Which mobo to chose or reject for 12.2 64bit?

English Hardware
1

There’s a nice thread in the archives asking a similar question from a few years ago. I hope it’s fair game to repeat a similar question in this new thread.

My plan is to put a barebones PC together which will be a big step up from the Pentium3 on 12.1 that I’ve outgrown.

So far my target has moved to an i5-3570K in a tower. Quite a bunch of mobos are offered, but there’s no linux support offered in the OS specs for any I’ve studied. I would hate to find my selection wouldn’t work with 12-2 64bit.

I want to get a Z77 Ivy Bridge mobo which limits the selection to the higher end of the chart. None of the mobo reviews I’ve read have mentioned linux. The “off-beat” mobos are of course cheaper. A few of the following mention 64bit support as part of there OS support.

For what it’s worth I’ll drops some mobos here I’ve been studying: BioStar TZ77MXE, ASRock Z77, MSI Z77MZ-G45, Gigabyte GA-Z77M-D3H, ASUS P8Z77-M.

My own feeling is that the necessary linux mobo drivers come with the 12.2 OS DVD, but if I’m wrong about that, I would rather know about that before I order something.

TIA for any relevant thoughts or suggestions on this topic! Heboland

2

Years ago I landed with ASUS motherboards, never found a reason, never had an experience that stopped me from going on buying them. Must say as well, that I haven’t met any other linux-rejecting motherboards either,

3

I have had good luck with ASUS and GigaByte. I have a mini-ATX Tower using a GigaByte MB GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3 with an Intel i7 2600K that is working just fine. This CPU used to be in an ASUS MB I will describe later. My top PC is currently an ASUS P8Z77-V LE PLUS with a Intel i7 3770K and it works like a champ for me. I can get a kernel to compile in nine minutes in standard mode (not Turbo) and it works great with VirtualBox. This is a UEFI motherboard and will boot from an openSUSE DVD in UEFI mode and install to a GPT Hard disk in UEFI mode. It does support secure boot, but its not a mode I have tried but I do dual boot with Windows 8 with no problems. ASUS keeps you up to date on the BIOS, I have a released one from December 2012 loaded right now. Like all things, working and not working is normally not the whole story really. My previous ASUS motherboard, a model P8P67 had my Intel i7 2600K installed (Before the GigaByte one) and it was my previous speed daemon, but for some odd reason, my keyboard would not work in the Grub Legacy or Grub 2 menu 4 out of 5 tries as only the default selection would boot. I loaded every ASUS update and never fixed the keyboard issues which was never a problem in openSUSE after it booted and never a problem in Windows. As much money as you can plop down on a motherboard it is hard to know every detail. I could list off every MB I have used in the last two years, and you may not be able to find a one I have used. Its one of the problems when you ask for a recommendation for a good motherboard.

Thank You,

4

Thank you Knurpht, jdmcdaniel3 for your comments!

For stepping so far at once from a P3 to a 64-bit quad core, it’s great to get the FB you two provided. It’s also good to know that there are no obvious mobos to avoid in the 64-bit arena.

JD, your mention of the i7-3770K makes me reflect upon the $70 difference for me to move from the i5-3570K to an i7-3770.

Maybe there is already a benefit to the extra threading for current applications. Also I do want this next box to be a credible platform a ways into the future. Heboland

5

Yes the i7 3770 and 3770K are screamers speed wise and the 3770 is more compatible it would seem using VirtualBox even over the 2600K. The K part means it is unlocked, allowing it to be run faster than its rating. But, you only consider running faster if you have a better cooling system installed than comes with the retail CPU. I went with a Corsair H50 sealed water cooler that is simple to install and works very well on the i7 3770K. On the i7 2600K I have a Zalman CNPS700C cooler, also easy to install, but not a whole lot cheeper at the time purchased. Here are some examples of water vers air cooled CPU temperatures, though not the same CPU:

Intel i7 3770K Water Cooled Temperatures, Corsair H50

Core 0:         +80.6°F  (high = +185.0°F, crit = +221.0°F)
Core 1:         +84.2°F  (high = +185.0°F, crit = +221.0°F)
Core 2:         +87.8°F  (high = +185.0°F, crit = +221.0°F)
Core 3:         +91.4°F  (high = +185.0°F, crit = +221.0°F)

