Re: Motherboard for desktops with preinstalled Debian
On Monday 21 July 2008 12:22, Nuno Magalhães wrote:
> I'm running Sid on an Asus M2NPV-VM:
> http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=101&l3=0&model=1138&modelmenu=1
>
> I'm happy with it but i haven't explored all of its capabilities (tv
> out and front audio for instance). Still, Asus seems like a safe bet.
> The processor is an AMD Athlon64 3500+ (2.2GHz PIB, AM2 socket, 512KB
> cache).
>
> I did need to disable apic when booting the Debian installer,
> something like linux noapic nolapic, otherwise it would freeze
> somewhere along the boot process.
>
> HTH
I recently built a new machine (for the first time) with an Asus M2N-X Plus
mobo, AMD Athlon64 3800+ AM2 CPU. No onboard graphics, but perhaps that's
normal these days, so bought and Asus EAX1550 Silent PCI-express grahics card
(Intel chip). 2x1GB Cruciaal Ballistix RAM.
I couldn't boot any install disks, or live CD's before first disabling ACPI in
the mobo's BIOS. I havn't got Etch on it at the mo, because I only have Woody
discs, and don't want to go through the performance of upgrading from them
again on this new machine. I do have Fedora 8, Archlinux (Don't Panic), and
Kubuntu Gutsy Gibbon 7.10 installed on it though. All with some install, and
post install boot problems.
Now it's a few weeks ago, but I couldn't get Kubuntu GG to install, so looked
through my disks for recent distros, and tried Fedora 8. It installed ok
AFAIR, but wouldn't boot post install. Puzzled, I removed the "rgb quiet" bit
from the kernel line, and found it was hanging at "start ipV6tables",
rebooting into runlevel 1, it was also hanging at "cpu frequency scaling", or
something like that, so I rebooted, and as you are able to do with Fedora,
selected "Interactive mode", and said "No" to a whole bunch of services
starting, that I didn't need, and miracle of miracles it booted up. Quite
which service was causing the problem, I've no idea, but Fedora 8 is running
ok now on this new machine.
then installed Archlinux, and I don't think there were problems with that, but
I think that I've had to append the kernel line with acpi=off. I'll have to
check on that.
Now back to Kubuntu GG. Big problems in little china here. This is basically a
live cd, and when booted has a desktop icon to install the distro to the
harddrive. When you put the disk in, there is an option to append the kernel
boot line, so I tried allsorts of incantations, acpi=off, noapic, nolapic,
and nothing got me off the ground. Earlier on in the kernel boot line was a
bit saying something like "force vesa", which I then removed. Now I know it's
an ATI graphics card, and sometimes there are problems with ATI drivers, so
thought that forcing vesa would be a good backup, and should work, but not in
this case.
Having removed the "force vesa" bit, and adding acpi=off to the kernel line,
Ibooted, and lo, and behold we were on our way. The bootup proceeded, and
tried to startx a couple of times, then dropped me to a command prompt.
Feeling a bit fed up now, I thought I may as try something, and typed startx,
and must say that I was surprised by seeing the KDE desktop starting up.
Clicked on the desktop icon to install to the harddrive, and it installed ok.
I do have to append the kernel line in Grub with acpi=off, as otherwise the
bootup progresses as far as startingx, and kdm, and then everything locks up.
No mouse, no keyboard. The machine has effectively stopped doing anything.
There are still problems though. I did all the updates overnight for
Archlinux, and the following morning the mouse pointer was locked up. The
keyboard was working, so could reboot ok.
I had the same problem with Kubuntu GG, with the mouse pointer locking up.
I've found some ways to resolve the mouse pointer problem, including just
pressing the changeover button on the KVM switch, which effectively takes
power off the mouse, then puts the power back on ( I think that may be a
problem with my A4 tech scrollball mice though).
The lockup problem has progressed now though. I'm currently downloading cd
iso's for Fedora 9 on dialup using my Kubuntu GG. I'm now getting complete
lockups, even during the daytime. No mouse, no keyboard, and the machine has
stopped processing.
Ironically today while running tail -f /var/log/messages, I've been trying to
reproduce the lockup, and perhaps get some printout, as to what's going on,
but no-go. I cannot get the machine to lockup when I want it to. I think it's
put the hex on me.
Enough rambling. the thread's about Asus mobo's. Yes I've had problems
installing, and still problems that may be related to the mouse, and graphics
card that I am using. I've found a source in France for Etch 3 DVD sets, at
15€, which ain't bad, so will order this evening, and see if Etch will
install, and work ok on this new machine.
Apologies for the bandwidth useage.
Nigel.
btw: I'll post back when I get the Etch DVD's, as to any problems installing,
and running on the Asus M2N-X Plus mobo.
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