Supermicro X10QBi motherboard: compatibility feedbacks

[petersulyok]

This is the place where we collect the feedbacks and compatibility statements about the newly supported Supermicro X10QBi motherboard (since smfc 5.1.0). Original issue was reported here: issue #96 and PR #97 by @samuel-emrys.

[petersulyok]

Fan duty readback fixed in smfc v6.0.1

@samuel-emrys — while reviewing a similar problem on the X9 platform (PR #117 by @krecik), I found the same defect in the X10QBi platform implementation.

The problem

set_fan_level() writes the duty cycle on the NCT7904D 0-255 scale (100% = 0xFF), but get_fan_level() returned the raw byte as if it were a percentage:

return int(r.stdout, 16)        # 0xFF was reported as 255%, 0x7F as 127%

The fan control itself (i.e. the write path) was not affected, but smfc-client and the DEBUG log displayed impossible fan levels, and a [CONST] fan controller compared this wrong value with its configured level, so it re-applied the same level in every polling cycle.

The fix (released in v6.0.1)

return round(int(r.stdout, 16) * 100 / 255)

The F1OV-F4OV registers of the Nuvoton NCT7904D chip (bank 3, addresses 0x10-0x13) are 8-bit registers, read/write in manual mode — the read command returns exactly the byte the write command sets. See chapter 7.4.11 of the NCT7904D datasheet. This fix is based on the datasheet and on the symmetry with the write path, I could not validate it on real hardware — this is why feedback is needed here.

What to check with v6.0.1

Run smfc-client (or docker exec smfc smfc-client if you use docker) while the smfc service is running — see README chapter 14. for the full sample output. The relevant part is the last section:

IPMI zones (live)
  Zone    Level
  ----    -----
  0        50 %
  1        50 %

These values are read back from the BMC, and this is exactly what the fix changes: they must be in the 0-100% range, and they must match the Level column of the Fan controllers table above them. Before the fix they were 2.55 times higher (e.g. 127 % or 255 %).

Please share your feedback and test results here.