[CentOS] EPIA-M board for Centos

Tue Jul 1 20:41:08 UTC 2008
Peter Arremann <loony at loonybin.org>

On Tuesday 01 July 2008 09:40:31 am Robert Moskowitz wrote:
> Is there any problems using this board?
>
> I have a dead board in a Book-PC (board size 10.5"x6") so am looking for
> a new board.
>
> Actually I want 2 LAN ports.  'Router' boards with enough umph to run
> Centos are expensive.
>
> I can pick up a VIA epia-m with 512Mb memory for $70 including shipping,
> so this is rather attractive option.  I do have a 100Mb low-height PCI
> board that I can use.
>
> Fitting the board and card into the Book-PC box will be a bit of DIY
> engineering, but other than maybe loosing the front USB ports (big deal
> in the case), looks manageable.
>
> thanks for any experience/advise.
I've had some pretty bad luck with the Epia-m stuff. While the newer ones are 
all i686 compatible, there seem to be random issues there. Not well tested in 
the mainstream kernel I guess. After a FC7 kernel upgrade, they wouldn't boot 
anymore - kernel would dump and nobody could figure out why. A RHEL 5 (not 
centos) kernel somewhere along the line also had issues. 

I've built some successful systems on the Atom 230 recently. Much faster than 
the Epia and about the same price 
(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813121342)
So far everything works out of the box and its much faster than even the 
1.2Ghz Epia's I tried. 
Fan is fairly noisy though. :-(

Peter.