Asus A7N8X Deluxe Instructions

tek|M · n00b Joined: 24 Mar 2003 Posts: 8

I thought Id post this cause it looks like there are quite a few out there that are having trouble with this board. I was finally able to get a nearly fully operational system up by using the xfs-sources for the kernel. I tried gentoo sources and ac-sources with little success. Then I realized that everything appeared to be working pretty good booting off the 1.4 RC3 livecd. That cd uses the xfs-sources.

xfs-sources have options for selecting both the chipset for ATA as well as the correct sound driver.

Notables and unresolved: Serial ATA is only supported by the 2.5.65+ dev kernels. Right now Im using the onboard 3com nic and havent bothered at all with the Nvidia one. My wireless ms usb mouse exhibited really weird behavior that I still can figure out. Every so many seconds it would mysteriously pull up the right click menu on its own (very annoying), and also the wheel wouldnt work. I had all the correct usb stuff setup in the kernel as well as the XF86Config file being setup correctly. My only thought is that its a usb 2.0 related prob possibly. I put my ps/2 intellimouse on it and it works fine.

Let me know if anyone has any questions on this board or if you have any ideas on the usb mouse issue. Lates

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>tek|M<

shaniac · n00b Joined: 27 Jun 2002 Posts: 23

Strange, I had zero luck with my A7N8X Deluxe until I tried the ac-sources. (I have a GeForce4 video card and I'm using the nvnet driver, too; my kernel is so tainted I can smell it with the computer turned off!)
Once I got everything working, which takes a while, right?, it's been a fine board.

tek|M · n00b Joined: 24 Mar 2003 Posts: 8

I couldnt get the 3com nic working on the ac-sources. But as I said, the livecd worked well, and it uses the xfs-sources. So I tried em and they were way better than the ac-sources to me. The xfs kern actually had nforce2 by name listed amonst chipset etc. I havent bothered with nvnet yet cause i really dont need 2 nics. The 3com is doing fine. Sound is good too.
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>tek|M<

RagManX · Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2003 3:20 am Post subject:

I'm trying to get my new system going with this board, and I can even boot the RC3 disc. Trying it with no options, and many combinations of noapic, noscsi, acpi=on, and so on gives no joy. Sometimes it hard locks, sometimes it gives a kernel panic, sometimes it gives a CRC error. I'm going to try installing again off a new burn, but I could use some pointers in case the new CD doesn't fix the problem.

RagManX
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tek|M · n00b Joined: 24 Mar 2003 Posts: 8

When you boot the cd, run Gentoo nonet

Thats what worked for me. I would always get the system frozen on the mere booting of the cd. But running Gentoo nonet corrected that problem and still loaded drivers for and successfully configured the 3com nic (if you got the deluxe board). After that it was all smooth sailing. A lot of people keep recommending the ac-sources or gaming sources for the kernel. I had nothing but trouble with both of those.....but the xfs-sources worked perfect for me and contine to work great.
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>tek|M<

RagManX · Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2003 3:55 pm Post subject:

I didn't try nonet. I'll give that a shot when I get home tonight. I did see in another thread some folks having problems with 1 GB of memory, so I pulled out 512 Meg. That didn't help.

My plan once I got up and running was to run the latest development kernel. Been using 2.5.65 on a couple other systems I run, and am real happy with the improved interactive performance of the latest kernel. Any idea how the 2.5.65 and higher kernels run on the deluxe board?

RagManX
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tek|M · n00b Joined: 24 Mar 2003 Posts: 8

Ya, I havent had a chance to play with the 2.5.65 kernel yet. I will try it out on my test box first really soon. As far as 2.5.65 and the deluxe board, believe it or not those are the only kernels that FULLY support it. With 2.5.65 even your serial ata is supported

If youre experimenting, let me know how it goes.
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>tek|M<

krondor · n00b Joined: 23 Aug 2002 Posts: 7

Installing Gentoo 1.4 rc3 from stage 1 on ASUS A7N8X and I've tried the Gentoo-sources and the XFS-Sources. I can't find any nforce2 options in either kernel. No nvnet modules or the like. What kernel versions are you running?

tek|M · n00b Joined: 24 Mar 2003 Posts: 8

Gentoo sources wont work. xfs-sources work on the deluxe board. Im not sure about the nvidia nic though cause i havent bothered to try. Im using the onboard 3com nic that the deluxe has. Anyway, make sure your keywords are '~x86' and grab xfs-sources. They do have options for nforce under ATA and for sound.....under ATA the nforce will has been added to the same line as the AMD Viper chipset, and for sound nforce has been added to the Intel i810 sound line. If youre not running the deluxe board youre gonna have a fun time trying to get the nvidia nic working ahead of time. If you have the deluxe its not hard at all.....cause you have the 3com nic working already and you can do an emerge nvidia-nforce later on if you really want nvnet.

My suggestion if you have the Deluxe board, use xfs-sources and youre a winner. If you have the standard board, I would temporarily install a different nic (3com or intel etc) so you can get a network up and running to emerge nvidia-nforce. In that case I would still use the xfs-sources, they are the only ones Ive been able to get working perfectly on that board thus far.
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>tek|M<

Wiebel · Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2003 2:19 am Post subject: Re: Which XFS-Sources

RagManX · Posted: Tue Apr 01, 2003 2:45 am Post subject:

Well, I got the system booting, and ran the full install. But I just can't get the board working with the latest development kernel sources (as evidenced here). Anyone have any suggestions for help on getting this going. I *realllllly* like the responsiveness of my other systems with the 2.5.65 and higher kernels, but I can't get my A7N8X system running with this kernel. I can go back to one of the kernels some of you have posted about here, but it's hard giving up the smoother operation of the later dev. kernels.

