Has anyone successfully installed linux on this motherboard?

I have tried Fedora 10 and Mandriva 2009, both x86_64 versions. In both cases, the installation is fine, but I cannot get a graphical display (X) running properly. Fedora would start X as root, but with no mouse. Mandriva will not start X at all - NO SCREENS FOUND.
Server kernel for each distro is installed due to RAM amount.
I have tried both nv and nvidia as graphics drivers.

Full system spec is as follows:
ASUS M3N78 PRO M/board (integrated nvidia 8300 graphics)
AMD Phenom X3 processor
8Gb (4 x 2Gb) Kingston 800Mhz RAM
PS2 mouse
USB keyboard
Single SATA disc
Philips VGA monitor (using VGA extension cable for M/board, not the integrated HDMI/DVI)

I suspect there may be a problem with APIC or similar but would appreciate some pointers

Thanks

Chris

Hi -

I've successfully installed other versions of Linux on Asus with NVideo video cards, but not this particular model, nor this particular distro (I was using Suse 9.x a few years ago).

I'm pretty confident, however, that you *should* be able to get it working (and, once it's working, that you should be able to "fine tune" your video configuration to get it working very well!).

Check out this link for some tips:

http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-916330.html

'Hope that helps .. PSM

Hi Chris,
You might want to try a variety of live CDs. knoppix is usually get clever at getting things set up including video. Also have you checked the Nvidia website for linux drivers of your card? You should be able to get video using "vesa" as your driver until you can install the corrct nvidia driver. Do you know exactly what nvidia card is on the machine?
Cheers,
jdk

Update to my own post

I did manage to get the system working last night - by replacing the PS2 mouse with a USB one. The PS2 mouse worked fine during the install and seemed to have all the correct settings in the /dev area and in xorg.conf, but wouldn't work. So I tried in desperation a USB mouse and - bang - everything is working. I now have X with nvidia accelerated graphics using nvidia modules (I had to use vesa to do the install).

Just goes to show that you can't trust the xorg log messages (no screen found) !! and no mention of 'no mouse found'.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Just need to get the sound working now (driver is in the 2.6.28 kernel) and Fedora/Mandriva are both using 2.6.27.