VIA Epia

Einführung

eine ergonomische Tastatur

Programmieren und Elektronik

Liegerad: Quantum Toxy

Pentominos

Zeugs

Seitenübersicht

Änderungen nach Datum sortiert

	english version	Mail an Jens

Diese Seite gibt es leider nur auf Englisch...

Debian Linux on Via Epia M10000 (Nehemia CPU)

This page shows my experience with this topic. Currently it is just some public todo-list, diary, link-list, ... Basically I followed this howto, however, some things were different. Debian 3.0r1 is used.

Kernel

I used the official 2.4.26 and patched it using patch-2.4.26-epia2.bz from epiawiki. The first configs I tried did not work, so I had to enable the devfs-filesystem, for example.

ddmpeg.c gives an error, so I can't use multimedia devices/Video for linux/cle266 support. What is wrong? ddmpeg.c needs small changes. Patch sent to Tony Murray.

kernel config (23 KB)

Graphic drivers

I started with the drivers on the supplied CD. Now using RedHat/7.3/pentium/ from CLEXF40038.tgz. I followed the steps of the included install-script. Of course I had to upgrade X11 (I found Version 4.2.1 on an unofficial Debian-extra CD) before.

There are graphic errors when scrolling. Part of the screen is not drawn.

now using RedHat/8.0/pentium

XF86Config (4331 Byte)

I try building XFree 4.4 myself... -change ProjectRoot in site.def to /opt/X11R6-m10k - gcc -> gcc-3.0 hilft nicht... mmx und sse entfernt... -host.def -after over half an over compile failed; installed libpam0g-dev -started again...it starts from the beginning (use make without target instead)!!! -make World took one hour -ld.so.conf -PATH in /etc/login.defs and /profile

I build XFree 4.4 from source, with applied XFree86-4.4-to-unichrome20-patch and still got graphics errors. Because of this and the low-quality-output (see below) I do now use a PCI-graphics card. This is quite disappointing, as I have to use a usual case again. I had build a small and very quiet case for my epia, which I now can't use anymore...

Low-quality vga output?

When using high (or adequate) resolutions, there are shadows right next to what should be shown. For example if there's black text on white background, you'll see a shadow of the text some pixels to the right. I had used this monitor and cable (and even a very simple extension to the cable) with an old PCI Voodoo3 and did not have this effect, even at higher pixel clocks. The cable itself is high-quality and 1,8m long. I made one of the same quality but half the length -- the problem has not disappeared, but it is quite ok now.
Apparently others did not experience that. The monitor has not been that expensive. But compared to my PCI Voodoo3, the epia's output is worse. At least of the one that I own.

Audio

At first I used the kernel's driver (worked), next I tried ALSA 1.0.1 and followed the instructions from the epia-howto. Works too. Until now I only tried audio output.
SPDIF output works, too :-)

Performance

The board is fast enough for everything I do (software development, surfing with lots of open windows, email, pictures) -- this is my current opinion. Previously I used some 1 GHz Celeron (Tualatin) with 256MB RAM, now it's the epia with 512 MB. Sometimes one has to be a little patient -- but why waste lots of energy for those rare moments?

Noise

The cpu-fan is quite loud. Will be solved when building a case. Am I really willing to build a new case? I now set the fan's speed according to the cpu's temperature. Most of the time it is quite silent, but not always...

Solved problems

Here I describe some problems I faced.

Sometimes the X-servers starts, sometimes it aborts with caught signal 11. Same config. Why?
Happens with my own modes and with the build-in ones. Did not happen from the beginning! Now I changed the config, it is OK again. Well, no. Not everytime...
After I upgraded X11 and used newer VIA drivers, the behaviour changed. Now X11 doesn't quit with signal 11 anymore, but instead starts with some kind of corrupted display (lower resolution and visual error). This only happens on the first boot after the machine has been switched off for a longer time. If it ran for some time before (linux with or without X11, bios only, ...) everything is fine. Looks like some chips need a warm-up :-(

I compared several versions of /var/log/XFree86.0.log and found that one line is in there only on 'good' starts. It says: Not Support TV resolution!!

I changed the config file again, now it seems to be fine.

System freezes, even the mouse pointer. Experienced two or three times until now. DMA is enabled for the harddisk, but I never used the MPEG-decoder (see epia-howto). I want to make notes about further occasions and circumstances here.

26.02.04: copied lots of big files before. No sound output, no heavy network-usage. So I stop using hdparm to set anything when booting (so DMA is off) and see if this shit still happens...

07.03.04: did nothing special...surfing the web...
Since I turned off DMA on the hd it is the first time I experienced this thing. Seems like it happened more often before.

15.03.04: System booted. Playing music and maybe doing the daily cron-jobs (find...).

17.08.04: Long time ago (at least eight weeks) I stopped using longhaul. Since that day it never got a hang.

One time I got ttyS1: LSR safety check engaged! and the same for ttyS0 when booting. It has not happened again. I did not change any config before and after that?!?! Well, this has been long ago, yesterday (16.08.2004) I got that again. Now (August) I do have that very often. Serial and parallel ports are not usable, I have to reboot. I grepped the whole kernel tree for this message and found drivers/char/serial.c. It seems the kernel thinks there is no UART there...but obviously when this happens, the parallel port is unusable, too. Plus lmsensors does not find any sensors. So something goes wrong which affects several hardware-related modules.
Maybe I should take a look at /etc/serial.conf and the use of setserial.
Now this happens on nearly every first boot, so I have to boot twice to use serial or parallel ports. Installed vanilla 2.4.28. Still happens.
11.02.2005: all those peripherals related to the problem are managed by the VT1211. Using another power supply resolved the problem. I did use a 300W PSU (able to serve a P4) before, now switched back to the 150W PSU I used in my selfmade case earlier.

Still to be done

kernel

case: noise

adjust cpu-clock depending on workload. Using longhaul for kernel 2.4 caused system hangs (sometimes). What about kernel 2.6?

use lengthier cable for IrDA or wait until new case is built. IrDA did not work out of the box. What to do? Kernel 2.4.25 has experimental support for a VIA FIR controller. Will this enable IrDA on the epia?

When the system has been shut down (using APM) the mouse and keyboard are still supplied. Can this be changed?

Resources

Links not in the text:

epia howto

Last non-automatic update of this page: 11.02.2005 Jens Wilhelm Wulf

home

Hauptseite

Software von mir

linux