This is my first time installing a linux distribution on this particular computer. It has been challenging to find a working Distro. I have tried Fedora 1, RH 9, Mandrake 9.2.

In any case the problem is the same, my motherboards on-board devices such as LAN are not working correctly. I have assumed that it is driver related and am seeking your guidance on a distro that may support it.

The specifications are such.

p4sdx Asus Motherboard
2.66ghz 533MHz FSB P4
768MB DDR 2700
40GB 7200rpm WD HDD

I also have a Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum that has not worked which I have also attributed to driver related issues.

So then if anyone out there has any idea how to make this rather annoying motherboard like a linux distribution please do not hesitate to let me know.

Oh one last thought, if it is a driver issue can someone point me in the direction to find the drivers I need. With of course a tutorial on how to install drivers using linux. Thanks, Much obliged.

You will need to see what the nic is.

try this..

lspci |grep Ether

Welcome to LQ!

ALSA should work for your sound card. There's only one Creative Labs card that doesn't work with Linux, and all the rest use the emu10k1 module. That link is a full tutorial on installing the drivers for that card. When you d/l them, just get the first 3 off the ALSA main page - Driver, Library and Utilities.

David told you what to do in Linux to get your nic, but if you don't have a Linux distro installed, you can find it in Windoze quite easily. Hit the Windoze logo key and the pause key at the same time to launch System Properties. Click on the tab that says Hardware then Device Manager then click the + sign in front of Network Adapters and post what it says. That's a SiS chipset mobo, and I believe the nic is some type of Realtek. That board also has onboard sound, so make sure you've got the right module for the Audigy (emu10k1).

Whilst you're "trying distros," may I recommend Slackware 9.1? It will detect most, if not all of that hardware, from the basic install. You can be up and running in 30 mintues, and the sound will be working with only 2 commands issued from a console. You will not have to install anything for the sound - Slack has support for it already. It will probably support the Realtek nic, also - you may have to make one little adjustment to your /etc/rc.d/rc.modules file - but that should be all. Simple. Get Slack - it works!

my network card is a SiS 900 LAN adapter. It's on-board and its been givin eth0 as the device name.

That's not the chipset. Since you've obviously got a distro installed, do what David said.
Actually, you can post all your onboard stuff at once and get it over with. Open a console, terminal, whatever your distro calls it and login as root, then issue
# lspci
and post all of that. It will have your sound also.

heh i would be very happy to just paste all that from the terminal into this site but without my ethernet device working I am unable to comply i must instead type it in and hope I do not misstype anything. I will take care of this tomorrow its now 5am here and a bit of a nights sleep is still possible so I'll continue this more tomorrow.

I do have one last quick question regarding a distro. I have monkey'ed with just about every linux distrobution made. I dislike the Fedora releases because the auto updates have given me disasters in the past. I havent tried mandrake 10 yet but in the meantime can anyone suggest a distro I may like to use other than Redhats Fedora and Mandrakes linux.

.:: Edit ::.
I just noticed the suggestion of using slackware. Sounds good but does the xserve desktop start-up after install? Or will i have to learn how to isntall/configure said application?

If anything I typed in this last post is misstyped or botched in any way please understand my state of mind due to the time of post, Thanks

You must be on EST - it's about 5:00 p.m. here. Don't worry about posting all of that stuff. Just look at the ouput of # lspci for the line that says something like this:and write that down on a piece of paper. You'll get it once you've got some rest.
The default run level for Slack is init 3 (multiuser mode) with does not launch the X server. It will start in a terminal. If you want to boot into X every time, you simply edit the file /etc/inittab and change to run level 4 (X11 with KDM/GDM/XDM session managers). It's easy to do, but I won't post that now. This is the link at LinuxISO.org for Slackware. You'll want to get both Install disk 1 and 2 images. And before you start the install, print the file Slackware-HOWTO from CD1 - it's a complete and thorough installation guide. Read it a little, and use it as a guide.

If your card is assigned eth0 then do this...

try dhcp first..
if you do not have dhclient try this..
Verify the configuration with this...

If that fails to work you can manually configure the interface like this..
Use the ipaddress you should have for the machine.

Now you need to add the nameservers to /etc/resolv.conf
#contents of file /etc/resolv.conf
Use the correct nameservers for your connection.

Now you need to set a default route to your gateway
Use the ipaddress of your gateway router.

I am downloading Slackware now I'll play with it for the next two weeks lightly then when I am done with the finals in my classes I'll return to this post. Thanks so much for the help I really appreciate it and I hope to discuss this more with you in two weeks.