Here is my promised follow-up to my own testing of the Supermicro X10SBA board. My testbed is Gentoo Linux x86_64, fully updated, so that means 3.12.13 kernel ("gentoo-sources", not "vanilla"). Since I am building a home storage server, video output better than "no D" CLI is not important to me; 2D and 3D acceleration have no value in my setup. I have 4x WDC 750G Black laptop drives already built as a ZFS "pool". Gentoo has the ZFS & SPL code compiled as modules, but I boot the system from a separate HDD with EXT4 partititions. I "load" the ZFS kernel module at boot but do not automount the ZFS pool; this is "testing" after all.
(1) Video can be "picky".
If HDMI is plugged in when the system boots, there is a good chance that the VGA port will not output anything. If I plan to use VGA I have to keep the HDMI port disconnected.
(2) USB can be "picky".
I saw strange USB keyboard issues in Gentoo 3.10.x but cannot reproduce them in Gentoo 3.12 using the same hardware. So assume a kernel issue.
(3) PCIe x2 slot is "picky".
I still suspect the onboard Marvell BIOS for the onboard 9230 chip (uses the white SATA plugs) does not work with other Marvell storage controllers. I have tweaked the various BIOS settings for hours and outright "locked up the system" in certain cases, "locked up the system boot process" in other cases, and gotten the system to boot in other cases.
SYBA PEX40064, PCIe x1, 4 port, SATA3, non-RAID, Marvell 88SE9215 chipset
- Can be seen in "lspci"...when NO HDD are attached to the storage controller
- "lspci" reports the controller using the "ahci" driver (fine with me...and matches SATA setup in the BIOS, but could also be coincidence)
- Controller does not have any jumpers.
- In other systems it displays a "splash" during boot but under UEFI boot on this board it does not.
SYBA PEX40062, PCIe x2, 4 port, SATA3, non-RAID, Marvell 88SE9235 chipset
- Can be seen in "lspci"...when NO HDD are attached to the storage controller
- "lspci" reports the controller using the "ahci" driver (fine with me...and matches SATA setup in the BIOS, but could also be coincidence)
- Controller does not have any jumpers.
- Have not booted this card in any other system...yet.
SYBA PEX40039, PCIe x1, 2 port, SATA3, non-RAID, ASmedia ASM1061 chipset
- Can be seen in "lspci"...with hard drives attached (per "blkid" command)
- "lspci" reports the controller using the "ahci" driver (fine with me...and matches SATA setup in the BIOS, but could also be coincidence)
- Controller does not have any jumpers.
- Have not booted this card in any other system...yet.
- Drives attached to this conntroller can be included in a ZFS pool without errors
SYBA MPE40056, mini PCIe card, 2 port, non-RAID, ASmedia ASM1061 chipset
- Cannot be seen in "lspci"...with or without HDD attached
- Controller does not have any jumpers.
- Have not booted this card in any other system...yet.
- Supermicro PCIe (not the mSATA slot) is muxed into the SoC via a USB hub, and that might have some limitations...or a missing Linux kernel driver.
Rosewill RC-211, PCIe x1, 2 port, SATA2, RAID-5 (but can be flashed to non-RAID), SiliconImage 3132 chipset
- Cannot be seen in "lspci"...with or without HDD attached
- Controller does have a BIOS "enable/disable" jumper. Tried both ways...no luck either way.
- Very loose SATA data cable connector ports.
- Have not booted this card in any other system...yet.
It is very hard to find an add-in card using a SiliconImage chipset (ok, so they are limited to SATA2) that is preloaded with a non-RAID BIOS. I have read reviews stating that some add-in cards that use SiliconImage BIOS no longer have Flash ROMs that SiliconImage supports, and that prevents the user from changing the factory-installed RAID BIOS to a non-RAID BIOS. SYBA has openly stated (or implied...forgot which one) that they will void your warranty if you do that to their add-in cards that use SiliconImage code while providing the excuse that they can no longer obtain Flash ROMs that are supported by SiliconImage Flash tools.
I forgot to get a SYBA PCIe x1 add-in card with a Marvell 9230 chipset, but given the perceived incompatibility issues between the onboard Marvell controller and add-in cards with Marvell controllers, it might just be a waste of money for me since I never use add-in cards that have "built-in RAID" (aka "fake RAID") functions. If I want an add-in card with a real hardware-based RAID5 function I would spend the big $$ to get one, but I am liking ZFS a lot so add-in RAID5 cards are useless in that case...and potentially "conflicting".
So, for all of my efforts I have successfully added only 2x SATA3 ports via a PCIe x1 card that cost me about 20 USD before shipping costs. That brings the count of SATA ports on my system to 8: 2x SATA2, 6x SATA3. My target was 8 SATA ports, but 10 or even 12 would have been nicer.
If anyone has any contacts at Supermicro or Marvell that would like to discuss the behaviors I have documented above, something can be arranged.