[K12OSN] Re: Xeon vs Opteron

[Robert Arkiletian]

John Baillie wrote:

>Here are the errors:
>
>Jan 19 11:54:21 thomas kernel: Uhhuh. NMI received for unknown reason 21
>on CPU 0.
>Jan 19 11:54:21 thomas kernel: Dazed and confused, but trying to
>continue
>Jan 19 11:54:21 thomas kernel: Do you have a strange power saving mode
>enabled?
>Jan 19 11:55:31 thomas kernel: Uhhuh. NMI received for unknown reason 31
>on CPU 0.
>Jan 19 11:55:31 thomas kernel: Dazed and confused, but trying to
>continue
>Jan 19 11:55:31 thomas kernel: Do you have a strange power saving mode
>enabled?
>
>  
>

I would suggest playing with your BIOS settings. Try to turn off any 
power saving features.
I actually had a similar problem with my server board. It would 
inexplicably hang until I turned off the keyboard inactivity setting in 
the BIOS.

>If I was to do over I'd look into a different mother board (the nics
>were not detected right off). The scsi card Adaptec 64-bit Ultra320 SCSI
>Card, Model "2060100" was not detected either and the specs lead you to
>believe that "hardware" raid works with Linux it doesn't so I ended up
>  
>

I believe it would work with the supported distros. Redhat and SuSE. 
Fedora is NOT supported by Adaptec. Fedora is really a beta OS for 
Redhat now. So I don't have a lot of faith in it. It's too bleeding edge 
for a server and the release cycle is way too fast. That's partially why 
I'm still with RH9.

Personally,  I think Debian stable (Sarge is due anytime now) would make 
an excellent platform for K12LTSP with a MUCH longer release cycle. 
Fewer bugs, problems with excellent continued support. When Debian says 
it's stable you can bet it's stable. But it's not an RPM distro so it 
may also suffer from lack of commercial support.

>using software raid. The case is also a little pricey but very roomy,
>well built, fairly quiet and if it's important aesthetically appealing.
>I ran into problems installing k12ltsp 4.2. and dropped back to 4.1. It
>is possible that there is some sort of weirdness with this particular
>hardware and the Fedora core 3 kernel. I'll be looking into getting 4.2
>installed over spring break. Oh I also purchased a Thermaltake VA3000
>mid-tower case which was not well suited to dual processor. Heat sync's
>interfere with 2 drive bays. 
>  
>

I ran into same problem. So I purchased a Thermaltake Xaser III V1000 
case. It is HUGE and HEAVY. I love it.


-- 


Robert Arkiletian
C++ GUI tutorial http://fltk.org/links.php?V219