# ASUS A8N-VM CSM guide

## brento

I just spent the last few days building a Gentoo system on an ASUS A8N-VM CSM MB and thought I would share my experiences to help others.  Everything is working, for the most part.  I am not adding a lot of new info, but more compiling info found in different forums into this post.  I will do my best to give credit where credit is due, but it I can't guarantee I won't accidentally leave someone out.

Specs:

ASUS A8N-VM CSM

AMD64 Athlon 3200+

1 GB Kingston RAM (128MB of it is allocated for onboard video)

160 Seagate SATA HD

CDROM

ANTEC ARIA case

First and foremost, Gentoo 2006.0 made life much easier for me.  I was able to boot the liveCD without any kernel options and the forcedeth driver loaded, hence my internet connection was available.

The first thing I did was update my BIOS to 0702.  The problem was that the ARIA case power supply didn't have a floppy drive power connector (unless I somehow missed it) - I needed an adapter.  I tried making a boot CD to avoid the floppy drive problem, but that didn't work out.  I also needed a 20-24 pin adapter for the MB power.  As mentioned in other forums, the 0702 BIOS did not fix the ACPI problem.

I fixed ACPI by downloading the 0702 DSDT (original) from acpi.sourceforge.net, editing the SystemMemory line for 1GB and compiling it with IASL.  I then followed the info in the README (from acpi.sourceforge.net) for incorporating a custom DSDT in the kernel.  (Note:  I spent many hours trying to disassemble my DSDT using pmtools and tools from iasl with no luck.  Somebody, SiliconFiend I believe, figured it out and posted it to help everyone out)

I then followed the Gentoo Handbook for the rest of the installation.

TIP:  Before chrooting into the new environment, use links to download the new DSDT, IASL (link off of acpi.sourceforge.net) and the NVIDIA and NFORCE drivers from www.nvidia.com  ( I am using NFORCE 0310 and NVIDIA 8178 successfully).  That way you can install them once you chroot.  Or, once you chroot, you can use emerge to get them.  If packages are masked, become familiar with "/etc/portage/package.keywords"

```
sys-power/iasl ~amd64

media-video/nvidia-glx ~amd64

media-video/nvidia-kernel ~amd64

media-video/nvidia-settings ~amd64

```

If you add the above lines to that file (or create it), you can see the testing branch of portage and get the latest versions of those files.  However, don't emerge NFORCE due to the sound issues discussed later.

EDIT (4/8/06) - NVIDIA 1.0.8756 is in the stable branch of portage now.  http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/nvidia-guide.xml takes you through setting it up.

Network:  As mentioned, the forcedeth driver brought up the network, but I am not sure if it supports gigabit, so I use the NFORCE driver for that.

Video:  I used the NVIDIA driver as mentioned earlier.  The xorg.conf file generated during the driver install works great for me.

EDIT (4/13/06) - I installed Alsa 1.0.11rc5 today and that has apparently fixed the problems with the sound.  I am  only using a 2-speaker system, but I didn't have to disable the surrounds (as described below) to get sound to work.

Sound: This was the trickiest.  Don't use OSS or the NFORCE driver.  The AD1986A on this MB is supported (kind of) by the Intel HD driver in alsa (snd-hda-intel).  I say kind of because I (and everyone else it seems) had to disable surround to get it to work.  

Ken Woodland has a patch and some excellent info in his post at:

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=57791&page=8&highlight=asus+a8n-vm

I used a slightly different process to enable sound.  Since the current alsa in the kernel is 1.0.10, I went into the kernel source tree and applied his patch to /usr/src/linux/sound/pci/hda/hda_codec.c

I then followed the alsa guide at http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/alsa-guide.xml

I went with the kernel alsa, selected everything as modules (the driver you want is Intel HD Audio under PCI), and used alsaconf to configure alsa.  Once that was done, I added the following line to /etc/modules.d/alsa:

```
options snd-hda-intel position_fix=1
```

Then run "update-modules".  This eliminates a high pitched tone in the left speaker.  (Courtesy of https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-414308-highlight-audio+driver+nforce+430+ad1986a.html)

One more tip:  when emerging all the new stuff, (xorg, kde, gnome, etc.,), don't forget to get the various emulation tools.  Try "emerge -s emul" and look for all the app-emulation tools that allow you to run 32bit programs on 64bit amd.  Those combined with more lines in the package.keywords file will allow you to get win32codecs for your mplayer working, among other things.

I hope someone finds this info useful.  I will do my best to answer any questions, but I don't pretend to be an expert.

-brentoLast edited by brento on Thu Apr 13, 2006 7:57 pm; edited 3 times in total

----------

## Fejimush

Thanks for posting this.  I have been thinking about getting one of these M/Bs for a while.    It's nice to see it working well for someone.

Fej

----------

## j4ck455

brento, thanks for this thread - after having ripped out all my hair trying to get nvsound working

[nvsound has by far been the most difficult|near-impossible & frustrating thing for me]

I am going to try what you've posted here... :Smile: 

One other small niggly problem I have, is trying to use a 2nd NIC [ordinary old PCI] along with the builtin 1Gbits/s NIC, the problem is that after [possibly regular intervals] traffic stops flowing on both eth0 and eth1 ['destination unreachable'] - despite nothing visibly changing in the routing table [except that when it's all pear shaped /sbin/route takes an awful long time time to dump anything out]...I suspect that it has something to do with dhcpcd dying during a lease renewal [I have tried increasing the lease times on my DHCP server - and all that seems to do is give me extra time before it all goes wrong again & restart doesn't work - I have to reboot].

