Debian (sarge/unstable) GNU/Linux, HP xw4300

last modified: 2005-11-28

Product

HP xw4300, with an Pentium D 840, 2 Gb memory
Here the link to HP Austria

Overall System

The system in default comes without graphics interface. Bus is PCI-Express.

Kernel/Bussystem

I use Kernel 2.6.14 and the Kernel supports everything in the System perfect.

> lspci
0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 955X Memory Controller Hub
0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 955X PCI Express Graphics Port
0000:00:1b.0 0403: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 01)
0000:00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 01)
0000:00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GR/GH/GHM (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 5 (rev 01)
0000:00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GR/GH/GHM (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 6 (rev 01)
0000:00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #1 (rev 01)
0000:00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #2 (rev 01)
0000:00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #3 (rev 01)
0000:00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #4 (rev 01)
0000:00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 01)
0000:00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev e1)
0000:00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GB/GR (ICH7 Family) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 01)
0000:00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) IDE Controller (rev 01)
0000:00:1f.2 0106: Intel Corporation 82801GR/GH (ICH7 Family) Serial ATA Storage Controllers cc=AHCI (rev 01)
0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV43 [GeForce 6600 GT] (rev a2)
0000:3f:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5752 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express (rev 01)

64bit Kernel

The CPU is capable of EM64T, but if not tested it yet.

Powermanagement

ACPI is working. The CPU is using Intels Speedstep but only two frequencies are supported. The real powersaving is done with throttleing. Both CPU cores can be configured in seperate.

> cat /proc/acpi/processor/CPU0/throttling
state count: 8
active state: T7
states:
T0: 00%
T1: 12%
T2: 25%
T3: 37%
T4: 50%
T5: 62%
T6: 75%
*T7: 87%

CPU

and here ..

> cat /proc/cpuinfo processor : 0
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 15
model : 4
model name : Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU 3.20GHz
stepping : 4
cpu MHz : 3201.987
cache size : 1024 KB
physical id : 0
siblings : 2
core id : 0
cpu cores : 2
fdiv_bug : no
hlt_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
coma_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 5
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe nx lm pni monitor ds_cpl est cid cx16 xtpr
bogomips : 6405.64

processor : 1
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 15
model : 4
model name : Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU 3.20GHz
stepping : 4
cpu MHz : 3201.987
cache size : 1024 KB
physical id : 0
siblings : 2
core id : 1
cpu cores : 2
fdiv_bug : no
hlt_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
coma_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 5
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe nx lm pni monitor ds_cpl est cid cx16 xtpr
bogomips : 6399.46

Graphics Adapter

First I bought a Matrox Parhelia P650, this was an error. The support for Linux is really ...

only a binary driver
no support for recent Kernels (offical only supported until 2.6.10)
no support for 64bit
The card didn't work correctly, i got AGP errors, so i think PCI-Express simply is not really supported by the binary driver.
Support only via an forum.
switching to text-console (no framebuffer) didn't work for me, there are rumors that is should work..
no framebuffer support.

Don't buy this card. At time it looks like everyone which wants fast 3D power have to buy a card with an closed source driver. If so i have to live with it.. but NVIDIA and ATI try to support Linux.

At time a use an NVIDIA 6600GT, and it worked out of the box. For the record I don't like binary drivers.

Sound

The soundadapter, an Intel HD Audio onboard card is supported by alsa, but it needs dmix if more than one applications want to use it. Under Debian, simply copy the default config for this case to /etc.

> cp /usr/share/alsa/cards/HDA-Intel.conf /etc/asound.conf

The mixer shows a device called "mono", which controls an internal speaker (not the normal pc-beep-speaker), to my very pleasure i discovered that the front connectors for Headphone and Microphone are separated from the backwards, so its simple to attach a headset for voip while listening to some music.

IDE/SATA

The IDE controller is called AHCI, and is only supported (IMHO) since 2.6.12, it really works nice.

Noise

The PC itself is a bit noisy, but is a low frequency so its not so annoying.

Howto install Debian ..

The standard Debian Installer for sarge, didn't find ethernet nor the disks. So i booted a GRML Live! CD, and did a debootstrap, this worked quickly.