Installing Gentoo onto a VIA EN12000G C7 Mini-ITX server

The trials and tribulations of building a terabyte storage appliance from first principles…

 

CPU gotchas

 

/proc/cpuinfo contains:

 

processor : 0
vendor_id : CentaurHauls
cpu family : 6
model : 10
model name : VIA Esther processor 1200MHz
stepping : 9
cpu MHz : 399.007
cache size : 128 KB
fdiv_bug : no
hlt_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
coma_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 1
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge cmov pat clflush acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 tm nx up pni est tm2 rng rng_en ace ace_en
bogomips : 799.90

 

So, does the C7 support SSE3 or not? There are obviously “sse” and “sse2” entries, but no “sse3“. The answer is that SSE3 compatibility is actually indicated my the presence of “pni” (or Prescott New Instructions).
Obviously.
<sigh>

 

(The odd speed is, I think, due to an incorrect BIOS setting. Since modern Award BIOS are awful beyond belief, when the BIOS setup is active the display is driven at 56Hz rather than 60Hz, and my LCD TV can’t sync down that low. I’ve got to dismantle the system and haul it upstairs before I can fix this…)

 

Update:

See this post for the gory details of the solution to the low clockspeed…