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Shuttle XPC SN95G5
AMD Athlon 64 4000+
ATI Radeon X800 XT
Audigy 2
160GB Maxtor SATA
A serial 56kbps external modem
What distro should I install? I'm still a novice in linux, and I want to know which distro can maximize my hardware. What I mean is which has the available modules and easy to install.
I tried to install Slackware to no avail because of the SATA hard drive.
I have read that Gentoo works as well. Make sure you use the development-sources which is a 2.6 kernel. I don't think the 2.4 kernels support the SATA drives.
Try downloading the free versions first, then when you find one you like you can buy the boxed version. This will give you an idea of how the other distro's work. Gentoo should work good, also give MEPIS a try, it's easy for people switching over to get started.
One way to test Gentoo and most any distro, is to boot the install CD. Usually if that works you can make the install work too. The kernel that is used is the most important thing. If the kernel does not support what you have, you may have a issue, if possible at all.
I would suspect that any distro that uses a recent 2.6 kernel, or has the option like Gentoo to pick your kernel, it should work.
Do you know what chipset your mobo has? I can look for the kernel options and see if it is supported here. I use 2.6.8 Gentoo kernel. I haven't updated because I haven't rebooted in about 4 months. They newer ones also do not have supermount support. I'll be glad to check on it for you though, even though Gentoo is a little rough on the install.
Try Knoppix, from CD. That is, try running it; there isn't anything to install.
I'm running Debian, which I recommend over RH. But Knoppix is fine in a pinch since it boots and runs from the CD and won't muck up your hd unless yuo tell it to. My experience with it has shown it to recognize everything in any machine I've run it on and it sets up faster than any other Plug and Play $OS I've seen.
Originally posted by JohnBoy Try Knoppix, from CD. That is, try running it; there isn't anything to install.
I'm running Debian, which I recommend over RH. But Knoppix is fine in a pinch since it boots and runs from the CD and won't muck up your hd unless yuo tell it to. My experience with it has shown it to recognize everything in any machine I've run it on and it sets up faster than any other Plug and Play $OS I've seen.
BTW, You can also install Knoppix (my install ended up being Debian SID) using the Knoppix live CD.
Thanks for all your replies. I have downloaded free versions of Fedora Core 3, Slackware 10, RedHat 9 and Suse 9.2 64Bit. But I am open for more suggestions and try to download them when I do have the time.
With regards to my mobo's chipset, I believe SN95G5 uses nForce3 250.
My setup plan is dual boot (Window$ XP and Linux). I'll be needing Window$ when post processing pictures (Photoshop) and play Games. Other than that, all tasks will be on linux.
My main concern is the SATA hard drive. Thanks for all the help.
That is a bit to read and may require a bit of stiching together but it did help me to find this in the 2.6.11-gentoo-r4 kernel config screen:
Code:
│ │[*] Serial ATA (SATA) support │ │
│ │ < > AHCI SATA support (NEW) │ │
│ │ < > ServerWorks Frodo / Apple K2 SATA support │ │
│ │ <*> Intel PIIX/ICH SATA support │ │
│ │ < > NVIDIA SATA support (NEW) │ │
│ │ < > Promise PATA 2027x support (NEW) │ │
│ │ < > Promise PATA 2027x support (NEW) │ │
│ │ < > Promise SATA TX2/TX4 support │ │
│ │ < > Pacific Digital SATA QStor support (NEW) │ │
│ │ <M> Promise SATA SX4 support │ │
│ │ < > Silicon Image SATA support │ │
│ │ <M> SiS 964/180 SATA support │ │
│ │ < > ULi Electronics SATA support (NEW) │ │
│ │ < > VIA SATA support │ │
│ │ < > VITESSE VSC-7174 SATA support │ │
It looks like it should work if whatever you install detects it properly. If you need to use this, this is the path to the drivers: Device Drivers > SCSI device support > SCSI low-level drivers, just in case you need to know that. Also make sure you have your BIOS set up properly before you start the install. From what I have read, that is critical.
Now go install something and let us know how well, , it goes.
Hope all that helps. I'm on a slow dial-up and it takes a while to get all that.
It's an 8006-2LP 3ware RAID card. Well worth the money if you are ever thinking about SATA/RAID/Linux or just JBOD. 100 bucks more, but at least you get to keep the hardware you already have.
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