In case this helps the gurus help me, here is my setup:I emerge[d] dhcpcd as part of the chroot installation, and that is what both NICs are currently using, which could be where the problem is coming from... [opinions?]My 2nd NIC doesn't work with 8139cp but does work with 8139too, and forcedeth seemed to get automagically loaded & caused me more problems with the onboard NIC, so I used menuconfig to remove <n> both 8139cp and forcedeth, and included 8139too as a module [otherwise 8139cp always got loaded after 8139too was already loaded from /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6].Installed NFORCE-Linux-x86_64-1.0-0310-pkg1.run [and NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-1.0-8178-pkg2.run for onboard GPU] - yes I know I tainted the kernel here...My /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6 looks like this:

```
nvnet

nvsound

8139too
```

with nvnet above 8139too, which forces the onboard NIC to be eth0 [which is what I wanted].DHCP server on my LAN is IPCop v1.4.10, although I don't think it matters what it is...As my next step, I am considering changing /etc/conf.d/net to use:

```
modules_eth0=( "dhcpcd" )

modules_eth1=( "udhcpc" )
```

Oh and I didn't have any luck with:

```
nvnet hwmode=2
```

[as per /usr/share/doc/nforce/ReleaseNotes.html] which is strange bcos it seems to be capable with the NFORCE drivers under W2KP [dual boot setup]...

----------

## brento

Well, over the past few weeks I have made more additions and thought I would share.

First, as I was aware and I am sure many of you have thought, editing the kernel source isn't exactly the brightest idea for enabling sound.  This became evident when I tried to patch the kernel and realized that my edited file wouldn't match what it was expecting.  None the less, it is an effective workound, just annoying.  At the same time, it does prevent me from needing to re-install alsa every time I change something in my kernel config.

EDIT 4/11/06: I thought I included this the first time, but I didn't.  Incredibly important to note when it comes to the following SystemMemory value is that I have 1GB of RAM, with 128MB allocated for video.

Second, my DSDT fix turned out to not be 100% correct.  As mentioned in the documentation, you need to adjust the value for SystemMemory for your machine.  Well, I took an educated guess by looking at other users files.  I took the value 0x37FCE000.  This was close, but the correct value (I think) turned out to be 0x37FCE064.  After spending a few hours digging through the ACPI spec, I learned a lot about the addressing.  Turns out my original value actually belonged to another system table, FACS.  I found the correct value by using pmtools to do an acpidump and then I traced through the hex code to see what address the original DSDT used.  Now everything seems fine.  The new address actually starts with the byte in memory immediately following the header of the OEMB table.

The reason I mention all of that is because everything seemed fine originally except for one minor annoyance - the computer wouldn't shut off.  I issued the shutdown command just like always, but the last thing on the screen was "power shutdown" (I think) and it would remain on until I either pulled the plug or held the power button for about 5 seconds.  But now that I am not overwriting the FACS table, all is well.

Finally, I added a Hauppage PVR-500 and a PVR-350.  I am running kernel 2.6.16 and ivtv 0.6.1.  It took some time to get it working, but I finally found (http://gentoo-wiki.com/HARDWARE_PVR_500_Setup) that apparently AMD64 has issues loading the modules, so I had to load them all manually.  I still get errors about modules not loading when ivtv starts, but since the modules are already loaded, it seems to work anyway.  All 3 tuners are working like a champ.

EDIT: 4/11/06 I probably should have mentioned this the first time, but it didn't effect me, so I didn't think much of it.  The problem is specific to the MB/Case combo.  There happens to be a capacitor (or inductor, I forget which) that sits right by the PCI-E(x1) slot.  The PVR-500 has an "expansion" card which gives you composite and S-video in for the second tuner, and this "expansion" card takes up a PCI slot.  I intended on putting it in my empty PCI-E slot, however that capacitor hits the R audio-in jack, preventing me from putting the "expansion" card in the case.  After looking at the "expansion" card on my desk for a month, I thought I would add this in case it effects someone else.  

-brentoLast edited by brento on Tue Apr 11, 2006 10:42 pm; edited 2 times in total

----------

## j4ck455

Sadly I haven't found time to make much sense of DSDTs & ACPI, consequently I still haven't got any sound, but I did abandon nvsound & OSS in favour of snd-hda-intel and ALSA, but obviously I still need to correct the problems with this A8N-VM CSM's DSDT...

A couple of questions:I don't have a /proc/acpi folder or file, ACPI 2 is enabled in the BIOS, and ACPI is enabled in menuconfig. Why don't I have a /proc/acpi folder?

From /proc/config.gz{/config}:

```
#

# ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) Support

#

CONFIG_ACPI=y

CONFIG_ACPI_SLEEP=y

CONFIG_ACPI_SLEEP_PROC_FS=y

# CONFIG_ACPI_SLEEP_PROC_SLEEP is not set

CONFIG_ACPI_AC=y

CONFIG_ACPI_BATTERY=y

CONFIG_ACPI_BUTTON=y

CONFIG_ACPI_VIDEO=y

# CONFIG_ACPI_HOTKEY is not set

CONFIG_ACPI_FAN=y

CONFIG_ACPI_PROCESSOR=y

CONFIG_ACPI_THERMAL=y

# CONFIG_ACPI_ASUS is not set

# CONFIG_ACPI_IBM is not set

# CONFIG_ACPI_TOSHIBA is not set

CONFIG_ACPI_BLACKLIST_YEAR=0

CONFIG_ACPI_DEBUG=y

CONFIG_ACPI_EC=y

CONFIG_ACPI_POWER=y

CONFIG_ACPI_SYSTEM=y

# CONFIG_ACPI_CONTAINER is not set
```

I didn't enable CONFIG_ACPI_ASUS bcos it was described as only being for ASUS laptops|notebooks in menuconfig, but maybe I should enable it to get a /proc/acpi folder???

