Anyone running Linux on this motherboard - Asus P5Q deluxe?

[Diss]

Anyone running Linux on this motherboard - Asus P5Q deluxe?

Only i've seen mention of problems with ubuntu:

1) no drivers for the LAN - i assume this means i can't even connect it to my router

2) if you are an Ubuntu user it won't install without switching the SATA mode from IDE to AHCI. Is this a simple BIOS change or something more complex?

3) express gate doesn't have much in the way of wireless drivers so unless you hook it up with a cable the express gate internet wont work, and being closed you cant install the drivers even if you have them.

Anyone able to comment on any of these points?

many thanks

Diss

 

[BillytheImpaler]

What does lspci say the wired network chipset is? In the Edgy era I couldn't use Ubuntu without using a custom kernel because it didn't come with support for the Marvell network adapter in my Gigabyte GA-P965-DS3. They fixed this in Gutsy. I found the DS3-specific kernel on the Ubuntu forums. I'm usually quite happy I buy popular mobos because of things like this; if there's a large user community you're much more likely to be able to find great support.

As I just wrote in a thread:

Be sure to drop the manufacturer of the hardware that doesn't work a note asking them to support Linux. They provide drivers for Windows; Microsoft doesn't have to do a thing. Linux hackers have been writing their own drivers for these things with remarkable success, but without the proper hardware documentation it'll always be a reverse-engineered hack.

For Linux to get big we need hardware vendors to remember that we exist! Every time some piece of hardware is poorly supported you should let the manufacturer and the distribution maintainers know about it. If nobody tells them they may never know that the thing doesn't work.

It should be a simple BIOS change. Windows requires drivers for it though so if you're dual booting it may complicate things. You should ask a Windows disk hardware guru about switching on an existing installation. If you were doing a fresh install of XP you would have to do the old F6-while-installing trick and load drivers from a quaint floppy.

Express gate is that Splashtop embedded Linux OS, isn't it? I'm frankly shocked Asus won't support their own hardware in a setup where they have complete control of hardware and software. Are WLAN drivers available for it at all? Maybe they don't include the kernel module(s) due to fear of a GPL violation. If they are available can you download them on another machine and install them from a disk?

 

[ChrissyT88]

I have had this mobo a few weeks now with Ubuntu 8.04 installed:

1) Have not had any problems using the lan port(s) and wasnt aware of any (glad i wasnt!) - happily connected to a netgear switch and then through a router (netgear) to get to the internet, although we do not have a computer-to-computer network, so i'm afraid i do not know if this is an issue.

2) This is definitely an issue - took quite a while for me to work out why it wouldnt install at all! Switching to AHCI in the bios does solve all problems (still gives the same error message, but works!), but certianly this was not a problem that was fixed by the first few official BIOS releases. Over on the p5q thread, cob suggested this was because the linux kernel had not been updated for p45 boards yet - not sure if this is correct. I am also not sure if this is an issue with other distros - i havent tried any distros other than ubuntu, but i know some ubuntu issues with asus kit (namely xonar sound cards) are not present with other distros (i think fedora was mentioned).

3) I am using a wired set up, but would imagine that without the asus wifi-ap boards, wirelessly connecting with express gate would be pretty hard! I dont think they have released a newer version of expressgate since the launch of the board (i may be wrong), but there is no option in the version preinstalled on my mobo to add extra drivers. Probably worth mentioning that expressgate (currently) does not have support for high resolutions - i have a 24" screen and it cannot display at the native res. Tbh, this isnt too much of a problem for quick browsing, but i find if i plan to spend any time at all on the internet i would prefer to boot properly into linux/windows and do it at the correct res! As such, for me, express gate has not been hugely useful.

Hope this has been useful - other than the initial AHCI problem, i have not had any problems really, and wouldnt hesitate to recommend the board - clocks well, has plenty of features and is very stable.

 

[Diss]

thanks guys, very helpful

a few more questions though....

on BillytheImpaler comments
"Windows requires drivers for it though so if you're dual booting it may complicate things."
Do you mean just for the windows install as you describe below - or do you mean it has an impact on the linux install?

"If you were doing a fresh install of XP you would have to do the old F6-while-installing trick and load drivers from a quaint floppy."
It will be a new installation - do you know if i can load the drivers from a CD or USB stick only i wasn't planning on installing a floppy drive. Also, where would i get these winXP drivers drivers from? Also also, i can't recall if XP comes with SATA drivers or do i need to install these at F6 as well?


on ChrissyT88 comments
Am i right in thinking that switching on AHCI in BIOS just enables SATA hotplugging in both windows and linux. Or are you saying that doing this just let you do the install of Ubuntu but you then had to do other stuff in Ubuntu to enable hot plugging?

I have a wired connection to a netgear router so should be ok by the sound of it - pretty sure i'm going to buy this now.



On the subject of dual booting am i right in thinking i should:

1) format part of the drive only and install XP on it
2) then install Ubuntu on the empty space?
3) this should install grub and all work ok

thanks again

Diss

 

[ChrissyT88]

To be honest, im not entirely sure what sata-hotplugging is (i guess its probably 'as its name suggests' though...). If you do not enable AHCI in the bios, upon trying to boot from the disk, Ubuntu gives the error "PCI BIOS BUG FOUND [then some long string of numbers]", before going into a command line based busybox shell. Im not sure if it is possible to continue the installation from here, but im not exactly a linux expert, so was a little out of my depth. If you enable AHCI in the bios, then ubuntu still reports that there is a PCI bios bug, but the install will continue anyway (im not sure as to why this is, but it works...). Every time on bootup it gives me this error, but works fine (typing from linux now). Its a bizare problem, which as i said had not been fixed with any BIOS up to 803 (although i have yet to try a newer one). I have done nothing else in linux to configure the two hard disks in my system. I simply followed the on screen instructions, made partitions etc and everything is fine (i think/hope... ).

As for installing windows, i believe that it is best to install xp first, create the xp partition, and then install linux afterwards. This has worked fine for me, albeit only on two occasions (as i said, not a linux expert!). In my experience, from a clean install GRUB has always configured itself correctly and detected windows fine (this is true even on my current install where linux was put onto a different disk entirely to windows - it magically configured itself across both disks, which was fine by me!).

Not sure if you are putting linux on as part of a brand new build, but if you are then i advise that you stay away from the asus xonar DX sound card - it is not (yet) compatible with ubuntu, although seems to work fine with some linux distros (cannot remember which ones).

EDIT: As far as your other two questions are concerned, im not 100% sure that XP natively supports AHCI, hence you may need some additional drivers (these are included in vista, hence i had no issues), but this may have been fixed with service pack 2 - probably better to let billy answer this fully, or post in the windows forum (someone is bound to know). From my experince, ubuntu seems fine working in AHCI mode (with this mobo you dont seem to have a choice...), and i certainly didnt install any drivers for AHCI in linux.

I dont think you will be disappointed with the motherboard - as i mentioned, it clocks very well, bios is easy to use, and since i sorted out the AHCI issue, it has been pretty rock solid.