Topic: Intel DQ35JOE Q35 - anyone using it

[raem]

Dear all

I am getting a new server for a charity group I voluntarily look after, and wanted feedback from anyone who has used this motherboard and chipset, hard drives & NIC, particularly in relation to hardware compatibility for sme7.3 (CentOS4.6) and future releases ie sme8 (CentOS5).

I will do my own homework and check various places & manufacturers specs, smolt etc, for compatibility etc, but was after knowledge gained from first hand experience.

The quote I've got is for a:

Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2GHz 2Mb 800 FSB CPU
Intel DQ35JOE Q35 6xSATA 12xUSB MicroATX Motherboard
1Gb (2 x 512Mb DDR2) RAM
2 x Seagate 500Gb Barracuda 7200 SATA2 16Mb SATA2 Hard Drives
for software RAID1
Intel Gigabit Copper 1000T PCIE PnP Network Adaptor
plus using the onboard Intel NIC


Any thoughts/advice ?
Thanks
Ray

[byte]

Looks a good MB:

http://www.redhatonintel.com/technology/dq35jo.htm

[raem]

byte

Looks a good MB:
http://www.redhatonintel.com/technology/dq35jo.htm

Thanks.
In that link it refers to certified compatibility with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.1.
I'm not up with all the equivalents, but does that mean equivalent to CentOS5.1 ?

[byte]

I'm not up with all the equivalents, but does that mean equivalent to CentOS5.1 ?

Yes RHEL 5.1 is what CentOS 5.1 is based on and our current SME Server 8.0beta1 is currently based on CentOS 5.1

[raem]

byte

Yes RHEL 5.1 is what CentOS 5.1 is based on and our current SME Server 8.0beta1 is currently based on CentOS 5.1

Thanks again.
So does that imply in any way, that sme7.3 (CentOS 4.6) will work OK on that motherboard, or is that an invalid assumption ?
Is backward compatibility something that can be assumed ?

[CharlieBrady]

So does that imply in any way, that sme7.3 (CentOS 4.6) will work OK on that motherboard, or is that an invalid assumption ?

That's an invalid assumption.

Is backward compatibility something that can be assumed ?

No.

[raem]

CharlieBrady

Thanks Charlie.
As mentioned elsewhere I do have the opportunity to do a test install at my suppliers shop before purchase, so I will arrange to do that to see if sme7.3 will install & run OK on that motherboard/system.

[raem]

Is anyone actually using the Intel DQ35JOE Q35 motherboard with sme7.3 ?

Thanks

[william_syd]

Ray,

Sometime back I tried to install the Centos 4 series on an Intel DG33FB MB.

The area of failure was the LAN. It required an updated e1000 driver. At the time CentOS 4.4 may of been the most recent release.

It appears this board and your proposed board use a similar LAN controller.

Intel® 82566DC Gigabit Ethernet Controller VS Intel® 82566DM Gigabit Ethernet Controller

Perhaps an area worth investigating.

 

[raem]

Dear All

I was able to do a test install of sme7.3 (CentOS4.6) to a machine using the Intel Intel DQ35JOE Q35 motherboard with 3 SATA drives installed and 4Gb RAM.
It stopped at the point of identifying PCI devices

I then added the kernel argument that I found on the Internet relating to this m/b when used with CentOS5.1
sme pci=nommconf
and the system started up fine.

I also had a PCI NIC Intel Pro 1000MT inserted, and both the onboard NIC (Intel) and the PCI NIC were identified correctly.

I was able to connect it in server only mode to a network and it was seen by other workstations and I could copy files to the server & open them OK.

I then did a fresh install with sme8.0beta1 and it installed fine. I deliberately stopped at the grub boot screen to add the kernel argument, but it was already there.
I then configured that machine as a server gateway and swapped NICs and both were able to be seen by the local network etc.

This motherboard appears to work quite OK with both sme7.3 and sme8.0beta1, without having done more extensive testing than mentioned above.