Intel P965 chipset support
 

I am currently considering a new system (here), but I have noticed the chipset is an Intel P965. I did a bit of research on it and discovered it seems to have PATA support problems. I want to know, is it possible to get around them, or should I skip this computer for this reason. Thanks for the help...

My understanding was that Intel motherboards with this chipset had a Marvell PATA IDE controller strapped on for legacy support. When I was testing them, I had issues with dvd drives on that controller, but I had pre-release systems with pre-release bios's. The bios was supposed to be fixed before production, but I never had a chance to test it.

The 965 chipset and ICH8 in particular was supposed to remove legacy IDE support for cost reduction/performance reasons, but the manufacturers of DVD's haven't been very quick to adopt SATA (I think the term was "lazy").

Third party motherboards may have a different solution, or they may have an improved bios. Probably the easiest thing to do would be to test a boot dvd/cd on a system with this motherboard. The description of the system doesn't state the manufacturer or anything else about the board (HDA Audio doesn't tell you if it is a codec supported by alsa, for example). I'd contact the company and ask for some more information, then do a little research.

P965 seems to have support in the latest 2.6.18 kernel, but I don't know of a distro that is that far up to date except Gentoo.

As for PATA support, well, who knows?

weed

GrueMaster,

AFAIK, I think that the board might have on of the JBMicro IDE controller, to serve the same purpose as the Marvon chipset you discussed before.

Also AFAIK, the JBMicro chipset is not supported under any Linux distro, possibly even with the latest 'git' revision of the kernel.

weed

I have already contacted the company. This was their reply:

"Unfortunately we do not release the exact specs as these are subject to change according to stock levels, HOWEVER all chipsets for motherboard gfx etc and general specs stay the same but models/brands can change."

I suppose its reasonable, but still not very useful! So it seems that more research is out of the question.

I'm trying to install Fedora core 6 onto a SATA drive connected to an Intel board with 965 / ICH8 chipset and getting no-where fast.

It just isn't detecting it. I'm using the DVD iso and the kernel used is (to the best of my knowledge)2.6.18, which should have the most recent libata and SATA drivers.
(From my internet research this morning :study: )

I've also tried toggling the HDD to 'legacy' in the bios to try and make it look like PATA and that hasn't helped.

It looks like intel may have some driver support but it seems to be only available to members of their resellers scheme:mad:

I'll keep plugging away and let you know if I find a solution.

Setw-w: Which board do you have? If it is an Intel boxed motherboard, try setting the SATA to AHDI. It uses a different driver than ata_piix.

It is a DG965WH boxed Intel board and a Samsung SATA HDD.

I though the SATA was AHDI by default in the BIOS but I'll double check and try it again.

I confess this is only the second Linux install I've done. The other one was a dual boot with XP which went agood deal smoother.:)

I'm actually surprised it doesn't work. This was the board I used to develop the 7.1 channel audio support shortly before my contract ended.

Not sure if it will help, but try updating the bios to the latest version. Beyond that, I'd email Intel and complain.

Well, the Intel Core2Duo's are superior in every way to AMD's latest offering, but since that link shows you interested in the "slowest" of the C2D lineup, you could actually buy an AMD Athlon64 X2 dual-core CPU without taking a speed hit. It's only the higher-end Intel CPU's that start blowing AMD out of the water. And who knows, in a few months time, AMD will a better CPU available that will go into an AM2 socket mobo.

So I would normally recommend the C2D CPU's to most people, especially if running Windows, but if you need solid Linux support NOW, I'd get an AMD X2 with an nVidia nForce chipset.

Sticking with the same company, this looks good.
http://www.scorptec.com.au/system/49

Robert

Edit: It may still be beneficial to get a PATA(IDE) HDD "just in case". Many posts here say SATA works fine; some say it doesn't. YMMV.

GUYS, I also have a DP965LT board, and before I cant install Fedora6. I have a Liteon DVDRW and SATA HDrive, and Radeon ATI PCX 16x. When I boot my PC on DVDROM using the FEDORA6 installer, I was trap asking for the driver. I was being ask for the SATA drive and the location of the source image. Been browsing the web and found what I was looking for. Solution;
When booted from CD/DVD and been ask for option like PRESS ENTER TO install in GUI or Type-in 'linux text' to install in console or some kind of that. Well what I did was to Type-in
> linux all-generic-ide
then presto. My installation was successful.

But here is my new problem. I am really new to Linux and just been browsing on the word 'HOW TO' stuff. I installed a D-link internal modem, and also the build-in sounds are not working, though fedora detected a device but using other driver which leads to not working sound. I dont know what is the equivalent process in linux as the 'ADD REMOVE HARDWARE' in windows.
I will be reading much about Linux from now on, but can anyone guide me to a specific guide for this task I first want to learn.
Thank you in advance.

Ding

What sound driver did it load? What version of alsa? I wrote the driver code for this board, and it should work as of alsa-driver-1.0.12.

