GIGABYTE GA-970A-DS3 motherboard not working with 64 bit kernel

[6tonspacefly]

I recently upgraded my computer and purchased a GIGABYTE GA-970A-DS3 motherboard. If I boot off of a live CD with any 32bit distro - it has to be a live CD since it doesn't boot of a USB - then everything works. If I boot off of a 64bit distro live CD, it'll load, but the USB ports don't work, neither does the on-board Ethernet as well as a PCI wifi card I installed as an attempted work around.

I also attempted to install a 64bit distro, Ubuntu 12.10, and then manually install a newer kernel. This did not fix the problem, no matter the kernel version.

I've looked around online for a solution, but I can't seem to find any posts where people are having the same troubles as I am.

Thank you.

Current specs:
GIGABYTE GA-970A-DS3
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition AM3

[Grinage]

GIGABYTE 3x USB Power with On/Off Charge USB ports
USB 3.0 with superspeed transfer rates of up to 5 Gbps


It could be a BIOS setting regarding USB Legacy support, the ethernet is a different story though, can you clarify for me what the system thinks the nic is when it's working and when it's not working, use

lspci | grep net

or

lshw | grep net

[Mark Phelps]

Did you check the Gigabyte forums to see if they could help?

Asking because I have a Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H and could not get the wired onboard nic to work reliably until, in Windows, Gigabyte came out with new RealTek drivers and a diagnostic utility.

The NIC would turn on in Windows but when I rebooted into Ubuntu, it would indicate no network.

When I went back into Windows, I would have to run the diag routine to MANUALLY turn the NIC back on. Then it would work.

But, when I booted back into Ubuntu, same problem again.

It took three driver updates to get it working right.

Maybe on the Gigabyte forums, someone has figured out how to fix this in Linux for your board.

[Luke3026]

I just got the same board as the original poster (Rev. 3.0) and can confirm the same problems -- onboard ethernet not working and only the 2 USB3 ports working (all other USB ports dead).

I was trying to install Xubuntu 12.04, then 12.10 (all 64-bit) with nothing but frustration until I saw this post. Tried a 32-bit version of Mint, and all is working.

I know someone with an older Rev. of this board and it does work with 64-bit distros, but evidently Rev. 3.0 is a no-go. I imagine Gigabyte will fix this in some update. Until then, I'll just stick with the 32-bit install. After 3 days of frustration with this thing, I'm just happy to get something working.

[Grinage]

I noticed that there are bios updates for this product, have you tried updating the bios and if yes was the result the same?

Sorry if I ask a question that may seem unrelated, in my dayjob I'm a hardware tech and odd interactions between software and hardware are things I'm keenly interested in finding solutions for before I have to face an angry customer.

[Luke3026]

I updated the BIOS to the latest firmware, and both problems still exist with the 64-bit kernel.

[Grinage]

Thanks, that helps eliminate the obvious. Next question, when you attempt to install the 64-bit distro or the 32-bit, does it find the nic and connect to the internet during installation, there is a screen that asks about connecting to the internet to download updates during installation.

I'd still like to see what the machine thinks it has or doesn't have for a nic. The OP stated that when he ran off the 32-bit live cd everything worked, but when he tried to actually install it then things began failing. If the networking situation could be resolved, a backports repository might resolve the USB situation

[Yellow Pasque]

Why won't it boot USB? Note that Ubuntu 12.10 doesn't fit on a standard CD, so that may be an issue..

[Grinage]

Interesting note on this motherboard. The chipset for northbridge is not supported under a linux 64 bit kernel and neither is the Southbridge according to AMD's own website.

1. North Bridge: AMD 970
2. South Bridge: AMD SB950

When you go searching around for information from Gigabyte and AMD there's a distinct lack of it concerning linux 64 bit kernels. This may have been one of those 'made for windows' boards so it may take some time before manufacturers decide to get around to the rest of us.


There may be some patches for the next in the line of kernels if you want to attempt it from


http://www.kernel.org/




I wish I had better news or more information to give.

[Yellow Pasque]

I find that hard to believe. Please cite the AMD page that says that. The 970/SB950 is just a small update to the 870/SB850, and I know that chipset works well with Linux.

It may be this bug, which requires an updated BIOS from the manufacturer, unfortunately: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...ux/+bug/859137
Try disabling the IOMMU.