Originally Posted by suicidaleggroll

What chipset are you looking at?
I've built a lot of Linux machines and have never run into an incompatibility problem with the SATA controller. I'm sure there are a couple that have problems, but it's going to be rare.

Originally Posted by disturbed1

You haven't built too many than
Some LSI, and JMicron chipsets have known issues. Anything from bad/wrong NCQ parameters, borked ATAPI protocol (Nvidia MCP's are famous for this), incompatibilities on 1.5 chips with some 3.0 drives ..... <-- These are mainly the 'extra' SATA controllers suicidaleggroll was talking about.

Originally Posted by suicidaleggroll

What chipset are you looking at?
I've built a lot of Linux machines and have never run into an incompatibility problem with the SATA controller. I'm sure there are a couple that have problems, but it's going to be rare.

Originally Posted by cascade9

I'm not quite sure what you are looking for....

If its SATA hardware features, they havent really changed.

If its motherobards with SATA support under linux, that is farily easy. The Intel ICH* southbridges and newer Intel 'iX' chipsets support SATA under linux. With AMD, SB6** SB7**, SB8** and SB9** southbridges support SATA under linux. (SB*** southbridges are found on all current ATI/AMD chipset boards).

While you will find lots of motherboards that have 'extra' SATA controllers, almost all of them are junk, even under windows. Under linux they are generally terrible....just use the intel or AMD SATA controllers (well, unless you want/need real hardware raid, but you wont be finding that on non-server motherboards).

Originally Posted by suicidaleggroll

Those aren't Linux incompatibilities, those are hardware problems/bugs that will have issues regardless of the OS.

The OP was asking about controllers that were supported in Linux, implying there are some controllers out there that are designed correctly and work in other OSs, but aren't supported in Linux, of which I've never found any.

Originally Posted by cascade9

I've run linux on a GA-870A-UD3.

As long as you arent planning on using a very old distro (eg, RHEL 5.X) the 870/SB850 chipset should get full support. (even then is possible that the 870/SB850 chip will work, I havent really checked if RHEL 5.X does have support for the SB850 or backward compatibility if it doesnt)

BTW, its a pity that the GA-870A-USB3 is hard to find, in some ways I'd prefer it to the GA-870A-UD3- less add-on crap like JMicron JMB362 eSATA chips.



AFAIK there are more problems with linux and some of those controllers (mainly JMicron, stuff like that) than there is with windows. I know I've used some eSATA port that was a bit dodgy under windows, butworked. With linux it was unsable. Been so long that I cant be sure what controller it was, but I *think* it was JMicron (suprise, suprise).

Sure, with stuff like the nVidia making 'cut down' chipsets with missing SATA features (mainly done to 'push' people to the more expensive nVidia chipsets) its a technical limit, and is OS-agnostic.

Originally Posted by cascade9

KDE 4.X has been around so long that pretty much all KDE distros use it.

Gnome 2.X is dead. While you will find some distros that still have gnome 2.X, your looking at the last of them. Pretty much all distros released from now on with gnome will use gnome 3.

Exception- there is 'trinty', a KDE 3.X fork and 'mate desktop' a gnome 2.X fork (both made to keep projects going that no longer have support from the original teams).

http://www.trinitydesktop.org/
https://github.com/Perberos/Mate-Desktop-Environment

IMO you should check out Xfce/Lxde, and some of the other desktops.

Just checked a few of the distros-

Polippix 2.1- KDE 4.X
NetSecL- hasnt used KDE as a defualt deskto since 2008. Current version used LXDE, 3.0 uses Gnome 2.X.
Toorox- uses KDE 4.X (there was 2 versions with gnome 2.X. Current releases has gnome 3)
Simply Mepis 8.0- used KDE 3.X, but if its not 'end of life' yet, but since it will be soon (based on debian stable 5.0. Debian used to drop 'old stable' 1 year after 'new stable' wasreleased, and debian 6.0 came out in feb 2011).

A couple for them are hard to get info on (Vatlator 2.0) and a couple

Mepis 8.0 might well have issues with SB8**, debian 5.0 is pretty old, older than the release of the SB8** souhbridge.It all depends on backward comptibility. Everything else as far as I can see should be OK with SB8** no matter what (mind you, it would depend on the version with some of them).

If you want to run 'obsolete' desktops like KDE 3.X/trinity, or Gnome 2.X/mate, IMO you are far better off looking at some of the bigger, more 'technical' distros (that doesnt make them hard). Slackware and debian for sure, maybe arch or gentoo. Its easier to get slackware or debian to use 'odd' setups like trinty/mate, they are more likely to have support and the packages in the repos (or easy access to the packages by another method)

SB7** and SB8** should do eSATA (you just have to change an interal port to external, not hard, alls thats needed is a the cabling for SATA-eSATA, and a backplate if your case doesnt have an eSATA port). I think even SB6** should do eSATA, never really hada good look.

Its getting pretty hard to impossible to find a board with a SB6** southbridge new these days. SB7** is still around, but mostly on older stock or the real cheap junk.

BTW, you seemt o have some basic plan/setup you want to run- how about posting it (and maybe your location as well).

Originally Posted by disturbed1

https://ata.wiki.kernel.org/
See if that has what you're looking for.

