core i7, nehalem, x58 & P6t Linux/ Ubuntu
 

Are the new nehalem core i7 processors and x58 chipset mother boards supported in linux.

I'm specially interested in i7 920, Asus P6T and Ubuntu 8.10.

This information seems very hard to find! I am building a new workstation and cheapest nehalem architecture falls only 150 euros behind the best consumer budget core 2 duo alternative. I expect 1366 socket to last longer and am willing to pay a littlebit more for nehalem.

compatibility
 

My experience with linux is that it almost always will work with new mainboards, because it emulates them in the HCL (Hardware Compatibility Layer). When it doesn't work it is because some of the features aren't supported. Like adjusting fan speeds.

You had better buy hardware you know is going to work with your linux, not a gaming board for instance, unless you have supported videocard, soundcard, etc.

Did you know that there is a hcl. hardware compatibility list?

Yes I'n definitely going to only buy harware I KNOW to be compatible. That's the reason for this thread anyway!

I didn't know of such database. As I said it seems very hard to find this information for me, maybe you can help... If you mean the HCL-tab within linuxquestions I'm afraid that it is quite insufficient or hard to operate, because it returns no applicable replies for searchwords like "p5q pro" or "q6600" as not anything for "p6t" or "core i7" (the latter are of my concern, the former I know (or believe) to be compatible.)

So from your experience are those features commonly to be supported in the future for new mainboards if not necessarily right away?

My aim is to build a workstation (audio, video and office) from the best parts available for my budget for linux use (no gaming).

Thank you for your reply.

this guy seems to have gotten ubuntu up and running:

http://www.phoronix.com/forums/showt...t=13898&page=2

I'm considering this architecture too, though still hesitant.

see Core i7 and redhat thread.

I've a P6T DELUXE with a i7 920 Processor, i've run UBUNTU 8.10 Live and the System doesn't recognize the Ethernet cable (I've a Fastweb adsl connection) and it doesn't work. I need help to understand how to solve this problem because I've installed UBUNTU on my old PC and it worked so good...!!!

Thank you for your attention

Hi,

I just set up a p6t deluxe last night. I run debian unstable which currently has the 2.6.26 kernel. After loading 'sky2' (the Marvell Yukon 2 Gigabit Ethernet driver) I got link. It works.

Sound works with snd_hda_intel.

I can't comment on video performance since I'm using the radeonhd driver and it need further work...

load the sky2 module on the ASUS P6T.
 

Lionmax67:

Check to see which modules you have installed and look for sky2.

#] # lsmod | grep sky2

If you do not get a reply of sky2 with its load information the load the module.

#] # depmod -a
#] # modprobe sky2

The restart your network deamon.

Good luck gvtlinux

I have a gigabyte ex58 ds4. Everything is great except Ethernet for me

Scotsgeezer:

You will have to provide the ouput of /sbin/lspci for me. I will then find the module you will require based on the chipset.
Unless you already know which chipset your ethernet.

gvtlinux

works fine with Fedora-10...and at most you will have minor problems with other distros

Its a Realtek 8111D chip, which uses the driver r8168.

I have managed to build the kernel module and install it. However, when i run modprobe r8168 it enables it no worries but the driver doesn't do anything.

After some messing around, I decided to try rmmod r8168, then modprobe r8168 speed=1000.

It worked, ifdown->ifup all was well

Reboot...... its broken again.

Back to the drawing board
:(

Scotsgeezer:

You will have to add the module to the /etc/modprobe.conf file as.

alias r8168 ethx

Where ethx is the device that shows Link detected Yes with the /usr/sbin/ethtool.

The speed of the NIC should be auto detected with the Gigabit switch + cable capability and quality.

gvtlinux

It seems to be a bad driver. However, the motherboard isn't helping. The Mobo wont allow a PCI Gigabit card, when the onboard is enabled. Currently the onboard is disabled and the RTL based 8169 PCI card seems to be fine.

So, for those looking to buy this EX58-DS4 board, make sure you have a spare ethernet card to plug into the PCI slot, because the onboard one won't work with Linux.

I would certainly be interested to se if anyone else has got the onboard LAN controller working.

Thanks for the help folks

Have you updated to the most recent Kernel? I noticed that my last Kernel Update had support for several network cards. My onboard Intel eth works since upgrading to the latest 2.6.18 redhat kernel- didnt work before without installing intel e1000e module.

Fairly recent, yes. I am currently running RH5.3 i think the kernel is 2.6.18.128 or somthing like that.

It didn't have the r8168 driver that I needed. I had to download it from Realtek and build the module. However, there is still something wrong. I need a break from it at the moment, this board and its drivers have wasted quite some time :mad:

2.6.18 is probably to be considered as old (> 2 years).
I have 2.6.27.19 on my machine
(openSUSE 11.1 on a GA-EX58-UD5)
and ran into similar problems.

Linux installed the r8169 driver which enabled networking
initially.

After some time (first reboot?) the network disappeared
and could not be found even in the BIOS.
Since I had fiddled around with the network settings,
I tried to rescue the system and then a reinstall which
still did not work.
Pulling the plug for one minute, like someone suggested
elsewhere worked.

I then checked the source and discovered no support for the chip
so I found the latest driver from Realtek and built the module
and installed it.
Still did not work, so then I removed the r8169 driver
which was also loaded, and then finally I was OK.
Have been running for one day now.

I think you should recheck the Realtek website, since
the driver was really new.

BR
Ulf

Gigabyte EX58-UD5
 

I had similar problems with the Gigabyte EX58-UD5 and an Intel core i7 960 running RHEL5.3 kernel 2.6.18-128.1.1.el5 This motherboard has dual onboard LAN controllers based on the Realtek 8111D chip. I couldn't get ethtool to change parameters to match my WAN link so I had to disable in the BIOS. Installed an old Intel based PCI LAN card and this worked fine. Still having problems getting my programs to load smoothly though?

I added my r8168 to modprobe.conf and this has helped sustain a reboot :) However. my second PCI card isn't seen by lspci :(

I wonder when Gigabyte will fix the BIOS, to stop the onbard ethernet device preventing the PCI ethernet from being detected correctly?

Works fine
 

The following runs great (no problems within a month) on ubuntu 8.10:

p6t deluxe
i7 920
9600gt

Thank you all! =)