Linux with Abit AB9 Motherboard

[Sidoh]

If you intend to run Linux on your computer, stay away from this motherboard.  It's a nightmare.

I've tried Ubuntu (Fiesty Fawn, Gusty Gibbon -- both the live CDs and the text installers), Ubuntu Studio, Fedora Core 7 and Slackware 12.  With the exception of Slackware, they all fail to install or work shortly after installation.  I'd prefer to have a slightly more shiny-out-of-the-box distribution for my workstation, meaning Slackware is pretty much a last resort.

I was pretty confused as to what was going on, but some reasoning and Googling led me to believe the motherboard is the culprit.  I've updated to the most recent version of the BIOS that I can get (the newest one fails to download or be recognized using their utility) and it doesn't help at all.

I suppose I'll give Arch Linux another try (I had bad luck with it when I installed it on my server), but does anyone else have a recommendation?  I suspect that Slackware will work, but I'd like to have something with a package manager on my workstation.

[chuck]

If you intend to run Linux on your computer, stay away from this motherboard.  It's a nightmare.

I've tried Ubuntu (Fiesty Fawn, Gusty Gibbon -- both the live CDs and the text installers), Ubuntu Studio, Fedora Core 7 and Slackware 12.  With the exception of Slackware, they all fail to install or work shortly after installation.  I'd prefer to have a slightly more shiny-out-of-the-box distribution for my workstation, meaning Slackware is pretty much a last resort.

I was pretty confused as to what was going on, but some reasoning and Googling led me to believe the motherboard is the culprit.  I've updated to the most recent version of the BIOS that I can get (the newest one fails to download or be recognized using their utility) and it doesn't help at all.

I suppose I'll give Arch Linux another try (I had bad luck with it when I installed it on my server), but does anyone else have a recommendation?  I suspect that Slackware will work, but I'd like to have something with a package manager on my workstation.

Try NetBSD. Every time I've had a motherboard that hated me, NetBSD worked perfectly. For example, I have a generic slot 1 PIII motherboard, and it has some IRQ issues. Linux gave all kinds of errors, but NetBSD works without complaining at all.

pkgsrc can get most of your packages, maybe not as "Shiny", but it would work.

Try Debian too. It probably won't work if ubuntu doesn't want to either though

[Sidoh]

Try NetBSD. Every time I've had a motherboard that hated me, NetBSD worked perfectly. For example, I have a generic slot 1 PIII motherboard, and it has some IRQ issues. Linux gave all kinds of errors, but NetBSD works without complaining at all.

pkgsrc can get most of your packages, maybe not as "Shiny", but it would work.

Try Debian too. It probably won't work if ubuntu doesn't want to either though

I'd prefer to stick to something that I'm familiar with.  If it comes to that point, though, I'll just use Slackware.

I didn't bother with Debian since none of the Ubuntu distributions I tried worked (and failed at the same point).

[iago]

Somebody wrote a version of apt-get for Slackware. It's called slapt-get, iirc. I'm not a big fan of it, but if you really want a package-management tool, it might help you.

[Sidoh]

Somebody wrote a version of apt-get for Slackware. It's called slapt-get, iirc. I'm not a big fan of it, but if you really want a package-management tool, it might help you.

I thought that was intended to update the OS, not get packages, though.

[deadly7]

I thought that was intended to update the OS, not get packages, though.

Oh, no. I use it to grab packages all the time.

[iago]

Yeah, it does both.

[Sidoh]

Yeah, it does both.

Ah, that's cool.  I suppose I can give it a go, then.  I'd really prefer that Ubuntu/Fedora worked, though...

[nslay]

Hmm...it sounds like something is seriously wrong with your system - though it is possible and common that the version of Linux you're using has bugs.  While I'm no fan of the aforementioned distributions, most of them come with everything compiled into the kernel and/or as modules. Care to provide us with the details of the kernel panic and/or problems after installation?
 

