# Intel Q35 chipset issues thread

## Voltago

Hi everybody! Two weeks ago, I built myself a new machine around the intel board DQ35JO, and since then have been quite frustrated with the linux support (or rather the lack thereof). So, as a way to vent my anger (damn you, intel! *shakes fist*) a little, I decided to create this thread, and point out common problems and solutions. The kernel I used here was gentoo-sources-2.6.23, xserver is 1.4 with mesa-7.0.1.

Any of these problems might affect users of the G33 and Q33 chipsets as well.

ACPI:

I had to add the boot option 'pci=nommconf', or else the kernel ACPI code would somehow crash while booting.

bug

EDIT: [OBSOLETE] Fixed by patch from http://kerneltrap.org/mailarchive/linux-kernel/2007/8/26/164870

EDIT2: Also solved by pci-conf1.patch, and this will patch will go into 2.6.25 by all accounts.

EDIT3: Fixed in gentoo-sources-2.6.24-r3

Network:

EDIT: This issue is resolved by gentoo-sources-2.6.23-r1; just use the e1000e network driver rather than the e1000 driver

EDIT2: If you need a live cd that recognizes the network adapter, you can use the Gentoo-based sysresccd

(boot with pci=nommconf parameter!)

The Q35 network adapter is called

```
Intel Corporation 82566DM-2 Gigabit Network Connection
```

and the main difference from 82566DM used in similar boards seems to be a different PCI ID, so that you need pciutils-2.2.6 to get it displayed and conveniently the kernel (up to and including gentoo-sources-2.6.23) won't auto-detect it. So for the network to work properly you need either:

the e1000e driver patch against 2.6.23 from bugzilla (please test and report to the bug)

an updated e1000 version from e1000.sourceforge.net (ebuild)

Graphics:

EDIT: Problem resolved by vanilla-sources-2.6.24_rc2 + mesa-7.0.2, x11-drm not necessary

EDIT2: xf86-video-i810-2.2.1 + xorg-server-1.4.0.90-r3 + gentoo-sources-2.6.24-r3 + mesa-7.0.3_rc1 give reasonable 2D and 3D performance and stability.

The latest xf86-video-i810 drivers support 2D graphics well enough, but for getting 3D to work (after a fashion), I had to install the latest x11-drm package. Now glxgears won't crash X any more, but is still slowed to a crawl. Yay!

Hopefully the situation will get better once mesa-7.0.2 is out...

Hard disk support:

I'm using AHCI and this works well enough, but there is another non-linux problem that bothers me to no end:

On boot-up, after the intel logo is shown, the system waits for ca. 25 seconds before loading grub. This only happens when I'm using AHCI, and this is not the first intel board I'm seeing this on (e. g. the DQ965GF had this problem too). Is this the intel bios or is this grub acting up?

EDIT: BIOS Version 0865 for the Q35JO mainboard fixes this very annoying issue: From intel boot logo to grub screen you have to wait now about 4 seconds, which I think is acceptable. Whoopee!

All in all I would have expected better out-of-the-box driver support from a company that touts its involvement with the open source community as much as intel does...

Please don't hesitate to post your own problems/solutions!Last edited by Voltago on Mon Apr 28, 2008 10:24 pm; edited 18 times in total

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## dsd

we're trying to backport e1000e to 2.6.23 for possible inclusion in Gentoo's next release media, however the person who reported the bug hasn't responded - we need it tested before we include it. if you have time, any chance you could install 2.6.23, apply our patch, and let us know if it works or not? the bug is here: https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=196053

also, you should file a new bug for your ACPI crash issues

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## Voltago

 *dsd wrote:*   

> any chance you could install 2.6.23, apply our patch, and let us know if it works or not?

 

Done.

