Guide to A7N8X Under Linux

[danielk]

Please check out my guide at
http://attila.stevens-tech.edu/~dkopko/a7n8x.txt
I put a lot of work into it, please tell me how well things go using it.

Dan

[danielk]

I noticed some omissions and a bit of misinformation with AGP 8x. That link now points to the updated file.

-- Dan

[danielk]

The idebus=66 kernel parameter was mentioned by a reader to possibly be dangerous. The warning has been added in the guide, and it is not suggested for use any longer (although it was a very skeptical suggestion to begin with).

--Dan

[danielk]

By the way, I wouldn't recommend anything without first testing it myself, unless I specifically mentioned it was untested. I had used that idebus parameter for several days without the slightest problem, so I assumed it to be safe, and it may still be harmless. However, to be on the safe side I have removed it because I also saw no performance difference with it there anyways.

--Dan

[jcn]

Sir,
Let me say right off that yours is a most detailed and dedicated attempt at solving this problem we call A7N8X Deluxe. For me however it didn't work...for one reason or another(It could just be me). I used a new Kernel and nvnet driver supplied by

http://homepage.mac.com/mpeters/

i believe that yours is the real way to fix this problem, but this way worked for me very well.

thanks for your attempt, it started me on the right path.

jcn

[danielk]

Thanks for giving it a go... Would you be able to tell me exactly where things stopped working with my guide for you? I wrote the guide after the fact, and maybe I missed something.

Glad you got it working,

Dan

[jcn]

1- grub wouldn't boot the new kernel, unless you used root rootnoverify

2- X wouldn't start (don't know why)

although i have been around computers for a long time i am a "newbie" with linux.






did anyone else here play gorillia in dos?

[danielk]

Did you have a special partition setup, or was it automatically configured? If you didn't use ext3 on your partitions, perhaps my .config file is missing some of the alternate filesystems.

Also, /var/log/XFree86* are the files that you'd check to see why X isn't starting. You may already have them overwritten, though, but it would be helpful if you had the errors that occurred.

Thanks,

Dan

[Mow]

I tried this link but it doesn't work......could someone please post this guide?

[philip_sigke]

hi,
i've got problem with udma

hdparm -d1 /dev/hda
/dev/hda:
setting using_dma to 1 (on)
HDIO_SET_DMA failed: Operation not permitted
using_dma = 0 (off)

i suppose that it's because the chipset isn't fully supported just yet.
or?
thanks

[volt]

Great guide!
Making it sticky :)

[danielk]

Originally posted by philip_sigke
hi,
i've got problem with udma

hdparm -d1 /dev/hda
/dev/hda:
setting using_dma to 1 (on)
HDIO_SET_DMA failed: Operation not permitted
using_dma = 0 (off)

i suppose that it's because the chipset isn't fully supported just yet.
or?
thanks

Please post more information... Did you follow the guide and are you running the guide's kernel? Or what is your setup? The other possibility is that your harddrive just doesn't support DMA (though that is unlikely). As root, type dmesg and look through the output to see how the nforce2 ide driver got initialized.

--Dan

[danielk]

Originally posted by volt
Great guide!
Making it sticky :)

Thanks, I appreciate it! By the way, it's also been posted here: http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5179

There have been a stream of comments on that post, so everyone can check for answers there as well.

--Dan

(By the way, should this have been posted in Linux and nVidia Graphics instead? Maybe you can move it over, volt, if that's a better place for it.)

[danielk]

Minor update:
The alsa downloads now exactly match the alsa directions (spotted by Peter Saturley). If anyone had problems with the sound by following the directions to a T, then maybe this will help you.
Also, updated the a7n8x.config file in the a7n8x.tar.gz file that I provided. This will remove the annoying miropcm.o module warning on boot, and should work up to 2.4.21-pre4-ac6 without modification.
A typo fixed.

Also, I've given up on 2.5.x series kernel for now til nVidia releases their next set of drivers. The good news is that it seems that they will be supporting Redhat 8.1's new kernel features (or at least NPTL). Hopefully these drivers will work decently with the 2.5.x series as well.

