Gigabyte 965P-DS3 problems (Mostly Solved)

[raesene]

I've just finished getting a Core 2 Duo system based on a Gigabyte 965P-DS3 working and I thought I'd post about some problems I had and the solutions in case it'd be helpful.


- Support for CD/DVD drives. There seems to be a real problem with support for the Parallel ATA controller on this board and most of the distro install programs I tried (Knoppix/Kubuntu/FC5), as soon as it tries to load the driver to start the main install program it can't find it. FC5 is the best of the bunch though in that it gets you far enough to do an install over HTTP.

So if you've got a second PC with a web server on it, you can copy the files from the DVD onto the web server and use that as an install point

- SATA drivers. I'm using 2 SATA disks and out of the box (2.6.17-1.2157) the intel SATA drivers don't seem to be well supported. I've used the Gigabyte ones and it made a *significant* difference to the performance of the drives under FC5 (about 10-15 x faster in hdparm -t)

A couple of other notes, not strictly related to Linux with this board. check the memory voltage you're using, my board defaulted to 1.8V and the memory I was using wanted 1.9V, which seemed to manifest as random crashes of the OS.

also if you've got the F1 BIOS flashing it might be a good idea as there's quite a few problems with is (including identifying my Core 2 Duo E6600 as a 600Mhz chip!)

Last one is sound support (which I've not fixed yet). lspci doesn't seem to turn up an audio controller... so any advice on that would be appreciated.

[shonofear]

I've just finished getting a Core 2 Duo system based on a Gigabyte 965P-DS3 working and I thought I'd post about some problems I had and the solutions in case it'd be helpful.


- Support for CD/DVD drives. There seems to be a real problem with support for the Parallel ATA controller on this board and most of the distro install programs I tried (Knoppix/Kubuntu/FC5), as soon as it tries to load the driver to start the main install program it can't find it. FC5 is the best of the bunch though in that it gets you far enough to do an install over HTTP.

So if you've got a second PC with a web server on it, you can copy the files from the DVD onto the web server and use that as an install point

- SATA drivers. I'm using 2 SATA disks and out of the box (2.6.17-1.2157) the intel SATA drivers don't seem to be well supported. I've used the Gigabyte ones and it made a *significant* difference to the performance of the drives under FC5 (about 10-15 x faster in hdparm -t)

A couple of other notes, not strictly related to Linux with this board. check the memory voltage you're using, my board defaulted to 1.8V and the memory I was using wanted 1.9V, which seemed to manifest as random crashes of the OS.

also if you've got the F1 BIOS flashing it might be a good idea as there's quite a few problems with is (including identifying my Core 2 Duo E6600 as a 600Mhz chip!)

Last one is sound support (which I've not fixed yet). lspci doesn't seem to turn up an audio controller... so any advice on that would be appreciated.
hi,
i also have tried Linux (SUSE) on my GA-965P-S3 with a E6300...
also gets to a point where you can install over HTTP...i think anyhow.
Im using the Intel SATA controllers not the Gigabyte one though.
I will remember to swap for better performance.

I also have a few computers that could possibly fo a web server install, however I'm not 2 familiar with that sort of setup.
Would it be possible to install on another IDE HD from another computer and put it into my new 1..
But I would rather my new SATA at work.

ok, will post back soon.

[shonofear]

ok,
Ive got further help from elsewhere. I can't state if it works or not but its an alternate option for getting install on a Intel 965 chipset using the ICH8 controller.

There are some bugs in current kernels with the ICH8 chipset apparently. Two nasty workarounds in the mean time:

1) add the "all-generic-ide" kernel parameter on boot, or

2) Set AHCI mode in your bios (no idea if you can do that on your specific board)

Considering the chipset's proliferating everywhere, I've no doubt that andrew morton will fork the current -mm patches fixing this issue into the next main-line kernel release, so hopefully the problem will go away in a month or so

I'll try soon to confirm if works or not.

Or we can wait for new release with proper support for the chipset.

hope that helps

c ya

[shonofear]

hey, i emailed Mr Morton and he said this to me...


