# Configuration of Intel DG33TL motherboard/Core2 Duo cpu

## robdd

Hi all, and Seasons Greetings !

I bought myself an Intel DG33TL motherboard and E4500 Core2 Duo processor for Christmas, and I'm having a few problems getting everything working. So far I can load grub off CD, then boot from sda1(a 160Gb SATA drive). But, unless I boot with "acpi=off" it hangs in the middle of the boot process.  So if anyone has had any experience with this hardware I would really appreciate some help.  Current problems:

1. I can't boot without "acpi=off", but because of that (I think) I only get one processor   :Sad: .  (What's the point of a dual-core CPU if I can only use one of them ??!!)

2. I can only boot using a grub CD. If I take out the CD and try to boot off the disk the mobo thinks for a while, then falls through to trying to boot off the LAN interface. I've run grub setup twice so far, and there are no error messages, so I've no idea what is going on.

I started by finding a live CD via this forum (https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-609992-highlight-dg33tl.html), and booting off the live CD.  Then I copied across the / and /usr partitions off my Toshiba Tecra A6 laptop (which is also an Intel Core2 Duo machine) onto the SATA disk, chrooted, and emerged the latest gentoo sources - sys-kernel/gentoo-sources-2.6.23-r3. Now I can boot off hard disk (via the grub CD), and I've got one processor and the Ethernet interface going (using the e1000e module). I haven't even started on trying to get X or the sound interface going yet - I'm posting this using the new Intel box but with the X display on my old Athlon box.

So if anyone has first-hand experience with this mobo I would really appreciate any tips on how to get it booting off the SATA drive, what ACPI settings to use, an optimum kernel config file, what modules to load for sound and any weird module parrameters, a working xorg.conf file, etc, etc. Oh yeah - if you could also make me a nice cup of espresso coffee that would be good too   :Very Happy:   I'm on holidays for a week now, but my wife has a long list of "round the house" jobs for me to do, so I'd like to get this new box working without hours/days of messing around.

I've put my current kernel config on my personal web site at http://www.spin.net.au/~robd/config.txt, and I can post any other information if that would help.

Thanks in advance - Rob D.

----------

## robdd

Gaaaaaaaaaaah - I found the problem with booting off disk. Too obvious - the BIOS on *this* motherboard checks the bootable flag in the partition table, unlike all the BIOSes I've used for years and years. Set the bootable flag and away she went.

Still no joy with getting the 2nd CPU core going, though.    :Sad: 

Rob D.

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## bunder

try this to get your SMP going...

```
CONFIG_X86_HT=y <- turn this off

CONFIG_PREEMPT_VOLUNTARY=y <- no preempt

CONFIG_HZ=250 <- 1000hz probably would work better

CONFIG_NR_CPUS=32 <- you could probably set that to 2

```

give that a go and see if it gets any better.

cheers

----------

## robdd

 *bunder wrote:*   

> try this to get your SMP going...
> 
> ```
> CONFIG_X86_HT=y <- turn this off
> 
> ...

 

Hi bunder - thanks for the suggestion, but still no werky. I guess I'll have to concentrate on finding out why the processor hangs during boot with ACPI enabled, since I can see from the console that both CPUs are found when booting without the "acpi=off" argument.  Here's the last few lines from the console (obviously I have to type all this in by hand, since the !@#!*&^&^$&$#@!!@$ thing hangs):

```

....

Brought up 2 CPUs

NET: registered protocol family 16

ACPI: bus type pci registered

PCI: Using MMCONFIG at f0000000 - f7ffffff

ACPI: Interpreter enabled ACPI: (supports S0 S1 S3 S4 S5)

ACPI: Using IOAPIC for interrupt routing

ACPI: PCI Root Bridge [PCI0] (0000:00)

... and now it just hangs

```

So now it's time to go and repair my barbecue (or *I* will be the dead meat !!)

Regards,

Rob D.

----------

## robdd

Hi all, after googling a bit I found this link to someone installing Debian on a DG33TL:

[url]

http://pvaneynd.blogspot.com/2007/12/installing-debian-on-dg33tl-g33-system.html

[/url]

I tried booting with "pci=nommconf", and lo and be-bloody-hold I now have a two CPU machine.

