Asus X99 Deluxe & Linux

[icrf]

Does anyone have any information as to whether or not the Asus X99 Deluxe board has decent support in Linux? I asked Asus support, and they said no, which just means they don't want it to be their responsibility. My concerns, in no particular order:

1. Booting. There's a Phoronix post that has them running X99 in Linux on a Gigabyte board, which I assume means that X99 in general doesn't have any problems booting Linux. Is there anything motherboard-specific that could inhibit booting?
2. Drivers. I'm assuming from the above that the X99 chipset's SATA and USB ports are usable.
   
   LAN1: Intel I218V (yes)
   LAN2: Intel I211-AT (yes)
   WLAN: Speedy Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac (probably, actual chipset is a Broadcom BCM94360HMB which contains a BCM4360 which should be supported)
   Audio: Realtek ALC1150 (yes)
   SATA: ASMedia 106SE (yes, AHCI-only)
   USB: ASMedia 1042AE (probably, this lists support for the 1042A)​
3. Overclocking. I assume there's no issue doing it the old fashioned way and going into the BIOS on boot and changing settings (aside: do you still call it a BIOS if it's UEFI?). If it were running Windows, the Asus utility would let all manner of changes without rebooting. Is there any support for something like that in Linux? I would like to leave it on some quiet/lower power profile most of the time, but if I have a big encoding job, overclock it temporarily. Rebooting would be a pain.

Any input or opinions? Think of anything I'm missing? I'm likely to run Ubuntu Server on there, or some other Debian-like distribution. It's mostly going to be a file server / encoding box, but I'll probably toy with seeing if I can put a Windows VM on it and also use it as a desktop. GPU pass-through sounds like it works with AMD cards, but that's for another post.

 

[Johan_V]

Working fine with Linux. Only problem is the sensor chip, as the fan control or monitoring from Linux is not working. However, the bios does the job just fine.

For overclocking, the bios is the best way. Asus utility is quite buggy currently. I don't understand why you would need to change overclocking profiles, you can use adaptive voltage to overclock; increased voltage is only used when required.

 

[icrf]

So the wireless works? I just found out the chipset is actually a Broadcom BCM94360HMB, and I'm not finding anything specific about linux support for it.

edit: I did find a page that said while that's the chipset itself, the chip is a BCM4360, and other posts make it sound like that works just fine.

 

[Johan_V]

I did forget the wireless, because I don't use it. lspci gives

Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4360 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter (rev 03)
        Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device 8659
        Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
        Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
        Latency: 0
        Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 10
        Region 0: Memory at fb400000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=32K]
        Region 2: Memory at fb200000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=2M]
        Capabilities: [48] Power Management version 3
                Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1+ D2+ AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0+,D1+,D2+,D3hot+,D3cold+)
                Status: D0 NoSoftRst+ PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=2 PME-
        Capabilities: [58] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
                Address: 0000000000000000  Data: 0000
        Capabilities: [68] Vendor Specific Information: Len=44 <?>
        Capabilities: [ac] Express (v2) Endpoint, MSI 00
                DevCap: MaxPayload 256 bytes, PhantFunc 0, Latency L0s <4us, L1 unlimited
                        ExtTag- AttnBtn- AttnInd- PwrInd- RBE+ FLReset-
                DevCtl: Report errors: Correctable- Non-Fatal- Fatal- Unsupported-
                        RlxdOrd- ExtTag- PhantFunc- AuxPwr+ NoSnoop+
                        MaxPayload 128 bytes, MaxReadReq 512 bytes
                DevSta: CorrErr- UncorrErr- FatalErr- UnsuppReq- AuxPwr+ TransPend-
                LnkCap: Port #0, Speed 2.5GT/s, Width x1, ASPM L0s L1, Exit Latency L0s <2us, L1 <32us
                        ClockPM+ Surprise- LLActRep- BwNot-
                LnkCtl: ASPM Disabled; RCB 64 bytes Disabled- CommClk+
                        ExtSynch- ClockPM- AutWidDis- BWInt- AutBWInt-
                LnkSta: Speed 2.5GT/s, Width x1, TrErr- Train- SlotClk+ DLActive- BWMgmt- ABWMgmt-
                DevCap2: Completion Timeout: Range ABCD, TimeoutDis+, LTR+, OBFF Via WAKE#
                DevCtl2: Completion Timeout: 50us to 50ms, TimeoutDis-, LTR-, OBFF Disabled
                LnkCtl2: Target Link Speed: 2.5GT/s, EnterCompliance- SpeedDis-
                         Transmit Margin: Normal Operating Range, EnterModifiedCompliance- ComplianceSOS-
                         Compliance De-emphasis: -6dB
                LnkSta2: Current De-emphasis Level: -3.5dB, EqualizationComplete-, EqualizationPhase1-
                         EqualizationPhase2-, EqualizationPhase3-, LinkEqualizationRequest-
        Capabilities: [100 v1] Advanced Error Reporting
                UESta:  DLP- SDES- TLP- FCP- CmpltTO- CmpltAbrt- UnxCmplt- RxOF- MalfTLP- ECRC- UnsupReq- ACSViol-
                UEMsk:  DLP- SDES- TLP- FCP- CmpltTO- CmpltAbrt- UnxCmplt- RxOF- MalfTLP- ECRC- UnsupReq- ACSViol-
                UESvrt: DLP+ SDES+ TLP- FCP+ CmpltTO- CmpltAbrt- UnxCmplt- RxOF+ MalfTLP+ ECRC- UnsupReq- ACSViol-
                CESta:  RxErr- BadTLP- BadDLLP- Rollover- Timeout- NonFatalErr-
                CEMsk:  RxErr- BadTLP- BadDLLP- Rollover- Timeout- NonFatalErr+
                AERCap: First Error Pointer: 00, GenCap+ CGenEn- ChkCap+ ChkEn-
        Capabilities: [13c v1] Device Serial Number 00-00-00-ff-ff-00-00-01
        Capabilities: [150 v1] Power Budgeting <?>
        Capabilities: [160 v1] Virtual Channel
                Caps:   LPEVC=0 RefClk=100ns PATEntryBits=1
                Arb:    Fixed- WRR32- WRR64- WRR128-
                Ctrl:   ArbSelect=Fixed
                Status: InProgress-
                VC0:    Caps:   PATOffset=00 MaxTimeSlots=1 RejSnoopTrans-
                        Arb:    Fixed- WRR32- WRR64- WRR128- TWRR128- WRR256-
                        Ctrl:   Enable+ ID=0 ArbSelect=Fixed TC/VC=01
                        Status: NegoPending- InProgress-
        Capabilities: [1b0 v1] Latency Tolerance Reporting
                Max snoop latency: 0ns
                Max no snoop latency: 0ns
        Capabilities: [220 v1] #15

 

[icrf]

Thanks for the input. Good confirmation that it's a 4360 and should work.

I don't normally use wireless, but for now, I haven't wired things together in my new house, so I'll be on wifi for the foreseeable future. I'm one of those lucky Chattanooga guys with "mere" 100 Mbps symmetrical fiber trying to convince myself to spend the extra $12/mo to go gigabit.

I think I'm just down to deciding what memory to buy. Ian should be posting a DDR4 review on the main site in the next few weeks. I'm curious what kind of benefit speed/latency changes have on x264. I'm also wondering whether it's particularly bad to only populate two memory channels right now and go 2x8GB instead of 4x4GB. I may do a lot of virtualization on here and want gobs of memory in the future, when prices come down to levels I don't feel violated buying.