[GRLUG] Choice of MB - Trouble Installing

[Raymond McLaughlin]

rh90p at comcast.net wrote:
> I broke down and finally called ASUS tech support. They said that the
> A8V Deluxe will only run Redhat 7.3 and SuSE 8.1.  Newer linuxes will NOT
> run.  Also he said that CUV4X-DLS will not run ANY linux.

That surprises me, but SuSE 8.1 puts it back in the 2002-2003 era when
many hardware maker operated under the ASSumption that everybody ran
Windows. They probably did some quirky thing in the bios, but never
documented it.

> That brings me back to my original question: what MB is recommended for
> an up to date Linux?  Preferably one which will take my Socket 939 AMD
> dual core 64 at 3800+ and preferably SATA II support.

At the risk of generalizing over broadly, X86  mother boards that do not
work with Linux are rare exceptions now a-days. I would expect most any
modern motherboard. In general I have seen slightly better linux support
on NVidia chip sets than, for instance, ATI. But even there it's more a
matter of superior graphics drivers than anything to do with the core
logic chip set.

I'm also partial to Intel over AMD, but I haven't seen any particular
problems with Linux running on AMD. I would tend to shy away from VIA
CPU platforms, just because I haven't seen them really proven.

If you're looking for new mother boards, I recommend you pick out what
you think you want, based on general price/features, and then use a
google search to see if anyone has had problems getting Linux to work
with it. Or check the manufacturer's web-site.

My $0.02
Raymond McLaughlin