Re: a couple hardware inquiries

["Timothy Morris" <tdmorris@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Greetings,

In support of the argument against integrated mother boards ...

Before getting into Linux, I bought a machine with the Cyrix MediaGX concept.  The solution to all my Linux problems with that system have come from taking the integrated function from the mother board and replacing them with discreet cards (ie sound).

My remaining problem has gotten worse with Mandrake 7.2 / KDE 2.0.   Displays such as the file managers "smear" when resized or moved.  The remaining integrated function - one that cannot be bypassed - is the built in video card.

It looks like I'm going to have to upgrade the machine or go back to an older distro to render the system useful once again.

Tim




Timothy D. Morris, MS
Department of Family Medicine
tdmorris@med.umich.edu




>>> tvpeterson@cbpu.com - 02/04/2001 13:08 >>>


Adam Tauno Williams wrote:
> 
> >>I'm going to be building a couple machines soon and I was wondering if anybody
> >>has used the Asus A7V motherboard with Linux.  If so, how did it go?  It looks
> >>like a very impressive piece of hardware: 8 IDE devices (2x dma66/100
<snip>
> >Hi Wes, I'm currently building an A7V box, and my biggest problem so far
> >is convincing my old P-90 that I still love it too.
> >Yes, the A7V is impressive, but before you get *too* excited,
> >consider that on the A7V...
<snip>

> 
 Long painful experience has given me a bias against "integrated" junk,
even though it is cheaper up frontr.  If I'm building a box that I hope
will have a reasonable life span, and that I wish to upgrade/expand in
the future I steer toward more "generic" motherboards and add the
components I need, so at least I know "all" about their interaction and
can yank them later and replace them with something else.  Some of these
new wonder-boards can be down right frustrating/confusing when you need
to add/change even the smallest thing.
>

I'll have to agree with you there, Adam, and admit that I have the
classic 
love/hate thing going on with this mobo. It was the 'had I known then
what 
I know now..' response that prompted me to reply to Wes' post. There are 
those who run Linux happily on the A7V, and so far from (very) limited 
personal experience, she can be a screamin' joy when well tuned to her 
demanding caprice. ('course I was running a P-90 before...)
 
> >I'm a bit confused when you say " Scsi firmware (requires additional
> >Asus hardware for Scsi controller, though)" could you please explain ?
> >You *do* have to work with 2 BIOS's, but the hardware is fully
> >integrated. Here's one 'gotcha' to be aware of...The Promise ATA/100
> >controller is treated as a SCSI device, so in your BIOS (The main
> >Phoenix BIOS) you need to be sure to assign "SCSI/onboard ATA Boot
> >Device" ahead of "IDE" in the boot sequence. (as well as setting
> >"Onboard ATA device first" to "yes")
> 
> Wierd?  Any rational for why they do that?

Temporary (I hope) Insanity ?

It was good news to me that an ASUS insider said they had dropped the 
Promise controller for future boards, but I'm not aware of anything on 
the horizon coming out of development yet, so that may not be of much 
use to you right now, Wes.

There are reports, guides, etc... for linux/mobo issues at
http://www.linhardware.com/db/dispproduct.php3?DISP?2221

Hope it helps.

Beast Regards, 
Thera