potential LB users. Also, the ML (my board) is not on there, but it has the EXACT same symptoms. > >> (mini-itx, preferrably), that has all the usual goodies >> (IDE,USB,VGA,serial, etc) that is known to work well with LinuxBios? >> Naturally, one without a VIA chipset? > > > Working well with LB is the kicker. You could join us on the GX1 > quest. There are several GX1 boards out there. If you get one like > Chris's with an external VGA chip then you won't have to mess with the > VSA stuff. I think the GX1 is close to working good but it just need > a few tweaks to get there. I'll look into them ... -- linuxbios mailing list [email protected] http://www.openbios.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios
