[linux-audio-user] Re: Hardware Recommendations

[Stephen Hassard]

Wolfgang Woehl wrote:
>> ATI chipsets are crap in any mode. ;-)
> Crap in what way?

Some of the boards have been having a double tick problem where the 
kernel ticks twice as fast. This was a kernel ACPI problem, not an ATI 
chipset one:

http://www.kernel.org/git/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commit;h=f9262c12c0084ddba445a9a42e98994018e51400

Also, some of the boards seem to have crappy ACPI implementations. A lot 
of the older RS480 boards and earlier seem to be affected. I've recently 
had a chance to play with three separate "current" generation ATI boards 
(RD480 chipset - Asus A8R-MVP + MSI RD480 Neo2, and RD580 chipsets - 
Asus A8R32-MVP) and all seem to work very well with linux when you take 
a few things into consideration:

1) You need a really recent kernel (2.6.16'ish). It'll have the fixed 
timer support, and the onboard Marvell NICs will actually work (recent 
fixes to the skge NIC, and inclusion of the sky2 module make things work).

2) Almost no distro includes the required kernel to get the board to 
work nicely. Expect a serious PITA when installing your distro. It's 
almost easier to install the distro on an older supported board, 
recompile a new 2.6.16 kernel for use with the board, replace the board, 
and boot the new kernel.

If you pay attention to the above, you'll most likely have a really 
nicely running system.

On the other hand, if you get an nvidia based board, almost everything 
should be supported out-of-the-box with current generation distros.

later,
Steve