If it helps, I have the USE variable in /etc/make.conf set to:

```
USE="3dnow acpi alsa arts cdr clamav -cups doc -gnome hal -ieee1394 kde kdexdeltas qt unicode X"
```

I downloaded ASUS-A8N-VM_CSM-0702_1GB_64M-custom.asl.gz from acpi.sourceforge.net [assuming the '64' matches up with the 64MB allocated in my BIOS settings to the onboard nVidia GPU???], anyways the file ASUS-A8N-VM_CSM-0702_1GB_64M-custom.asl has this line:

```
    OperationRegion (BIOS, SystemMemory, 0x3BFCE000, 0xFF)
```

Do I need to change that to:

```
    OperationRegion (BIOS, SystemMemory, 0x3BFCE064, 0xFF)
```

???

----------

## brento

1.  I had the same problem you did with the /proc/acpi.  However, I am 99% sure that is because with the bad DSDT, ACPI gets disabled during the boot (check dmesg), hence no /proc/acpi.  Once I got the correct DSDT and ACPI worked, /proc/acpi appeared.  I wound't mess with the kernel config options until you have a good DSDT and ACPI loads.

2.  This one is a little bit trickier.  I found the 0x37FCE064 by looking at the value in the bad DSDT.  To do this, I had to download pmtools.  I dumped all the tables into a file.  You can see the hex addresses in the 8 different tables.  RSDT points to XSDT, which in turn points to FACP, APIC, MCFC, and OEMB.  FACP points to FACS and DSDT.  The 0x37FCE064 byte is the one immediately following the header information (required by ACPI spec) in the OEMB table.  On my system, the 0x37FCE000 actually pointed to the FACS table, so I have a feeling that entire table was getting overwritten by other information, which prevented my computer from shutting down (among other problems I may not have been aware of).

Without dumping the system tables, you won't know for sure.  FYI, I have mine set up with 1GB of RAM, 128MB used for the integrated video.

Also, I should point out that addresses are read backwards.  So, 0x37FCE064 will look like this in the hex file:

```
64 e0 fc 37
```

Here is the first few lines of my DSDT dump:

```
DSDT @ 0x37fc0440

  0000: 44 53 44 54 91 56 00 00 01 3c 41 30 33 36 38 00  DSDT.V...<A0368.

  0010: 41 30 33 36 38 30 30 31 01 00 00 00 49 4e 54 4c  A0368001....INTL

  0020: 26 20 00 02 08 44 50 38 30 0b 80 10 08 44 50 39  & ...DP80....DP9

  0030: 30 0a 90 08 53 50 49 4f 0a 2e 08 49 4f 48 57 0b  0...SPIO...IOHW.

  0040: 90 02 08 53 53 4d 49 0b 2e 08 08 53 53 45 50 0a  ...SSMI....SSEP.

  0050: 99 08 41 43 41 34 0b a4 08 08 41 50 49 43 0a 01  ..ACA4....APIC..

  0060: 08 50 4d 42 53 0b 00 05 08 50 4d 4c 4e 0b 00 01  .PMBS....PMLN...

  0070: 08 53 43 42 53 0b 00 08 08 53 43 4c 4e 0b 00 01  .SCBS....SCLN...

  0080: 08 41 43 42 53 0b 00 09 08 41 43 4c 4e 0b 00 01  .ACBS....ACLN...

  0090: 08 49 47 50 42 0b 00 20 08 49 47 4c 4e 0b 00 01  .IGPB.. .IGLN...

  00a0: 08 53 43 49 4f 0b 00 08 08 53 43 54 4c 0b 90 05  .SCIO....SCTL...

  00b0: 08 45 58 54 53 0a 00 08 50 43 49 42 0c 00 00 00  .EXTS...PCIB....

  00c0: e0 08 50 43 49 4c 0c 00 00 00 10 08 49 47 50 53  ..PCIL......IGPS

  00d0: 0a 01 08 49 47 50 4d 0c 00 00 fe fe 08 49 47 50  ...IGPM......IGP

  00e0: 4c 0b 00 02 5b 80 42 49 4f 53 00 0c 64 e0 fc 37  L...[.BIOS..d..7

  00f0: 0a ff 5b 81 4f 06 42 49 4f 53 01 53 53 31 5f 01  ..[.O.BIOS.SS1_.

```

on line 00e0, it is the last 4 bytes:  64 e0 fc 37

Also, if you dig through all of your system tables, the headers of each table require the upper four bytes of the address to be filled as well, so the addresses are 8 bytes long and would look like: 64 e0 fc 37 00 00 00 00.

-brento

----------

## RubyFan

brento: Thanks for the info. So how did you go about updating the bios if you do not have a floppy drive on your system?

My system is similarly configured to yours (except that I have 2Gig of RAM, Athlon64 X2 3800 and a WD 250GB SATAII drive).

It looks like the bios rev on my mb is 601.  Should I bother updating the bios?

Also, could you give a little more detail on how you got ACPI working (including where you found the file you mentioned)?

----------

## RubyFan

Using the 2006.0 experimental LiveCD (amd64) I used the graphical installer tool and got to the Stage 3 install.  Told it to fetch tarball from amd64 experimental branch.  It gets through mounting the partitions and downloading/unzipping the tarball.  It gets down to emerging the bootloader (grub) and then I get:  

"Exception received during 'configuring and installing bootloader': FATAL: _configure_grub: Error making the new device map."

(same configuration as my previous post)

Any ideas?

----------

## Icer

I dont have asus board but I know how to flash bios without floppy. There's at least 2 ways. One is to setup a bootable dos partition just for flashing. The other one is to burn bootable cd with the bios and the flasher on it. I did the cd trick. Search the net and you'll find instructions. It was easier than I thought.

