Asus A85XM-A - Level 1 Tested

[lewcass]

"EXECUTIVE" SUMMARY

 

The big plus with this board for unRAID use is that it provides eight - 6gbps SATA ports. It also offers integrated video (with a supporting APU).

 

After more than a month of testing, it has proven to be completely stable running unRAID 5.x, except for issues with S3 sleep that have been resolved with workarounds, and which may possibly be completely eliminated with future releases of unRAID.

 

1. unRAID is not able to properly access the flash drive following waking from S3 sleep, unless the unRAID flash drive is plugged into the motherboard's rear ports. The issue only occurs with the flash drive connected to the internal ports, both USB2.0 and USB3.0.

 

2. Regaining video output from the motherboard following waking from S3 sleep requires use of the add-on app s2ram.

 

/boot/custom/bin/s2ram -f -p -m -v
or
/boot/custom/bin/s2ram -f -p -m

 

I would not be surprised if both of these issues are related to the age of the kernel used in 32bit unRAID 5.x (which I suspect may not fully support the chip set on this motherboard) and that both issues might be resolved when 64bit unRAID, based on an up to date linux distribution, eventually becomes available.

 

In any case the issues only affect users running unRAID with S3 sleep and with a monitor connected to the server, and they can be dealt with successfully as described. Otherwise I have experienced no problems caused by this board.

 

 

DETAIL INCLUDING RESOLVED MISCONSTRUED NON-ISSUES

 

After upgrading my basic server to unRAID 5.0.1 I began re-experiencing some instability maintaining a gigabit LAN connection, so I figured it was well past time to replace my nearly 7 year-old re-purposed motherboard with something more energy efficient and future-proof. This time I almost went with an Intel based Asrock B75M R2.0 but then I saw the A85XM-A with a $15 manufacturer's MIR, and that it has eight - 6Gbps SATA ports, and decided it was better deal overall for the long run.

 

I found the A85XM-A to be a nice enough and it appears to work well with unRAID. Unfortunately I still had trouble establishing my gigabit LAN connection, even after swapping cables and throwing in an Intel PCI express NIC, though that did work better than the on-board Realtek NIC. So I guess a new gigabit switch may be in order for me, though the 3Com switch I have never fails to connect at 1 gigabit to the other two switches it is linked to, and if I power it off/on it will always connect instantly to the unRAID box at 1 Gb, so it's a bit perplexing.

 

One concrete drawback (which wouldn't apply for unRAID running headless or not using S3 / WOL) is that this board's BIOS does not include a repost video on S3 resume capability, so I had to spend time playing around with S2RAM as a workaround.

 

/boot/custom/bin/s2ram -f -p -m -v

Edit I believe I also had it working with just -f -p -m before I installed the Intel nic, but -v is needed to keep the pci express nic from shutting off.

 

Otherwise, based on my experience so far, I believe this board is worthy of consideration by other unRAID users.

 

NAS Hardware currently running unRAID Basic 5.0.2-rc-i386

 

Motherboard: Asus A85XM-A

BIOS: 6.401

Socket: AMD Socket FM2

Chipset: AMD A85X FCH (Hudson D4)

Onboard NIC: Realtek 8111F

8 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s), gray

4 x USB 3.0 port(s) (2 at back panel, , 2 at mid-board)

6 x USB 2.0 port(s) (2 at back panel, , 4 at mid-board)

Integrated AMD Radeon™ HD 7000/8000 Series Graphics in A-series APU (requires CPU/APU w/ integrated GPU)

Processor: AMD A4-4000 Richland 3.2GHz Socket FM2 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor

RAM: G.SKILL NS 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666)

Parity: 1 X 2TB HITACHI Deskstar 7K3000 HDS723020BLA642,

Storage: 1 X 2TB HITACHI Deskstar 5K3000 HDS5C3020ALA632 LA642, 1 X 1 TB Caviar Black WD1001FALS

 

PSU: Corsair 600w

Case: Antec 200 w/ two added 120mm intake fans

 

Power consumption (per APC UPS)

Parity check: 45 W

Idle, drives spinning: 36 W

Idle, drives spun down: 18 W

 

Edit 2013-11-16

 

I think I have a handle on the gigabit LAN issue. Based on previous experience with my old M8R32MVP board (which I had forgotten about, until I read my own old post!  ) I tried moving the unRAID flash drive from the rear port (USB 3.0) where I had it to a motherboard port (USB 2.0). So far no more issue connecting at 1 gigabit (with the Intel NIC) at boot or when waking. I have no idea why using the rear port would cause a problem, but perhaps there is some interference with the flash drive near the LAN port, or maybe it's something weird with these ATI/AMD chipsets.

