Using at Tyan Thunder K8WE (S2895) motherboard ?
Dave (from the UK)
http://www.tyan.com/products/html/thunderk8we.html
(model S2895UA2NRF to be precise.)
For now at least I have just ordered a cheap single-core Opteron 248 (2.2GHz,
1MB, 800 MHz Bus, Socket 940) processor, but I'll get a couple of quicker
dual-core ones when prices fall a bit. Prices seem to rise almost exponentially
with speed and drop exponentially with time (no I have not plotted them), so
what is expensive today is far less so tomorrow.
Is anyone else using this motherboard for Solaris 10 ? Any particular issues? I
see it is mentioned in the HCL and there are a few references on the web to
people running it on Solaris 10, so I know it will run. I've not seen mention of
people using the on-board SCSI controller on Solaris 10 (the board is
available without SCSI), but it uses an LSI 53C1030 chip which is also in the
HCL, so I hope the SCSI works too.
But any tips / suggestions / comments ?
--
Dave K MCSE.
MCSE = Minefield Consultant and Solitaire Expert.
Please note my email address changes periodically to avoid spam.
It is always of the form: month-year@domain. Hitting reply will work
for a couple of months only. Later set it manually.
GreyCloud
> I've ordered a Tyan Thunder K8WE (S2895) motherboard with Ultra 320 SCSI
> controller:
>
> http://www.tyan.com/products/html/thunderk8we.html
>
> (model S2895UA2NRF to be precise.)
>
> For now at least I have just ordered a cheap single-core Opteron 248
> (2.2GHz, 1MB, 800 MHz Bus, Socket 940) processor, but I'll get a couple
> of quicker dual-core ones when prices fall a bit. Prices seem to rise
> almost exponentially with speed and drop exponentially with time (no I
> have not plotted them), so what is expensive today is far less so tomorrow.
>
> Is anyone else using this motherboard for Solaris 10 ? Any particular
> issues? I see it is mentioned in the HCL and there are a few references
> on the web to people running it on Solaris 10, so I know it will run.
> I've not seen mention of people using the on-board SCSI controller on
> Solaris 10 (the board is available without SCSI), but it uses an LSI
> 53C1030 chip which is also in the HCL, so I hope the SCSI works too.
>
>
> But any tips / suggestions / comments ?
>
Comments: I'm going to be doing the same thing. I'm looking at the AMD
X2 motherboards and also the graphics and audio cards.
When you do get yours running with Solaris 10, post back and let us know
how you fared. :-)
--
Where are we going?
And why am I in this handbasket?
Dave (from the UK)
> Dave (from the UK) wrote:
>
>> I've ordered a Tyan Thunder K8WE (S2895) motherboard with Ultra 320
>> SCSI controller:
>>
>> http://www.tyan.com/products/html/thunderk8we.html
>>
>> (model S2895UA2NRF to be precise.)
<snip>
>> But any tips / suggestions / comments ?
>>
>
> Comments: I'm going to be doing the same thing. I'm looking at the AMD
> X2 motherboards and also the graphics and audio cards.
> When you do get yours running with Solaris 10, post back and let us know
> how you fared. :-)
Overclocking is quite possible on them, whereas it is difficult/impossible on
the Opteron I believe.
I've gone for the Geforce graphics card with the Nvida 6600 chip set and 256 MB.
Audio is of no interest to me, so I'll stick with whatever is on board.
I can't make my mind up between SCSI and SATA for disks. For now I'm going to
use some SCSI I have, but I will either have to buy a bigger SCSI disk (used) or
SATA (new). I would have thought a SCSI disk on a U 320 controller would have
left a SATA disk for dust (the access times on SATA is quite a bit more), but
many say that this is far from the case.
Western Digital do the Raptor range of SATA disks but these are quite expensive
- more than quite high spec SCSI ones that are on eBay. In many cases the
warranties remaining on SCSI disks can be longer than on the SATA ones, so it is
far from clear to me that SATA is the winner.
Hopefully by the end of the week, assuming I have not forgotten anything, I will
be up and running.
GreyCloud
> GreyCloud wrote:
>
>> Dave (from the UK) wrote:
>>
>>> I've ordered a Tyan Thunder K8WE (S2895) motherboard with Ultra 320
>>> SCSI controller:
>>>
>>> http://www.tyan.com/products/html/thunderk8we.html
>>>
>>> (model S2895UA2NRF to be precise.)
>
>
> <snip>
>
>>> But any tips / suggestions / comments ?
>>>
>>
>> Comments: I'm going to be doing the same thing. I'm looking at the
>> AMD X2 motherboards and also the graphics and audio cards.
