I'm going to buy a new system and I was wondering if it would work on linux and how I should compile my kernel for it. I'm using Archlinux so I have to do most of the configuration myself.

AMD Athlon XP 2500+ -> should work?

ASUS a7N8X Deluxe -> according to some review this should work, although you have to install proprietary drivers for lan and vga to work?? does the onboard sound on this thing work and how do I compile my kernel for thisone? it's an nvidia soundstorm chipset.

2x Apacer 256MB ram pc3200 400mhz -> no problems I suppose

MSI Geforce FX5600 (vtdr128) 128mb ddr dvi + Video IN/ TV OUT -> the geforce should work with nv drivers and nvidia's own drivers, but the msi multimedia system, is that supported? and does the video in work under linux?

Maxtor Diamondmax plus 9 120 GB SATA -> I'm concerned with the SATA on thisone, I've seen that there are a lot of problems with SATA... Is it possible to install and use a linux distro on a sata disk or not?

The rest should all work - HP Deskjet 5550 works right?

I hope someone could help me out, or point me to information about this - and I already googled for it, but I only get distro specific hardware lists :/

The only points of concern, the rest is stock kit... is the multimedia festival of stuff on that MSI board (the rest will work, Nvidia rocks!), and the SATA drive. What's the SATA chipset on the Asus board? Is it the Intel ICH5? Or the Silicon Image chipset? or what?

To get in-kernel support for the agp bridge and the chipset, and maybe even the nic, without having to hit up Nvidia for drivers... all of that goop is in the -ac tree right now, and works as far as I can tell... and you'll probably have to do a compile of 2.4.22-acX anyway to get full support out of the SATA chipset if its an ICH5.

Cheers,

Finegan

The sata controller for that motherboard is a Silicon Image Sil 3112A

I have no problem using that kernel, but my biggest concern is if my distribution (archlinux) will recognize this HD when I want to install it -> the installer does not use the 2.4.22-ac kernel...

I have read where people are having problems with SATA. I even saw on one website where it said the kernal does not support it. Sorry, can't remember which distro. You need to do a little checking there. Try a search for SATA here and justlinux.com, Mandrakeusers.org. I read it on one of these forums.

You may also want to check http://www.linuxcompatible.org/index.html. They may list your hardware and they also have a forum you can look in. I have seen where some get it to work. I think it has to do with the chipset. Maybe the chipset does the work without the OS's knowing it even uses SATA.

I also read where it should be supported in some new versions of kernel. May be out soon.

Good luck.

You might even have better luck running one of the 2.6 test kernels for the time being, although, I think most of the drivers that will be in 2.6 have found their way into the newest 2.4.

slight

2.4.21 and above has native Silicon Image support, if Arch has an install disk set for that kernel, your fine.

Cheers,

Finegan