Slashdot Mirror
ABIT BP6 Motherboard explicitly supports FreeBSD
Wes Peters writes (via DaemonNews): " I bought an ABIT BP6 dual Celeron (socket 370)
motherboard today, to work SMP projects with
FreeBSD. While poking through the user manual, I was
pleasantly surprised to find the following in section 1-5.
Dual Processor Knowledge You Should Know
For best performance, you should use an OS (Operating System) that supports multi-processors. The following OSes can support multi-processor functions: Microsoft Windows(R) NT (3.5x, 4.x and 5.x), SCO Unix, FreeBSD 3.0 or later, Linux, etc.(emphasis added) This is the first specific mention of BSD I've seen in a PC hardware manual. This board comes strongly recommended."
Oh yeah, and btw: Slot 3 SHARES an IRQ with the onboard UDMA66 controller, and this sharing cannot be disabled. Slots 4 and 5 SHARE the same busmaster signal (per the manual). So you have to choose where you put your cards carefully. Maybe, depending on them and your OS.
I've had similar problems with my BP-6. I've got two Celeron 366's OC'd to 561MHz (103MHz FSB). I'm running Linux 2.2.14 kernel. System runs two instances of Seti@Home without X (i.e. KDE) running forever but, if I crank up X, it may last 6 or 7 hours. The system is loaded with 320Mb RAM, 20Mb IDE (not on DMA66 controller), no name ISA sound card, 3Com 3c905b, and Nvida TNT AGP video board. I've got a pair of GlobalWins, and the correct amount of heat paste on each CPU. The BX chip on the motherboard has had the heat sync replaced with a 486 heat sync/fan along with heat paste. While in X, khealth reports the temp to be no more than 38C. The thing that really concerns me is that khealth reports the -12V and -5V both drop very low during heavy CPU utilitization. The -12V will drop as low as -9V and the -5 will dip to -3.5. The power supply is a 300W unit that came in the case (full tower). One last note, if I don't tax the CPUs by running Seti@Home, the system runs fine in X for as long as I want. I've tried running the CPU's at 100MHz with the same problem. The CPU's were at 2.0V core voltage but, I decided to try bumping them up to 2.1V to see if it made any difference . . . none seen so far. I think I've just hit the wall with either the power supply or CPU's. I don't believe it's heat related, though. I forgot to log in to slashdot, so if you have any info, email me at scotty@cyberdude.com. Thanks, Scott
FreeBSD has had SMP support longer than linux did and their main concern is performance on the x86 platform. I don't know where you heard that FUD.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
K7 Mustang is out? What about that dual cpu chipset used in DEC Alpha 21264? Caspian SMP K7 compatible? 768MB max memory? Compiler technology?
I have a dual celeron 366 each running at 458 mhz on the abit bp6. Ive had no probs running anything on this board. Ive tried WinNT 4, freebsd 3.3, linux, beos, and solaris. I only ran into some probs trying to install winnt 4 with the celerons overclocked. this board has performed well.
Oh well, if I want raw cpu performance without much restrictions, I kinda prefer a big sgi ccnuma box with Irix anyway. SMP is nice, and for relatively low end hardware it provides a nice way to get more raw cpu power, but it mostly enhances capacity on low end architectures. On high end hardware it seems to pay to put small smp machines in cluster type configurations, where smp is usually limited to 4 cpus max, while larger systems will be built from clusters of multiple smp units. Even with fine grained locking, locking still is a problem, and no matter how fine grained, as the number of cpus rises, the number of locks will rise as well, and the resulting overhead grows faster then the number of cpus, if only because of the increased complexity required to handle and prevent locks.
Heh. Ever talk to Larry McVoy (chief architect behind SunOS 4, then a lot of performance stuff at SGI; now primarily a Linux advocate and random gadfly)? He has some rough schematics on his web page for where he'd like Linux SMP to go once 2.4 ships. Basically, he argues the same thing you do--once you get past 4 or 8 CPUs (and Linux 2.4 is looking like it will scale better than anything else to that point, perhaps supporting his contention), he says that the additional locking you throw in to scale further just becomes "too much", basically, and you spend more time fighting for locks and in code too convoluted to optimize than you do actually working (relatively speaking). His solution is basically to "partition" the machine into clusters, so he's pushing for Linux on 64-processor boxes (which it currently runs on as a single kernel, but obviously not very well) to be partitioned into what conceptually amounts to, say, 16 instances of Linux running on 4 processors each.
Overall, I'm quite pleased with this mobo!
I am considering getting a BP6, not sure if overclocked or not though. The 100Mhz bus is tempting on a 366 boosted to 550. I don't want a bus of some odd number (other than 100 or 66). So its a choice between a 466-500 or a 366 oc'd.
In previous posts people mention problems at 100mhz - why do some cards have trouble at 100? Many systems now have 100. Is this something about the BP6 or the card itself? (would that same card work on another mobo @100mhz?)
~J
Why is this FUD scored as "informative"? FreeBSD's SMP is not faster than Linux's. Yes, FreeBSD is great, but so is Linux, so get over it BSD-heads. Why are the trolls being fed?
