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eCS 2.2 on fanless Intel Atom Mini PC

Started by Sigurd, 2012.06.25, 14:01:22

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Sigurd

Hi,

I just build an eCS 2.2. Mini Multimedia PC and test it now. I wanted to have something very, very small (well not that rasperry... ;-) ) that comes totally fanless and noiseless.

I started with this hardware:

Motherboard:
http://www.intel.com/cd/products/services/emea/eng/motherboards/desktop/D2700MUD/overview/487677.htm

(There is also a wide range of similar boards with other features (e.G.: HDMI, Serial, two LAN or two MiniPCIe etc ...) available)

Chassis:
http://www.mini-box.com/Mini-Box-M350-Barebone-System

HDD:
http://ark.intel.com/products/67287/Intel-SSD-330-Series-%28120GB-SATA-6Gbs-25nm-MLC%29

Powersupply:
http://www.mini-box.com/s.nl/it.A/id.417/.f

and added my own

-> Intel WLAN 4965 Mini PCI Express Card
-> Cinergy USB Stick for Television
-> USB wireless keyboard and mouse
-> 4GB of RAM (2X2)

Once I assembeld everthing it looked like:

See first picture

(The Antennas for WLAN and TV will be assembled later :-) )


I closed the chassis and it looks like:

See second picture

I tried to install eCS 2.2., but it failed -> I had to (Thanks to Michael Holzapfel for the hints!)

- update BIOS (to avoid memory error 2)
- disable Legayc USB in BIOS
- do not choose and do not install OS2AHCI Driver
- use USB183 drivers from Lars Erdmann

even though - finally I had to put the SSD in a different PC and install eCS 2.2 there and putt it then back into the Mini PC.

But then it worked:

-> Sound supported
-> LAN Supported
-> VGA and DVI both supported (with Panorama, SNAP works but very slow)
-> WLAN Mini PCIe supported
-> USB supported (4X UHCI, 1 X EHCI)
-> Cinergy TV supported
-> 4 Kernel (2 + 2 Hyperthreading) Intel Atom 2,13 GHz CPU

-> Great!

See picture of the Hardwaremanager.

See picture 3

It does NOT get hot and is so quite that I had to take a closer look twice to get sure that it is really up and running :-)

Cheers






BigWarpGuy

That is so cool. Have thought of putting a 'skin' on it like the do with phones and other computers? Like the ones on Skinit. http://www.skinit.com Perhaps use a wallpaper as a skin? :)

Blonde Guy

Thanks Sigurd. I also got eCS and MCP running on a small machine...



http://www.10zig.com/thinclient/rbt416.php

This was with a 1 GB SSD that was so small the ide connector was almost 10 x larger than the disk.

Didn't try WiFi, but video, audio, ethernet and USB all working.
Expert Consulting for OS/2 and eComStation

Sigurd

#3
Some more information:

Regarding WLAN:
-> the driver for the Intel 4965 is succesfully loaded
but:
-> my first installation attempt was made on a different PC, therefore I added GENMAC manually once the HDD has been reassembled into the M350 chassis; the driver loads but installing and adding the XWLAN widget to ecenter prevents eCS to bring up the WPS - so block :-(

-> I started a native installation attempt again, before I copied the USBHCD183 drivers from Lars Erdman on a different Partition on the SSD in the M350, then
1. I had to enable USB Legacy in BIOS
2. started the installation from eCS CD
3. after the first reboot before I booted from CD again - not from HDD - went to managment console, and manually copied the USB drivers from that directory to the fresh c:\os2\boot
4. Rebooted again, entered BIOS and disabled USB Legayc
5. Rebooted and boot now from HDD to continue with the second phase of installation

This is recommend because otherwise the Original USB drivers from eCS 2.2 would lead to a boot stop and block aroaund usbres before continuing

All went well, Intel LAN and WLAN recognized, but after the second install phase completed and the system tried to boot it hangs a the same stage as before - while building the WPS with the small sandclock. :-(

This afternoon I will try to boot from CD once again, enter management console and delete the xwlan from the eCenter widgets directory. I hope this will bring up the WPS.

I wonder: In the "Whats new" file from eCS 2.1 there is written: fixed 1994: xwlan prevents from boot (or at least similar to this)

I hope to be able to use WLAN even though, may be with the "Standalone XWLAN program" instead of the widget.


aschn

Quote from: Sigurd on 2012.06.27, 10:19:03
installing and adding the XWLAN widget to ecenter prevents eCS to bring up the WPS

Have you tried to start eCenter delayed or manually?

Andreas

Sigurd

Hi,

yes, thanks, but it showed up as an interrupt problem. LAN WLAN USB3 - all three use IRQ16, deactivating LAN Driver does not help. I think I have to take a closer look at how to redirect IRQ with ACPI.