Quote:
Hi,
> how are ya,
> Im from Gold COast QLD, and Ive just got my new PC setup.
> Core 2 conroe E6300 with the Gigabyte GA-965P-S3 motherboard..

Conroes are nice.

> My question is.
> This board uses the 965 chipset (ICH8) and dosent seem to detect my HD (SATA/IDE) and CDrom.

What kernel?

> I got a work around from a fella
>
>
> "There are some bugs in current kernels with the ICH8 chipset apparently. Two nasty workarounds in the mean time:
>
> 1) add the "all-generic-ide" kernel parameter on boot, or
>
> 2) Set AHCI mode in your bios (no idea if you can do that on your specific board)
>
> Considering the chipset's proliferating everywhere, I've no doubt that andrew morton will fork the current -mm patches fixing this issue into the next main-line kernel release, so hopefully the problem will go away in a month or so"
>
> so will this be fixed with new releases of distros...?
>

I think it's fixed in 2.6.18-rc4.



cheers

[raesene]

well I've managed to sort/work around my last two problems...

the sounds was a PEBKAC (I'd turned off the Azahlia codec option in the BIOS!)


To get my CD drives working I ended up converting them to SATA using these http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=176415 which worked reasonably well as well...

[jdlundell]

I got my DVD drive to work with this board using the all-generic-ide option. Turns out I needed to reinstall and so I tried using this option to boot the installer and it worked! I was able to install from the FC5 DVD using the command line

linux install all-generic-ide

at the prompt which you get after booting from the DVD.

I have a question, someone mentioned earlier that the SATA drivers from Gigabyte were better. I looked for this on the Gigabyte website and could not find it - any pointers would be appreciated.

Do like this board, my 6400 is running at 3.2GHz with no overvolting and no heat problems.

[jdlundell]

Another update, I tried 2.6.18-rc4 and it does not even boot, I get a long stack dump and hang. 2.6.18-rc4-mm2 does work though and recognizes my DVD drive on the PATA without the need of the -all-generic-ide kernel option.

[raesene]

on the gigabyte SATA ports. I'm using the standard FC5 2.6.17-1.2157 kernel and the gigabyte ports seem to work well without any additional drivers...

AFAIK there aren't any additional one's from Gigabyte themselves (at least not that I could find.)

[jlow]

Hi all,

Could you all tell me if you are getting smooth performance from your machines?

I've built a Core2 E6300 with the Gigabyte 965P-DS4. Installed FC5 out of the box and then updated everything to latest SMP kernel 2.6.17-1.2174_FC5smp.

But things happen like mouse freezes temporarily while the system is accessing USB drives when plugged in, and desktop performace is jerky when playing videos or having several large windows open. Sometimes Software Updater just freezes. Generally, it's not running as smooth as it should, it even feels slower than FC5 on my old laptop which is an Athlon 64 3200+.

I've even booted FC5 with the single 2.6.17-1.2174_FC5 kernel and same jerky performance still there.

Are your desktops running smoothly and fast?

[raesene]

hi,

yeah actually I do get a bit of that... the odd stutter in Amarok and the odd mouse hang... not frequently but definately moreso than my previous PC (AMD 64 3000+)

[juanlu]

My FC3 (2.6.12 smp) server over P5B motherboard with two SATA hds could not detect IDE dvd-rw.

Solution: append de "all-generic-ide" to grub.conf:

kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.12-1.1381_FC3smp ro root=LABEL=/ all-generic-ide rhgb quiet


Thank's :-)

[cxlau]

I have also bought a GA-965P-DS3 but have some problem when power up. When I power up the machine, the CPU fan do not run immediately. The fan resume normal after 3-4 seconds. Do you have similar problem on your MB ?

[Sitmex]

Hey ya all!

Well, to make the story short, I have almost the same system as you guys, the difference is that I have a DG965RY Intel Motherboard with the 965 chipset.

