Getting 4 Pin Noctua fans to work with HP Z800 6 Pin header and avoid BIOS FAN error

So in an attempt to quiet down the old z800, I started to replace fans with Noctua fans-- but HP does not use standardized fan connectors.  In particular, putting 4 pin PWM fans on the header that is meant for a dual fan setup that terminates into a 6 pin connector.  The 6 pin layout is essentially the standard 4 pin layout of hot wires and RPM wires, but the 5th and 6th pin are just for the RPM of the second fan (power is paralleled).  So to make the annoying BIOS 'fan not detected' error go away (requiring me to press F1 to complete boot up-- and also to put the provided Noctua resistors in place as the MB makes the fans go into overdrive with this error) I found that Philmore locking socket 70-4856 fits the 'proprietary' HP 6 pin fan header perfectly.  I paralleled two wires with pins to the Noctua RPM wires to go into the last two blanks-- boot up-- Error free and no need to use the reistors as well!!!  Success!!

Flashing an integrated LSI 1068e RAID controller on an old HP z800

So firstly, the 'why' towards doing this is for the want to using a software raid found in various distros such as FreeNAS ZFS, Linux BTRFS etc.  I feel the 1068e as implemented by HP and LSI on this board (and from my research on a lot of 'embedded' 'integrated' setups on other boards) was seriously affecting performance as well- the RAID 10 write speeds were atrocious and no-where near the ~130mbs it should have been at.

So off to the races- after much research it was looking impossible, all the info out there was in regards to the PCI card setups, not the embedded setups and the tutorials and scripts would not work.  Then I fell on an unRAID thread HERE, page 53 second post down had a write-up.

Add-on notes to that tutorial-
- choose PCI-e when prompted
- 3081 when prompted

enjoy

Proxmox and unRAID on an old HP Z800

Long story short, don't do it.  The 1068e built in RAID controller, and the other IBM SATA controller, both do not seem to play nice with the Linux kernel both Proxmox and unRAID use.  The various tools/scripts/tutorials etc to 'fix' this type of issue on 1068e based PCI RAID cards do not work on the embedded unit.  Ultimately I used ESXi to get the VM performance level expected from the machine.

Intsall Wine, DaZzle, VMware and Veracrypt in Ubuntu

On a fresh install of Ubuntu (gnome 3 is my flavor), I like to install the following right away- its easier with Ubuntu than strait Debian, at least for me, for now, though Debian has been more stable for me.

Download the VMware workstation bundle for Linux from their website.  Go into the command prompt and type:

chmod +x VMware-Workstation-Full*.bundle

next type

 sudo ./VMware-Workstation-Full*.bundle

The key is to be in the directory (likely Downloads) or insert the directory path, and the VMware workstation title in the quotes will be different than the actual package name you downloaded, use the downloaded name.

Install Wine via the Ubuntu software center in order to be able to run Windows apps.

Install Endicia tools (most important, DaZzle) with this link:  https://www.endicia.com/EndiciaProfessionalHelp/Content/install_gs/download_install_gs.htm

If your a Veracrypt user, you can add veracrypt to your repo using the follwing command, then you can simply apt-get update and apt-get upgrade afterworkds.

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:unit193/encryption
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install veracrypt

By installing these programs, my Linux machine comes a long way towards replacing my need for a Windows machine.  I also take the easy route and install Chromium via the software center vs. downloading it and installing it the more manual way.

When installing Proxmox or other install where your only option to make changes is within the command line, this site came in handy-

https://www.howtoforge.com/faq/how-to-edit-files-on-the-command-line

Greddy EMU linux and Windows 64bit part 4 final post

So after much fun with Ubuntu and Wine, and Windows 10 64bit and drivers, I'm tapping out.  Below are some screen shots of using various open source software and sites to decompile machine code to source code of some EMU files and its way too much of a huge task a newb like myself to find where in the tens of thousands of lines of code where the driver package is, and how to put the new package in.

Fun times for a newb like me haha.  Looks like to get 64bit support for various OS's from Greddy, we need them to step up themselves vs. some techie wanna-be's to try and figure it out.  I imagine Wendell from Tek Syndicate could make quick work of this but its a pretty low priority challenge for gurus of such IMO.

How to make a Linux live boot USB

If you want to run a Linux build live before committing to installing it, the Universal USB Installer (UUI) program on pendrivelinux's site is a great tool- check it out- download and simply follow the site's instructions- site HERE

Greddy EMU software in Wine Part 3- Windows 10

After confiring with buddy far more knowledgeable than I, Windows 10 became very suspect, so off to google and found this gem in a Silicon Labs forum here.

From the website:

Here is the Windows 10 driver.  Please note that this driver contains the default VID/PID for our devices, only, and is not yet supported with our driver customization tools. If you're using your own VID/PID, then you will have to modify the .inf file directly to include these values, however please be aware that if you make any changes to the drivers .inf file, the digital signature will be invalidated.

Also some advice about turning off driver signature enforcement:

Hit WindowsKey-X and select "Command Prompt (Admin)"

In the nice DOS box that pops up type:

bcdedit /set testsigning on

 Greddy's VID is USB\VID_0D89&PID_0301

Silicon Lab's VID list was pretty large, one example was USB\VID_10C4&PID_EA70&Mi_00

After much messing around, still no positive results- I think what is needed to be done is find a way to modify the EMU software to not point for it's driver it installed, but to redirect that to the Silicon Labs driver.