----------

## brento

To update my BIOS, I borrowed the floppy drive from an old computer and made an adapter to get power to it.  I tried a bootable CD first, but unfortunately it didn't boot.  Plus, using a disk allowed me to back up my BIOS before flashing it, in case there was a problem.  The bootable DOS partition is a neat idea, especially if you decide to upgrade the BIOS again.

As far as ACPI, start with acpi.sourceforge.net.  In the DSDT section, you can view other people's DSDT's (although a few of them wouldn't compile with IASL.)  I would emerge IASL (you will probably have to unmask it) and download PMTools from the link off of the acpi site.  Then download a good DSDT from the acpi site and edit the value for SystemMemory as mentioned above.  The acpi site has a good readme on how to do all this and incorporate the correct DSDT into your kernel.  I can give you more info if you get stuck in the process.

As for your grub problem, it sounds like you are going through a different method than I did during the install.  You mentioned a graphical install - I just went step by step through the handbook.  I am not sure why it would fail with grub.

-brento

----------

## j4ck455

Also didn't have a floppy disk drive [as well as no disks] to use for flashing the BIOS, I had to setup dual-boot with Windoze [followed GRUB FAQ] on another HDD anyway, so I ended up using the "ASUS Update" Windoze utility - also made a backup [to file] of the BIOS before flashing...

----------

## Icer

Using the floppy drive is propably the safest way, no doubt about it.

I also have Antec Aria case and you know what? Once I got everything crammed in the case and the pc seemed to work I didnt want to install floppy drive just for flashing.  :Laughing: 

----------

## gerick

Flashing BIOS: 

I have had luck being able to flash the bios with a bootable USB Stick.  Works kinda like having a bootable CD-ROM.

AUDIO on the A8N-VM CSM:

ALSA 1.0.11rc4 is supposed to have fixes for this board and the AD1986A chipset.

Is anybody using Alsa 1.0.11rc4 and SPDIF to a AV Receiver that has 5.1 (or 6 channel) audio working?

----------

## RubyFan

Ok, I haven't flashed the BIOS yet, but I figured that maybe I wouldn't need to.  

I booted up with the 2006.0 live CD and ethernet works fine (can even browse the net ).  Then I tried installing it using the included graphical install tool.  But when I try booting into the installed system when it gets to the point where it says "Bringing up eth0... dhcp... eth0 does not exist".  Not sure why that's the case given that it worked fine with the liveCD.

Then it continues to boot:

* starting up sshd ...

* Starting up vixie-cron ...

* starting up kdm ...

* starting local ...

INIT: no more processes left in this runlevel

...and there it just hangs.

Any ideas?

----------

## one_red_eye

Did you set coldplug to start at boot?

```
rc-update add coldplug boot
```

----------

## RubyFan

 *one_red_eye wrote:*   

> Did you set coldplug to start at boot?
> 
> ```
> rc-update add coldplug boot
> ```
> ...

 

What does this do?

I'll give it a try...

----------

## one_red_eye

It prepares devices like the network adapter, else they don't work.

----------

## brento

 *gerick wrote:*   

> AUDIO on the A8N-VM CSM:
> 
> ALSA 1.0.11rc4 is supposed to have fixes for this board and the AD1986A chipset.

 

I got around to trying out 1.0.11rc4 today with no luck.  I still had to apply the same patch as mentioned in the beginning of this thread to get sound to work.  Note:  I am just using a 2 speaker setup, output from the MB - no SPDIF.

-brento

----------

## gerick

 *brento wrote:*   

>  *gerick wrote:*   AUDIO on the A8N-VM CSM:
> 
> ALSA 1.0.11rc4 is supposed to have fixes for this board and the AD1986A chipset. 
> 
> I got around to trying out 1.0.11rc4 today with no luck.  I still had to apply the same patch as mentioned in the beginning of this thread to get sound to work.  Note:  I am just using a 2 speaker setup, output from the MB - no SPDIF.
> ...

 

Well, https://bugtrack.alsa-project.org/alsa-bug/view.php?id=1793 ALSA bug 0001793: No sound on ASUS A8N-VM CSM is closed as Fixed in 1.0.11rc4.  And related bugs are also shown as fixed, but I am still having issues.

The patch is supposed to kill surround sound, which defeats my purpose of trying to get digital out.

Alsa resolved:

0001596 No sound or High pitched noise, dissapears if change made on mixer

0001793 No sound on ASUS A8N-VM CSM

0001678 nForce (10de:026c) left channel squeals, right channel mostly okay 

0001458 hda - High frequency noise in background and muting when changing volume

----------

## brento

Well, after another afternoon of trying different ALSA options, here is what I have found:

I was able to successfully get sound to work without any patch, but the following bug appeared:

0001458 hda - High frequency noise in background and muting when changing volume

One fix I have seen is that after applying the no-surround patch, I no longer have to apply the position-fix option mentioned earlier to fix:

0001678 nForce (10de:026c) left channel squeals, right channel mostly okay 

For now, I am back to the original fix of disabling surround.  

-brento

----------

## RubyFan

OK, it took me a few days to get around to trying this:

 *one_red_eye wrote:*   

> Did you set coldplug to start at boot?
> 
> ```
> rc-update add coldplug boot
> ```
> ...

 

But I end up getting:

 * coldplug already intalled in runlevvel boot: skipping

----------

## brento

RubyFan,

Here are a few ideas for you.  

1.  For your network, visit this website - http://dev.gentoo.org/~dsd/nforce-net-to-forcedeth.htm  It guides you through selecting the Forcedeth driver for your kernel, which I have a feeling is not currently being used.