>> When you do get yours running with Solaris 10, post back and let us
>> know how you fared. :-)
>
>
> Overclocking is quite possible on them, whereas it is
> difficult/impossible on the Opteron I believe.
I just got thru browsing our local hardware shop and found that the ASUS
A8N5X runs for around $90 here. By poking in the ASUS A8N5X into Google
and going to the ASUS website for this board shows that some
overclocking can be done thru their software. It supports the AMD X2.
>
> I've gone for the Geforce graphics card with the Nvida 6600 chip set and
> 256 MB. Audio is of no interest to me, so I'll stick with whatever is on
> board.
>
The ASUS uses the nVidia chipset on board. The HCL shows that this
board is 'reported to work'. I suspect that using the NVS series from
Nvidia will be no problem as the Ultra 20 uses them.
> I can't make my mind up between SCSI and SATA for disks.
I poked in 'sata cables' and found a web site that discusses this.
It seems that the article was written in 2003 and the article says that
SATA drives are more prone to errors than the ATA drives.
http://www.ata-atapi.com/sata.htm
> For now I'm
> going to use some SCSI I have, but I will either have to buy a bigger
> SCSI disk (used) or SATA (new). I would have thought a SCSI disk on a U
> 320 controller would have left a SATA disk for dust (the access times on
> SATA is quite a bit more), but many say that this is far from the case.
>
As the url above also seems to indicate.
> Western Digital do the Raptor range of SATA disks but these are quite
> expensive - more than quite high spec SCSI ones that are on eBay. In
> many cases the warranties remaining on SCSI disks can be longer than on
> the SATA ones, so it is far from clear to me that SATA is the winner.
>
> Hopefully by the end of the week, assuming I have not forgotten
> anything, I will be up and running.
>
Well, good luck and post back how things went. :-)
Dave (from the UK)
> I just got thru browsing our local hardware shop and found that the ASUS
> A8N5X runs for around $90 here. By poking in the ASUS A8N5X into Google
> and going to the ASUS website for this board shows that some
> overclocking can be done thru their software. It supports the AMD X2.
I've gone for something remotely similar to the Ultra 40 - i.e. dual Opteron,
but used a board from the same manufacturer as the Ultra 20 is. That and a fair
helping of what I already have.
I think it should all work OK!
>> I've gone for the Geforce graphics card with the Nvida 6600 chip set
>> and 256 MB. Audio is of no interest to me, so I'll stick with whatever
>> is on board.
>>
>
> The ASUS uses the nVidia chipset on board. The HCL shows that this
> board is 'reported to work'. I suspect that using the NVS series from
> Nvidia will be no problem as the Ultra 20 uses them.
I was going to go for the more expensive graphics options in the ultra 40, but
they do tend to be expensive and I'm not convinced any software I run would
benefit from them.
>> I can't make my mind up between SCSI and SATA for disks.
>
>
> I poked in 'sata cables' and found a web site that discusses this.
> It seems that the article was written in 2003 and the article says that
> SATA drives are more prone to errors than the ATA drives.
>
> http://www.ata-atapi.com/sata.htm
That really compares IDE with SATA and not SCSI (at least not much). It is also
quite old (3 years).
>> Western Digital do the Raptor range of SATA disks but these are quite
>> expensive - more than quite high spec SCSI ones that are on eBay. In
>> many cases the warranties remaining on SCSI disks can be longer than
>> on the SATA ones, so it is far from clear to me that SATA is the winner.
>>
>> Hopefully by the end of the week, assuming I have not forgotten
>> anything, I will be up and running.
>>
>
> Well, good luck and post back how things went. :-)
Well I have got the case today, but the graphics card which was ordered on the
same order has not come. Apparently the courier should have had it, but did not.
The motherboard + cpu should be here tomorrow, but don't know when it will all
go together now! Not much use without a way to see what it is doing. I guess I
could stick in a PCI VGA card.
Daniel Rock
> I've ordered a Tyan Thunder K8WE (S2895) motherboard with Ultra 320
> SCSI controller:
>
> http://www.tyan.com/products/html/thunderk8we.html
>
> (model S2895UA2NRF to be precise.)
>
> For now at least I have just ordered a cheap single-core Opteron 248 (2.2GHz,
> 1MB, 800 MHz Bus, Socket 940) processor, but I'll get a couple of quicker
> dual-core ones when prices fall a bit. Prices seem to rise almost
> exponentially with speed and drop exponentially with time (no I have not
> plotted them), so what is expensive today is far less so tomorrow.
