DFI Lanparty and Blood Iron looking for more information

Quebot · April 11, 2008

I'm looking for a board with the following characteristics

1) Relatively small

2) Can take 8GB of memory

3) Can overclock a Q6600

4) Highest level of compatibility "out of the box"

The ability to use the newer Intel Quads as their prices drop is a plus.

I've heard a lot of people recommending the DFI Blood Iron and the bigger brother board the Lanparty. What i haven't seen are many technical discussions as to what works and what doesnt. installation methods, working kernels and needed drivers.

So I was wondering if people that had these boards could comment on the installation process and any gotya's they might have found. My understanding is that the Blood Iron is a smaller board that lacks Firewire and the Lanparty has FW but uses an unsupported audio card. Anybody know for sure?

Lanparty

----------

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813136043

Blood Iron

------------

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813136038

jaez · May 1, 2008

MY DUAL BOOT "XP OS X" DREAM MACHINE.

MB: LP UT P35 T2R @bios(08/23/07)

CPU: Intel Q6600 2.4GHz G0

CPU Heat Sink: ThermalRight Ultra-120E

CPU Heat Sink Fan: Scythe S-Flex 1600 rpm SFF21F

Thermal Paste: Arctic Silver 5

RAM: 2 x 1GB CB Tracer 800MHz PC2-6400

CASE: Antec 900 + another Scythe S-Flex SFF21F(side door fan)

PSU: PC Power & Cooling 750 W Quad Silencer

OPTICAL DR--"ON JMB YELLOW SATA CONNECTOR": Poineer DVR-212D SATA

FLOPPY: NEC FDD FD1231H-302

HARD DRIVE 1: Western Digital 250 GB 7200 rpm WD2500KS SATA II (SE)

HARD DRIVE 2: Western Digital 500 GB 7200 rpm WD5000AAKS SATA II

GRAPHICS CARD: Sapphire Radeon 9250 128MB DDR 64-bit DVI PCI

KB: PFU HHKB Kite2 PD-KB200B/U , with 2 x BELKIN F3U134VFLEX (similar to Cables to Go FLEXUSB Adapter)

MOUSE: Microsoft Wireless Notebook Optical 3000 , BX3-00010

MONITOR: Samsung 17" SyncMaster 740B DVI/VGA LS17HABTBV/XAA

OS:

[HD1-"ON JMB YELLOW SATA CONNECTOR"]:Windows XP SP2/NTLDR+boot.ini/chain0

[HD2-"ON JMB GREEN SATA CONNECTOR"]:MBR/Mac OS X 10.5.2 Leopard

This DFI board has many possibilities. But, for a working OSX note that

there are 8 SATA connectors on the board 6 GREEN and 2 YELLOW. The 2

YELLOW connectors are for the JMB SATA which emulates PATA to the OS

and allows the OPTICAL DVD drives to boot ! After installing OS X a

check with DISK UTILITY shows these using ATA. They are SATA drives!

These are SATA Cables ! Yet, OS X thinks they are ATA !.

That's why this board works out of the box. But, only if you plug in

the drives to the right connectors. Optical Drive on Yellow SATA connector

enables boot and OS install without a hitch. MB BIOS must be set to

"Native IDE", which is default setting from factory anyway.

Some quirks and strange things:

1.. this dream machine was originally set up to run Windows XP SP2.

So, on HD1 we have three partitions, C:, D:, E:. From long experience

with Windows, I like to set things up this way. Keep D:,E: for various

data that I never have to reinstall. If Windows on C: needs to be

reinstalled, all data on D: and E: remain untouched...etc..

anyway this is about OS X,

when I read that my DFI board was good for OS X too, I decided to see

for myself. I didn't want to mess with my perfect Windows XP setup, I

like to keep the fewest variables so I can isolate any problems easily,

therefore I got another HD, a WD 500 GB SATA II, to experiment with.

First thing to note.

Kal's OS X 10.5.2 boots from DVD just fine, when Windows XP is on HD1

and HD1 is on JMB YELLOW SATA Connector. I get to the Leopard Install

GUI screen and can select options to install etc..

However, when I replace the 250 GB HD which has XP SP2, with the new

blank unformatted/unpartitioned 500 GB HD connected to the same

JMB YELLOW SATA connector, and

power up the system, the DVD begins to boot and Darwin "hangs" with

message, can't find "com.apple.boot.plist" !

Wierd ! Kal's DVD only boots into the Leopard GUI when the HD1 with

Windows XP is plugged in. I haven't figured out why this is so.

I took out the Windows Drive because I didn't want to make a mistake

or have something with the unknown OS X DVD accidentally write to my

Windows Drive. I was playing safe, with these unknowns.

Ok. So, I switch HDs back, and put back in my Windows Drive. I plug

the 500 GB into a GREEN SATA connector. So, now I have 2 HD in my system.

Boot to Windows to check all's well again,

and then reboot with the OS X disc in DVD drive.

Boots into the Leopard GUI ok.