However, in trying to get the mobo to boot off disk I changed a couple of settings and now the DVD drive is not recognised - I hope I can fix that by stuffing around with the BIOS settings. Will report back - in case anyone else is silly enough to buy one of these mobos.

Also, Googling around I think I need to load an unsupported (by Gentoo) Intel driver for the video card to get X running - bloody hell !

I *would* have bought an AMD motherboard/processor, but the man in the PC shop said that the Intel Core2 was better value. Yeah, right ! If it works.

[/quote]

----------

## biggyL

Hello robdd,

I have this DG33TL motherboard and this freaking 

Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 02).

I wasn't able to boot from Gentto Universal CD 2007 so I went to "Sabayon Linux 1.1 Professional Edition" - Difference with Professional Edition is, it's built on the stable branch of portage x86 vs. ~x86. It's also geared towards the business area for applications. This version does not contain the 3D cube by default.

I was able to install Sabayon (Gentoo) with acpi=off boot option and "Text Installation" (because it seems that video card on this board is also a mistery for Gentoo).

After reading some threads including this one I checked and indeed I didn't see a second CPU of my "Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU".

So I went to /etc/grub.conf and added pci=nommconf instead of acpi=off, rebooted and viola I can see a second CPU now.

Next problem was the network card which my system couldn't recognize. So after reading some posts and googling I've decided to install the famous e1000 (http://sourceforge.net/projects/e1000) driver.

I downloaded it, copied to my usb stick, mounted under Gentoo and installed:

# ls -l /dev/disk/by-id/usb*

Now we know it points to /dev/sdd

# fdisk -l /dev/sdd

Now I can see the partition named /dev/sdd1, so

# mount -t vfat /dev/sdd1 /home/username/usbstick

# tar -xvzf e1000-7.6.15.4.tar.gz

# cd e1000-7.6.15.4/src/

# make install

The binary will be installed as:

 /lib/modules/<KERNEL VERSION>/kernel/drivers/net/e1000/e1000.[k]o 

Now make sure old module removed

# rmmod e1000

Load new module

# modprobe e1000

# update-modules

Make sure that net.eth0 -> net.lo (symlink), otherwise "ln -sf /etc/init.d/net.lo /etc/init.d/net.eth0"

# rc-update add net.eth0 default

Make sure you have this line in your /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6:

e1000 

Add 'options e1000 InterruptThrottleRate=0,0' to /etc/modules.d/e1000

One problem I still have:

After reboot there is no eth0!!!!!!!!

So I have to add the following lines to /etc/conf.d/local.start:

/sbin/rmmod e1000

/sbin/modprobe e1000

Any comments are welcome  :Smile: 

Preferences:

http://pvaneynd.blogspot.com/2007/12/installing-debian-on-dg33tl-g33-system.html

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Ethernet_Controllers

----------

## kingc

The e1000 driver is for the PCI version of the Intel lan chip.... I think you'll find the e1000e (PCI-Express) driver will work for you.

Kernel 2.6.23 does have support for the e1000e ... look carefully through the network drivers section for the Intel Pro/1000 PCI Express option.

HTH

EDIT and OT: Since the the DG33TL seems to have the same onboard sound as the DP35DP, please could you see if your sound behaves like mine in https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-663056-highlight-.html once you install a desktop environment? Thanks.

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## biggyL

kingc

Sorry but I don't install desktop environment on servers. We use it as a server (kinda  :Smile: ), so all I need is a command line.

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## robdd

Hi biggyL, kingc, and anyone else with an Intel DG33TL motherboard:

I've calmed down a bit now that it's all working fine - in fact I'm quite happy with my system now.

