Playing a dvd is going to require you to rebuild xine or install something else that does decss. The dvd's are encrypted and dvdcss is not included.

I recommend installing mplayer.

It's great if you want to do any recording. It will do really good recording of tv also if you have a tv card.

A7N8X Deluxe has Firewire or IEEE-1394. I don't know if Redhat supports Firewire.

Mandrake 9 installed mplayer and Xine for me. I think it install dvdcss but I was to lazy to set writes to my DVD drive. Thank you for answering but I wasn't really asking a question.

also..the best thing is to get a mobo that doesn't have anything built into it. You should get all the accessories by temselves, then plug them into the motherboard. Doing this, you will maximize the probability of the hardware working correctly and to its full potential.

Here is my rig.

Redhat 7.3 Base w/ upgraded Kernel 2.4.19

Soyo MOBO K7VTA Pro
AMD Duron 1.2 GHz
3 X 256MB SDRAM
2 X 80 GB Maxtor 7200 RPM Drives
1 X 100 GB WD 7200 RPM Drive
SIIG Fast SCSI Controller
Maxtor 133 IDE Controller
Conner 4G/8G SCSI Tape
Pacific 48x12x48 CDRW
Antec Case w/ 400w PS
PNY Geforce2 Graphics

This has been assembled from new and spare parts and the thing is stable as hell. I rarely shut it down anymore, run full backups weekly and differentials nightly. The storage is for live music, which is all backed up on CD in SHN format. Since I went to linux I have been able to salvage hardware from friends and family and some corporatations, and set up a rather respectable network at home. Gateways, Routers, Web Servers, Backup Servers, Database, and Mail. Most of the other machines are in the PII range that people thought were useless. To bad they were fooled by Micro$oft.

that sounds really cool, needamiracle.
Hehe.. How is your Gforce2 working?

Two things: one, I have an Asus mobo (KT7-RAID, Athlon-powered), and it has given me nothing but trouble. Back in my Win2K days, I had to reflash the BIOS because it was shipped with a horrible bug that would make the computer lock up hard after varied periods of time. Took me nine months to find the problem. Also, it was shipped with a bad solder that caused a capacitor to fall off the board. Then, mysteriously my secondary IDE channel wouldn't work. My vid card is also Asus (V7100 Deluxe Combo), and if I shutdown my computer enough for it to cool down, I must reset it because the motherboard can't recognize the vid card BIOS. However in compatibility-land, zLinuxz is right: they do have very good compatibility with Linux, if you're willing to put up with a ton of hardware bugs.

Also, Fry's is referred to as 'The Store From Hell' around here. I agree with Electro. They don't care about the consumer, the store is filthy, and 90% of the employees can't speak English. However, if you are willing to put up with their rude and commission-fueled salespeople, as well as the illiterate register people and the horrendous line, then you can find some excellent deals. Just watch out for the infamous open box sticker.

icy

darn, that doesn't sound good Icy,
your board might be in the small percent of the defective boards that are inevitably produced. You should have just sent it back...that's why they have the best warranty in the market.

And down here in San Diego, Fry's is known like a really tight place to go and get your computer stuff for pretty cheap prices.
Just, sometimes the Lines are long...but at least in this Fry's, they have 85 Registers working mostly all the time.
Longest I've ever waited is maybe...5 minutes in line?

My MSI K7T Pro 2-A lasted a year before it blew up. It worked good with Linux, but so does all my other machines. P2, P3, P4

my system is an Athlon system, havent had problems at all, and if you install RH, you can use auto-update you can DL a kernel customized for Athlons (atleast the version is 2.4.18-19.7.x.athlon), that's what i have but its RH 7.3 and not 7.2 (also the mobo is Asus)

A little more than a week after the last post to this thread: I decided on an Asus A7V333 r 2.00 No RAID, BIOS 1014; Athlon XP2000+ (Model 6 - Palomino); 256MG PC2700 Kingmax. I have got the thing put together with the HD and video card from my old P2 system (18GB WD181AA, PCI Virge S3?). In short: the BIOS did not autodetect the HD; I have tried both the "manual" settings (cylinders, etc.) and "translate partition" (recommended for drives with existing operating systems) and am getting the same results: cold boot always results in "primary master failed" message. I then enter BIOS setup and check the HD configuration (it isn't getting lost) and exit without saving changes. With no action from me, the system then proceeds thru POST (?), GRUB (or maybe it's LILO), loading MDK 8.1, XWindows, KDE, etc., etc. At KDE logout, I've tried both restart and halt -- restart always gets to the point where I can again logout -- no "primary master failed" message; halt (and the power does shut down) always results in the same "primary master failed" sequence -- I enter BIOS, exit without saving, and wait until I'm at the XWindows login screen (it always gets there). Before I try to install the CD-ROM drive, I'd really like to understand what's going on. I should add that there are two IDE connectors on this board and only one works.

I realized a little over a week ago that I said "Asus KT7-RAID." I always get confused, because it is an Abit, not an Asus. They're both Taiwanese, so come on...who wouldn't screw that up?

As for zLinuxz, I could have taken it back, but I didn't find the faulty BIOS until 9 months later. Also, I didn't buy it from Fry's; the place I did buy it from screwed me and their return policy is horrible. I'm glad you got your system together, paula. Hope our (the board's) comments helped.

~icy

From the model of the hard drive. I think your brand of hard drive is Western Digital. If it is you may want to use Cable Select. If the motherboard still can not read the hard drive then check the cables. The black (end) connector is master and the grey (middle) connector is slave. For the processor and the heatsink make sure you are not using both heatsink grease and tape. AMD prefers that the installer uses tape. Not a lot of motherboards are compatible with Kingmax memory. Though my ABIT KA7-100 motherboard can handle Kingmax memory, many other motherboard brands and models can not. Try using Kingston or PNY they have the highest chances to work on many motherboards. Corsair memory are very good and they are designed for servers and overclockers. During installation set the memory to the less aggressive settings such as change 4-way interleave to none. Set memory speed from 133 MHz to 100 MHz. Set CAS from 2 to 3.

i have one athlon system that is 100% stable i used a gigabyte 7vrxp motherboard with a 256 meg ddr333 cas lat 2 stick of ram from OCZ. ive had a lot of systems that had problems with redhat. 90% of them were solved by using kingston ram instead of cheap ram. cheap ram seems to have no problems running in windows. anyways my setup works perfectly. the only compatibility problems will originate from the motherboard or the ram. if you want to be safe than go intel with quality ram.

Paula, have you checked your jumper settings on your hard drive? Also, have you tried clearing the CMOS? I wil be doing my utmost to help another Linux convert from Wyoming! Where are you at? I'm originally from near Casper but my family's new ranch is by Douglas.