Hi,
I'll be upgrading my computer soon. I'd like to know if mini-ATX
boards which have onboard sound & onboard video (video card integrated
on the motherboard) are OK with linux?

For example, would the ASRock K7VM4 be allright? Will I have a hell
of a time getting it to work with Mandrake 9.2 & Suse 9.0? What
worries me is that I don't think the mobo manufacturer provides Linux
drivers for their onboard video/sound.

Another choice I was thinking of is the Asus A7V8X-MX. Again I don't
know if they provide linux drivers.

Does anyone have either of the above boards and using onboard video &
audio while running mandrake & suse?

Do you think its a better idea to buy a regular ATX board and the
sound & video card separately to prevent driver availability problems?
It would add to the cost of the system though...

On Fri, 27 Feb 2004 13:10:26 +0000, zalzon wrote:

> Hi,
> I'll be upgrading my computer soon. I'd like to know if mini-ATX
> boards which have onboard sound & onboard video (video card integrated
> on the motherboard) are OK with linux?
>
> For example, would the ASRock K7VM4 be allright? Will I have a hell
> of a time getting it to work with Mandrake 9.2 & Suse 9.0? What
> worries me is that I don't think the mobo manufacturer provides Linux
> drivers for their onboard video/sound.
>
> Another choice I was thinking of is the Asus A7V8X-MX. Again I don't
> know if they provide linux drivers.
>

I have tested A7V8X-MX with 2000XP in it with the MandrakeMove
with no additional hardware and it was working right away,
connected to internet with no hesitations, and sound was working
good, played audio cd perfect,
however wait for others opinions as I'm a very new to linux,
and at the moment i have a different mobo in my comp
as that one was taken away from me by my kids :-(

greetings
Andy


> Does anyone have either of the above boards and using onboard video &
> audio while running mandrake & suse?
>
> Do you think its a better idea to buy a regular ATX board and the
> sound & video card separately to prevent driver availability problems?
> It would add to the cost of the system though...

zalzon wrote:

> Hi,
> I'll be upgrading my computer soon. I'd like to know if mini-ATX
> boards which have onboard sound & onboard video (video card integrated
> on the motherboard) are OK with linux?
>
> For example, would the ASRock K7VM4 be allright? Will I have a hell
> of a time getting it to work with Mandrake 9.2 & Suse 9.0? What
> worries me is that I don't think the mobo manufacturer provides Linux
> drivers for their onboard video/sound.
>
> Another choice I was thinking of is the Asus A7V8X-MX. Again I don't
> know if they provide linux drivers.
>
> Does anyone have either of the above boards and using onboard video &
> audio while running mandrake & suse?
>
> Do you think its a better idea to buy a regular ATX board and the
> sound & video card separately to prevent driver availability problems?
> It would add to the cost of the system though...

I just bought an Asus A7V8X-MX, and am in the process of setting up MDK on
it. The motherboard User's Manual states: "This motherboard supports
Windows 98SE/ME/2000/Xp as well as Linux Red Hat, SuSE, TurboLinux and
Caldera operating systems (OS). ......"
Unfortunately, the drivers CD includes only drivers for Windows.

VIA, at http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=296#km400 has driver info for Linux,
but it seems to be a very complicated process.
After some fiddling, I managed to get a GUI without getting the proper
drivers but, when I get the rest of the system running properly, I will go
back and get the correct drivers.

Now for a problem, which may or may not have to do with this motherboard:

I am not new to Linux, and have had MDK 9.0 running on a Dell computer for
quite a while, and it is stable. I am, however, having some problems with
the setup on the new computer. I think that the problems have one source,
and I can't seem to resolve it.

The computer will not boot from the hard drive. When I boot from a floppy, I
can run KDE but, of course, some things are not running.
I first installed MDK 9.0, then tried a clean install of 9.2, with exactly
the same results. If I specify hda1 at bootup, I get the error message,
"couldn't find kernel image:hda1"
the hard drive is a new Seagate 7200.7 12GB, partitioned by MDK.
In Mandrake Control Center, Mount Points, hda1 is shown as "partition booted
by default (for MS-DOS boot, not for lilo)." This is exactly the same as on
the computer running 9.0.
Something strange here, which I can't seem to get around.
Any ideas greatly appreciated.