As far as modules go for this motherboard, here's a list of mine..

```

robd@wagtail ~ $ lsmod

Module                  Size  Used by

snd_pcm_oss            39584  0 

snd_mixer_oss          14848  1 snd_pcm_oss

ohci1394               28724  0 

ieee1394               82320  1 ohci1394

budget_ci              16772  3 

lnbp21                  2304  1 budget_ci

budget_core             9860  1 budget_ci

saa7146                15816  2 budget_ci,budget_core

ttpci_eeprom            2560  1 budget_core

tda1004x               15108  1 budget_ci

ir_common              31940  1 budget_ci

stv0297                 7424  1 budget_ci

stv0299                10312  1 budget_ci

dvb_core               75632  3 budget_ci,budget_core,stv0299

i2c_i801                8860  0 

pata_marvell            6016  0 

snd_hda_intel         330148  1 

snd_pcm                73736  2 snd_pcm_oss,snd_hda_intel

snd_timer              19784  1 snd_pcm

snd                    50216  7 snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm,snd_timer

snd_page_alloc          8464  2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm

e1000e                 91556  0 

```

Notice that I'm using the e1000e module for the network card, as pointed out by kingc. All the dvb stuff is for a Haupaugge Nova-t HD TV card, which works very well (here in Australia). The pata_marvell module is to get the IDE interface for my DVD writer going.

Also, here's the alsa portion of my /etc/modules.conf file:

```
# --- BEGIN: Generated by ALSACONF, do not edit. ---

# --- ALSACONF version 1.0.14 ---

options snd-hda-intel model=3stack

alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel

alias sound-slot-0 snd-hda-intel

# --- END: Generated by ALSACONF, do not edit. ---

```

I only use stereo sound - I've got the stereo sound output linked to an amplifier and it sounds fine.  kingc mentioned some problems with scratchiness after adjusting the volume, but I don't get that with my setup. Although I really don't adjust the volume, just leave it at 100% and adjust the volume in mplayer and/or using the volume control on my stereo amplifier.

Finally - I googled around and found a fix to the problem where I had to use the boot argument "pci=nommconf". It's a patch to the kernel module /usr/src/linux/drivers/pci/probe.c, and it works around a problem in the Intel motherboard BIOS:

[url]

http://kerneltrap.org/mailarchive/linux-kernel/2007/8/26/164870

[/url]

So really I think I can add "SOLVED" to the post title now, if I could just work out how to do it !

If anyone wants any more information about getting this motherboard to work under Gentoo (or any version of Linux) pleae don't hesistate to post your questions as I'll be happy to try and help.

Regards to all - Rob D.

Edit:

Oops - forgot to mention that I needed the latest masked version of xorg-x11 to get the video card working under X - I haven't had any problems with X, but I don't play any games, and I use the "-vo sdl" option under mplayer to get full-screen videos working without any jerkiness. Here are the X11 packages:

```

wagtail ~ # equery list xorg

[ Searching for package 'xorg' in all categories among: ]

 * installed packages

[I--] [  ] app-doc/xorg-docs-1.4-r1 (0)

[I--] [M~] x11-base/xorg-server-1.4.0.90 (0)

[I--] [M~] x11-base/xorg-x11-7.3 (0)

[I--] [  ] x11-misc/xorg-cf-files-1.0.2 (0)

```

----------

## tostadora

I recently bougth a DG33TL, and I'm having problems with ACPI, because the "Thermal zone" and "Fan" doesn't seems to be supported (and doesn't show up in /proc/acpi). Has anyone experienced this problems? Any solution/patch/kernel supporting this? I'm running a vanilla 2.6.23.

Thanks  :Smile: 

(and excuse me for my english)

----------

## robdd

Hi tostadora,

I can see the fan and thermal_zone in my /proc/acpi:

```

wagtail linux # ls -l /proc/acpi

total 0

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Mar 10 22:23 alarm

dr-xr-xr-x 4 root root 0 Mar 10 22:23 button

dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root 0 Mar 10 22:23 embedded_controller

dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root 0 Mar 10 22:23 fan

dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root 0 Mar 10 22:23 power_resource

dr-xr-xr-x 4 root root 0 Mar 10 22:23 processor

dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root 0 Mar 10 22:23 thermal_zone

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Mar 10 22:23 wakeup

```

But I haven't bothered playing around with them, so I'm not sure if this is any help to you ??  Anyway, on the off-chance that it is please have a look at my current kernel .config file at http://www.spin.net.au/~robd/config.txt. That's what I've got running currently. Also, here's the output of uname:

```

wagtail linux # uname -a

Linux wagtail 2.6.23-gentoo-r3 #5 SMP Fri Dec 28 13:33:03 EST 2007 x86_64 Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E4500 @ 2.20GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

```

If you diff your .config against mine you may see some difference that's causing your problem.  Please don't hesitate to ask for any more information, and don't worry about your English - we all speak Linux here   :Very Happy: 

Regards,

Edit: Forgot to mention that I'm running the vanilla gentoo sources - only change I've got is the patch I mentioned above to fix the hang on boot because of the faulty Intel BIOS implementation.

