Re: VIA VT8237A Southbridge Advice

[Bruno Buys <bruno.grupos@gmail.com>]

Grok Mogger wrote:
> Bruno Buys wrote:
> > Grok Mogger wrote:
> > > Hey everyone,
> > >
> > > I'm looking into building a new machine.  As for the motherboard, 
> > > I'm interested in an ASUS 'A8V-VM SE'. Unfortunately, in Googling 
> > > I've seen people complain about problems with the board's 
> > > southbridge.  It's a 'VIA VT8237A'.
> > >
> > > I went to kernel.org and started looking through the change logs 
> > > wondering if perhaps I'd be able to find something about support 
> > > being added to the kernel for this chipset.  Lo and behold, I did!
> > >
> > > I searched this changelog...
> > > http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/ChangeLog-2.6.19
> > >
> > > And found the following two snippets that seem to indicate that 
> > > there is support in the kernel for this southbridge as of the 2.6.19 
> > > kernel.
> > >
> > > Snippet 1:
> > > ----------------------------------------------------
> > > Author: Rudolf Marek <r.marek@sh.cvut.cz>
> > > Date:   Sun Sep 3 22:35:21 2006 +0200
> > >
> > >     i2c-viapro: Add support for the VT8237A and VT8251
> > >
> > >     i2c-viapro: Add support for the VT8237A and VT8251
> > >
> > >     Documentation update included. Compile tested.
> > > ----------------------------------------------------
> > >
> > > Snippet 2:
> > > ----------------------------------------------------
> > > Author: Jay Cliburn <jacliburn@bellsouth.net>
> > > Date:   Mon Aug 7 22:08:30 2006 -0500
> > >
> > >     [PATCH] sata_via: Add SATA support for vt8237a
> > >
> > >     This patch adds support for the VIA Technologies VT8237A SATA 
> > > controller,
> > >     used, for example, on the ASUS M2V socket AM2 motherboard.
> > > ----------------------------------------------------
> > >
> > >
> > > Unfortunately, Debian uses the 2.6.18 kernel.  I'm somewhat lost 
> > > from here.  Does anyone have any advice for me?
> > >
> > > Even if I can add support for my Southbridge somehow, if the default 
> > > Debian kernels don't include support for my Southbridge, then I 
> > > won't be able to install Debian, right?  Because the installer won't 
> > > be able to write to my SATA hard disk.
> > >
> > > Anyway, I'm really clueless from here and would appreciate someone 
> > > pointing me in the right direction.  =)
> > >
> > > Thanks!
> > > - GM
> > Hi Grok,
> > Unless the *A brand of the chipset is a lot different, you shall not 
> > have any surprises. This is my lspci for it:
> >
> > 00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 ISA bridge 
> > [KT600/K8T800/K8T890 South]
> >
> >
> > The board is an Abit kv8-pro, for amd64, with amd64's etch, kernel 
> > 2.6.18-3-amd64 and a sata disk. Works nicely.
>
> Hey Bruno,
>
> Thanks for taking the time to read all that, I know it was a long 
> post.  =)
>
> Unfortunately, from my Googling, I'm under the impression that it IS a 
> very different chipset.  I could be wrong, but unfortunately I don't 
> have any way to find out.  (Maybe some nice person with a working 
> VT8237A Southbridge will find this and tell me it works?  =P   )
>
> Thanks for letting know about your board, processor, and chipset 
> though, that's definitely helpful.
>
> - GM
Trying a livecd is the way to go here. There's knoppix and kanotix which 
are debian based, might give you a good idea.

Compiling the kernel isn't really scary, there are debian packages to 
build kernels, did you see kernel-package, under 'apt-cache search'? But 
you can also compile from kernel.org sources, if you wish.