Linux Experts Needed To Analyse This.

[Rubicone]

I am planning on installing Mandrake's Linux 7.1 and have yet to look at whether or not I may encounter conflicts or problems finding drivers for the components listed below. Is anyone willing to perform an analysis and let me know what I can do to possibly avoid any problems and/or conflicts? Would using a different version of Linux have any effect? I am currently running a dual boot system with Win 98 SE in my primary partition, Win 2000 Professional in the first logical drive of my extendend partition and have allocated about 10 GB for Linux as the second logical drive in the same partition.
Also, since I have never installed any Linux OS I would like some comment on what I can expect in terms of what I will see, whether or not I need to do some reading before going through this (cite web sources). I am constantly hearing of people having problems and aborting the whole process.
CPU: Intel Pentium III 800 EB FCPGA 800MHz
Motherboard: ASUS CUSL2-C
Memory: 128 MB SDRAM INFINEON PC 133
Video Card: ATI DDR Radeon 32 MB
Hard Drive: IBM 75 GXP 45.0 GB @ 7200 RPMS
Monitor: Samsung 700IFT
CDR/CDRW Manufacturer & Model: Plextor 12x10x32
Sound Card: Sound Blaster Live Value

[ASCI Blue]

Check out www.rage3d.com (http://www.rage3d.com) they'll give you Radeon info. I think that the newest version of Xfree has Radeon support.

[always_today]

i have never had to find drivers (but i run low-tech), but Mandrake has alot of compatibility, if your unable to get windows to boot, you can always boot from disk, as i unable to get silly NT to boot Linux, even after editing boot.ini i am pretty sure i wrote over NT's boot sector. :rolleyes:

[ethereal]

I something about your hardware.

hard drive/moniter/motherboard/memory are all very generic, you shoudn't run into problems regardless what OS you use.


There is Radeon Support, and OpenGL either current or planned.It should run out of the box, but with no OpenGL support. (I can't guarantee this though). I'm guessing Mandrake will use the vesa drivers, with should work with any modern card.

My friend has a plextor CD Burner that works fine in Linux, shouldn't be any problems there.

Exact same card I have. I haven't had any problems with it.

Recap, The only possible problem I see is your video card, but with a little time it should work fine.

[Rubicone]

Where exactly did you go to find the drivers for the various components - in particular the video card as ATI does not provide them for Linux?

[ASCI Blue]

I just got drake 7.2 installed. It doesn't detect my Radeon as a Radeon but the desktop is at 1024x768.

[Rubicone]

If Mandrake doesn't detect your video card how is it possible for it to work?

[Tyr-7BE]

Originally posted by Rubicone:
If Mandrake doesn't detect your video card how is it possible for it to work?

Linux is kinda funny that way. Drivers for various chipsets will work on a variety of hardware. My D-Link 530TX NIC works on a via-rhine driver because it's based on a Via-Rhine chipset. Mandrake seems to attempt to assign the hardware to the closest driver available, which usually works.

[njcajun]

Linux is not like windoze when it comes to hardware, really. Windoze NT for example, came out in like '94, so any new hardware you have will require you to do some magic to get it installed. Get the drivers, install the drivers, reboot, reboot, reboot... it's a mess.

In linux, as new hardware is tested and drivers are written, those drivers are submitted as modules or whatever that can be packaged with the kernel or downloaded separately to be loaded into the kernel.

I have installed Linux on tons of boxes, and it's quite rare that I ever have to download anything to get everything running. The only thing I ever had to get was the Glide stuff for a 3dfx Voodoo card, to get it to really do crazy-funky stuff.

I have never run into issues using the equipment you've listed, and I've installed machines with all of those parts. That box is similar to one I just built:

PIII 800
ASUS CUV4X Motherboard
384MB RAM
48x cd

blah, blah, blah. I actually just installed a CD burner, but I bought a SCSI adapter and got an external drive. I've used other burners too... The IDE ones take a little playing with to get them to burn, but overall, as far as the install goes, it should be pretty smooth.

ASUS motherboards and IBM drives are my favorite for Linux boxes, though intel motherboards and Seagate drives are close seconds. I don't care for Maxtor or Western Digital, and I won't use a no-name motherboard.

[Rubicone]

May I have some comments on the installation process and the differences with loading Windows? If I download the latest version of Mandrake can I simply do so to my E drive which is currently lying there all empty and formated?

[GodSpiral]

You're risking having problems by using drake 7.1 instead of 7.2

for one, your hd is over 32GB, which is a magic number some distros have probs with. LM7.2 had no probs with my 30gb hd, with root partition at the 25gb mark.

your sound is supported.
video may not be accelerated for a while (don't actually know) but it will turn on.

With your large HD, I'd try a very recent distro or even a beta one instead.

[mairving]

I have actually had more problems with Mandrake 7.2 than with either 7.0 or 7.1. I am sure it has something to do with XFree86 4.0. It setups fine but it will not load X. It's a pretty simple system, P200 w/diamond stealth 2000 3D Pro video card. Anyway it could be worse. I started Linux a couple of years ago with OpenLinux. I happened to have a Voodoo Banshee video card which I never could get to work. Mandrake 7.0 worked right off the bat.

[mychl]

I agree with mairving...
I had 7.2, but went back to 7.1.

As for your drives, I would make a partition on your empty drive for Linux, Swap, and one for mp3's :D

[jrbush82]

if u guys select expert install, at the end of the installation you can pick what xf86 server is installed for madrake 7.2

As for your SBLive Value card Rubicone, it should work fine, as long as you install or have the emu10k1 drivers installed for it, and you are using ANALOG speakers, and not digital... problem I ran into... =-

[Kinjana]

Rubicone,

You should be fine -- as everyone above has said.

I just wanted to add a couple things

First MAKE SURE that in your bios settings the PnP aware os is set to off.

Otherwise, The soundblaster live will likely not work.

Second, just go install it and see what happens

If you run into problems post them and we will help --

Just in case you're worried about jacking up windows, don't be, if your system gets hosed plug in a windows boot floppy and type "fdisk /mbr" and you will wipe lilo from the system and you can start over.

Second, although some above disagree I'm running mandrake 7.2 on two machines and an quite happy with it -- I highly recommend you this version

Kinj

[Molecule Man]

The Radeon uses XFree86 4.0.2, but if you get a GUI install you should be fine on that account, as Mandrake should set up framebuffer for you.

If you don't, then do a text install and download the XFree binaries. Just follow the readme, and hit enter for default answer to every question. You might want to do this anyways. The other option is to get the latest SuSE, or wait for MDK 8 to come out of beta.

I don't advise anyone that is not competent in Linux to use a Beta distro, at least beyond just installing it. I Beta'ed MDK7.2 and had to manually set up most of my system just for simple things like sound or printing. Everything was a mess, but a good learning experience.

[navy-linux]

I am running Mandrake 7.2. Had no problems during the install. i am running an older system. PC Chips M/B, AMD K6-300 cpu, S3d video card, ESS sound card. US Robitics modem.
You did not mention what kind of modem you have, or how you will access the internet with this box once you have Linux installed? If your on the board long enough, you will see that winmodems are not supported in linux. You need to have a modem that is hardware controlled and not controlled by software(winmodem).
Just do it, and have fun

:rolleyes: