Can I install Linux only on this desktop

Hi, I'm thinking of trying a Linux only install on a windows based desktop or mobo, I'm a complete newbie but just wondered if it was possible.

Would any distro work with this, Asus P Series P2-M3A3200 Barebone Desktop PC. I've googled and found some linux drivers for the ATI display etc, link:

http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/82668...d:3569369647&gclid=CMDBlc_0iJ8CFUYA4wode3mEIA

 

yes.. if you had googled a little further you wouldn't even need to ask... Don't bother with the ati drivers until everything else is working.. modern distros come with an open source driver built in which will work as well as any proprietary ati thing (and just sets itself up instead of all the nonsense people like ati pout us through)
I use a 9500 on my spare rig.. whatever distro you choose will have it's own instructions for installing the driver, tho the sound side of things is likely to be more fun.

 

Thanks for your reply, I did google for a long time, most people seem to be having trouble with linux and Asus motherboards, some older boards even came with Linux drivers on the cd.

The main comments were that Asus now had put something in the bios to prevent Linux from being installed, kinda pro Windows, so I just didn't know if this was true, this being a media PC graphics and sound drivers would be important.

I dual booted the new Ubuntu 9.10 with my current computer but it only supported 800 x 800 resolution max, and I know there is probably an easy solution, some great new features though. I then lost my windows xp install, and then my two data partitions, grub boot loader I guess, thanks again for your help.

 

You should not have any problems installing linux on the asus motherboard. Linux has very good hardware support and will work with just about anything. Most of the time it knows what hardware you are using and automatically installs the drivers for you.

Ass long as you did not erase your windows partition you can make grub boot into windows. Here is a guide on editing grub.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1195275

Your data partitions should still be there as lonng as you did not erase them. You just need to mount them. Here is a simple guide to mounting your hard drives in linux.

http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/mountlinux

you can try installing the ati drivers by going to system > administration > restricted drivers. If it recognized your card it should ask you if you want to install the drivers.

 

Hi, thanks for the reply, I managed to undelete my data partitions with out to much hassle using my paragon software and re-installed windows from a back up disk image.

My partitions on my drive ain't quite the same though, there's no small 7.95MB space at the start, this I assume was were the boot sector MBR was stored, so not sure whats happened there, but everything is working ok.

I think this was all caused during partitioning when installing Linux, apart from this the only thing that I noticed about Ubuntu is it detected my monitor and it's resolution only when using it as a live cd, when installed on my hard drive it couldn't detect it and I got the standard 800 x 800 resolution.

Thanks for all of your info, links and help, much appreciated, I'm reading up on it all, it's come a long way since my last look at it and so many distro's, freespire looks good.

 

Here's a few things:

Always test GNU/Linux functionality on your machine by booting to the livecd first.

With Ubuntu, it's not necessary to repartition your hard drive for install, install it inside windows (wubi) instead. To do this, put the ubuntu cd in after you are already booted to windows.

Finally, it would help for you to boot to the Ubuntu livecd, click Applications>Accessories>Terminal, then run the command lspci and post the output here.

GNU/Linux will likely work well if you can get it configured all the way.

Congratulations on your freedom!

 

I wouldn't use ubuntu.. straight debian has way better hardware support and isn't crippled for the US "market" in the way ubuntu is..

This is an asus mobo.. 64bit as well.. and no hardware problems with it at all..

A live cd only gives a guess at what an actual install will find.. only so much hardware support can be put on a live disk.. sabayon is the best in that respect, but as an os it's a gentoo hobbyist nightmare (not as bad as arch, but it is a close run thing).

Other distros with real good hardware support are slackware and the mepis derivatives.. fedora seems to be going backwards again.

 

The motherboard P2-M3A3200 appears to use the ATI Radeon HD 3200,

there is an free/open source driver for this graphics chip (fglrx), but if it doesn't work well, you might try the ATI proprietary driver.

If you're going to install Ubuntu, below is the guide for setting up the ATI drivers after you've installed the OS. Note: your graphics will likely be substandard until you can get the driver installed.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BinaryDriverHowto/ATI

After you have installed the ATI drivers, perhaps you can provide feedback for Ubuntu 9.10 here:
http://www.ubuntuhcl.org/browse/product+ati--radeon-hd-3200?id=6832

Cheers!

 

creaky,

I changed the links so that they are not links, just regular words instead. Will that suffice?

Thanks!

 

Ok.. so they weren't really URL/links, but I have removed the "key words" as directed, and put a URL in my profile instead. Let me know if there's still a problem.

Cheers!

