Good news for NetBSD users. I downloaded NetBSD 5.1 RC and it successfully booted on my Jetway JNF76-N1G-LF motherboard. It wasn't the case with the earlier NetBSD 5.0.x versions. However, it is still not suitable for RAID (as linux too). Under RAID mode hard drivers aren't detected. You can find in dmesg that device wasn't configured. Still it is a good progress from BSD side as I had a lot of headache to setup the system because of no or limited support from BSD operating systems (I needed to switch to linux).
I probably didn't mention earlier but I bought ADPE4S-PB SATA daughterboard for this motherboard. Unfortunately, I have a problem with it. As I inserted Intel Pro/1000 GT network card into PCI slot, daughterboard can not initialize properly. I am getting a warning that option ROM can not be invoked. Daughterboard works without network card installed. I am trying to resolve this issue through jetway support but it is more than two months without much progress. It might be some BIOS problem but I don't know a technical side of this solution. It seams that jetway connector for daughterboards is just somehow modified PCI slot. Marvel 88SB-LKJ2 PCI-E to PCI bridge on ADPE4S-PB probably proves that too (daughterboard is based on Marvel 88SE6145-TFE1 PCI-E SATA controller). So it can be a technical limitation as well. Right now I think that every board installed on PCI slot which has some additional boot ROM (like network cards with bootable ROM, SCSI controllers and so on) will block ADPE4S-PB. Other ones like NIC without ROM, audio, graphic adapters shouldn't cause this problem (I tested some boards). If you don't plan to use expansion cards with bootable ROM then everything should be ok. It is just interesting how effectively this controller will work with all four hard drives attached as PCI slot doesn't provide enough bandwidth IMHO (in case I am right about that connector). I will announce if something will change in this area.
Update:
What is more, you can't even connect hard drives to ADPE4S-PB and integrated SATA connectors at the same time. You can't enable integrated LAN boot ROM in motherboard's BIOS. So the problem is not even with PCI slots.
Update2:
You can use integrated SATA connectors and ADPE4S-PB at the same time but only in IDE mode (not RAID).
I probably didn't mention earlier but I bought ADPE4S-PB SATA daughterboard for this motherboard. Unfortunately, I have a problem with it. As I inserted Intel Pro/1000 GT network card into PCI slot, daughterboard can not initialize properly. I am getting a warning that option ROM can not be invoked. Daughterboard works without network card installed. I am trying to resolve this issue through jetway support but it is more than two months without much progress. It might be some BIOS problem but I don't know a technical side of this solution. It seams that jetway connector for daughterboards is just somehow modified PCI slot. Marvel 88SB-LKJ2 PCI-E to PCI bridge on ADPE4S-PB probably proves that too (daughterboard is based on Marvel 88SE6145-TFE1 PCI-E SATA controller). So it can be a technical limitation as well. Right now I think that every board installed on PCI slot which has some additional boot ROM (like network cards with bootable ROM, SCSI controllers and so on) will block ADPE4S-PB. Other ones like NIC without ROM, audio, graphic adapters shouldn't cause this problem (I tested some boards). If you don't plan to use expansion cards with bootable ROM then everything should be ok. It is just interesting how effectively this controller will work with all four hard drives attached as PCI slot doesn't provide enough bandwidth IMHO (in case I am right about that connector). I will announce if something will change in this area.
Update:
What is more, you can't even connect hard drives to ADPE4S-PB and integrated SATA connectors at the same time. You can't enable integrated LAN boot ROM in motherboard's BIOS. So the problem is not even with PCI slots.
Update2:
You can use integrated SATA connectors and ADPE4S-PB at the same time but only in IDE mode (not RAID).
1 comment:
Arashi Kensho
good content! I like this blog!!
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