216 lines
9.5 KiB
Markdown
216 lines
9.5 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: ASUS KCMA-D8 desktop/workstation board
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x-unreviewed: true
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...
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Introduction
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============
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Specifications available here:
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<https://www.asus.com/uk/Commercial-Servers-Workstations/KCMAD8/>
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Quite a nice board; can have up to 16 Opteron 4200/4300 CPU cores, with up to
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64GiB of RAM. It holds its own against more modern machines, especially when
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compiling large source trees (for compilers, what you want is high RAM and more
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CPU cores).
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This is a desktop board using AMD hardware (Fam10h *and Fam15h* CPUs
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available). It can also be used for building a high-powered workstation.
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Libreboot also supports it. The coreboot port was done by Timothy Pearson of
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Raptor Engineering Inc. and, working with them, merged into libreboot many
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years ago.
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Note that not all boards are compatible. See [board status](#boardstatus)
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below to determine compatibility with your board.
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Flashing instructions can be found at
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[../install/](../install/) - note that external
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flashing is required (e.g. RPi), if the proprietary (ASUS) firmware is
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currently installed. If you already have libreboot/osboot/coreboot, by default
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it is possible to re-flash using software running in GNU+Linux on the kcma-d8,
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without using external hardware.
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If you currently have the ASUS firmware, please ignore the above link and
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instead refer to the section below:
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Flashing
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========
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The default ASUS firmware write-protects the flash, so you have to remove the
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chip and re-flash it using external hardware.
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It has a 25XX NOR flash (SPI protocol) in a P-DIP 8 socket, which looks like
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this:
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The default chip is a 2MiB one, but we recommend upgrading it to a 16MiB chip.
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NOTE: If you're already running Libreboot, you probably don't
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need to re-flash externally. Refer instead to the generic instructions on
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this page: [../install/](../install/)
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Refer to the following guide:\
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[Externally rewrite 25xx NOR flash via SPI protocol](../install/spi.md)
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PCI option ROMs
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===============
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Unlike Libreboot 20160907, Libreboot in newer releases now supports finding and
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loading PCI option ROMs automatically, both in GRUB and SeaBIOS on this machine.
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So for example, if you wish to use an add-on graphics card, you can! It's no
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problem, and should work just fine.
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CPU coolers
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===========
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With some creativity, standard AM3+ coolers will work fine.
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2 x Socket C32 (LGA1207) available, so you can use 2 CPUs. (up to 32GiB per CPU)
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CPU compatibility
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=================
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- Opteron 4100 series: Incompatible
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- Opteron 4200 series: Compatible, does not require microcode updates
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- Opteron 4300 series: Compatible, requires microcode updates (nonfree!)
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"Requires" means needed for stability. Opteron 4200 series CPUs work very well,
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even without microcode updates. Because the updates are non-free, Libreboot does
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not include them.
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In particular, the 4200 series works well with hardware virtualization even
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without the microcode updates; 4300 series on the other hand is more dependent
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upon these microcode updates.
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Microcode configures the logic gate arrays inside your CPU, to implement the
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instruction set architecture, which in turn is what enables *instructions* to
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execute on your CPU. What do you think will happen if you don't have these
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updates? The answer is: bugs are possible, and the updates fix those bugs.
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AMD CPUs are generally better engineered than Intel ones, and work much nicer
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without updates compared to Intel CPUs, but CPU manufacturers design their chips
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to accept updates for a reason!
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Board status (compatibility) {#boardstatus}
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============================
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There are two ways to identify a supported KCMA-D8 board:
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1. Serial number (sticker attached to the 24-pin ATX power connector)
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2. BIOS version (sticker next to CPU slot 1, last four digits)
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Supported boards begin with a serial number of **B9S2xxxxxxxx** or above where
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the first character refers to the year of manufacture (A = 2010, B = 2011, etc.)
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and the following character the month in hexadecimal (1...9, A, B, C). Thus, any
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board produced September 2011 *or later* are compatible with Libreboot. Boards
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originally shipped with BIOS version **2001** or higher are also compatible.
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For help locating these identifying markers, see [ASUS documentation for determining Opteron 4200 series compatibility](https://web.archive.org/web/20200710022605/https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/SocketC%281027%29/KCMA-D8/Manual&QVL/How_to_identify_MB_supporting_Opteron_4200_CPU.pdf)
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For more detailed information regarding the coreboot port, see
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<https://raptorengineeringinc.com/coreboot/kcma-d8-status.php>
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Form factor {#formfactor}
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===========
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This board is ATX form factor. While the [ATX standard, version 2.2](https://web.archive.org/web/20120725150314/http://www.formfactors.org/developer/specs/atx2_2.pdf)
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specifies board dimensions 305mm x 244mm, this board measures 305mm x 253mm;
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please ensure that your case supports this extra ~cm in width.