2.  Try removing kdm from your init script and just boot into a terminal.  That will at least get you to the point where you can verify all of your X settings.  The following command will work:

```
rc-update del xdm
```

If things get resolved, you can add it again later using:

```
rc-update add xdm default
```

Once you are able to boot to a terminal, you can review the following guides to verify your X http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/xorg-config.xml and KDE settings http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/kde-config.xml

-brento

----------

## Nightmist

Thanks, mate. Your last post saved the day! I got internet!!!1!1!

 :Very Happy: 

----------

## RubyFan

Brento,

What I did was to totally start over with the 2006.0 universal install CD (amd64) and go through the stock install instructions.  Previously, I was using the 2006.0 LiveCD (from experimental) to install...

One thing I noticed is that the install CD booted up with eth1 configured (not eth0).  I'm now booting fine into the install and eth1 is connected to the internet.

Now I'm off to get X configured and KDE installed.

A couple of things: 

1) You mention:  *Quote:*   

> I fixed ACPI by downloading the 0702 DSDT (original) from acpi.sourceforge.net

 

If I've got networking working and vesa video is acceptable, do I need to do this?  Will the native nvidia video driver work if I don't do this?  I guess I'm trying to figure out what won't work if I don't do this.

2) I'm a bit confused by this section:

 *Quote:*   

> IP: Before chrooting into the new environment, use links to download the new DSDT, IASL (link off of acpi.sourceforge.net) and the NVIDIA and NFORCE drivers from www.nvidia.com ( I am using NFORCE 0310 and NVIDIA 8178 successfully). That way you can install them once you chroot. Or, once you chroot, you can use emerge to get them. If packages are masked, become familiar with "/etc/portage/package.keywords"
> 
> Code:
> 
> sys-power/iasl ~amd64
> ...

 

Several things seem to be going on here: the DSDT, IASL stuff (which I'm not familiar with at all yet) and then the NVIDIA, NFORCE driver issue.  I assume that I need to get this driver from nvidia: http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux_display_amd64_1.0-8174.html  and then follow the instructions in the README.  You seem to be implying that you can emerge the nvidia drivers - how would one do that?  "emerge nvidia"?  Does nvidia distribute gentoo packages?

3) I notice in /proc/cpuinfo that there is only one processor, so I would guess that genkernel does not generate an SMP kernel.

...sorry for all of the questions... It's been about four years since I did a gentoo install and the world was apparently much simpler back then  :Wink: 

----------

## brento

RubyFan,

To be honest, I am not sure what won't work if ACPI doesn't work.  I am 99% sure that if you don't dig into the DSDT, IASL and PmTools, you will find that ACPI gets disabled during the boot ("dmesg | grep ACPI").  Since ACPI assigns the IRQ's (among other things), I am not sure if that will lead to problems or not.  Since you haven't dug into that yet, maybe you can let us all know.  I filled the 2 PCI slots with a PVR-350 and PVR-500, so I was concerned I might have issues if ACPI was disabled.

As for the NVIDIA drivers, there is a nice guide at http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/nvidia-guide.xml  Fortunately for you, portage has the latest NVIDIA drivers in the stable branch.  If you "emerge -s nvidia", you should see nvidia-glx-1.0.8756 and nvidia-kernel-1.0.8756.  You will need both of those and the guide tells you exactly how to configure your kernel.  You don't need to even worry about the NFORCE drivers because the sound won't work and you don't need nvnet.

As for SMP, I thought it was included in genkernel, but I am not using genkernel, so I can't be sure.  I am not sure on this, but I am guessing that you won't see more processors unless you are running a dual core (or greater) processor setup.   I honestly haven't delved into SMP at all, so that is just my guess.

-brento

----------

## Januszzz

 *Quote:*   

>  Since ACPI assigns the IRQ's (among other things), I am not sure if that will lead to problems or not. Since you haven't dug into that yet, maybe you can let us all know. 

 

Yes, definetly, lack of ACPI could be a problem   :Very Happy:  . I also use (shiny new) ASUS A8N-VM CSM with 1 gb TwinMos RAM, and besides all of previously mentioned problems I have two other, which are driving me really mad:

 - after some time (1-4 hours) Logitech UltraxFlat USB keyboard stops working, so I cannot use anything more than mouse (but I can always copy some text to konsole and check some more interesting syslog entries, so I did...)

- the network interface integrated with mainboard goes insane while in promiscous mode (I use Vmware to test some unusual configurations - Linux integrated with AD, etc.) 

Generally the network is ok, but when I try to connect with rdesktop to windows machine it crashes. - the problem not occures while acpi is enabled.

So on my fresh Gentoo instalation I started ssh and found that when the keyboard goes down, I cannot even ping the machine so those events goes together. 

Until now I managed to get acpi working (without the last part - system cannot shut down itself) and I'm waiting for crash with hope it never happens   :Very Happy: 

----------

## RubyFan

 *brento wrote:*   

> RubyFan,
> 
> To be honest, I am not sure what won't work if ACPI doesn't work.  I am 99% sure that if you don't dig into the DSDT, IASL and PmTools, you will find that ACPI gets disabled during the boot ("dmesg | grep ACPI").  Since ACPI assigns the IRQ's (among other things), I am not sure if that will lead to problems or not. 

 

Now I've gotten KDE installed and running so the tally of working items is: booting, network and X.  The only thing  I noticed was that when I did a shutdown it got to a certain point and just hung... then I did alt-ctrl-del and it continued to shutdown.  But overall, things seem to working well enough (haven't tried sound or USB yet, though)

 *Quote:*   

>  As for SMP, I thought it was included in genkernel, but I am not using genkernel, so I can't be sure.  I am not sure on this, but I am guessing that you won't see more processors unless you are running a dual core (or greater) processor setup.   I honestly haven't delved into SMP at all, so that is just my guess.
> 
> 

 

I've got an Athlon64 x2 so I would have expected to see two processors in cpuinfo.  I need to check into the genkernel config.

