Asus M2A-VM linux status summary

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Sunday, September 2. 2007

Asus M2A-VM linux status summary


There have been varying reports around the net about Linux support for the Asus M2A-VM motherboard (socket AM2, AMD 690G chipset + SB600 southbridge). It took me a while to verify all this information, mostly from forum and mailing list posts, before buying the board, so I'm posting this to save time for anyone else who might consider it. I'm running Gentoo ~amd64 kernel 2.6.22-gentoo-r6.

Update: the integrated graphics (Radeon X1250) can be used with three drivers:

* The x11 'vesa' generic driver. This, of course, provides no acceleration/XV/etc., but it works fine otherwise.
* The new free 'radeonhd' driver. I've tried the current sources and it, too, works in 2D mode with no acceleration, but at least it ought to improve with time. (If you don't know, radeonhd is the new free driver for modern ATI cards being developed mostly by Novell people using the complete, free specs ATI/AMD released recently. Just made me love that company a whole lot more.) BTW, it refuses to work with the DVI link. Just connect an RGB cable to the same monitor and it'll work (displaying on DVI too), so it's only a problem if you want dualhead.
* The binary ATI driver (fglrx). Version 8.42.3 worked and provided good OpenGL acceleration, but still no XV. However, when I put the board into dual channel mode with 4 RAM modules, trying to run X with fglrx resulted in a hard lockup. I didn't try too hard to make it work again.


Several chipset issues with this board (and with the SB600 chipset in general) have been fixed in recent kernel versions. I'll list a few of the most recently fixed so people can be sure they *are* fixed.

First off, update the BIOS - this fixed several memory and CPU handling issues for me.

One issue was with SATA: when in AHCI mode, the chipset falsely claimed to support 64-bit DMA. New kernels force 32-bit DMA for this chipset. Personally I don't care, since I only have 4GB of RAM. This isn't a high-end development or server board, anyway. (Come to think of it, I don't even know if the previous chipset I used, the nForce4, supported 64-bit DMA...)

There was also an issue with the kernel hanging on startup with the HPET enabled. This appears to be fixed by BIOS updates - I haven't experienced it. (Ref 1 ref 2).

So why did I buy this board? One reason is that it was cheap (even compared to boards with no IGP at all). Another, more specific reason is that it's known to fit the huge Scythe Ninja heatsink with 4 memory modules installed.

Posted by Dan Armak in Computers, FOSS at 19:31 | Comments (13) | Trackbacks (0)
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Stumbled across your blog about the current status for the asus M2A-VM motherboard which uses the amd 690 chipset. You mention: One issue was with SATA: when in AHCI mode, the chipset falsely claimed to support 64-bit DMA Does this mean that the amd sata actually is supported under linux? I have been searching around all day, have a Biostar TA690G motherboard i have just bought but won't be doing much installing on it if sata is not working under 690 :-) Been trying to find your email adress but has been unable to find it, so i am asking here in the blog :-)

#1 Daniel Jensen (Homepage) on 2007-09-13 16:06 (Reply)

Yes, SB600 SATA is supported - at least when in AHCI mode. My motherboard's BIOS has an option to turn AHCI support on and off. I haven't tried the non-AHCI mode, but in AHCI mode, the generic Linux AHCI SATA support works fine.

It does seem my email isn't available through the blog (except when I post a comment :-), I'll look at fixing that.

#1.1 Dan Armak (Homepage) on 2007-09-13 16:36 (Reply)

Oh i didn't realise that that AHCI actually is a open standard, thank you so much for clarifying this to me. I must admit i am still in doubt about the Biostar TA690G. I bought it cause it apparently has very low watt usage and that is just what i am looking for as it should be running 24/7. Are you happy with your board or would you go for eg. a nvidia 7050 chipset if you had the chance of changing boards? Computers are a jungle and i am in the middle of it ;-)

Regards

#2 Daniel (Homepage) on 2007-09-14 09:28 (Reply)

Well, I had a special constraint when buying this board - the whole Ninja Scythe story. But I'm quite satisfied with it, especially now that a new ATI R500/600 free driver is going to be released - I look forward to trying it out with the Radeon X1250 IGP on this board.

#2.1 Dan Armak (Homepage) on 2007-09-14 13:56 (Reply)

Sounds great, just googled around for that new driver thing, was something i was thinking about as well, but this will not be an issue when they release the open source version. You have been most helpfull, i'll stick with the 690G just waiting for the rest of the hardware which have been sent today (it is just like christmas again) ;-) Thanx again for your time.

Daniel

#3 Daniel (Homepage) on 2007-09-14 14:24 (Reply)

Dan, thanks for the summary. I was looking for this exact info, as I am also considering a purchase based on the ASUS M2A-VM. I'd like to know your results using the newly-updated avivo driver, as well as the new OS driver from AMD/ATi/Novell.

#4 Ringobell on 2007-09-28 03:42 (Reply)

Neither of them is officially stable enough to use for everyday work. Or maybe they just didn't get around to making the announcement yet :-) But I don't want to try using either until there's at least an upstream release with a version number. Even if it's marked 0.0.1_alpha1.

When I do use them, I'll post the results here.

#4.1 Dan Armak (Homepage) on 2007-09-28 13:25 (Reply)

You said you upgraded the bios. How did you do it? I'm reading about the windows utility, and not using the ezflash built in to the bios.

Thanks

Derek Kite

#5 Derek Kite on 2007-12-13 04:37 (Reply)

I used the ezflash - it worked fine.

#5.1 Dan Armak (Homepage) on 2007-12-13 07:13 (Reply)

I am concerned about using ezflash too. I presume you need to copy files on to a dos formatted disk and then copy files to program and utility to floppy right? Then boot floppy.
Is this right?

#6 Gary Baker on 2008-02-19 04:49 (Reply)

No, you only need to copy the new bios image to the floppy. Then you boot normally, enter the (installed) BIOS's ezflash submenu, and it lets you browse the floppy contents, load the new image and dump the new one.

Since you don't need to make a DOS boot image this works fine with any OS that can write a FAT16 filesystem. It also works fine with a USB disk (or presumably a PATA/SATA disk with a FAT16 filesystem) instead of a floppy.

#6.1 Dan Armak on 2008-02-19 06:39 (Reply)

Great. This means it will be very simple without much problem. Thanks.

#6.1.1 Gary Baker on 2008-02-21 03:33 (Reply)

Hi just bought a system with this motherboard, and installed ubuntu 8.04 amd64 (hardy heron)

can't get wake-on-lan working - setting it in the bios, and enabling it in the OS, but no luck.

mother board led remains powered when I shutdown (green led stays lit) but apparently no power making it to the NIC.

Any thought on WOL readiness?

Cheers,

Jeff

#7 Jeff Parke on 2008-08-27 22:51 (Reply)

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