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## pkufeldt

I too have experienced the same issues with ACPI and 82566DM ethernet adapter. I also had to change the BIOS SATA configuration to AHCI to make this work.

```
BIOS->Advanced->Drive Configuration->Configure SATA as: AHCI
```

But let me add one more.  I am trying to boot from a lone IDE drive. I do have a SATA CDROM, but the IDE drive sits as the only harddrive. The BIOS sees the drive and so does Grub/ISOlinux, but the kernel  on LiveCD 2007.0 can't find it. I have other motherboards with the ICH9  and the LiveCD 2007.0 works just fine. I know the ata_piix driver is loaded just can't find the drive. Any clues?

RESOLVED: I finally figured out that Intel switched the PATA controller to a Marvel chip. Here is the the lspci info:

```
03:00.0 IDE interface: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88SE6101 single-port PATA133 interface (rev b1)
```

So you need to pata_marvel.ko module.

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## Nulani

What about sound? Mixers only displays headphones, not PCM. I have alsa compiled as a module in the kernel, using snd_hda_intel. Kernel is 2.6.24-RC5. 

I'm assuming the solution is to put a model in /etc/modules.d/alsa, but which? Any suggestions?

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## Voltago

I found that the mixer 'Front' is the best to use instead of 'PCM'. Unfortunately, kmix also on my machine by default shows 'Headphone', and I haven't figured out how to change that (not that I tried very hard).

Edit: Oh, I just found out: You right-click the kmix tray icon, click 'Select main channel' (or similar), and select 'Front'.

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## Nulani

 *Nulani wrote:*   

> What about sound? Mixers only displays headphones, not PCM. I have alsa compiled as a module in the kernel, using snd_hda_intel. Kernel is 2.6.24-RC5. 
> 
> I'm assuming the solution is to put a model in /etc/modules.d/alsa, but which? Any suggestions?

 

Solved by using OSS4 instead of ALSA.

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## blackwhite

I am using DQ35MPE intel motherboard. The kernel 2.6.23-r6 causes the acpi panic, the kernel 2.6.24 still does not recognize the build in e1000 NIC. What should I do to fix the problem?

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## Voltago

And the ACPI problem doesn't go away with the 'pci=nommconf' boot option or the kernel patch? Instead of the e1000 driver you should use the e1000e driver, it is new in gentoo-sources-2.6.24.

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## blackwhite

 *Voltago wrote:*   

> And the ACPI problem doesn't go away with the 'pci=nommconf' boot option or the kernel patch? Instead of the e1000 driver you should use the e1000e driver, it is new in gentoo-sources-2.6.24.

 

Thank you, It works.

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## russofris

 *pkufeldt wrote:*   

> 
> 
> RESOLVED: I finally figured out that Intel switched the PATA controller to a Marvel chip. Here is the the lspci info:
> 
> ```
> ...

 

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, Mother F'ing THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!

Frank Russo

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## gundelgauk

I recently built a computer based on the DQ35MP. It also has the Q35 chipset but there might be other differences that I'm not aware of.

I didn't have that much trouble, to be honest.

ACPI:

I have encountered the same problem where the kernel wouldn't boot without pci=nommconf because of broken ACPI in the BIOS with some computers in the past. But not with this board. Not with the BIOS it originally came with and not with the latest BIOS which I updated to about a week ago (the exact version eludes me). So maybe a BIOS update might help the people with issues here.

Network:

Fortunately I was prepared for that, having worked with Q35 based computers for a few months at work. I just got an OpenSUSE 10.3 DVD and used that to install Gentoo, because I knew it had a working e1000e driver for the network interface. Installed like normal, compiled a 2.6.23 based gentoo-sources kernel with e1000e and never encountered any problems.

Graphics:

I have an Nvidia card and didn't test the on board graphics chip at home yet. But we have some Q35 based workstations running at work that use the on board chip with some Intel driver that came with OpenSUSE 10.3 and it works like a charm. However I can't recall the exact name of the xorg driver at the moment. If I remember, I will take a look on monday and edit this post accordingly.

Hard disk support:

I'm also using AHCI and both SATA (SATA_AHCI, ATA_PIIX) as well as PATA (PATA_MARVELL) work perfectly as far as I can tell. I didn't do real benchmarks yet, but based on the throughput I've seen, I can't complain at all.

