First off, if you you're going to be using this for linux, its worth to note that you won't be able to use MSI specific features such the "Corecell", "MSI live update", etc. Those only work on Windows. In other words, this is one of the reasons why the board is a tad expensive than the ones in its respective league. Plus, it has many features that you might never use (dual lan, two Sata controllers, etc). So, take that all into consideration when buying the board...i mean, don't spend more money just to get something you will never use. There are cheaper socket 939 boards that might fit your needs better.
I basically took my old motherboard (Epox 8kha KT-266) and put in this new on in then connected the hard drive. Linux (Debian Sid) detected pretty much all the new hardware, and i had to just reinstall the Nvidia drivers to get to the desktop.
However, after that, there was a lot of things that didn't work off the bat (Ethernet, sound, usb, onboard temperature sensors). I did get them all to work, so to make life easier for others, i will put down here rougly what i did:
[Note: This is all done on Debian Sid, kernel 2.6.12. Make sure you know how to recompile your own distro's kernel before buying a motherboard or doing the following]
Basically you untar it, run the install.sh, and choose the patch kernel option.
After patching, go into the kernel config and enable these:
>Networking Support
>Network Device Support [compiled in kernel]
>Ethernet (1000 Mbit)
>Marvell Yukon Chipset / SysKonnect SK-98xx Support (SK98LIN) [compiled into kernel]
>Use Rx polling (NAPI) (SK98LIN_NAPI)[compiled into kernel]
Thats it, reboot and it should detect the ethernet controller.
==========================================
Usb support
Basically, i checked off anything i hadn't before:
Device Drivers
> Usb Support (all of the following checked off]
> Support for Host-side USB (USB) [checked off]
>USB device filesystem (USB_DEVICEFS)
[checked off]
>Enforce USB bandwidth allocation (EXPERIMENTAL) (USB_BANDWIDTH) {checked off]
>EHCI HCD (USB 2.0) support (USB_EHCI_HCD)
>OHCI HCD support (USB_OHCI_HCD)
>UHCI HCD (most Intel and VIA) support (USB_UHCI_HCD)
>USB Human Interface Device (full HID) support (USB_HID)
>HID input layer support (USB_HIDINPUT)
>/dev/hiddev raw HID device support (USB_HIDDEV)
And mostly pretty much everything under usb that looked good was checked off (sorry, but there are just too many things under usb to list).
===========================================
Sound
The onboard controller uses the 'snd-intel8x0' module for alsa, so to enable it, do this:
Recompile, and reboot, it works ok, however not as good as sblive.
Another thing i tried was the nforce sound drivers from nvidia.com. I just downloaded it [NFORCE-Linux-x86-1.0-0301-pkg1.run] and ran it as root. Didn't pick the network driver, but just the audio one to install. Make sure to remove/disable alsa before rebooting [update-rc.d -f alsa remove]. After that, nvsound should come up in the boot message. To see if it worked, use nvmixer and play some music. This didn't really work out too well, since every song sounded like crap [like a child singing]. Problem is that the Nforce drivers when run with the --uninstall option, doesn't uninstall the driver. Probably a bug or something. I just deleted the nvsound.ko module manually from /lib/modules/[kernel version]/kernel/sound/oss directory, and just started using sblive instead [bring back alsa with 'update-rc.d alsa defaults']
============================================
For i2c/lm_sensors support:
Character Devices
> I2C Support
>I2C Support [install as module]
>I2C device interface [install as module]
>I2C Hardware Bus support
>ISA Bus Support [module]
>Nvidia nforce2 [module]
>Hardware Sensors Chip support
>I2c_Sensors [module, greyed out]
>Winbond W83627HF, W83627THF,
W83637HF, W83697HF [module]
>Other I2C Chip support
>EEPROM reader (SENSORS_EEPROM) {module]
After recompile, installing kernel, do this:
apt-get install lm-sensors-source lm-sensors
Then run 'sensors-detect' as root and follow the prompt. Mostly all default[yes] answers, except for one about ISA/smbus. I selected isa. It will as to write the config in /etc/modules so let it.
And thats all i did...sorry if the above is not properly formatted. They are just personal notes i took, and i just copied and pasted them (yes, i am lazy).
So far, the mobo has been working fine. I give it a 8.5/10 just because the onboard sound isn't great and that it has plenty of "useless" things in it.
this review is more about suse which detected all my hardware flawlessly rather than about this board. i guess this board is linux compatible since suse knew everything about it. beware, though, all manufacturers claiming sata raid 0, 1, 1+0, 5, etc ARE NOT INCLUDING A RAID CONTROLLER ON THEIR BOARD, SO THEY DO NOT HAVE REAL RAID. they have pseudo-raid, which linux will not like. STAY AWAY FROM SATA RAID. and you don't need to pay for pseudo-raid. this board is fine, but better get one that does not claim something it CANNOT deliver.
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