I'm just now getting around to installing Linux on my new Desktop, and I'm running into alot of trouble that seems to be related to all the NVidia hardware (GeforceFX video card and NForce Sound/NIC chipset on the motherboard).

Now, I've used Redhat for several years, so I tried to install WhiteBox. It doesn't seem to support some of the hardware tho, and has random lockups and such. From reading the forums, it looks like upgrading to a 2.6 kernel would fix most of my problems. Is this right?

Also, what distro's use 2.6 (out-of-the-box or with minimal effort) now? Whitebox doesn't, evidently.

Hello.

I use SuSE Linux Professional 9.1, which uses a 2.6 series kernel. I also have an nVidia motherboard (onboard sound) and nVidia GeForce video card, and have had very few problems.

One point to be aware of is that the nVidia GeForce graphics cards are supported by two different X drivers, being “nv” (open-source) and “nvidia”. The “nvidia” driver is made by nVidia and distributed free (as in money) but is closed-source. Only the “nvidia” driver supports acceleration.

If you're going to go for SuSE (worth the cost for the amount of software you get in my opinion), please note that it doesn't include the accelerated nvidia driver — but can install it automatically with the “online update” feature.

The only issue I have had is getting the TV-out to work properly, but that's not kernel-related.

— Robert J Lee