>
> Is anyone else using this motherboard for Solaris 10 ? Any particular
> issues?
I didn't have much luck with it lately. I was able to install Solaris 10 GA
with some minor problems. But everything newer than Patch 118844-18 panics
the machine early on boot. I have tried Solaris 10 01/06, nv_27, nv_30, nv_33,
32 and 64 bit.
Could be a BIOS issue though. If I have time I will downgrade the BIOS
and try again. Currently I'm running the system with BIOS rev. 1.02.
As I write this, I just found out that a new BIOS has been released. Maybe I
will get this new version a try (1.03):
http://www.tyan.com/support/html/b_s2895.html
--
Daniel
Dave (from the UK)
> "Dave (from the UK)" <see-my-s...@southminster-branch-line.org.uk> wrote:
>
>>I've ordered a Tyan Thunder K8WE (S2895) motherboard with Ultra 320
>>SCSI controller:
>>
>>http://www.tyan.com/products/html/thunderk8we.html
>>
>>(model S2895UA2NRF to be precise.)
>>Is anyone else using this motherboard for Solaris 10 ? Any particular
>>issues?
>
>
> I didn't have much luck with it lately. I was able to install Solaris 10 GA
> with some minor problems. But everything newer than Patch 118844-18 panics
> the machine early on boot. I have tried Solaris 10 01/06, nv_27, nv_30, nv_33,
> 32 and 64 bit.
>
> Could be a BIOS issue though. If I have time I will downgrade the BIOS
> and try again. Currently I'm running the system with BIOS rev. 1.02.
> As I write this, I just found out that a new BIOS has been released. Maybe I
> will get this new version a try (1.03):
Thanks for that - even if the news is not too good.
> http://www.tyan.com/support/html/b_s2895.html
I should get the board tomorrow (well today actually as it is part midnight
here). I'll update the BIOS soon no doubt, but get it running on 1.02 first (I
think 1.03 has only been out a week or so, therefore its unlikely my board will
have 1.03)
Ian Collins
>
> midnight here). I'll update the BIOS soon no doubt, but get it running
> on 1.02 first (I think 1.03 has only been out a week or so, therefore
> its unlikely my board will have 1.03)
>
--
Ian Collins.
Dave (from the UK)
find a floppy around.
Daniel Rock
>> Could be a BIOS issue though. If I have time I will downgrade the BIOS
>> and try again. Currently I'm running the system with BIOS rev. 1.02.
>> As I write this, I just found out that a new BIOS has been released. Maybe I
>> will get this new version a try (1.03):
>
> Thanks for that - even if the news is not too good.
Good news, I just flashed to the latest BIOS and Solaris likes to boot again
from this machine. I just booted from my Jumpstart server into single user
mode and did not do much testing - but with BIOS v1.02 I wasn't able to
boot even into single user mode.
Maybe tomorrow I will download/install snv_36 on this machine. I'll keep
you informed.
--
Daniel
Dave (from the UK)
> "Dave (from the UK)" <see-my-s...@southminster-branch-line.org.uk> wrote:
>
>>Daniel Rock wrote:
>>
>>>Could be a BIOS issue though. If I have time I will downgrade the BIOS
>>>and try again. Currently I'm running the system with BIOS rev. 1.02.
>>>As I write this, I just found out that a new BIOS has been released. Maybe I
>>>will get this new version a try (1.03):
>>
>>Thanks for that - even if the news is not too good.
>
>
> Good news, I just flashed to the latest BIOS and Solaris likes to boot again
> from this machine.
What version of Solaris likes to install on the Tyan Thunder K8WE (S2895)
motherboard?
> I just booted from my Jumpstart server into single user
> mode and did not do much testing - but with BIOS v1.02 I wasn't able to
> boot even into single user mode.
I've got Solaris Express build 33 which I downloaded today but it fails with:
Copyright 1983-2005 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved.
Use is subject to license terms.
WARNING: Failed to program IO space [0/1/1] BAR@0x10 length 0x20
Configuring devices.
WARNING: kstat_create('pci_intrs', 1,'config'): namespace collision
WARNING: kstat_create('pci_intrs', 2,'config'): namespace collision
I will try the Solaris 10 update 1 general release again. I managed to screw up
making a Solaris 10 update 1 DVD in some way. I think the download must have
been corrupted or me assembled the files wrong, as the checksum does does agree
with that which someone else found.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE will sun provide md5 checksums for downloads?
> Maybe tomorrow I will download/install snv_36 on this machine. I'll keep
> you informed.
Yes, I would be intersted.