ABIT NF7-M ( NVIDIA nForce2 video) with Linux?

[Phil S]

I'm in process of building a system with an ABIT NF7-M motherboard
(using NVIDIA nForce2 video) that I would like to run with Linux
instead of Windows.

Has anyone installed Red Hat 9, Fedora 2 or Debian linux on that
motherboard or chipset? How to configure the video? I've used Linux
before but I am not fasmilar with details configuring the low-level
"X" widnows.

Thanks

 

[Larry Gagnon]

I'm in process of building a system with an ABIT NF7-M motherboard
(using NVIDIA nForce2 video) that I would like to run with Linux
instead of Windows.

Has anyone installed Red Hat 9, Fedora 2 or Debian linux on that
motherboard or chipset? How to configure the video? I've used Linux
before but I am not fasmilar with details configuring the low-level
"X" widnows.

Thanks

I believe any Linux will install on your NF7 board. I have Mandrake and
VectorLinux working on it. You will need to run the NVidia driver install.
NVidia have a special license and their video drivers will not install
aoutomatically on any Linux distribution I know of. I suggest you visit
their website and read their instructions. They (and their setup) are
fairly straightforward if you RTFM.

Larry Gagnon

 

[Phil S]

I believe any Linux will install on your NF7 board. I have Mandrake and
VectorLinux working on it. You will need to run the NVidia driver install.
NVidia have a special license and their video drivers will not install
aoutomatically on any Linux distribution I know of. I suggest you visit
their website and read their instructions. They (and their setup) are
fairly straightforward if you RTFM.

Larry Gagnon

Thanks Larry. Sorry for the newbie question, but: How do I get the
video to work so I can download and install the drivers?

Phil

 

[Scott Lurndal]

On Fri, 20 Aug 2004 14:47:56 -0700, Larry Gagnon


Thanks Larry. Sorry for the newbie question, but: How do I get the
video to work so I can download and install the drivers?

You don't need it to work. Download and install the drivers
in SVGA mode or using <ctrl><alt><f1>-<f6> virtual consoles.

scott

 

[krf]

I'm in process of building a system with an ABIT NF7-M motherboard
(using NVIDIA nForce2 video) that I would like to run with Linux
instead of Windows.

Has anyone installed Red Hat 9, Fedora 2 or Debian linux on that
motherboard or chipset? How to configure the video? I've used Linux
before but I am not fasmilar with details configuring the low-level
"X" widnows.

Thanks

I have(had) installed Knoppix/Debian on this board and it autodetected and
setup the video on install. Worked very well.

I would send you my system and Xconfig files except that the board died
after about 2 weeks.

KRF

 

[Matt]

I'm in process of building a system with an ABIT NF7-M motherboard
(using NVIDIA nForce2 video) that I would like to run with Linux
instead of Windows.

Has anyone installed Red Hat 9, Fedora 2 or Debian linux on that
motherboard or chipset? How to configure the video? I've used Linux
before but I am not fasmilar with details configuring the low-level
"X" widnows.

Thanks

Red Hat or Fedora will install a driver called nv (apparently an
open-source driver) and X will be up and running. Then you can go to
the Nvidia site and get their driver called nvidia, which is better than
nv if you are running 3D graphics. There are several ways to install
nvidia. Use the method wherein you install kernel source (using
rpm---find the book called "Maximum RPM" on the web) that matches your
kernel. The nvidia driver itself uses its own installer (not rpm) and
compiles a kernel interface. You have to edit /etc/inittab (see `man
init` and `man inittab`) and XF86Config or so. Each time you upgrade
your kernel, you have to install the matching kernel-source rpm,
deinstall nvidia and reinstall nvidia. Apparently the upgrade process
is more automated when using SuSE, but once you understand it, it is at
most a ten-minute chore (assuming broadband) regardless of distro.

By the way, I believe you will be fine running FC2 rather than RH9. RH9
support will be ending soon if it hasn't already.

 

[bgeer]

I'm in process of building a system with an ABIT NF7-M motherboard
(using NVIDIA nForce2 video) that I would like to run with Linux
instead of Windows.

Has anyone installed Red Hat 9, Fedora 2 or Debian linux on that
motherboard or chipset? How to configure the video? I've used Linux
before but I am not fasmilar with details configuring the low-level
"X" widnows.

I have a Shuttle XPC with nforce2. Kernels since 2.4.21 should
recognize UDMA IDE properly.

XFree86 ran with its nv driver, which allegedly has 2D performance
nearly as good as, or as good as, the nvidia driver available at
www.nvidia.com. The nvidia driver however has better 3D support but
is a pain in the ass since you have to recompile it if you update your
kernel.

Also, I had to download linux sound & Ethernet drivers from
nvidia.com, them compile them for the kernel.

Too bad nvidia can't grok that it wouldn't lose a thing if they'd just
donate their code to the kernel, & make life easier for the rest of
us.

 

[Phil S]

Thanks for everything, Matt. I went with the NF7-M and Fedora FC2 with
no real problems. Everything went together in a couple of hours.

I originally loaded RH9 but it did not recognize the on board lan, so
I tried Fedora FC2. It has a pretty good driver for the on board lan
and the "nv" driver you mentioned for the on board video.

The "nv" driver would hang after a little bit of use, but was usefull
enough to download the driver from nvidia ... it installed with no
problem and the nvidia recommmendations for two simple edits to the
xorg.conf worked immediatey with no problems.

Everything works well. I have not used (or needed) the nvidia
diagnostics or utilites that came with the board because they are
Windows .exe's and I haven't bothered to install windows.

Thanks again for great advice.

Phil

 

[Matt]

Thanks for everything, Matt. I went with the NF7-M and Fedora FC2 with
no real problems. Everything went together in a couple of hours.

I originally loaded RH9 but it did not recognize the on board lan, so
I tried Fedora FC2. It has a pretty good driver for the on board lan
and the "nv" driver you mentioned for the on board video.

The "nv" driver would hang after a little bit of use, but was usefull
enough to download the driver from nvidia ... it installed with no
problem and the nvidia recommmendations for two simple edits to the
xorg.conf worked immediatey with no problems.

Everything works well. I have not used (or needed) the nvidia
diagnostics or utilites that came with the board because they are
Windows .exe's and I haven't bothered to install windows.

Thanks again for great advice.

Phil

Glad to help ...

Now if in the next year you give similar help to two people, and so on,
then five years from now we can look back on the present OS situation as
just a bad memory ...