Motherboard Suggestion

[UnStable]

Well I've been trying to setup linux as a file sharing server in my apartment for the past few days with little success. After a lot of looking around it appears that my motherboard is the reason, it's a Soyo 5ema+ and doesn't appear to be supported. So I'm looking for some suggestions for a new motherboard (fairly cheap) that I can use all the rest of my old components on. I've got the following hardware so far:

AMD K6-2 400
Riva TNT2 Ultra 32 MB
Western Digital 6 Gig HD
Maxtor 30 Gig HD
Samsung 80 Gig HD

My plan is to use that stuff (which I had lying around from old comps) and make a file server, it really doesn't need to be very powerful. I was planning on installing the OS and any programs on the WD HD, and using the 30 and 80 gig just for files. I just need a suggestion or two on a good MB to buy for it. I plan on using either RH 7.3 or Mandrake 8.2, haven't decided which yet, if that matters.

Thanks
-UnStable

[demian]

What's wrong with the board. I just punched in Soyo 5ema+ into google.com/linux and came up with a lot of sites reporting how they are happily hacking away with this very mainboard.

[UnStable]

Well maybe it isn't the board, I am having trouble with it freezing at random points during the install, after I choose the packages to install, but before I get to Xconfig to setup the rest of the stuff. I tried flashing the bios with the newest update and that didn't seem to help. I checked soyo's site and I couldn't find anything that mentioned it being compatible with linux so I figured it would be the thing to replace. I was trying with the following configurations (fewest things as possible to minimize conflicts)

Soyo 5EMA+ MB
AMD K6-2 400
Riva TNT2 Ultra 32 MB AGP
WD 6 Gig HD
Generic 52X CD-Rom
Generic Floppy Drive
NEC PC-100 SDRAM 128 MB

If the motherboard is not the problem, I can rule that out. RedHat says that K6 chips are supported. The Video card is found during installation, so I doubt that is the problem. I don't use the floppy during installation, so I can take that out if needed. I assume the CD-Rom works since it seems to work up until the installation part (I'm installing off a CD). I don't know how to test any of the stuff that is not on redhat's page of supported hardware.

I don't have the other 2 hard drives installed yet, saving those until I get the system up and running. I'm also using a KVM switch, but installation find my mouse, keyboard and monitor, and they all work during the installation process, until it freezes. If you have any ideas of what might be the problem please let me know.

Thanks
-UnStable

[mdwatts]

Have you tried installing without using the KVM switch? Could be worth a try.

[UnStable]

Originally posted by mdwatts
Have you tried installing without using the KVM switch? Could be worth a try.

Well I just downloaded Mandrake 8.2 last night and it installed today on the first try. Not sure what is wrong with the RH install, but I'm not going to reformat to try and figure it out.

-UnStable

[UnStable]

Hm, when I looked on soyo's site it said the 5EMA+ would support up to an 80 gig drive. I haven't installed it yet, but I'm hoping that I don't have to buy an IDE controller. Did you have the latest bios when it didn't recognize your card?

-UnStable

[UnStable]

Well mine is reading at 32 gigs on bootup. Is there someway to tell linux that it is really 80 gigs, or am I going to need to buy a controller? Running Mandrake 8.2

-UnStable

[bwkaz]

If you boot to the Mandrake install CD, but only go to the part where it shows you your current partition setup, it should show you the size it thinks your hard drive is.

The BIOS on the family computer only shows 8gigs of space for their 30gig drive, but Windows 98SE and Linux both know it's bigger. I think some BIOSes don't tell the user the same thing they tell the OS... :rolleyes:

[Floog]

Originally posted by thayne
wont see my 80 gig drive. I had to put a promise ata/100 pci IDE controler in it to make it work. But it runs fine, no problems at all

Holy Smokes, I never thought of this. Great idea. I have a k6-2 300 mhz box sitting around that I've been thinking about using as a data storage center for my lan and also to maybe provide some small-time ftp services. My mobo. doesn't understand a world bigger than 8 gigs., so this is definitely the solution.

Thanks for shining the flashlight over my way. :-)

Mike