On Saturday 11 December 2004 03:50 pm, RickSisler wrote:
> Also drawing from your experience,
> wouldn't *dmidecode* be of use in this case to see what a bios
> supports ?
>
> The reason I ask, IIRC ..was of a post about what the bios
> reporting information, on this list or the expert list ..
> arrgh ..can't find the link now 8( sorry for asking another
> question.
>
> Thanks Tom,
> you helped me find out my MB supported local apic for 9.2, thru
> lurkin, since I was having stability problems then.
As I understand it 'dmidecode' just reads what is programmed
into the bios chip by the vendor. Since much hardware is
designed and marketed for Windoze, it may not be entirely
accurate. EG, dmidecode returns that the motherboard supports
ACPI and APIC. All this probly means is M$ non-standard and
non-compliant ACPI and APIC is supported. I haven't run Win$ux
in years and not since W98, but I do know for a fact ACPI wasn't
standards compliant then, and was handled in software thru a
registry hack to work with Winblows.
About all you can do with Linux is to try trial'n error to see
if your hardware will get along with the various bios
capabilities that dmidecode reports. Complicated with the
variables of different bios manufactures and bios settings. The
combo of bios, hardware, and OS configuration variables can be
very problematic, almost completely overwhelming.
As always, hardware is a moving target, best researched prior
to purchase an use, "the latest and greatest" avoided, and (rave)
hardware reviews on prominent Web hardware sites taken with a
grain of salt. Specially when the testbed OS is Windoze. LKML,
cooker, and other distro development ML's are helpful as is
Google/linux and as such should be given the greatest weight.
FWIW, currently I'd look for an Award bios board, with a VIA
chipset. Next would be SiS, last would be nForce*, as a starting
point. Intel chipsets, I only have my own research to go by as I
haven't used Intel in quite a while (P3 - BX was the last one).
Seems the latest ones (about 6 months old) are best supported
tho.
There's only one, more certain solution. Don't use desktop
or laptop hardware. Buy expensive production server kit designed
to run Un*x ;)
--
Tom Brinkman Corpus Christi, Texas
Proud to be an American
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