----------

## hafark

I notice that ASUS has a new, beta, version of the bios for the A8N-VM, 0902. Anyone tried it or know if it fixes the ACPI problem?

----------

## supun

This thread has been most informative ..

When I used "37FCE064", it resulted in ...

```

pr 11 09:24:08 mythtv _system_memory_space: Could not map memory at 0000000037FCE064, size FF

Apr 11 09:24:08 mythtv evregion-0412: *** Error: Handler for [SystemMemory] returned AE_NO_MEMORY

Apr 11 09:24:08 mythtv dswexec-0460 [13] ds_exec_end_op        : [ShiftLeft]: Could not resolve operands, AE_NO

_MEMORY

Apr 11 09:24:08 mythtv psparse-0508: *** Error: Method execution failed [\GPRW] (Node ffff810001ed8970), AE_NO_

MEMORY

Apr 11 09:24:08 mythtv psparse-0508: *** Error: Method execution failed [\_SB_.PCI0.P0P1._PRW] (Node ffff810001

ec86f0), AE_NO_MEMORY

Apr 11 09:24:08 mythtv scan-0324 [04] bus_get_wakeup_device_: Error evaluating _PRW

Apr 11 09:24:08 mythtv ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0.P0P1._PRT]

Apr 11 09:24:08 mythtv exregion-0165 [22] ex_system_memory_space: Could not map memory at 0000000037FCE064, siz

e FF

Apr 11 09:24:08 mythtv evregion-0412: *** Error: Handler for [SystemMemory] returned AE_NO_MEMORY

Apr 11 09:24:08 mythtv dswexec-0460 [13] ds_exec_end_op        : [ShiftLeft]: Could not resolve operands, AE_NO

_MEMORY

Apr 11 09:24:08 mythtv psparse-0508: *** Error: Method execution failed [\GPRW] (Node ffff810001ed8970), AE_NO_

MEMORY

Apr 11 09:24:08 mythtv psparse-0508: *** Error: Method execution failed [\_SB_.PCI0.HDAC._PRW] (Node ffff810001

ec84f0), AE_NO_MEMORY

Apr 11 09:24:08 mythtv scan-0324 [04] bus_get_wakeup_device_: Error evaluating _PRW

Apr 11 09:24:08 mythtv exregion-0165 [22] ex_system_memory_space: Could not map memory at 0000000037FCE064, siz

e FF

Apr 11 09:24:08 mythtv evregion-0412: *** Error: Handler for [SystemMemory] returned AE_NO_MEMORY

Apr 11 09:24:08 mythtv dswexec-0460 [13] ds_exec_end_op        : [ShiftLeft]: Could not resolve operands, AE_NO

_MEMORY

Apr 11 09:24:08 mythtv psparse-0508: *** Error: Method execution failed [\GPRW] (Node ffff810001ed8970), AE_NO_

MEMORY

Apr 11 09:24:08 mythtv psparse-0508: *** Error: Method execution failed [\_SB_.PCI0.MC97._PRW] (Node ffff810001

ec8370), AE_NO_MEMORY

Apr 11 09:24:08 mythtv scan-0324 [04] bus_get_wakeup_device_: Error evaluating _PRW

```

So I used "0x3BFCE000" from "ASUS-A8N-VM_CSM-0702_1GB_64M-custom.asl" from acpi.sourceforge.net, which resulted in ...

```

Apr 11 09:34:32 mythtv ACPI: Subsystem revision 20050902

Apr 11 09:34:32 mythtv evgpeblk-0988 [06] ev_create_gpe_block   : GPE 00 to 1F [_GPE] 4 regs on int 0x9

Apr 11 09:34:32 mythtv evgpeblk-0996 [06] ev_create_gpe_block   : Found 11 Wake, Enabled 0 Runtime GPEs in this

 block

Apr 11 09:34:32 mythtv Completing Region/Field/Buffer/Package initialization:..................................

....................................................................................................

Apr 11 09:34:32 mythtv Initialized 16/18 Regions 26/26 Fields 53/53 Buffers 39/41 Packages (823 nodes)

Apr 11 09:34:32 mythtv Executing all Device _STA and_INI methods:..............................................

...............................

Apr 11 09:34:32 mythtv 77 Devices found containing: 77 _STA, 0 _INI methods

Apr 11 09:34:32 mythtv ACPI: Interpreter enabled

Apr 11 09:34:32 mythtv ACPI: Using IOAPIC for interrupt routing

Apr 11 09:34:32 mythtv ACPI: PCI Root Bridge [PCI0] (0000:00)

Apr 11 09:34:32 mythtv PCI: Probing PCI hardware (bus 00)

Apr 11 09:34:32 mythtv Boot video device is 0000:00:05.0

Apr 11 09:34:32 mythtv PCI: Transparent bridge - 0000:00:10.0

Apr 11 09:34:32 mythtv ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0._PRT]

Apr 11 09:34:32 mythtv ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0.PCE0._PRT]

Apr 11 09:34:32 mythtv ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0.PCE1._PRT]

Apr 11 09:34:32 mythtv ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0.PCE2._PRT]

Apr 11 09:34:32 mythtv ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0.P0P1._PRT]

```

Not sure why it would be different from everyone else.

