Installed an ASRock X58 Extreme3 motherboard, so far the following results:

Linux Kernel 2.6.34

• basic function works out of the box (as expected!)
• hibernate (suspend to disk) breaks
  • should work if you unload xhci_hcd (USB3)
• suspend to ram (mem) suspends, but does not resume
  • caps lock & scroll lock LEDs flash on resume
  • diagnostic LED shows 24
  • pm_tests pass
  • pm_trace hash matches drivers/base/power/main.c:564
• sensors shows some coretemp temperatures
  • W83677HG-I has no driver (would be needed to read fan speed, vcore, etc.)
• couldn’t find any controllable fan (BIOS can control 2 pwm fans and 2 voltage fans, but only manually except CPU fan)
• system clock is way too slow! It lags 10 minutes just after 2 hours of operating. hardware clock seems to be fine though(?)

maybe not related to the board

• Sony photo camera is not recognized as mass storage unless rmmod -f usb_storage && modprobe usb-storage after connecting; somewhat annoying.

not used yet:

• USB3
• SATA3 (6Gb/s)

overclocking experiments

• can easily adjust QPI / core speed in BIOS.

random thoughts

• I feared most the northbridge cooler fan; but it is perfectly silent (to my ears).
• ECC ram works as advertised
• remember to turn on virtualization features and turbo boost stuff in BIOS (everyone would check that, I guess)
• direct BIOS flash from USB is very convenient
• use amidmi or amidedos to edit dmi data

Result:

Useful if you have a huge resolution and having trouble making out which line the “failed” belongs to :-)

--- /etc/rc.status      2010-05-19 16:05:42.561038358 +0200
+++ /etc/rc.status      2010-05-19 10:09:18.287053928 +0200
@@ -70,14 +70,15 @@
         attn="${esc}[1;33m"
         norm=`echo -en "${esc}[m\017"`
         stat=`echo -en "\015${esc}[${COLUMNS}C${esc}[10D"`
+        stat=`echo -en "\015${esc}[G${esc}[14@${esc}[10C...${esc}[11D"`
 
-     rc_done="${stat}${done}done${norm}"
+     rc_done="${stat}   ${done}done${norm}"
   rc_running="${stat}${done}running${norm}"
-   rc_failed="${stat}${warn}failed${norm}"
+   rc_failed="${stat} ${warn}failed${norm}"
    rc_missed="${stat}${warn}missing${norm}"
   rc_skipped="${stat}${attn}skipped${norm}"
-     rc_dead="${stat}${warn}dead${norm}"
-   rc_unused="${stat}${extd}unused${norm}"
+     rc_dead="${stat}   ${warn}dead${norm}"
+   rc_unused="${stat} ${extd}unused${norm}"
   rc_unknown="${stat}${attn}unknown${norm}"
   rc_done_up="${esc}[1A${rc_done}"
 rc_failed_up="${esc}[1A${rc_failed}"

More refinement with xtty=$(stty -g); stty -echo; echo -en "\033[6n"; read -d R curpos; stty $xtty, then see if cursor is at beginning of line and go up one line.

To install perl modules without root permission, this seems to work for me within cpan:

UPDATE the modern recommendation would be to use the (almost) excellent local::lib module. First, download the archive through the link on the right side of the CPAN search page. Unpack it somewhere and follow the instructions on the CPAN site: run perl Makefile.PL --bootstrap and add the necessary call to your shell profile.

Now you can (after log-out and log-in) just run perl -MCPAN -Mlocal::lib -eshell and have it do auto-configuration (remove your .cpan/CPAN directory first if you have a broken configuration), and “install”ing packages should just work.

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