RagManX
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ventricle · Guru Joined: 04 Apr 2003 Posts: 305 Location: UK/Australia

My new PC is coming next Friday and I have one of these boards, has anyone got a step by step procedure that I could follow in order to get it to work? It appears that I will have quite some trouble with it

tek|M · n00b Joined: 24 Mar 2003 Posts: 8

You shouldnt have much trouble. Ive got it working with no issues. I now have it 100% working with exception to serial ata.

Important tips:

when you boot to livecd..... run 'gentoo nonet' to start the cd boot process....otherwise it can hang. Also, make sure your cat-5 is plugged into the top most nic on the mobo (3com). Then just follow the instructions for Gentoo normally. The kernel is where most of the confusion is. Ive got everything working on the xfs-sources. Select AMD Viper under ATA devices and Intel i810 under sound. Both of those should list the nforce as supported with xfs-sources. Some ppl say use the ac-sources and others mention the gaming-sources. I cant vouch for those ones. I also havent tried the dev kernels, but I hear they are problematic with nforce2 at the moment.

If you want to get the nvidia nic working as well later on....just 'emerge nforce-net', add nvnet to your /etc/modules.autoload, and config eth1 and add to default run level

Hope that helps.
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>tek|M<

ventricle · Guru Joined: 04 Apr 2003 Posts: 305 Location: UK/Australia

Thanks for that.
It will be my first attempt at installing Gentoo, so hopefully I don't have too much pain.
I am getting a separate soundblaster 5.1 card and a gf4 ti4800. Do you think having these might cause me problems?
Thanks.

tek|M · n00b Joined: 24 Mar 2003 Posts: 8

Those cards shouldnt be a problem. Ive heard that Audigy cards conflict with nforce2 audio with the gameports....not that big a deal. I am curious as to why you would want to use an SB Live over the nforce2 audio. The nforce2 audio is far superior to any SB Live and its free on the mobo. Only audio that provides better performance than nforce2 is Audigy2 cards.

btw....do you have the A7N8X regular or deluxe board?
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>tek|M<

ventricle · Guru Joined: 04 Apr 2003 Posts: 305 Location: UK/Australia

It is the deluxe mboard.
I don't have the machine yet, and could probably cancel the sound card if you think it's not worth getting, i just wasn't sure whether I should have a separate sound card or not! I had problems with onboard sound in my laptop before, so that was the driving factor.

nitromullet · n00b Joined: 27 Dec 2002 Posts: 19

ventricle,

Did you get everything? and get it up and running? I ran across this discussion when I was looking for help with nforce IDE support and was curious if this went well for you and if you had any pointers. I have an audigy card as well that I am no longer using because I am quite happy with the nfroce sound storm audio. Just curious about your experience...
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NitroMullet
Asus P4P800 Dlx
P4 2.6/800
BFG GeForce FX 5900

taskara · Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2003 5:37 am Post subject:

I have asus a7n8x deluxe, and everything works beautifully (except I haven't tried to get spdif working yet)

built from 1.4_rc4 cd
I use gentoo sources 2.4.20-rc3
alsa 0.9.2
xfree 4.3.0-r1
nvidia 43.96
nvnet driver 0256

usb works fine, haven't tried firewire, but it is recognised.

hdparm results are over 500 and 50 mb/sec (hdparm -tT /dev/hda) on nvidia ide.

haven't tried serial ata as I don't have a serial hdd.
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ventricle · Guru Joined: 04 Apr 2003 Posts: 305 Location: UK/Australia

I've managed to get most things working now.
I haven't tried firewire yet.
Use gentoo-sources with no ACPI, the nvidia driver and alsa sound modules.
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ajaygautam · Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2003 10:24 am Post subject:

Anyone tried 3com net with gentoo-sources, which package do I need to emerge ?

Same request for sound...

Thanks

Ajay

ajaygautam · Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2003 10:27 am Post subject:

Has anyone tried setting "Processor family" to "AthlonXP(>gc31)"

I did it and ran into all sorts of module dependency issues.

Any ideas ?

Currently my box is set to "Pentium III".

Thanks

Ajay

taskara · Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2003 11:04 am Post subject:

hmmm I always use "athlon > gcc31" never had a problem with it..

and you can use alsa 0.92 (just emerge the latest one) in your kernel compile SOUND SUPPORT as a MODULE, and nothing else for sound.

when you're configuring alsa, the driver name is "intel8x0"

as for the 3com - I couldn't get it working before, so I just downloaded and used the nvidia drivers.

but that was a while ago.
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ajaygautam · Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2003 12:15 pm Post subject:

taskara, if you don't mind, can you please email me your .config file. I would like to diff. Also, what kernel (and version) are you using ?

Thanks

taskara · Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2003 8:52 pm Post subject:

sure.. what's your email addy?

because I was playing with frame buffer, I only have config for vanilla 2.4.20 atm
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ajaygautam · Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2003 11:08 pm Post subject:

ajaygautam at yahoo dot com

Thanks a bunch

Ajay