[Sidoh]

Hmm...it sounds like something is seriously wrong with your system - though it is possible and common that the version of Linux you're using has bugs.  While I'm no fan of the aforementioned distributions, most of them come with everything compiled into the kernel and/or as modules. Care to provide us with the details of the kernel panic and/or problems after installation?

I don't think it's "defective" hardware in the sense that it isn't working like it was made to, but the people responsible certainly screwed something up.

Here are some links that describe the problems I had while installing:

http://www.michaellarabel.com/?k=blog&i=115
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=699&num=1

Edit --

Ubuntu Studio installs fine, but fails to boot all the way more than once.  Things seemed to work better without any USB devices plugged in.  When it dies (and it takes a while), I get this error:

/bin/sh can't access tty; job control turned off

I only got Ubuntu (FF or GG) to install once and it froze at the same point Ubuntu Studio did (surprise surprise).  The other times, the Live CDs either die in the same fashion or don't detect my hard drive.

Fedora Core 7 never detected my hard drive.

As I mentioned, I didn't seem to have any problems with Slackware.  Everything ran pretty smoothly, but I wasn't on it for long.  It was mostly just a test.

I'm unsure, but I think they are all using kernel 2.6.20-16.

Edit -- I should also mention that the machine runs flawlessly on Windows XP.

[nslay]

That's really messed up. tty has very little to do with hardware (at least now-a-days).
tty is a device for teletype terminals...now-a-days they are usually emulated rather than actual terminals.  Maybe there is a problem with BIOS I/O?  Try updating your BIOS.

[Ergot]

That's really messed up. tty has very little to do with hardware (at least now-a-days).
tty is a device for teletype terminals...now-a-days they are usually emulated rather than actual terminals.  Maybe there is a problem with BIOS I/O?  Try updating your BIOS.

Try reading the third paragraph of his first post.

[nslay]

That's really messed up. tty has very little to do with hardware (at least now-a-days).
tty is a device for teletype terminals...now-a-days they are usually emulated rather than actual terminals.  Maybe there is a problem with BIOS I/O?  Try updating your BIOS.

Try reading the third paragraph of his first post.

This post really doesn't help Sidoh.  It doesn't really contribute anything at all and even smells a bit provocative.  I read his post this morning and responded later this evening not remembering every detail.

Sidoh, you say some distributions don't detect the harddrive?  You could also try tweaking the BIOS to turn off some special harddrive features.  A friend of mine was trying to install XP (pre SP2) a couple weeks ago and it didn't detect his harddrive until he did that - I don't remember what it is he turned off.

[Sidoh]

That's really messed up. tty has very little to do with hardware (at least now-a-days).
tty is a device for teletype terminals...now-a-days they are usually emulated rather than actual terminals.  Maybe there is a problem with BIOS I/O?  Try updating your BIOS.

It wouldn't surprise me if it was something to do with the BIOS, but, unfortunately, I don't think I can update them anymore.  There is one version higher than the current one I have, but, like I said, the utility won't allow me to download it (it says the stuff it downloads fails a checksum test every time).  I've tried downloading the binaries over the web and then using the utility with that, but it yells at me about an invalid version or something.

Sidoh, you say some distributions don't detect the harddrive?  You could also try tweaking the BIOS to turn off some special harddrive features.  A friend of mine was trying to install XP (pre SP2) a couple weeks ago and it didn't detect his harddrive until he did that - I don't remember what it is he turned off.

Sure, I'll give that a go.  Do you have any idea what they'd be called?  I'll try poking around there later tonight.  I need to barrel through this practice exam first, though.

Thanks for the tips.  I'll try updating the BIOS again and tinkering around with some of the hard drive settings.

[Sidoh]

I tried to update my BIOS again.  The client magically worked this time (I'm not sure I like that sort of flakiness in something that's messing with my BIOS...).  I retried all of the previously mentioned distributions and they all failed again in the same areas.

However, I downloaded the daily release of Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon (7.10) and it seems to be working fine (other than some expected instabilities).  My guess is the major difference is the kernel version (which is 2.6.22-9.  I'm unsure which one 7.04 uses).

I'm still less than optimistic, but everything seems to be working much better than it has in the past.