Intel i7 2600K Air Cooled Temperatures, Zalman CNPS700C

Core 0:         +93.2°F  (high = +176.0°F, crit = +208.4°F)
Core 1:         +96.8°F  (high = +176.0°F, crit = +208.4°F)
Core 2:         +98.6°F  (high = +176.0°F, crit = +208.4°F)
Core 3:         +96.8°F  (high = +176.0°F, crit = +208.4°F)

Obviously, the water cooled unit still uses a fan blowing air over a small radiator and so both see the same ambient air of 75 degrees F temperatures today. I will also add than any i7/i5 is a good thing to buy and so do not spend money you do not have and enjoy what you decide to get.

Thank You,

6

Thanks for the reply JD!

I hope you still have your ears on for this thread.

I did pony up the extra money for the i7-3770 and teamed it up the the Asus P8Z77-V LK. My box only uses air cooling and I don’t expect to be overclocking it.

I’ve only had it for a few days. It seems very fast on the little things I’ve done so far like install 12.2-64 and update the OS. My intentions are to experiment with virtual box when I finish my customization.

There are errors in dmesg however, that I thought you may have seen and analyzed for yourself.

A sample looks like this:

0.292947] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKH] (IRQs 3 4 *5 6 10 11 12 14 15)
0.964655] ACPI Error: [DSSP] Namespace lookup failure, AE_NOT_FOUND (20120320/psargs-359)
0.964658] ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed \_SB_.PCI0.SAT0.SPT1._GTF] (Node ffff88040bb9dbf0), AE_NOT_FOUND (20120320/psparse-536)
0.965492] ACPI Error: [DSSP] Namespace lookup failure, AE_NOT_FOUND (20120320/psargs-359)
0.965498] ACPI Error: Method parse/execution failed \_SB_.PCI0.SAT0.SPT1._GTF] (Node ffff88040bb9dbf0), AE_NOT_FOUND (20120320/psparse-536)
0.966530] ACPI Error: [DSSP] Namespace lookup failure, AE_NOT_FOUND (20120320/psargs-359)

Yesterday I posted these errors to the Install section here, not realizing this is a problem between Intel chip sets such as Z77 and mobo BIOS.

DD in the Install section gave me some options to try that didn’t change anything.

Since the topic of this message is 64bit mobos, it seems to me this ACPI error topic fits here also.

JD, if you are still with me here, I would dearly love to know if you experienced similar results with your similar hardware? Pressing my luck, it would be great to know your reaction to it!

You may already have moved on to 12.3 and maybe that kernel has overcome the problem. Maybe you have early access to new BIOS FW also.

DD gave me a list of google postings on the problem. It seems very widespread across chipsets and mobos. It seems likely Asus has heard about the problem by now too.

My LK BIOS is up to date at 908, so I think I’ll watch and wait. Heboland.

7

So I see the same error message myself. I must say that I have seen no issues due to any errors you can read from dmesg. I use openSUSE 12.2 and kernel 3.8.0 at the moment. Only VirtualBox is compiled into the kernel, else its standard and installed using my SAKC bash script. I use a 128 GB SATA III for the openSUSE root / partition and boot time is like a bullet. I would suggest that you should lose no sleep over these error messages.

Thank You,

8

jdmcdaniel3l, thanks a million for those comments!

I was concerned my post to my by now dormant thread was headed for the bit bucket.

I’ll take your suggestion and sleep well! Heboland.

9

Replying to myself and the list, I have a hardware problem to report that others buying 64-bit hw might want to see!

Note that I have an active thread in the visualization section, but I think this post fits here also.

For the record my brand new hw is i7-3770 on Asus p8z77-v lk 8GBx2=16GB 1600Mhz Toshiba 1TB Sata 6GB/sec.

In an attempt to run oracle virtualbox, my system crashes and reboots. A suggestion from the visualization section was to run a memory test.

The only memory test I know about is the one on my 12.2-64 install DVD. My hw solidly fails test 7 (random numbe sequence). I’m hoping openSuse has an alternate test that can better help me isolate the problem.

My barebones seller doesn’t have a memory test. They will replace a memory module if I can prove it to be bad. The guy was skeptical of the memory test and of 12.2.