----------

## RubyFan

Latest report:

SMP is working now.  It's not the default option in genkernel.  Turned it on by using:

genkernel --xconfig all

I have still not done anything with ACPI.  I tried plugging in a USB memory stick (DOS formatted) but got:

```
usb 1-7: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2

scsi4 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices

usb-storage: device found at 2

usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning

  Vendor: JetFlash  Model: TS512MJF2B        Rev: 2.00

  Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SCSI revision: 02

ready

SCSI device sdb: 1024000 512-byte hdwr sectors (524 MB)

sdb: Write Protect is off

sdb: Mode Sense: 03 00 00 00

sdb: assuming drive cache: write through

SCSI device sdb: 1024000 512-byte hdwr sectors (524 MB)

sdb: Write Protect is off

sdb: Mode Sense: 03 00 00 00

sdb: assuming drive cache: write through

 sdb: unknown partition table

sd 4:0:0:0: Attached scsi removable disk sdb

sd 4:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 0

usb-storage: device scan complete

UDF-fs: No VRS found

```

Then when I tried to mount it I got a message about it not being a block device.

----------

## gerick

I have been able to successfully mount a FAT16 formatted USB stick and copy files from/to it on my A8N-VM CSM.

----------

## cato`

 *hafark wrote:*   

> I notice that ASUS has a new, beta, version of the bios for the A8N-VM, 0902. Anyone tried it or know if it fixes the ACPI problem?

 

It's 0901 and it fixes the ACPI problems. You can get it at http://www.yourfilelink.com/get.php?fid=62980

----------

## brento

Supun - something I failed to post (I have since fixed this) is that I am using 128MB for video.  If you are using 64MB, there would definitely be a difference in our memory addresses.  Sorry for the trouble.

RubyFan - not that this really helps, but I do my have card reader on the ARIA case working with a CF card that has bounced around numerous computers.  I originally tried to mount it by "mount /deb/sdb /mnt/usb", but reading through dmesg reminded me to use "mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/usb".  However, where yours says:

```

sdb: assuming drive cache: write through

 sdb: unknown partition table 
```

mine says: 

```

sdb: assuming drive cache: write through

 sdb: sdb1

```

I was reading through the USB documentation and I saw a lot of info about "hotplug".  I remember having to emerge hotplug seperately to get my PVR cards to work, so that is one thing you can check - "emerge -s hotplug" and see if it is on your system.  Not really sure that will fix your problem, but it is a thought.

-brento

----------

## RubyFan

 *brento wrote:*   

> 
> 
> I was reading through the USB documentation and I saw a lot of info about "hotplug".  I remember having to emerge hotplug seperately to get my PVR cards to work, so that is one thing you can check - "emerge -s hotplug" and see if it is on your system.  Not really sure that will fix your problem, but it is a thought.
> 
> 

 

Ah, that's probably it.  I'll give it a try tonight.

BTW: I compiled KDE without including hal in USE... (the instructions mention that a little late)

How can I get KDE to recompile with it?  Is there some sort of:

emerge --force kde

?

(something that will force kde to recompile even though it's already installed)

----------

## brento

I am pretty sure you can just do it again: "emerge kde".  I have done it numerous times with mplayer to add additional options/codecs.

-brento

----------

## RubyFan

 *brento wrote:*   

> I am pretty sure you can just do it again: "emerge kde".  I have done it numerous times with mplayer to add additional options/codecs.
> 
> 

 

I tried that.  It basically says that there were no outdated packages found on the system.  Must be some way to force a recompile.

----------

## hafark

 *RubyFan wrote:*   

>  *brento wrote:*   I am pretty sure you can just do it again: "emerge kde".  I have done it numerous times with mplayer to add additional options/codecs.
> 
>  
> 
> I tried that.  It basically says that there were no outdated packages found on the system.  Must be some way to force a recompile.

 

emerge --newuse kde

----------

## RubyFan

 *cato` wrote:*   

>  *hafark wrote:*   I notice that ASUS has a new, beta, version of the bios for the A8N-VM, 0902. Anyone tried it or know if it fixes the ACPI problem? 
> 
> It's 0901 and it fixes the ACPI problems. You can get it at http://www.yourfilelink.com/get.php?fid=62980

 

I noticed on another forum earlier today that someone was reporting that while 0901 fixed the ACPI problems it introduced some USB problems for them (USB mouse problems if I recall correctly).  Have you noticed this?

So what's the procedure?  I unrar the file from the link above and I get a .ROM file.  Can I just burn that file on to a CDROM (somehow creating an iso) and then try to boot with it?

----------

## RubyFan

 *brento wrote:*   

> 
> 
> I was reading through the USB documentation and I saw a lot of info about "hotplug".  I remember having to emerge hotplug seperately to get my PVR cards to work, so that is one thing you can check - "emerge -s hotplug" and see if it is on your system.  Not really sure that will fix your problem, but it is a thought.
> 
> -brento

 

Tried that but it didn't do anything...  Then I tried the following:

```

mount -t vfat /dev/sdb /mnt/usbdrive

```

...and it worked fine.  Previously I tried mount with -t msdos which didn't work.  vfat is the ticket.

----------

## cato`

 *RubyFan wrote:*   

>  *cato` wrote:*    *hafark wrote:*   I notice that ASUS has a new, beta, version of the bios for the A8N-VM, 0902. Anyone tried it or know if it fixes the ACPI problem? 
> 
> It's 0901 and it fixes the ACPI problems. You can get it at http://www.yourfilelink.com/get.php?fid=62980 
> 
> I noticed on another forum earlier today that someone was reporting that while 0901 fixed the ACPI problems it introduced some USB problems for them (USB mouse problems if I recall correctly).  Have you noticed this?
> ...

 

My USB mouse still works ... 

Yes, you can burn it to a CD. There is a very good guide on how at https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-136726.html

----------

## j4ck455

I have upgraded my BIOS to 0901, and it appears to sort out most if not all ACPI issues, but I still don't get any sound using ALSA and snd-hda-intel - no errors generated either from what I can see in /var/log/messages

How can I test ALSA? - I have tried running alsamixer but I still don't get any sound, speakers plugged into the line-out [light greenish colour] - doesn't work in line-in either though...

