Re: [gentoo-amd64] MSI Neo2 Platinum woes follow up

[Matt Randolph]

Lee Thompson wrote:

>Trying to go from BIOS "v1.8" -> "v1.B" in preparation
>for a dual core upgrade I ran into kernel hangs
>initializing the SATA boot drive (libata).
>
>As Duncan predicted, Knoppix and the 2005.1 LiveCD
>booted clean as did a fresh install of 64 bit RH AS4.
>
>I got Gentoo working by downgrading to kernel version
>2.6.9-r9.
>
>So, the old BIOS works with all versions of the kernel
>going back a year.  The new BIOS doesn't work with
>kernel 2.6.11 and 2.6.12.
>
>Anyone familiar with the recent changes to libata or
>nv_sata drivers?
>
>
>
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>

Same board.  Same BIOS upgrade (1.8 to 1.B).  I got 2.6.13-gentoo-r3 to 
work, but I'm not using SATA so I can't speak to that.  But I couldn't 
get the nvidia-kernel module to load.  I had to upgrade to the latest 
unstable version to get it to work at all.  But then I discovered I 
couldn't even get into the BIOS menu because the keyboard wasn't 
initialized until after it had stopped listening for the DEL keystroke.  
I downgraded back to 1.8 and now it won't POST!

Note that the versions released went from 1.8 to 1.9 to 1.B.  The fact 
that 1.A is missing from the lineup makes me wonder if they were having 
serious problems with it and decided to pull it.  Maybe 1.B still has 
some of those problems.

My ($10) replacement chip is slated to arrive today.  I've had to get by 
with Knoppix on a Windows box for nearly a fortnight.  And this was in 
the middle of my exams! 

I'm half tempted to buy a chip programmer so that this can't happen 
again.  And if they release any more shoddy BIOS versions, I'd be 
tempted to avoid MSI.

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