His suggestion is to pull out the memory module farthest from the cpu and rerun the test. Then swap modules in that same slot to see if the errors change. The seller hasn’t seen a bad Asus mobo for a long time.

For me, it’s time to get the creeper out and lift the hood up. Buyer beware! Any help on fixing this memory test failure will be appreciated. Heboland.

10

Replying to myself and the list, I wanted to include the results of my probing, tho still inconclusive.

Of the nine tests on my 12.2 -64 install DVD only test 7 fails. In the addresses shown in test 7, every 4th address fails starting with 0x8100000. The data pattern written is random. The data returned is either f-f or 0-0. it’s like test 7 is addressing empty space in the memory map.

Either of the two memory modules in the blue slot closest to the cpu fail the same way. Both modules in the two blue slots as originally placed or swapped fail only test 7 and in the same way.

it would be nice to know if anyone with hw similar to mine can pass this test 7. My memory modules are each 8GB. Heboland.

11

On 03/07/2013 01:56 AM, heboland wrote:
>
> Replying to myself and the list, I wanted to include the results of my
> probing, tho still inconclusive.
>
> Of the nine tests on my 12.2 -64 install DVD only test 7 fails. In the
> addresses shown in test 7, every 4th address fails starting with
> 0x8100000. The data pattern written is random. The data returned is
> either f-f or 0-0. it’s like test 7 is addressing empty space in the
> memory map.
>
> Either of the two memory modules in the blue slot closest to the cpu
> fail the same way. Both modules in the two blue slots as originally
> placed or swapped fail only test 7 and in the same way.
>
> it would be nice to know if anyone with hw similar to mine can pass
> this test 7. My memory modules are each 8GB. Heboland.

Actually, the memory test on the 12.2 install disks is flawed and fails test 7.
Use the test from 12.1, 12.3, or download and burn the bootable CD from
http://www.memtest.org/. As you can see from
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/memtest86+/+bug/1071209, the problem
is not restricted to openSUSE.

12

lwfinger, thank you so much for that information!

Now I have to press my luck with one more question. Is the memory test the same on 32bit and 64bit DVDs?

Before I bought the 12.2-64 DVD, all of my openSuse install DVDs have been 32bit.

My 12.1-32 install DVD memory test does pass on my 64bit box. It recognized the test cpu as Intel Core Gen2 3410 MHz. That the same recognition the 12.2-64 install DVD memory test gets.

I still plan to run the 12.2-62 install DVD memory test on my P3.

Where I’m located geographically, I’m forced to settle for a very slow internet, so I’ll have to wait for the 12.3-64 to become available.

In the meantime, I would love to learn that the 12.1-32 install DVD memory test can properly test 64bit hw. Heboland.

13

On 03/07/2013 12:36 PM, heboland wrote:
>
> lwfinger, thank you so much for that information!
>
> Now I have to press my luck with one more question. Is the memory test
> the same on 32bit and 64bit DVDs?
>
> Before I bought the 12.2-64 DVD, all of my openSuse install DVDs have
> been 32bit.
>
> My 12.1-32 install DVD memory test does pass on my 64bit box. It
> recognized the test cpu as Intel Core Gen2 3410 MHz. That the same
> recognition the 12.2-64 install DVD memory test gets.
>
> I still plan to run the 12.2-62 install DVD memory test on my P3.
>
> Where I’m located geographically, I’m forced to settle for a very slow
> internet, so I’ll have to wait for the 12.3-64 to become available.
>
> In the meantime, I would love to learn that the 12.1-32 install DVD
> memory test can properly test 64bit hw. Heboland.

There is only one version of the memory test and it is 32 bit.

I would never trust the memory test on 12.2 on any system.

14

lwfinger thanks for your answer!

My new 64bit box memory is in the mail for an RMA, probably after never having failed a valid memory test. That’s probably for the better as what I had wasn’t included on the latest Intel QVL.

The barebox seller I used claimed the QVL is a political document as well as a technical document. Be that as it may, I should have some Kingstons coming back.

My attempt to run the 12.2-64 install DVD memory test on my 32bit P3 didn’t happen. The 12.2-64 install DVD detects a 32 bit machine prior to the selection of memory test and exits. Of course that should have failed.

