Hello --

My motherboard ( the abit IP35 Pro ) has the JMicron JMB363 controller which has been the cause of much grief for Ubuntu/Debian installations. This JMicron controller controls the PATA optical drive and Linux has a heck of time in dealing with this fact.

I have read many threads on many forums as I would like to install Ubuntu (my beloved) on my new board. The solutions are all over the spectrum, and not at all clear, and solutions are very few and far between.

I am wondering ... can I save myself a lot of grief I do any of the following...?

(a) Buy a SATA optical drive, and use that (disengaging my PATA optical) to install Ubuntu
(1) Would this even work? That is, would the PATA controller still be detected by kernal and cause my grief?

(b) Try a network installation
(1) I don't know how to do this, but I am confident I can learn it. But would it make the problem go away?

Thanks for your ideas and time !!
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Not to sure if this is helpful but I built mine and have had a blast.
Like I say the only problems I've had were my fault not the machine ,
I'm still learning. Good Luck



Lian Li case PC-7 Plus ( added 3rd fan topside )
ASUS P5N-E SLI
Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E6600
( replaced stock cooler with an ASUS P5A2-8SB3W )
2 GiG Corsair XMS2 DDR2 matched
Twin Seagate 320's , ( yes I pulled the jumpers )
EVGA E - GeForce 7600 GT
Staples 19 " LCD which turns out to be a Toshiba

; went into bios and disabled JMicron , ( don't know for sure if it did anything but no problems with Edgy and now Fiesty ) , oh and had to enable OS control of machine settings or something to that effect , am using onboard ethernet card also .
Asus Combo Drive CD/DVD ( cd burner only , plays DVD'S great and cd's )
500 watt Antec Smartpower 2.0 -- Creative Soundblaster Audigy SE ( it makes good noise ! )
The extra fan is noisy as in cheap but it blows !

My first build and I was nervous to say the least and elated when it posted first time and it still works ! Woohoo UBUNTU !
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John 14 : 18

I did not experience any problems installing Slackware 12 off DVD from a PATA optical drive attached to a JMB363 controller. The motherboard is a Gigabyte DS3. Have you had problems trying to install Ubuntu?

Worked for me on my 965p-s3 board with the same controller IDE optical drive set to IDE mode.
Try one of the Etch installers at the link below they have newer kernels on them and should offer better hardware detection/support.

http://kmuto.jp/debian/d-i/