By the way... has nobody tested 4/5/6 speaker audio yet? If anyone out there has, can you post whether or not it was successful or not?

--Dan

[philip_sigke]

hi, i've got suse8.1 with 2.4.21-pre4-ac6 and i did all before i read the guide. i went again through and i can see the problem: when i do 'make menuconfig' i haven't got there nforce ide chipset support (intel piix and after that ns87415) - quite strange. have you got any idea?

[danielk]

when i do 'make menuconfig' i haven't got there nforce ide chipset support (intel piix and after that ns87415) - quite strange. have you got any idea?

I believe that nforce2 IDE support falls under AMD Viper. They are very similar hardware, and there is speculation that nVidia bought the rights to integrate that hardware from AMD.

--Dan

[philip_sigke]

Originally posted by danielk
I believe that nforce2 IDE support falls under AMD Viper.

you're right. but in your .config i can see
config_blk_dev_amd74xx=y or config_blk_dev_nforce=y
and i've got only the viper. but in 2.5.62-ac1 i've got nforce... so what is behind?

[danielk]

Originally posted by philip_sigke
you're right. but in your .config i can see
config_blk_dev_amd74xx=y or config_blk_dev_nforce=y
and i've got only the viper. but in 2.5.62-ac1 i've got nforce... so what is behind?

I believe 2.5.62 is behind. I think the union of the AMD and nforce driver happened in the 2.4.21-preX-acX series. It'll probably be brought to the 2.5.X series whenever 2.4.21 is released.

--Dan

[linuxjacques]

the new nforce2 ide drivers in the kernel seem
to have a problem - my drive will only
go to udma33 (tried nforce2 and amd viper in
different recent kernels):

hda: 156301488 sectors (80026 MB) w/2048KiB Cache, CHS=9729/255/63, UDMA(33)

DMA modes: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2 udma0 udma1 *udma2 udma3 udma4 udma5

Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 3.70 seconds = 17.30 MB/sec


Yet, with the stock RedHat 7.3 kernel I can get
full performance:

DMA modes: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2 udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 *udma5

Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 1.59 seconds = 40.25 MB/sec

This is on a shuttle sn41g2.

Dwayne

[bisailb]

I recommend linux-2.4.21-pre5 patch for linux-2.4.20 to get nforce2 ide to detect properly. However, you will not be able to use any modes above udma2.

You should also compile/install the NVIDIA_GLX, NVIDIA_kernel, and nforce/nvnet drivers. Lastly, if you enable OHCI-1394 support over Ethernet, it usually defaults to eth1 so make sure your nvidia Ethernet device is set to eth2. At least, that's how I have it set up in Slackware 9.0-beta.

[xgrazerx]

I have followed this guide to the T as they say, but I still do not have sound.

My setup is an Abit NF7-S w/ a GeForce2 MX on it running a clean install of RedHat 8.0. Everything else but the sound is just fine.

In /var/log/messages I have:
Mar 5 03:16:28 localhost alsasound: Starting sound driver: snd-intel8x0
Mar 5 03:16:29 localhost kernel: intel8x0: clocking to 47404
Mar 5 03:16:29 localhost alsasound: done
Mar 5 03:16:29 localhost alsasound: No mixer config in /etc/asound.state, you have to unmute your card!
Mar 5 03:16:29 localhost rc: Starting alsasound: succeeded