I have a bp6 with two 366 clocked to 550, and had lots of lockup problems, It seemed that the second pci slot (down from the AGP) was alomost unuasble. If I put one of my network cards in there I would get 19000 mil second access times move to another slot and I would get 10 mil sec. also my adaptec 2940 would get alot of scsi errors in this same slot. after putting one card in at a time and testing.. I have everything working great under linux. AGP- Viper V770 pci 1- adaptec 2940uw pci 2-Hauppauge wintv card ( this was the problem slot) pci 3-Intel etherexpress pro 10/100 pci 4-Intel etherexpress pro 10/100 pci/isa shared 5-awe 64 sound card isa 6-usr v90 modem and the temp of the processors is around 113 F It really helped to use thermal paste on the heat sinks!! Check out www.bp6.com there message board really helps
VIA seems to know something we don't know about ABit's Athalon plans. I just hope it's soon . . . and supports BSD. ;-)
>ftp.cdrom.com is running off of a dual Xeon running FreeBSD.
ftp.cdrom.com is a uni-processor Xeon running FreeBSD - see ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/archive-info/wca rchive.txt
Nope. SunOS 4.0 shipped before Larry joined Sun (Larry joined either just before I left, or after I left); I'm not sure there's any one person who could be called a "chief architect behind SunOS 4" - if you consider the new VM system to have been the biggest change in SunOS 4.0, then the main people involved in the design and implementation of it were Bill Shannon, Rob Gingell, and Joe Moran, as I remember.
Larry did stuff for SunOS 4.1[.x], such as the pseudo-extent stuff in the 4.1[.x] file system, and was, I think, the person one might consider the architect of the SPARCcluster-1 system.
I have ABIT MB and I'm very happy with it, I would probably get that one if ABIT wasn't Intels personal prison bitch.
I really hope ABIT starts making K7 MBs or I will nerver buy another product from them.
I built a dual celeron 500 with it last summer and it's a damn nice machine. I've been wary about running BSD on it, however, because I've always heard that BSD's SMP support was poor. Anybody know how it stands today?
FBSD4 has a new and improved ATA driver that should make my life just a whole lot quicker. Haven't tried Linux on it. No need to at this point.
You should if you're really concerned about performance. It will make your life a whole lot quicker than upgrading to FreeBSD 4.0 will
ABit is not the only computer manufacturer to annonce explicitly the support of FreeBSD : when I bought my Tekram SCSI (DC390 or something like that) FreeBSD and Linux were listed in the list of suported OS in the box.
Will the logos BSD or Linux will replace yesterday's Novell logos on network cards ?
yup, I'ev had no probs getting my bp6 (two 400's)to work with Linux/FreeBSD or NT...but I have been suffering from random lockups, in windows sure, I can buy that, but not it FreeBSD or Linux. I haven't seen any pattern to them, just random :( I've tried lots of hw configurations on it and still probably twice a week it will lockup hard. anyone else seen this? fixed it? oh yeah for more info on the bp6 check this out.
I'd like to second this. Linux (2.2) seems to run a good bit faster on my Dual PII-450. Once the softnet changes die down in 2.3.x, I plan to see how the multithreaded TCP/IP stack works out.
I still put OpenBSD on all my single proc boxes.
I have a BP6 running FreeBSD on dual Celeron 366s. (Not overclocked, yet.) When building it, I attempted to install WinNT 4.0 and Solaris 7.
WinNT installed ok, but kept rejecting my 3Com 905B network card. Rather than beat my head on a wall, I moved on.
Solaris would cough up a page fault on one of the processors. My well matched, pre-tested celerons were meant to run TOGETHER, so Solaris was shelved.
FreeBSD installed cleanly the first time. A kernel rebuild later and It Just Works.
The only thing lacking will be fixed when I upgrade to FreeBSD 4: ATA/66 support was nonexitant when I built the box. FBSD4 has a new and improved ATA driver that should make my life just a whole lot quicker.
Haven't tried Linux on it. No need to at this point.
Good things about the BP6:
I've been soooooooooo happy with this system.
Yes, it is true that the FreeBSD SMP kernel isn't as "fast" as Linux's. However, IMHO it is more stable. And even if it weren't, I'd rather run it with one processor than switch to Linux. But that's just my deal.
One downside: cooling. If you are planning on building a system with this board, get a full tower. Two O/C Celerons will get rather hot, and if you toss in a 7200rpm HDD or two, you will be cooking. You'll need the extra space in the full tower just for cooling supples. Run over to CoolerGuys and stock up now. Here is my personal experience cooling with this mainboard:
Note: I am not affialiated with Cooler Guys, but I buy all of my crap from them, so those were the links I had handy.
I have gotten the CPUs up past 112F without lockups in this mainboard, but I'd recommend keeping things below 95. This isn't easy but your HDDs will last longer if you keep things cool.
Enough ranting for now. I just love that BP6!!
I am the Lord.
I am the Lord.
God Hates Moderators.
I got a good deal on a couple of 13.6GB Quantum Fireballs a while back, so I've been using those. Haven't had any performance problems, but they do seem do get warm. Well, they're called Fireballs, so should I be surprised?
Whenever I get off my ass and switch to SCSI, I'm sure I'll have a good chuckle at them.
I'd appreciate any other Quantum Fireball info. I don't know if the company even makes decent hardware. When I bought them, I was looking at it this way: they're the right size, the right price, they're ATA/66, and the company isn't a total unknown to me. Cash or charge? ;-) So it's possible that I am missing out on performance, and I just don't know it yet.
I am the Lord.
I am the Lord.
God Hates Moderators.
There are now 2 mailing lists about this problem, some people get it so badly that their systems are unusable. The lockups typically occur under high (pegged) CPU usage and X. Running my 366s at 512 (5.5 x 93) makes mine solid as a rock. YMMV!!!!!!!!