 

Anyway, when I get a chance I'll try the onboard Realtek NIC again and also see if bonding works, since I have the Intel NIC installed.

 

Also, IIRC I'm supposed to include a syslog when reporting a level completion, but I forgot to capture one after my first two parity checks with the board. I'll try to remember to do so next time.

 

Edit 2013-11-17

 

Still no success getting a gigabit connection with the onboard Realtek NIC when booting or waking. Moving the flash drive didn't help there. I can still reliably obtain a 1 Gbps connection by power cycling the switch, but not automatically. Forcing with ethtool -s eth0 speed 1000 never works either. So unless someone else duplicates the problem I'm going to presume its a compatibility issue with the switch, and one of these days I guess I'll pick up a new one.

 

I was able to get bonding to work, but there's not much point with one NIC limited to 100 Mbps.

 

Edit 2013-11-18

 

Attached syslog.

 

Edit 2013-11-22

 

I replaced my switch and this appears to have completely resolved the gigabit LAN issues at boot and wake. Now the on-board Realtek nic consistently works as it should as does the PCI express Intel nic. Neither of them are degraded now when the USB flash drive is connected to rear ports. NIC bonding also works fine with both nics at 1000 mbps.

 

The new switch is the inexpensive and well-reviewed TP-Link SG108. It meets IEEE 802.3u and 802.3ab standards while the old 3Com switch is just 802.3 compliant. Possibly that is the difference maker or perhaps the old switch was just failing.

 

At this point it looks like I've successfully addressed all the glitches I've experienced with this motherboard. Time to just let it run!

 

Edit 2013-12-15

 

I found another glitch. I'd been running with the unRAID flash drive (ADATA S102 / 8 GB USB3.0) in the rear USB port, with no problem. Earlier however I had experimented with it running off the mother board internal USB2.0 ports and  experienced problems writing to the flash drive via both Windows 7 and FTP. So I ordered a USB3.0 port to drive adapter to try running off the board's internal USB3.0 port. That worked OK, until the system was put to S3 sleep and reawakened, at which point unRAID appeared to be unable to access the flash drive at all.

 

What I'm beginning to suspect is that the kernel included with unRAID 5.x (currently 5.0.4) does not fully support the chip set on this motherboard. This is only conjecture, since virtually everything I may or may not understand about Linux is based only on what I have read on this forum. But from following the discussions around unRAID 64bit, it sounds to me like the kernel used for unRAID 5.x is quite obsolete. I've also read elsewhere that s2ram should no longer be needed with an up to date kernel that properly supports S3 sleep.

syslog-2013-11-181_parity_check.txt

[Vocatus]

Just bought this motherboard, CPU and RAM combo based on your post. Thanks very much for reporting your findings.

 

My old P5GZ-MX motherboard died on me today and I was scrambling to find a replacement, but feeling uncomfortable just buying new kit because I haven't been keeping up with the forums and current "best practice" builds, so your post was invaluable. Thanks again.

[lewcass]

Glad my post was helpful. I think I may have resolved the gigabit LAN issue too. See my edit to the top post.

 

Also I don't see the RAM I used on the official Asus recommendation for this board. (I forgot to check before ordering.) But it works fine just the same.

 

 

[lewcass]

A new switch has cured all the gigabit LAN issues.   See top post edit.

 

The motherboard was not the issue. So now I can say I am 98% happy with it. The lack of repost video on S3 resume is the only drawback and that is addressable with a little work.

[garycase]

The lack of repost video on S3 resume is the only drawback and that is addressable with a little work.

 

Can you outline what you had to do to force the video to work after a wakeup?  (Or is there a link to a thread on this?)

 

[lewcass]

The lack of repost video on S3 resume is the only drawback and that is addressable with a little work.

 

Can you outline what you had to do to force the video to work after a wakeup?  (Or is there a link to a thread on this?)

 

I use the s2ram app with the parameters noted in the top post. A search of the forum should locate more info about s2ram including links to download it as well as the libx86 package that needs to be installed (in /extra) to support s2ram.

 

Edit I should mention that the s2ram parameters that are necessary for this board do not actually restore the console screen contents on rewake but they do reenable it for use (following a manual press of Return).

[garycase]

Thanks for the tips => not sure if I'll actually do that, but it's intriguing that you have S3 working so well with UnRAID.

 

[lewcass]

Found another glitch. This time with lack of support for S3 sleep when running the unRAID flash drive off the internal USB ports. Still working fine using the the rear USB ports. Details in the edited top post. I'm beginning to suspect both of the S3 issues encountered are related to lack of support for the board's chip set in the current unRAID kernel. Fortunately there are workarounds.