----------

## robdd

Hi again tostadora,

Just had a look at the sub-directories of /proc/acpi, and the fan and thermal_zone directories are empty - is that your problem ? Or don't you have the directories at all ?

Here's a listing of my /proc/acpi:

```

root:/proc/acpi# ls -lR

.:

total 0

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Mar 10 23:18 alarm

dr-xr-xr-x 4 root root 0 Mar 10 23:18 button

dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root 0 Mar 10 23:18 embedded_controller

dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root 0 Mar 10 23:18 fan

dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root 0 Mar 10 23:18 power_resource

dr-xr-xr-x 4 root root 0 Mar 10 23:18 processor

dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root 0 Mar 10 23:18 thermal_zone

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Mar 10 23:18 wakeup

./button:

total 0

dr-xr-xr-x 3 root root 0 Mar 10 23:18 power

dr-xr-xr-x 3 root root 0 Mar 10 23:18 sleep

./button/power:

total 0

dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root 0 Mar 10 23:18 PWRF

./button/power/PWRF:

total 0

-r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 Mar 10 23:18 info

./button/sleep:

total 0

dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root 0 Mar 10 23:18 SLPB

./button/sleep/SLPB:

total 0

-r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 Mar 10 23:18 info

./embedded_controller:

total 0

./fan:

total 0

./power_resource:

total 0

./processor:

total 0

dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root 0 Mar 10 23:18 CPU0

dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root 0 Mar 10 23:18 CPU1

./processor/CPU0:

total 0

-r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 Mar 10 23:18 info

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Mar 10 23:18 limit

-r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 Mar 10 23:18 power

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Mar 10 23:18 throttling

./processor/CPU1:

total 0

-r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 Mar 10 23:18 info

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Mar 10 23:18 limit

-r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 Mar 10 23:18 power

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Mar 10 23:18 throttling

./thermal_zone:

total 0

```

I don't know what you want to do with the fan and thermal_zone stuff ??  I do know there's a kernel module called coretemp that you can use to look at the core temperatures of each of the processor cores. I configured it as a module, so I just do a "modprobe coretemp" to load it. If you then look in /sys/devices/platform you'll see two directories called coretemp.0 and coretemp.1. Each directory has a file called temp1_input, which holds the current core temperature (look in /usr/src/linux/Documentation/hwmon/coretemp for more information).

Is that of any interest ?

Regards,

----------

## tostadora

Yes, that's my problem. The directories are there, but empty  :Wink: 

I have compiled the coretemp driver, and yes now it's giving me the temperature of the cores, which is very useful to me. Thank you  :Smile:  that solved my main problem.

Anyway, I'll continue to try to get ACPI thernal_zone and fan working. If I make some progress, I'll tell you, in case you're interested. 

Thank for your help.

----------

## robdd

Hi again tostadora,

I was just Googling for some info on how to optimise my xorg.conf, and found this reference: http://gentoo-wiki.com/HARDWARE_Intel_G33,_Q35,_and_Q33_Chipsets. As you can see from that page, there's no support for the Fan and Thermal Zone sections of ACPI - at least when that page was last updated  *Quote:*   

> This page was last modified 09:25, 21 February 2008.

 

So unless you write the drivers yourself   :Sad: 

Regards,

----------

## LuPiNOOoO

Hi, Is it possible posting xorg.conf ?