Don Oliver

zalzon wrote:

> Hi,
> I'll be upgrading my computer soon. I'd like to know if mini-ATX
> boards which have onboard sound & onboard video (video card integrated
> on the motherboard) are OK with linux?
>
> For example, would the ASRock K7VM4 be allright? Will I have a hell
> of a time getting it to work with Mandrake 9.2 & Suse 9.0? What
> worries me is that I don't think the mobo manufacturer provides Linux
> drivers for their onboard video/sound.
>
> Another choice I was thinking of is the Asus A7V8X-MX. Again I don't
> know if they provide linux drivers.
>
> Does anyone have either of the above boards and using onboard video &
> audio while running mandrake & suse?
>
> Do you think its a better idea to buy a regular ATX board and the
> sound & video card separately to prevent driver availability problems?
> It would add to the cost of the system though...

I have an Asus A7V8X and an A7V8X-X running MDK 9.2 just fine.

Mandrake will have all of the drivers to make to board work. I think even
the 9.2.1 version has SATA drivers for that board, I am using eide though.
Sound works find on the Asus, neither boards have onboard video for me.

Asrock is a cheaper board right? I have never bought one, however I find
that it is best to spend a little more on the board........and get quality.

I have had problems with ECS boards with both windows and Linux. Asus has
always been great, and I have had very good success with Gigabyte.

Robert

zalzon wrote:

> Hi,
> I'll be upgrading my computer soon. I'd like to know if mini-ATX
> boards which have onboard sound & onboard video (video card integrated
> on the motherboard) are OK with linux?
>
> For example, would the ASRock K7VM4 be allright? Will I have a hell
> of a time getting it to work with Mandrake 9.2 & Suse 9.0? What
> worries me is that I don't think the mobo manufacturer provides Linux
> drivers for their onboard video/sound.
>
> Another choice I was thinking of is the Asus A7V8X-MX. Again I don't
> know if they provide linux drivers.
>
> Does anyone have either of the above boards and using onboard video &
> audio while running mandrake & suse?
>
> Do you think its a better idea to buy a regular ATX board and the
> sound & video card separately to prevent driver availability problems?
> It would add to the cost of the system though...


go to linux.mandrake.com and read about the little computer that comes
with Mandrake Discovery.

its quite awesome

On Fri, 27 Feb 2004 09:54:26 -0600, andy <fake@fake.net> wrote:


>I have tested A7V8X-MX with 2000XP in it with the MandrakeMove

Would you mind installing Mandrake 9.2 and letting me know?

Fri, 27 Feb 2004 13:10:26 UTC, zalzon <zalzon@zalzonishappy.com> Noted:

> Another choice I was thinking of is the Asus A7V8X-MX. Again I don't
> know if they provide linux drivers.

Hi. Great place for questions like this is...

alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus

Ron Gibson wrote:

> Fri, 27 Feb 2004 13:10:26 UTC, zalzon <zalzon@zalzonishappy.com> Noted:
>
>> Another choice I was thinking of is the Asus A7V8X-MX. Again I don't
>> know if they provide linux drivers.
>
> Hi. Great place for questions like this is...
>
> alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus


Thanks for the pointer, Ron

Don Oliver

On Sat, 28 Feb 2004 15:47:24 +0000, zalzon wrote:

> On Fri, 27 Feb 2004 09:54:26 -0600, andy <fake@fake.net> wrote:
>
>
>>I have tested A7V8X-MX with 2000XP in it with the MandrakeMove
>
> Would you mind installing Mandrake 9.2 and letting me know?

Hi,
as I said the board has been taken away from me
by my kids, so i cannot do it now, and they are not interested,
despite my efforts, to switch to Linux,

when I tried MandrakeMove on it
my hardware was as follow:

1.the above said motherboard
with Audio on board Enabled
with Lan on board Enabled

2.AMD ATHLON XP 2000+ 1.67GHZ 256K 266FSB

3. Samsung 2 x 256Mb DDR pc2700

4.30GB Maxtor

5.6.4 Gb WD

6.Plextor 8/4/32 CD-RW

7.Samsung laser printer model ML-1210
detected and working very good,

8.Hp Scanjet 4400c - detected as scanner, but NOT SUPPORTED !

9.Olympus D-52 Zoom camera
detected as USB mass storage,
so I was capable to access its pictures (in jpg format)

on my second trial I have disabled Audio and Lan on board
and installed CreativeLabs Snd card PCI 128 - worked good
but i cannot state anything about sound quality
as I'm hard of hearing (at 80% lost)
For lan I had DFE- 538 - worked good

at the moment I'm running MDK 9.2
with following chages to that hardware setup,
my mobo is Epox 8KHA+, generic ram,
above mentioned Snd card and Lan
and slower cpu AMD 1700xp,
for video I have MSI GF2 mx420
(since i do not play games i did not install
3d accelaration drivers)
all other components the same,
System runs very good. (but the scanner)

Take care
Andy