I Select "Disk Utility" (DU) from the Leopard GUI and partition the

500 GB drive into 4 parts. 150:150:100:100. Since the 500 GB

drive is really 465 GB, this is something like 139:139:93:93

when entering fields in DU. Then, I make the 1st partition

HFS Extended (Journaled), and the other three HFS Extended

without the Journaled..no "case sensitive." I label the 1st

partition "MAC OS X", and leave the others untitled.

Then, I install Leopard into the 1st partition, and reboot

into Windows.

Almost impossible to remove the DVD from the Drive using eject

button, when Leopard's DVD is in there, but entering BIOS and

making HD1 boot first solves that problem.

In Windows I edit boot.ini to add the usual chain0 and reboot

to see two choices "Windows XP" or "MAC OS X", selecting the

latter gets me into Darwin's boot and into Leopard on the 1st

partition of HD2. All's well, and many things work right away.

I can surf the web, so networking works, screen looks good and

snappy, but it's 1024x768 mode, so I reboot and make the

recommended change, hit key to interrupt Darwin's boot process

and at boot: type

-x "Graphics Mode"="1280x1024x32"

hit enter and on my way again, Leopard boots into 1280x1024

mode. Things are looking even better. However, I install my

favorite X-Windows Editor and the system goes into a maddening

perpetual crash loop cycle that I can't seem to interrupt,

so reboot again, using another recommendation, I select

"spotlight" at screen upper left type "terminal" to open

a terminal session then at terminal prompt I type x,

get some message about unsupported color depth, which

to fix I type, ( ":" is my terminal prompt )

: defaults write org.x.X11 depth 24

then again type x to see,

: x

Xquartz starting:

X.org Release 7.2

X.Org X Server 1.3.0-apple15

Build Date: 20080413

Could not init font path element /System/Library/Fonts, removing from list!

I ignore the "init font path" problem and exit terminal.

My X-Windows Editor now works fine. Yeh!

I can actually type in stuff and use this beast.

My Graphics card gets id'ed as "Radeon 9200 16MB VESA 2.0"

at Darwin's boot screen,

even though it's "Radeon 9250 128MB" etc..but I'm amazed that

this relatively "cheap" graphics card works in OS X. By the

time Leopard fully boots up, however, somehow the OS has

figured out it's got 128 MB, system profiler shows.

Anyway, every time I boot, it goes to 1024x768 unless I

interrupt the process with the "Graphics Mode"= thing, so

to make this permanent I login as su and use nano to edit

/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist

so it reads,

: cat com.apple.Boot.plist

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">

<dict>

<key>Kernel</key>

<string>mach_kernel</string>

<key>Kernel Flags</key>

<key>Graphics Mode</key>

<key>Timeout</key>

</dict>

</plist>

then rebooting always gets OS X into 1280x1024 mode automatically.

Now I can see all my "Windows XP NTFS" partitions, i.e. C:, D:, E:,

when I'm in Mac OS X boot sessions, but I'd like to see MAC's HFS+

partitions when in Windows too, so installing "Mediafour MacDrive 7.0.10"

under Windows XP does the trick, and all drives are accessible during

either OS boot session.

Well, some things don't work yet in OS X, out of the box. Audio doesn't work,

there's a patch aparently for the Realtek ALC 885 that comes with the DFI

motherboard, but I haven't had time to look that up. Most of my time is

spent in Windows, I was just curious about this MAC OS X thing. So, not

only can Apple put "Microsoft Windows" on their hardware, but Windows Hardware

can now run "Apple OS X". I think that's neat. Only, I think that Apple

is putting more effort into getting Windows to work on their hardware,

than they are putting into enabling Mac OS to run on Windows hardware.

Maybe because they are mainly a hardware co., that determines their focus.

In OS X, when I check my graphics card for QE/CI support, I get

CI = Software

QE = Not Supported

So, I guess CI is emulated in software, and QE is just not available. This

is strange, since scrunging around the web reveals that the Radeon 9250

for MAC has Quartx Extreme, go figure...this is all new to me.

PascalP · May 1, 2008

I got the Blood Iron.

All working fine with Leo4Allv2. LAN and audio needs patching, though. Skge kext and AppleHDAPatcher will do the job.

Don't forget to update to the newest BIOS. If you don't, the board is highly unstable and won't let you into the bios setup from time to time.

jaez · May 2, 2008

Got Sound!

First we get the Vendor Id and Device Id for the installed Sound Device from Windows XP, navigate to:

|Realtek High Definition Audio Properties|Details|Device Instance Id|

HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_10EC&DEV_0885&SUBSYS_15BD3112&REV_1001\4&8E63178&0&0201

*****************

this gives;

VEN_10EC

DEV_0885

so,

Vendor Id: 10EC

Device Id: 0885

then,

Dowloaded Live Unix "KNOPPIX_V5.3.1DVD-2008-03-26-EN.iso" burned to DVD,

booted this, stuck a USB Flash Drive into my box, shows up /dev/sdc1

with priviliges "-rw-r-r-", only root can write, so opened terminal window,

su to become root, found /dev/sdc1 mounted /media/sdc1, and dumped codex to text

file on Flash drive with

: cat /proc/asound/Intel/codex#2 > /media/sdc1/ALC885.txt

[tried other Knoppix 5.1.1 Live CD which didn't have sound, no /proc/asound

dir etc..but the Knoppix 5.3.1 dvd works great, detects everthing in my

DFI mb right away: sound, internet, all working in this version of Knoppix !