Originally Posted by Tecolote

While my Google research has failed to answer the question of which release to buy of my targeted distros having KDE 3 or Gnome 2, it has made me aware that a pernicious effort is underway to remove the ability to choose these versions over KDE 4 & Gnome 3. Which is why I'm trying to acquire these CDs/DVDs before my hardware research is fully done.

Originally Posted by Tecolote

I'm aware of the other desktops. Damn Small Linux has JWM or Fluxbox. Evil Entity 2.5 has Enlightenment. Fortress Linux has XFCE, LXDE, & Openbox. All are on my trial list, so I'm not totally opposed to strange desktops. I just think Gnome will be easier for me to teach myself, and for KDE...the more I find out about it the more I like it. In opposition, I never liked Gnome 3 or KDE 4 from the start, and the more I see and read, the less inclined I am to like it. My research indicates I'm not the only one either.

Originally Posted by Tecolote

Right now, finding out about Linux Mint, Ultimate Edition,and PinguyOS is the top priority (i.e. which distro release is the latest/most recent one having KDE 3 and/or Gnome 2). One of these three will become my primary, so I need to move quickly to buy proper DVDs/CDs of these before its too late. Thanks for telling me about Mepis...I'll move it up to top priority also!

Originally Posted by Tecolote

My location is Bay Area California. I've not posted my setup yet as its still in flux. Hardware research is about 80% done, but could change as new info becomes available. For example, your tip about the motherboard southbridge chips means some motherboards I was considering were eliminated, a few others I never considered were added, and your info on eSATA also rearranges list preference. I'm not sure its wise to post my planned build just yet, least something causes a radical overhaul. I can say that this one thing has not changed since the beginning. I fully intend on having at least two (probably three) hard disk drives...at least one (maybe all) mobile-rack type. I will require XP Pro on one hard disc (maybe with BrowserLinux on partition). It is the OS I taught myself to use at library; without it my PC will be a useless overlarge paperweight, til I can teach myself Linux or Windows 2000, so no choice there.

Originally Posted by cascade9

'Pernicious', not really. But lots of people have that opinion.

The KDE and gnome devs have both dropped support for versions you want to run (KDE 3.X and Gnome 2.X), in the case of KDE 3.X support was dropped ages ago. Gnome 2.X is in midst of being dropped for Gnome 3, and while that process is ongoing you can still find gnome 2.X distros/versions of distros. But it is only a question of time untill Gnome 2.X is no more.



Why do you think that gnome would be asier to learn to use? If you havent had enough experience that you are still in the 'learn to use' stage, dont not even bother with gnome 2.X IMO. Its just asking to make your life more difficult in the future, due to gnome 2.X being dropped.

Try Xfce, its very easy to learn, and wont be dropped anytime soon.

I dont know where you are getting your list of distros to try, some of them seem to be among the usual suspects when someone asks for a 'beginners' linux distor (Linux Mint, PinguyOS, Ultimate Edition). Some of them are old, and some of them are dead-



http://distrowatch.com/table.php?dis...ion=evilentity

The only EvilEntity version even listed at distrowatch is 0.2.5, relased 2003/01/25. That is over 8.5 years old, a very long time in the world of linux distros.



Umm.....wires crossed maybe? Mepis 8.0 does have KDE 3.X, but it will be out of support soon (probably feb 2012). IMO its not even worth trying to get a copy to run it for less than 4 months....Later versions of mepis will have KDE 4.X.

PingyOS, Ultimate Edition and Linux Mint are all based on ubuntu. Ubuntu used to use Gnome 2.X, but is slowly changing to 'unity' (a different desktop). Mint probably wont be going to unity anytime soon, though that could change in the future. It probably will move to gnome 3.

PingyOS 11.04 uses gnome 2.X, but the new 11.10beta version is using gnome 3.

Ultimate edition has had some serious issues lately, mainly political IIRC. The current version (2.9) uses gnome 2.X, but when (if!) there is an updated version based on ubuntu 11.10 or later, it will be using unity and/or gnome 3 as well. BTW, 2.9 is based on ubuntu 10.10, due to the ubuntu lifecycle 2.9 will only be supported till april 2012. Again, IMO its not worth even getting a CD/DVD for a distro that will be end of life in less than 6 months....



Windows 2000 is out of support (no more security fixes) so its not an option anymore-



http://support.microsoft.com/ph/1131

You want XP Pro? Better get a floppy drive, or learn to mod an install disc with nlite. XP doesnt support AHCI mode with newer SATA drives 'out of the box', so unles the driver is aded with nlite or loaded from a floppy dueing the install process, you will need to use 'IDE mdoe' for your SATA HDDs and optical drives. IDE mode 'cripples' SATA, not only making it slightly slower but also removing features like hotswapping (which you will need for attaching or removing STA HDDs on the fly).

Hopefully you didnt discard 8**/SB850 chipset boards due to my advice......

Rather than running around trying to get gnome 2.X distros with limited life remaining, or possibly out of support already, I'd suggest trying debian 6.0. You can get Xfce 'out of the box' if you get the 'right' install CD. By defualt it uses gnome 2.X, but I still think its crazy to 'get used to gnome 2.X' now. Trinity (KDE 3.X fork) is an easy install.

Debian 6.0 should work just fine with SB850 southbridges.

BTW, I did some checking, the SB6**/7**/8** (and even SB9**) should work with any kernel version 2.6.25+ (which is very, very old as far as linux kernels go).