Just one thing I noticed, that was a bit curious:

Gentoo is on my SATA drive which is identified as sda. I also have a PATA drive which gets recognized as sdb. So far, so good. I decided to install Arch onto a small partition on the PATA drive and that's where it got a bit confusing for a moment. The stock Arch kernel didn't recognize the PATA drive as sdb but sda! Of course I got a kernel panic while booting but I found the problem quickly and adjusted my grub.conf:

```
root   (hd1,0)

kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda1 ro
```

Notice the root (hd1,0) as opposed to root=/dev/sda1. Nothing bad, just a slight curiosity I noticed.

What made me laugh was that when I compiled a recent vanilla kernel for Arch (because it also lacked e1000e support), that one recognized the PATA drive as sdb again! Again, not really a problem, just something people might bump into.

Sound:

This is about the only thing I'm not really content with. I'm currently using the in-kernel ALSA drivers (SND_HDA_INTEL) and they work reasonably well. I did have to set up dmix manually but that also works. What I don't like are the mixer settings. Front seems to be like a master volume while PCM seems to work for some programs (for example mplayer before I set up dmix) and not for others. But that behavior somehow changed after I set up dmix. I didn't have time to toy with different versions or drivers yet, so at the moment I live with using only a master volume control which is curiously named "Front".   :Rolling Eyes: 

lm_sensors:

Getting the temperature of the CPU cores as well as my Nvidia GPU works. However so far I've been unable to make fan speeds or voltages to work. I didn't toy with that for long either, hints would be appreciated.

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## Nulani

 *Voltago wrote:*   

> ACPI:
> 
> EDIT: Fixed by patch from http://kerneltrap.org/mailarchive/linux-kernel/2007/8/26/164870
> 
> EDIT2: Also solved by pci-conf1.patch, and this will patch will go into 2.6.25 by all accounts.
> ...

 

Confirmed to be fixed in vanilla 2.6.25-rc2.

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## StryXTP

Just wanted to say thank you to everyone who posted in this thread!  I was able to get my new Intel DQ35JO system up and running with the information from this thread.

Since I was doing a bare bones install, I had to use an Ubuntu Live CD to get my base Gentoo system installed (because of the Gentoo Live CD not recognizing the Marvell PATA CDROM).  After that, booting with the pci=nommconf kernel option and ensuring I had complied the kernel with the Marvell PATA support via legacy mode, and the Intel PRO/1000 PCI-Express NIC were the keys to getting my system up and running.

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## qxtr01

I have an Intel DQ35JO motherboard, but I can't boot Gentoo Linux at all. The problem, I think, is with Grub or with the BIOS, since it is as if there is no operating system on the hard disk. It just shows the following error message: "No bootable device -- insert boot disk and press any key". What could it be? Should I set some particular option in the BIOS? Thanks.

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## Nulani

Did you remember to mark the disk as bootable?

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## qxtr01

No, I forgot! Thank you very much! Now it boots!

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## qxtr01

I other two issues with Intel DQ35JO motherboard:

1) In the BIOS the Processor Thermal Margin and the MCH Temperature (northbridge temperature) values are stuck to 57.00 and 66.70 degrees respectively, no matter what the system is doing. In Gentoo, the sensors command gives always me 43 degrees (please notice that 57+43=100).

2) The ICH Temperature (southbridge temperature) is around 78 degrees, even when the system is in an idle state, but if you touch the southbridge cooler with an hand you discover that the real temperature is much lower than that.

Do your systems have the same problems?

Thanks.

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## qxtr01

I partially fixed problem 1). In fact I just discovered in the PDF manual of my motherboard that:

 *Quote:*   

> The minimum thermal reporting threshold for the GMCH is 66 °C. The GMCH thermal sensor will display 66 °C until its temperature rises above this point.

 

The other problems remain, though.

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## qxtr01

Problem 2) fixed by adding some other fan... now ICH temperature barely reach 60 degrees (and that's ok for me).

However problem 1) (CPU temperature) remains... Can anyone tell me if you have the same problem? Thanks.

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