Tobin

Works wonderfully on the P5B Deluxe w/Wi-Fi board, using the 2.6.18 kernel.

What DOESN'T work well is the second Marvell ethernet port. :(

Just tried that and it solved the problem:cool:

Gruemaster: The GUI installer picked up the onboard audio chipset but wasn't able to play sound. I only used stereo earbuds to check it not a full 7.1 set up though.
The machine will be running modelling codes so not having sound is no problem.

EDIT: Just tried another two installs and there were no problems with the audio from the sound card. On the failure I reached the screen similar to the one shown here, but the drop down menu was blank.
The other two gave me the option of analogue or digital sound, and the sound played correctly :)

Valnar, I've still been looking around at other sites as well. I found this one, which seems to me to be a really good deal (cheap with lots of features, like a 7950GT) here

I still want to have a look around locally, its just I haven't had the time as of yet. Would anyone know if this chipset happens to be alright?

*edit* I feel stupid now, I've just noticed that site is in USD, compared to what I usually run, AUD. So in other words, the link above is way out of my price range! */edit*

[QUOTE=turkeybrain]Would anyone know if this chipset happens to be alright?
QUOTE]

I don't know if the nForce 590 would be any better. You'll have to google around. Anything brand new will have limited support in Linux.

I don't know if you use Ubuntu or not, but the nice thing about it is it updates every 6 months. I would guess the the next release (Feisty) in April will have support for any PC you are considering. Or you can always buy something with a slightly older chipset.

What are you looking to do? How much power do you need? Since you're running Linux, I assume the latest and greatest Direct3D games under Windows is not a concern?

Robert

I'm currently only running Windows 98 at the moment due to my system's limited amount of resources (i.e. 10gb HDD, not enough space to bother dualbooting).

My plan is to buy something better and faster and then dualboot, probably starting with Ubuntu. I would still like to have some gaming power behind it, which is why I'm looking mostly at gaming systems. I suppose I'm a power user, which my current 600mhz doesn't particularly like me for!

I still use Windows as my main OS, as I have absolutely no idea how to use Linux properly, and I haven't been able to find time in the year (I'm a student) to figure it out.

I suppose I'm looking for as much power as possible on my limited budget (around $1500 AUD)

I suppose if you can show me to some Australian computer builders, I could point out some of the better ones for Linux, but I don't know what is available to you.

email me at valnar (at) yahoo (dot) com
Robert

Thanks for the offer. I may take some time in taking you up though, as I am currently in the middle of exams... (which is the main reason I haven't had much chance to look around locally yet)

Ufff, this will be boring but i need to ask. I need help with GRUB and Asus P5B motherboard. My configurations is
Asus P5B
Intel 805 CPU
NVidia 7600GT
2x512MB DDR2
DVD-RW
sata 120Gb Maxtor
sata 160Gb Maxtor
sata 250Gb Maxtor

I have winXP ok my 160Gb hdd and FC6 on 120Gb hdd
I download kernel source 2.6.19 and make new kernel (FC6 have 2.6.18-1)
My problem is that i cannot boot fc6 with new kernel. i always getting message 'VFS cannot mount root'
my grub.conf is :
default=1
timeout=1
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu

title Fedora Core (2.6.19) Test 1
root (hd0,0)
kernel /bzImage ro root=/dev/sda2 rhgb
title Default Fedora Core (2.6.18-1.2798.fc6xen)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /xen.gz-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6
module /vmlinuz-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6xen ro root=LABEL=/1 rhgb quiet
module /initrd-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6xen.img
I can boot with default kernel but with Test 1 cannot. I try to change 'root=LABEL=/1' , 'root=/dev/sda' , try to add 'ide-scsi' and a lot of other options but allways get same error message.
My disk conf is
/dev/sda1 /boot
/dev/sda2 /
/dev/sda3 swap
/dev/sda4 ntfs partition (without OS just for data's)
/dev/sdb1 WinXP OS
/dev/sdc1 ntfs partition (without OS just for data's)

Also my kernel config ( part of devices ) is
#
# ATA/ATAPI/MFM/RLL support
#
CONFIG_IDE=y
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDE=y
#
# SCSI device support
#
CONFIG_RAID_ATTRS=m
CONFIG_SCSI=y
CONFIG_SCSI_NETLINK=y
CONFIG_SCSI_PROC_FS=y
#
# Serial ATA (prod) and Parallel ATA (experimental) drivers
#
CONFIG_ATA=y
CONFIG_ATA_PIIX=y
CONFIG_SATA_INTEL_COMBINED=y
CONFIG_PATA_JMICRON=y
CONFIG_PATA_MPIIX=y
CONFIG_PATA_OLDPIIX=y

Does anyone know where i make mistake ? grub, kernel or something else. With kernel 2.6.18 whitch i get when i'm install FC6 all works fine

Thx in advance
Anton