Thanks

----------

## robdd

Hi LuPiNOOoO,

Sorry for the slow reply - I've been away. My current xorg.conf is included below, and it works OK but remember that I had to load a masked version of xorg to get the Intel video card to work (see earlier posts).  Also, I'm not 100% happy with my current X11 set-up - mplayer complains my video card is too slow, and I have to use the "-vo sdl" option to watch videos, whereas my previous nvidia card with the proprietary nvidia driver worked fine.  I have a Benq wide screen LCD display, and the xorg.conf is set up for that, but it should be easy to change it for whatever display you've got. If you have any problems I'm happy to try and help - but I'm sure there are some X11 gurus on these forums who would also help if you asked   :Smile: 

Anyway, for what it's worth:

```

# File generated by xorgconfig.

#

Section "Module"

# This loads the DBE extension module.

    Load        "dbe"   # Double buffer extension

    SubSection  "extmod"

#   Option    "omit xfree86-dga"   # don't initialise the DGA extension

    EndSubSection

    Load        "freetype"

    Load       "glx"

    Load       "dri"

EndSection

Section "Files"

    FontPath   "/usr/share/fonts/misc/"

    FontPath   "/usr/share/fonts/Type1/"

    FontPath   "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/"

    FontPath   "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/"

EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

    Identifier  "Keyboard1"

    Driver      "kbd"

#    Option     "Protocol"      "Xqueue"

    Option "AutoRepeat" "500 30"

    Option "XkbRules"   "xorg"

    Option "XkbModel"   "pc102"

    Option "XkbLayout"  "us"

EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

# Identifier and driver

    Identifier  "Mouse1"

    Driver      "mouse"

    Option "Protocol"    "auto"

    Option "Device"      "/dev/input/mice"

    Option "ZAxisMapping"   "4 5 6 7"

EndSection

Section "Monitor"

    Identifier  "Benq_Wide"

    HorizSync   31.5 - 82.0

    VertRefresh 40-150

#    Modeline "1680x1050" 146.25 1680 1784 1960 2240 1050 1053 1059 1089 -hsync +vsync

#    Option "DPMS" "true"

    Option "DPMS" "false"

    Option "EDID" "false"

EndSection

Section "Device"

    Identifier  "Intel"

    Driver      "intel"

    BusID       "PCI:0:2:0"         

    Option          "DRI"                     "true"

#    Option          "UseFBDev"                "true"

#    Option          "PageFlip"                "true"

#    Option          "TripleBuffer"            "true"

#    Option          "XAANoOffscreenPixmaps"   "true"

#    Option          "FramebufferCompression"  "false"

    

    # Enable offload of Motion Compensation (XvMC)

    Option          "LinearAlloc"             "16384"

    Option          "Cachelines"              "2048"

    Option          "XvMCSurfaces"            "7"

    #VideoRam    131072

    # Insert Clocks lines here if appropriate

EndSection

Section "Screen"

    Identifier  "Screen 1"

    Device      "Intel"

    Monitor     "Benq_Wide"

    DefaultDepth 24

    Subsection "Display"

        Depth       24

#        Modes       "1680x1050" "1024x768"

#       Modes       "1024x768"

        ViewPort    0 0

    EndSubsection

EndSection

# **********************************************************************

# ServerLayout sections.

# **********************************************************************

# Any number of ServerLayout sections may be present.  Each describes

# the way multiple screens are organised.  A specific ServerLayout

# section may be specified from the X server command line with the

# "-layout" option.  In the absence of this, the first section is used.

# When now ServerLayout section is present, the first Screen section

# is used alone.

Section "ServerLayout"

# The Identifier line must be present

    Identifier  "Simple Layout"

# Each Screen line specifies a Screen section name, and optionally

# the relative position of other screens.  The four names after

# primary screen name are the screens to the top, bottom, left and right

# of the primary screen.  In this example, screen 2 is located to the

# right of screen 1.

    Screen "Screen 1"

# Each InputDevice line specifies an InputDevice section name and

# optionally some options to specify the way the device is to be

# used.  Those options include "CorePointer", "CoreKeyboard" and

# "SendCoreEvents".

    InputDevice "Mouse1" "CorePointer"

    InputDevice "Keyboard1" "CoreKeyboard"

EndSection

Section "DRI"

    Group   0

    Mode    0666

EndSection

```

So good luck, and just ask if you have any other problems.

Regards, Rob

----------