Is it still a mainboard issue or should I have ALSA under a microscope?

Alternatively should I ditch ALSA and try OSS again with nvsound?

----------

## blinx

All I had to do to get sound working proberly was patch alsa to remove surround (I only use spdif anyway).

Today however it mysteriously stopped working, wonder what I emerged wrong...

----------

## cato`

You probably emerged alsa-driver-1.0.11rc5 ...

j4ck455: You have to patch hda_codec.c to remove surround. My patch does not apply clean on the rc4 so you have to manualy patch it ... http://www.student.uib.no/~hmy079/Linux_on_asus_csm/alsa_asus_csm-steroe.patch.txt

----------

## brento

I put alsa 1.0.11rc5 on the system today and it has apparently fixed all the sound problems.  I no longer apply any patches to get sound to work.  This was done on kernels 2.6.16 and 2.6.16.5.  I am only using 2 speakers, so I can't comment on surround or SPDIF, but it is working great for me.  

On a side note, I had to go back to 2.6.16 after 2.6.16.5 because I am running the ivtv drivers and currently ivtv-0.6.1 only installs on 2.6.16.  It makes sense considering the migration process of ivtv, but I thought I would save others the time of finding out the way I did.

-brento

----------

## cato`

 *brento wrote:*   

> I put alsa 1.0.11rc5 on the system today and it has apparently fixed all the sound problems.  I no longer apply any patches to get sound to work.  This was done on kernels 2.6.16 and 2.6.16.5.  I am only using 2 speakers, so I can't comment on surround or SPDIF, but it is working great for me.  
> 
> -brento

 

Fantastic, now everything works as it should without patching  :Smile: 

----------

## RubyFan

 *brento wrote:*   

> I put alsa 1.0.11rc5 on the system today and it has apparently fixed all the sound problems.  I no longer apply any patches to get sound to work.  This was done on kernels 2.6.16 and 2.6.16.5.  I am only using 2 speakers, so I can't comment on surround or SPDIF, but it is working great for me.  
> 
> On a side note, I had to go back to 2.6.16 after 2.6.16.5 because I am running the ivtv drivers and currently ivtv-0.6.1 only installs on 2.6.16.  It makes sense considering the migration process of ivtv, but I thought I would save others the time of finding out the way I did.
> 
> 

 

A couple of questions:

1) did you emerge the new alsa version or download from an alsa site?

2) Will it work with the 2.6.15 (I believe it's r5) kernel as well or do I need to get 2.6.16?

----------

## RubyFan

Did the following, but still don't have sound:

```

#lspci -v | grep -i audio

 00:10.1 Class 0403: nVidia Corporation MCP51 High Definition Audio (rev a2)

```

added: ALSA_CARDS="hda-intel" to /etc/make.conf

emerged alsa-driver (1.0.11_r5):

```

ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="~amd64" emerge -p alsa-driver

```

Then emerged alsa-utils, ran alsaconf and added to boot:

```

# emerge alsa-utils

# alsaconf

# rc-update add alsasound boot

# /etc/init.d/alsasound start 

```

ran the alsamixer and then tried to play a CD... nothing...  Rebooted just to make sure and then tried again.... still nothing.

----------

## RubyFan

Actually, When I played an mp3 file the sound _did_ work.... so sound is apparently working after all (yay!)  However, since CDs don't play I'm suspecting that when my box was built they didn't hook up that cable that goes from the sound output of the CD drive to the motherboard....

----------

## blinx

 *RubyFan wrote:*   

> Actually, When I played an mp3 file the sound _did_ work.... so sound is apparently working after all (yay!)  However, since CDs don't play I'm suspecting that when my box was built they didn't hook up that cable that goes from the sound output of the CD drive to the motherboard....

 

Sounds very likely.

I also got my sound to work again, deleted the saved mixer settings and started from scratch again with only the spdif enabled.

----------

## RubyFan

Yep, the problem was the missing audio cable from the CDROM drive to the motherboard.  I went back to the shop that built the PC for me and asked if I could get the missing cable.  The guy at first told me something like "Oh, those haven't been needed since 1998".  I again asked for one and the guy finally gave me one.  Now CDs play just fine.

----------

## PrakashP

 *RubyFan wrote:*   

> Yep, the problem was the missing audio cable from the CDROM drive to the motherboard.  I went back to the shop that built the PC for me and asked if I could get the missing cable.  The guy at first told me something like "Oh, those haven't been needed since 1998".  I again asked for one and the guy finally gave me one.  Now CDs play just fine.

 

It isn't needed if you use DAE (digital audio extraction) instead of letting the drive play the CD the traditional way. The latter has also the disadvantage that your sound might be redigitalized by your soundcard, ie it goes digital->analog->digital->analog...

----------

## ofeet

Big thanks for getting this out... I thought I was hosed on sound.

I used the intel HD driver and it worked just find (even without the path and stuff) but I did the position_fix anyway.

ps my sound was muted by default so I had to go through and turn it on...

thanks again!

*edit - nm, i have the popping noise, gonna try the patch.

----------

## leosgb

Hi,

I am having this recurrent problem with my audio. I have this same motherboard and I have tried all kinds of different things w/o success.

My current kernel is 2.6.18-gentoo-r6 and I just tried to follow the instructions to eerge alsa-drivers. I also enabled ALSA in the kernel.

When I first emerged alsa-drivers and I didnt get the expected results I decided to enable the drivers in the kernel too. It didnt help.

Is there any fix for this issue? Or we will continue having problems with this mobo? I would appreciate any help and I can post here any info that might be needed.

Thanks in advance,

----------