Several errors were displayed, ACPI (later disabled) and the oddest of all, that the installation needed some drivers for the IDE DVD Burner. which I thought it was odd since it was using it to tell me that I need drivers to use it.

I decided to go to a local Linux Group here in Guadalajara, but they couldn't help,
We also try with Mandriva 2007, Ubuntu both 32 & 64 bits, and FC6 32 Bits

Until somebody noticed that I had a ST processor and I should install an "ia" distribution to solve this problems, so, right now I'm downloading CentOS ia 4.4 Release (64 Bits) to see if I can finally make a clean installation.

"Do this meanwhile the .19 kernel comes out" he said.

My System:

DG695RY Mother Board
E6600 Core Duo 2 Intel Processor 2.4 Ghz.
1 GB COrsair DDR2 667Mhz Memory
250 GB SATA II WD2500JD Drive
LG DVD Burner (16x)
LG CD Writter (52x)

[johannlo]

running 965P-S3 mobo w/ FC6 - noticed that SATA performance is way down compared to windows, also the random crashing issue.

Aside from the CRASHING AARGH and noticeably slower HDD performance (compared to winblows at least aargh) the 3D desktop etc. is smooth as silk (core 2 E6600 w/ 7950GT :) )

Where would I get proper driver for the SATA controllers? (I have 3x HDDs, two on the intel controller, one in the gigabyte controller)

Also is it true that the livna nvidia drivers are kinda 'beta'? - I"m currenlty attempting to isolate the crash via running a 400Gb rsync in init 3. This way if it doesnt crash I know for sure that its a nvidia issue.

[johannlo]

Update: during rsyncing, I am noticing a line coming up

INIT version 2.86 reloadings

??????????????????? I am guessing that this is what is causing the crashing, but it doesn't crash in CLI (its still going) just if ur in X?

Any gurus out there who can shed light? much appreciated :)

FYR I'm running core 2 duo, Gigabype 965P-DS3 as above, and Nvidia 7950GT w/ 3x SATA drives

[Linuxboy877]

Are any of you running Fedora Core 6? I just want to know if a Gigabyte 965P-DS3 will be stable for me with everything except for maybe the integrated NIC working out of the box. Has anyone tried lm-sensors to get the HW monitoring sensors readings? What is the HW monitoring sensors models? Is there anything odd about the lm-sensors readout when compared to what the BIOS says? I have read reviews of that board and it does have a HW monitor right in the BIOS.

I have been looking for a motherboard for ages.

[johannlo]

Yes, with that model mobo except its an S3 (not DS3)

Had teething issues, X hung until I removed RHGB from the kernel arguments and installed the livna Nvidia drivers for my video card (7950GT).

Also picked up my SATA drives as IDE until I changed the options in my BIOS to "AHCI", hdparm was getting me ~7mb / sec :( until this change (now its nice and blazing hehe)

Haven't tried hw monitoring sensors. Yes in BIOS u can see your temperatures.

[Linuxboy877]

D stands for Deluxe but either the Deluxe (DS3) or non-Deluxe (S3) will work for me.

I hope you can post the output of sensors-detect and tell me the temps after it is all setup. I hope it works for you as much as I hope it will work for me.

I don't want or need Red Hat Graphical Boot. Just how do you turn it off and make sure it stays off?

Did you fix whatever problem you where having so the machine does not freeze up?

How much did you pay for your video card and where did you get it?

Also, what kinds of drivers do I need to download, maybe compile and then activate? Any other work to be done besides install livna NVIDIA drivers from the command-line and disable RHGB?

Should be done updating this post now...

[Linuxboy877]

bump......

[johannlo]

edit your kernel line in GRUB (/boot/grub/grub.conf) and take out RHGB

[johannlo]

Yeah had to turn off AIXGL in the end :(

you should see what I had to go thru to figure out dual monitor, but that's another story :) - finalyl got it working w/ 3D effects and all but still, the random crashing, so I turned off desktop effects, now it seems OK.

Still a great OS but I really want the eye candy, after having a taste :)