lsmod produces the following:
Module Size Used by Tainted: P
snd-pcm-oss 44388 1 (autoclean)
snd-mixer-oss 16408 1 (autoclean) [snd-pcm-oss]
nvidia 1592384 10 (autoclean)
snd-intel8x0 23652 2
snd-ac97-codec 39336 0 [snd-intel8x0]
snd-pcm 81152 0 [snd-pcm-oss snd-intel8x0]
snd-timer 15432 0 [snd-pcm]
snd-mpu401-uart 4716 0 [snd-intel8x0]
snd-rawmidi 18848 0 [snd-mpu401-uart]
snd-seq-device 6316 0 [snd-rawmidi]
snd 46156 0 [snd-pcm-oss snd-mixer-oss snd-intel8x0 snd-ac97-codec snd-pcm snd-timer snd-mpu401-uart snd-rawmidi snd-seq-device]
soundcore 6532 3 [snd]
autofs 13300 0 (autoclean) (unused)
nvnet 30432 2
iptable_filter 2412 0 (autoclean) (unused)
ip_tables 14648 1 [iptable_filter]
ohci1394 20008 0 (unused)
ieee1394 48364 0 [ohci1394]
mousedev 5428 1
keybdev 2912 0 (unused)
hid 22020 0 (unused)
input 5728 0 [mousedev keybdev hid]
ehci-hcd 19560 0 (unused)
usb-ohci 21160 0 (unused)
usbcore 77184 1 [hid ehci-hcd usb-ohci]

alsactl store
alsactl: save_state:1050: No soundcards found...

/etc/modules.conf
alias parport_lowlevel parport_pc
alias usb-controller usb-ohci
alias usb-controller1 ehci-hcd
alias ieee1394-controller ohci1394
alias eth0 nvnet
#alias sound-slot-1 nvaudio
#alias usb-interface usb-ohci
alias char-major-195 nvidia
# ALSA
alias char-major-116 snd
alias snd-card-0 snd-intel8x0

#OSS
alias char-major-14 soundcore
alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0

#card 1
alias sound-service-0-0 snd-mixer-oss
alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss
alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss

#alias sound-slot-1 snd-intel8x0
#post-install sound-slot-1 /bin/aumix-minimal -f /etc/.aumixrc -L >/dev/null 2>&1 || :
#pre-remove sound-slot-1 /bin/aumix-minimal -f /etc/.aumixrc -S >/dev/null 2>&1 || :

Anybody out there have any ideas? If I use the OSS output in XMMS then it shows that the mp3 is playing, but I don't get any sound, no matter what jack my speakers are plugged into. But if I try the ALSA output I get the error snd_mixer_attach: No such file or directory followed by error opening alsa device: no such file or directory.

Thanks in advance for any help that anyone can offer.
Jason

[danielk]

The module is definitely getting initialized, but yet you're not seeing a sound card to control. The only thing I can think of is that the /dev/* entries were not created when you installed alsa-driver. Go into the directory for alsa-driver and as root run:
./snddevices

Then try setting up the volume levels for your soundcard in the control program.

--Dan

[xgrazerx]

Thanks danielk!

I ran that little script and now I at least know that my computer sees the soundcard. I am able to run alsamixer and adjust volume levels, but still no sound. XMMS doesn't give any errors when playing mp3s, I just have no volume. In alsamixer, I upped both the Master and Master Mono all the way up and have tried plugging my speakers into all of the audio acks on back.

Excited that you have helped me make some progress as I was seriously considerring returning this board for the Asus deluxe!

Thanks again,
Jason

[uniplex]

I have some sound problems with a7n8x deluxe and gentoo. Anyone here have this board with gentoo? mpg123 works but xmms tells me 'snd_mixer_attach: No such file or directory' and alsamixer tells me 'alsamixer: function snd_ctl_open failed for default: No such file or directory'. I have /dev/mixer and dsp but no /dev/snddevice

I've tried following the guide here (thanks to danielk) as close as I can using portage to install alsa.

[uniplex]

If anyone is running gentoo trying to get alsa working with the asus a7n8x deluxe this is how I did it.

I used 2.4.21-pre5-ac3 kernel (with amd viper for ide)

root@lieutenant uniplex # hdparm -i /dev/hda | grep -i udma
UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 *udma5 udma6

I followed the guide at http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/alsa-guide.xml only difference was for alsa-driver I did cd /usr/portage/media-sound/alsa-driver; emerge alsa-driver-0.9.1.ebuild This alsa driver worked. emerge alsa-driver didn't.

When I compiled the kernel I made soundcore a module and nothing else for sound. And I made sure it wasn't loaded when I did emerge alsa-driver-0.9.1.ebuild.