[plug] server failing with bizarre disk errors

[Bernd Felsche]

On Thu, Apr 10, 2003 at 10:47:06AM +0800, Kai wrote:
> Richard Meyer wrote:
> >-- SNIP --<
> 
> >>I've just moved the drives on my problem server to separate
> >>interfaces, clocked down the CPU, disabled the parallel port and
> >>clocked down the RAM. It /seems/ to be behaving now, but it'll
> >>be hard to say for sure for a few days.

> >Mine work fine for weeks, and then the trouble starts.

> Speaking of hardware, I read an article on page 62 of APCMag about the 
> VIA EPIA M9000 Minit-ITX mobo.

You weren't at the workshop last month to see the one I brought
along with SuSE 8.1 installed? :-)

> Everything on board, apparently works with Linux, sure you can't
> load it up to the eyeballs but that's not the idea of it.

Getting all the proper drivers into the system has been a bit of a
headache; especially the network driver. It sort of works with the
bog-standard drivers from the SuSE distro, but the good stuff like
proper audio, graphics, network and hardware monitoring require some
tweaking.

Having said that; it did work well enough out of the box.

> $349 AUD for the mobo, buy a well ventialted case and the other
> usual parts and it'd be a good little server !

Mobo only consumes about 25W... case ventilation is mainly required
for hard drives and CD burners if you have them. CLE226 chipset gets
quite hot - the heatsink is large.

Only down-side I can see for server use is the single DDR socket.
The AGP memory is part of whatever you have plugged in there.
About $50 for 256MB of PC2100 nowadays; no big deal getting an
adequate amount of RAM.

CPU fan is a bit noisy. You can probably replace it with a large
passive-type copper heatsink.

Oh yeah... you might have trouble finding the mobo in a server case.
:-)

-- 
/"\ Bernd Felsche - Innovative Reckoning, Perth, Western Australia
\ /  ASCII ribbon campaign | I'm a .signature virus!
 X   against HTML mail     | Copy me into your ~/.signature
/ \  and postings          | to help me spread!