Didn't want to try writing to my HD, just in case, so used Flash Drive instead.]

Checked the "ALC885.txt" codex file, which reads;

Codec: Realtek ALC885

Address: 2

Vendor Id: 0x10ec0885

Subsystem Id: 0x15bd3112

Revision Id: 0x100101

.

so Vendor Id in codex is combination of the same 10EC and 0885 from Windows XP.

And all looks well.

Next boot OS X, and backup AppleHDA.kext, just in case:

in terminal,

su

cd /

mkdir backups

mkdir /backups/System

mkdir /backups/System/Library/

mkdir /backups/System/Library/Extensions

cp -R /System/Library/Extensions/AppleHDA.kext /backups/System/Library/Extensions

exit terminal.

Copy from Windows drive to Mac drive:

ALC885.txt

AppleHDAPatcherv1.20.zip

unzip with Stuffit Expander, and drag "ALC885.txt" over Taruga's AppleHDAPatcher

app Icon to patch. Patcher reports:

AppleHDA Patcher - 2006/2007 by Taruga v1.20

* Patching AppleHDA.kext to 0x10ec0885 Done

* Checking AppleHDA for patch Done

0001f4a0 cmpl $0x10ec0885,%eax

00020584 cmpl $0x10ec0885,%eax

* Checking for SPDIF Out Detected

* Checking for SPDIF In Detected

* Using the following nodes in pathmap

Back Mic: 9 34 24

Line In : 8 35 26

Speaker : 20 12 2

LineOut 1: 21 13 3

Headphone: 27 38 37

Spdif In : 10 31

Spdif Out: 30 6

* Copying new config to destination Done

* AppleAzalliaAudio detected

* Removed Done

* Repairing Permissions Done

* Deleting Extensions Cache Done

** Done patching - You can reboot now **

I read some website that suggested, after kext modification, to delete cache

and repair permissions with cmds:

sudo rm -r /System/Library/Extensions.mkext

diskutil repairPermissions /

But it seems that Tarura's AppleHDAPatcher 1.20 does these cmds automatically

at the end of the patch, except in reverse order. So, I just reboot.

In OS X, using spotlight, enter "sound" to pull up sound panel, select "Output"

and "Headphones," to check the plugged in headphones etc..Then check a favorite .mp3

file with iTunes,

we have sound!

Well, only headphones checked. Don't have mic, nor speaker system attached to i/o

ports to check with. But, Headphone works great!

===

Quirk in using HHKB Lite2 keyboard with DFI LP UT P35 T2R.

Since this KB doesn't have a numeric keypad, need to have a

regular IBM KB handy when entering DFI BIOS, for some things.

For months after I got the DFI, I thought the DELETE key on the HHKB Lite2

couldn't get into the DFI BIOS. On an IBM KB just hold down the DEL

key while booting and BIOS Setup comes up. However, just discovered while

installing OSX that HHKB Lite2 can enter BIOS too "by tapping the DELETE"

key. Holding down the DELETE doesn't work, need to tap rapidly. Wierd.

Anyway, my HHKB is setup with DIP SWITCH SW3 set to the "up" position,

which disables the regular DELETE key and turns it into a "BACKSPACE"

key instead. So, to get delete must hold down "Fn" key and hit ` key,

which generates DEL. Again, need to "tap" the ` key to get into BIOS.

Can do lots of things in BIOS with HHKB Lite2. But, while playing around

with drive settings for SATA and AHCI etc, found situation where the

BIOS automatically reversed the order of the HD boots, so HD2 boots

before HD1, which means that OS X boots before Win XP and I never get

to make a choice of OS to boot at startup. To fix this, we need the

"+" or "-" key from a true numeric keypad, to move the drives up or

down in boot order within the bios setup. So, I had to plug in my

old regular IBM keyboard again, just to get these keys.

Apart from that, my "Dual Boot XP OS X Dream Machine" works like a

dream. I just opened iTunes in OS X, and picked an .mp3 file off my

Windows HD to play, without first copying to a Mac HD partition, and

listened to the music. Neat stuff.

But, I'm really impressed with how KNOPPIX 5.3.1 Live DVD booted and

instantly recognized all my hardware without a hitch. Amazing. I think

my "Dual Boot" will become a "Multi-Boot" machine. For sure.

my ALC885.txt

http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?act...136&t=98635

ALC885.txt

Byter · October 5, 2008

I have the Blood Iron working with audio patch. I tested 2 PCI Firewire cards I had and both work with Firewire 410 audio (one from an old compaq and a maxtor). The cost difference for land party was significent and I did not want to spend the extra bucks for for firewire; Q6600, EVGA 8800GTS, 2 gig ram, 750Gig seagate SATA, ASUA DVDRW (SATA). As these things go relitivly painless!

DFI Lanparty and Blood Iron looking for more information

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