See picture.

rwklein

Quote from: Sigurd on 2012.06.27, 22:36:22
Hi,

yes, thanks, but it showed up as an interrupt problem. LAN WLAN USB3 - all three use IRQ16, deactivating LAN Driver does not help. I think I have to take a closer look at how to redirect IRQ with ACPI.

See picture.


As far as I know the new ACPI versions from David don't support reroute of an IRQ anymore. This feature either does not work anymore or is at least not recommended to be used anymore. I understood from David this IRQ re-route with ACPI is something that is not really with in line of the standards.

While we where told in the past that multiple devices on a single IRQ are not possible I have started to belief this is not true.
Both David and Steve Levine mentioned that this should not be a problem. And if there is a problem then something in a driver is going wrong.

In other words most IRQ re-route strategies introduced in the past where a workaround for the true cause of other problems.
As for SCSI cards that don't work in APIC mode that, for that we recommend you use the /VW switch. Which brings your system back to 15 IRQ's.

Roderick Klein
Mensys

Michaelhz

.. ah, thats why the amous.sys hangs are back with the latest acpi. The mouse pointer does not react somtimes, when heavy data traffic runs through network card. Hardware Manager tells me they run on the same IRQ. According to your statement, eitehr the amouse.sys or the r6169 are defect.

guzzi

Quote from: Michaelhz on 2012.07.01, 22:04:20
.. ah, thats why the amous.sys hangs are back with the latest acpi. The mouse pointer does not react somtimes, when heavy data traffic runs through network card. Hardware Manager tells me they run on the same IRQ. According to your statement, eitehr the amouse.sys or the r6169 are defect.

I have a shared IRQ between the network card and USB. Writing to usb disks will periodically freeze the system. According to Lars Erdmann this might be a problem with the network card driver (genmac).

Sigurd

Quote from: rwklein on 2012.07.01, 17:05:43
Quote from: Sigurd on 2012.06.27, 22:36:22
Hi,

yes, thanks, but it showed up as an interrupt problem. LAN WLAN USB3 - all three use IRQ16, deactivating LAN Driver does not help. I think I have to take a closer look at how to redirect IRQ with ACPI.

See picture.


As far as I know the new ACPI versions from David don't support reroute of an IRQ anymore. This feature either does not work anymore or is at least not recommended to be used anymore. I understood from David this IRQ re-route with ACPI is something that is not really with in line of the standards.

While we where told in the past that multiple devices on a single IRQ are not possible I have started to belief this is not true.
Both David and Steve Levine mentioned that this should not be a problem. And if there is a problem then something in a driver is going wrong.

In other words most IRQ re-route strategies introduced in the past where a workaround for the true cause of other problems.
As for SCSI cards that don't work in APIC mode that, for that we recommend you use the /VW switch. Which brings your system back to 15 IRQ's.

Roderick Klein
Mensys

Hi,

thanks for the words. If this is going to be true (ACPI Support is getting better as a result GENMAC fails) then problems will raise while there is no support for WLAN anymore. :-(

Well, because of this problems with the Intel ITX board I already replaced it with this one here:

http://www.zotacusa.com/zotac-ion-itx-s-series-ionitx-s-e.html

It does come with the following advantages over the IntelMUD2700 board:

- No USB Problems anymore with the "Legacy Mode"
- No need for BIOS Update
- WLAN antennas already there (replaced the onboard one - Azurwave - with the Intel 3945)
- Use of SNAP in VESA mode possible (but see below) because of Nvidia ION chipset (Panorama still has this annoying colour palette bug with SDL applications e.g. SCUMMVM that would force me to use 64K and not 16M colour)
- HDMI output
- 2 X USB 3.0 (for future compatibility) alongside 6 X USB 2.0

Experience so far:

- more diffcult to install the hardware inside the chassis (problems in the "Powersupply/Frontpanel area) but possible
- easier install of OS ecause of no USB Legacy Problem
- Realtek 111 LAN Adapter instead of Intel LAN adapter, supported by new mensys driver (at least loads, could not test connection so far)
- in SNAP or Panorama -> both videoperformance poor.... (if I can not solve this it is really a showstopper)
- xwlan.dll in c:\ecs\system\ewps\plugins\xcenter still leads to a crash; WLAN card uses IRQ 17 (not shared) now, but seems to lead to a crash still
- due to the ION chipset (I guess) this board gets a bit more hot

-> I will test ist with eCS 2.1 and ACPI 3.18 and other possible combinations.

Sigurd

Well, I really really after all this years with hardwareexperience should have known better.... :P

The ZOTAC Board turned out to be a complete disaster. It is getting to hot by far, BIOS showed 75° Celsius after half an hour using and I fear to burn up all the other components and the mainboard. In addition I was not able to get SNAP nor Panorama to get usable with the graphic chipset NVidia ION, both very poor.