I noticed that my Asus mobo has a diagnostic application on the mobo DVD. It looks like it would take a windows OS to run that, but I didn’t try it. It’s an exe file.

Out of curiosity, are there any diagnostics available on the openSuse website?

I’m expecting to be back to my P3 while my memory is in the snailmail. That might get me time to order a 12.3-64 install DVD and start my rise to 64bits from scratch again! Heboland.

15

For what it’s worth I’m running a Biostar HiFi z77x with no problems in non uefi mode, it’s my 2nd Biostar and I’ve no complaints.

Running 12.3 x64, just did a painless upgrade from 12.2 yesterday

16

Maybe I missed it, but in reading through this thread I don’t see what this PC is going to be used for. Desktop or server or ??

Knowing the functions the PC is expected to perform would greatly affect the list of preferred candidates.

17

Thanks google01103, caprus!

google01103, I didn’t give Biostar the same scrutiny I did the Asus, but for this thread it’s good information for buyers that may be making a 64-bit hw choice.

I have never done an install upgrade. Probably I won’t start now, especially since my Asus memory may have been questionable. That’s not to say that maybe I should have just upgraded past versions.

For this thread, I would add one more step I would do if I were to order another bare bones box. That step would have been to check the chosen mobo QVL. Had I done that it would have been easy to upgrade the memory that came with the box before it originally shipped. Now I’m into RMA and snailmail while the dead box sets idle.

caprus, I never mentioned an application for my box. My new toy is intended to be my personal “daily driver” desktop. Once I can trust the hw integrity, I hope to make the XP vm work.

About a decade ago I bought a muscle box of that era that has served well. It did a lot of things for me I hadn’t foreseen when I bought it. Recently I handed it down where it is still on the job.

This day and age hw lasting a decade might be stretching a point, so I hope I’ve chosen carefully.

One other point to make that I think fits this tread, would be how to test that a box like mine is working correctly. lwfinger wrote that the install DVD memory test is only 32 bits whether a 32bit or 64bit package. Does that mean only only 4MB of memory can get tested?

Since the virtual box seems to have broken my equipment that passed the 32bit install DVD test, vb might be a possible 64bit smoke test. Of course in my case the vb failure I experienced might have had other causes. Heboland.

18

Replying to myself and the list with a minor correction.

This previous paragraph:

One other point to make that I think fits this tread, would be how to test that a box like mine is working correctly. lwfinger wrote that the install DVD memory test is only 32 bits whether a 32bit or 64bit package. Does that mean only only 4MB of memory can get tested?

Should have read:

One other point to make that I think fits this tread, would be how to test that a box like mine is working correctly. lwfinger wrote that the install DVD memory test is only 32 bits whether a 32bit or 64bit package. Does that mean only only 4GB of memory can get tested?

32 bit memory addressing is limited to 4,294,967,296 addresses.

Heboland.

19

First, an apology. I feel that I should have written this back in January, and I might have saved you some grief if I had. I don’t know if the issue i describe below is affecting the difficulties you’re describing in your post on VirtualBox, but it’s possible, so I’m sorry I didn’t post this sooner.

I’ve used many motherboards from all those manufacturers ex.ASRock and had good luck with all of them, though I prefer Asus, Intel, GigaByte and Tyan (IMHO you get what you pay for). More important however; I like to look at the newness of the technology before making a purchase. It takes a while, often six months to a year, for any OS to catch up with all the possible changes in component technology and to write patches and updates etc. to accommodate those changes. (the old “bleeding edge vs. stability” issue) No component on a mobo is more critical to stability than the chipset.

Lets look the timetable here:

  • Nov. 16, 2011: openSUSE 12.1 released and work on 12.2 was now underway.
  • Feb. 2012: Asus announced the design of their Z77 based motherboards
  • “Q2 - 2012” Intel actually released the chipset to OEMs like Asus (work on 12.2 was now well along and unlikely to contain changes to optimize use of the Z77’s features.)

Conclusion: I would not have chosen a Z77 chipset at the time you did. In fact I never buy new boards within a year of their release to avoid just these sorts of issues. However, there may be a simple resolution for you… Install 12.3 and/or a newer kernel and try again.