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IPMI iKVM module add-on {#ipmi}
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=======================
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Don't use it. It uses proprietary firmware and adds a backdoor (remote
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out-of-band management chip, similar to the [Intel Management
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Engine](../../faq.md#intelme). Fortunately, the firmware is
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unsigned (possible to replace) and physically separate from the
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mainboard since it's on the add-on module, which you don't have to
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install.
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Flash chips {#flashchips}
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===========
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2MiB flash chips are included by default, on these boards. It's on a
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P-DIP 8 slot (SPI chip). The flash chip can be upgraded to higher sizes:
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4MiB, 8MiB or 16MiB. With at least 8MiB, you could feasibly fit a
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compressed linux+initramfs image (BusyBox+Linux system) into CBFS and
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boot that, loading it into memory (and nowadays there is LinuxBoot, for which
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we would recommend a 16MiB boot flash)
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*DO NOT hot-swap the chip with your bare hands. Use a P-DIP 8 chip
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extractor. These can be found online. See
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<http://www.coreboot.org/Developer_Manual/Tools#Chip_removal_tools>*
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Ideally, you should not hot-swap. Only remove the IC when the system is
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powered down and disconnected from mains.
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Native graphics initialization {#graphics}
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==============================
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Only text-mode is known to work, but linux(kernel) can initialize the
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framebuffer display (if it has KMS - kernel mode setting).
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NOTE: This section relates to the onboard ASpeed GPU. You *can* use an add-on
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PCI-E GPU in one of the available slots on the mainboard. Nvidia GTX 780 cards
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are what Libreboot recommends; it has excellent support in Nouveau (free Linux
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kernel / mesa driver for Nvidia cards) and generally works well; however, the
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performance won't be as high in Nouveau, compared to the non-free Nvidia driver
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because the Nouveau driver can't increase the GPU clock (it doesn't know how,
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as of 18 March 2021).
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Current issues {#issues}
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==============
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- Opteron 4100 series CPUs are currently incompatible
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- LRDIMM memory modules are currently incompatible
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(use UDIMMs please)
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- Memory initialization is still problematic for some modules. We
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recommend avoiding Kingston and Super Talent modules for this reason.
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The coreboot wiki has some information about RAM compatibility. The wiki is
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deprecated but the info on it is still correct for this board. Some other
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considerations:
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- Booting from USB mass storage devices is currently broken under GRUB.
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Consequently, the textmode ROM with SeaBIOS is recommended otherwise
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in order to install an operating system you will need a hard disk with
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a pre-installed OS or will have to plug in another HDD or CD/DVD
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reader in order to boot OS installation media.
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- SeaBIOS lacked serial console support out-of-the-box in release 20160907
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and as such a workaround using SGABIOS is necessary. You can find
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instructions on how to do this on the
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[Notabug issue tracker](http://web.archive.org/web/20210416011941/https://notabug.org/libreboot/libreboot/issues/736)
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TODO: test whether this is still the case in Libreboot, which uses a newer
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version of coreboot nowadays)
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- SAS (via PIKE 2008 module) requires non-free option ROM (and
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SeaBIOS) to boot from it (theoretically possible to replace, but you
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can put a kernel in CBFS or on SATA and use that to boot GNU, which
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can be on a SAS drive. The linux kernel can use those SAS drives
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(via PIKE module) without an option ROM).
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NOTE: SeaBIOS can load PCI-E option ROMs, and by default it will do so in
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Libreboot, so you could use it. However, you could *also* simply
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install 16MiB NOR flash with linuxboot payload in it, and use linuxboot
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which has the Linux kernel, which can use SAS drives without needing that
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option ROM; then it can kexec another linux kernel, which in turn also can
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can use those drives. Or just put a standard linux kernel and initramfs
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in cbfs and chainload that from GRUB, with the right parameters.
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- IPMI iKVM module (optional add-on card) uses proprietary firmware.
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Since it's for remote out-of-band management, it's theoretically a
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backdoor similar to the Intel Management Engine. Fortunately, unlike
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the ME, this firmware is unsigned which means that a free
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replacement is theoretically possible. For now, the Libreboot
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project recommends not installing the module. [This
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project](https://github.com/facebook/openbmc) might be interesting
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to derive from, for those who want to work on a free replacement. In
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practise, out-of-band management isn't very useful anyway (or at
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the very least, it's not a major inconvenience to not have it).
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- Graphics: only text-mode works. See [\#graphics](#graphics)
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Hardware specifications {#specifications}
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-----------------------
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Check the ASUS website.
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