# Asus M2V, Marvell sata chip and Attansic ethernet support ?

## Galdor

Hi,

I'm thinking about buying Asus M2V motherboard (http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?modelmenu=2&model=1171&l1=3&l2=101&l3=0), but some chips seems unknown on Linux/Gentoo.

What about:

- Marvell 88SE6121 SATA Chipset (the 88SX*** seems ok, but nothing about 88SE);

- Attansic L1 (a GPL driver is gived, but is there anything clean in the kernel ?);

Thank's.

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## dispanser

There is a driver for the Attansic on the asus driver page, I just got it installed and working a few minutes ago. emerge --sync is currently running. However, no luck so far with the SATA driver. 

The first thing I'll install will be a new kernel, but from what I read and tried it won't support the Chipset.

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## dispanser

update: no luck so far with the sata chipset. I'm running off a very old (and probably broken, according to SMART) PATA drive, and not even DMA is active. I moved most of my partitions to a USB 2.0 2.5" external hd to speed things up   :Shocked: .

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## Galdor

Ok, thank's. After many searchs, i'm going to buy the Asus M2N-E with a NForce 5 chip.

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## dispanser

If you don't mind, i'll post my results here anyway, maybe someone else can use this.

I finally got the VIA Sata (VT8251) running (Marvell chipset disabled in the bios, for now). It is said that the kernel 2.6.18 will support everything without patching, but with the current 2.6.18-rc2 the network device patches don't compile anymore, so that's useless for me. I'm currently running 2.6.16-gentoo-r3 + the patch found here: http://www.geocities.com/rajahuroman/main.html. Patches for 2.6.17 are linked in this thread: http://forums.viaarena.com/messageview.aspx?catid=28&threadid=71754&enterthread=y (but i haven't tested these, also I don't know whether the attansic patches still work with 2.6.17).

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## Slammer64

Attansic still compiles on vanilla 2.6.17.5. Just an FYI.

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## dsd

recent gentoo-sources-2.6.17 releases include VT8251 sata support

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## dispanser

 *dsd wrote:*   

> recent gentoo-sources-2.6.17 releases include VT8251 sata support

 

Not on my system. Maybe there are different versions of this chip around, but my SATA drive could not be found (and consequently, the system did not boot), using 2.6.17-gentoo-r4.

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## schorfi

ethernet chip: provided driver by vendor is working, just 'compile' and launch module

sata stuff: 2.6.16 + via patchs for that kernel make it working

sound: alsa_card="hda-intel" for alsa-driver (or set it in kernel it should (i am not sure) works too ^^)

sensors: (see another thread in that forum ^^)

so easy going o_O

hf

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## OpticalDezires

I dunno guys why you're using this Attansic ethernet controller? I've reciently bought M2N-E an specally to run this board under Linux' I've bought Intel PRO/1000 Desktop GT ethernet controller. Had some problems with lost packets when I was using ASUS A8N-E onboard Marvell LAN controller. And after this "wonderfull" experience I don't lay my trust on onboard controllers. (Although, I should admit that Intel PRO/100 controller which i had onboard my P4 machine worked wonderfull) Guys, 40$ is not worth pain in the arse.  :Smile:  For 40$ you can buy good LAN controller and forget about onboard shit.  :Smile: 

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