And yes, the same problems with the WLAN Adapter as with the IntelMUD Board. I wonder if it may be a problem of the WLAN Adapters itself. The first I used (Intel 4965 and 3945) have been IBM branded (I used them with succes with the Lenovo X200T) and I tried a Dell one as well - the Dell Intel 3945 is not even recognized by GENMAC (fails to load).

So my guess with the ACPI was wrong as well, I did test eCS 2.1 with ACPI 3.18 that made no difference regarding WLAN. Sorry for this.

Lantran.log with the IBM ones on the ZOTAC showed:

IBM OS/2 LANMSGDD [07/21/04] 6.00 ist geladen und betriebsbereit.
IBM OS/2 TCPBEUI 6.00.0
TCPBEUI: Verwendung eines 32-Bit-Datensegments.
NETWKSTA.200-Version 6.0. IBM LAN Redirector ( Mar 23, 2004) wird installiert.

IBM OS/2 NETBIOS 4.0
Fr NETBIOS-Anwendungen stehen an Adapter 0 123 NCBs, 96 Sitzungen und 6 Namen zur Verfgung.
Fr NETBIOS-Anwendungen stehen an Adapter 1 123 NCBs, 96 Sitzungen und 6 Namen zur Verfgung.
NETBIOS 4.0 ist geladen und betriebsbereit.
IBM LANVDD ist geladen und funktionsf,,hig.
IBM OS/2 LAN Netbind
WRND32$  bound to  "TCPIP_NIF".
WRND32$  WRAPPER for bus: 2 slot: 0 Vendor: 0x8086 Device: 0x4227.
WRND32$  load SYS: "NETW3X32.SYS" length: 1783936 CRC: 0x0ce2 / 0x1005.
WRND32$  load INF: "NETW3X32.REG" length: 1829.
WRND32$  WRAPPER NDIS_ERROR OUT_OF_RESOURCE.
WRND32$  WRAPPER hardware initerror: 0xc000009a.
WRND32$  WRAPPER init ERROR!.
PRO0021: Als das Programm versucht hat, eine Bindung zwischen TCPIP_NIF und W8086X4227_NIF herzustellen, ist ein allgemeiner Fehler aufgetreten.
TCPBEUI: Logischer Adapter 0 versucht, eine Bindung an TCP/IP-Schnittstelle lan0 herzustellen.
TCPBEUI: Logischer Adapter 1 versucht, eine Bindung an TCP/IP-Schnittstelle lan1 herzustellen.
LT00141: Beim Initialisieren von TCPBEUI sind Fehler aufgetreten.


So I will return the ZOTAC tomorrow and fall back to the Intel for further testing and investigation.

Cheers  ::)

Sigurd

After returning to the Intel2700MUD and using the Dell 3945 Intel card I now get the driver loaded and visible in xwlan, no more crashes! So it seems to be a problem with the IBM branded WLAN cards, strange, but may be the are locked, similar to the Lenovo Thinkpad BIOS that prevent using other than IBM/Lenovo adapters via black/white List.

But I can not see a network - scan without result... It seems to me to have had this problems for a thousand times now but still get not managed to solve/control them.

Hints are really appreciated (even if you might think "He ought to know this!") - thank you very much!

Lantrag.log seems to be fine:, and WRND32.log as well - please do see attachments.


To make things more visible I add some screenshots (really a neat MiniPC so far   :D   )





melf

Hi Sigurd, you are really persistent -  and it's nice to see :-) . When I was experimenting with my Acer One I exchanged the inbuilt Atheros card against an Intel 3945. To make that work properly I had to use the values from an XP reg. dump and put in the netw3x32.reg. I don't know if you have the possibilities or if you already have tried - just a shot in the dark. Good luck!

I see that the reg-file I used is still here: http://ecomstation.ru/temp/200902/netw3x32.reg , if you want to try. I guess it's unlikely that i suits your setting but one never knows!
/Mikael

Sigurd

Hi Melf,

thanks! Well, unfortunately still the same. With xWlan there are no hotspots visible (there are at least 4 different WLAN around where i live..), using the "scan.exe" from the genmac 2.2 installation shows the Adapter but mentions: DISCONNECTED

In xWLAN I choosed the WPA2 key and entered it, as well I used a fix IP address and entered the SSID and the IP of the WLAN Router as well.

Can someone please point me to the right place where to get/read information about similar problems and possibly find a solution?

Thanks again!

Sigurd


Andi

Quote from: Sigurd on 2012.07.05, 15:54:32
...
Can someone please point me to the right place where to get/read information about similar problems and possibly find a solution?

http://news.gmane.org/gmane.org.netlabs.genmac.user comes to mind but you already know this list. Just in case you've forgotten ....