 

Hi all, thanks for all of your input and help, at the moment Linux is on hold until I can back up everything on all partitions as there has been a problem since I installed Ubuntu and lost my Windows OS and data partitions, totally my fault.

I keep losing data, when I try to move it to a new location, I get a warning something like, Windows could not copy or save the file etc to the distination, folder, partition etc and it disappears from my computer completely.

This can happen when extracting achives or zip files as well, so there is a problem. I need to find a program and completely remove all partitions and reset or restore my hard drive to it's original state and then re-install my OS and repartition my drive. Something is not right, I just downloaded Ubuntu Super OS and a few other distro's for future testing, when I tried to move it to my documents from my downloads folder I got the same warning, it's now gone from both folders, searched but it's not on my computer, had to re-download it, afraid to move anything at the moment.

 

I use the FOSS utility gparted (in livecd format) to modify partitions:
http://gparted.sourceforge.net
gparted is free/open source, and similar(and in some ways better) than Paragon's partition magic software
Here's a link with an overview of using gparted (there are many out there):
http://www.howtoforge.com/partitioning_with_gparted

As for making full systems backups, I use an external USB drive and the FOSS utility (in livecd or live-usb-stick format) clonezilla
http://clonezilla.org
clonezilla is free, and similar(and in some ways better) to Symantec's Ghost software

There's also a livecd that has both gparted and clonezilla on it, see this article:
http://www.linux.com/archive/feature/115208

Once you start making your way around FOSS/GNU/Linux world, you'll find there are so many great ways enable yourself with Technology.

Welcome to the world GNU/Linux!

 

Good information...

I actually use clonezilla and gparted in a production environment to backup/restore windows(mostly XP and Vista, and a few Windows 7) and Linux machines... I haven't had any problems so far. Maybe I need to do more testing to see if I can break it with Windows 7.

The fear of breaking windows is yet another reason to install the Ubuntu GNU/Linux inside of windows, as opposed to repartitioning. When installed inside windows, Ubuntu registers in the add/remove programs in the control panel and the entire installation lives in a folder named Ubuntu on the C:\ drive. Installing Ubuntu this way uses the windows boot loader as opposed to installing GRUB(Linux bootloader), and Ubuntu runs also runs from your NTFS (windows) partition as opposed to making a separate partition at all. I've installed Ubuntu inside of windows 7 with no problems at all. Just make sure you have a good clean shutdown and reboot before doing it.

IMHO - Having a set of windows restore disk(s) for your computer available, a large-size USB hard-drive, and a recent backup of your important files, is an absolute requirement whether you're trying out GNU/Linux or even just using windows natively. The reason I mention this is because with windows, you never know when your machine is going to be hi-jacked by the latest root-kit malware, which often times (if it's bad enough), will warrant a disk-wipe and reinstall anyways.

 

Thanks for all the help and advice, I have all my important data backed up on two external hard drives and I'm in the long process of backing up to cd etc.

I've used many partition imaging and backup software, I still use my old Acronis True Image 8, there are so many good ones out there, probably better ones, so not to much hassle in re-installing my OS etc, just need to sort out my hard drive.

That's why I was or am building a dedicated PC for Linux, so I can test and learn to my hearts content with no worries. Do most Linux distro's now allow installing inside Windows, that sounds good, I thought at the time it sounded a bit dodgy so went with the repartitioning route.

I'm now disable through head injuries, this makes me make more mistakes through not being able to think things through properly, I get tied quickly and tend to rush in with out doing my research fully, hence my problems mentioned, the simple things become the hardest some times. I've got my beginners guide to Linux now so no excuses, just amazed at all the distro's out there.

 

Quote:

The fear of breaking windows is yet another reason to install the Ubuntu GNU/Linux inside of windows, as opposed to repartitioning. When installed inside windows, Ubuntu registers in the add/remove programs in the control panel and the entire installation lives in a folder named Ubuntu on the C:\ drive. Installing Ubuntu this way uses the windows boot loader as opposed to installing GRUB(Linux bootloader), and Ubuntu runs also runs from your NTFS (windows) partition as opposed to making a separate partition at all. I've installed Ubuntu inside of windows 7 with no problems at all. Just make sure you have a good clean shutdown and reboot before doing it.

Sounds good, can you simply uninstall it if you want to, I've downloaded Ubuntu Super OS 9.10 due to the extra features and would like to try that.

 

Just to let you know I'm running Ubuntu Super OS 9.10 from the live cd, everythings working like a charm, connected to wireless network instantly, played all my video file formats, including mkv HD, no sound over HDMI yet, but it's great, all this from a live cd.

Well I will be building my new Linux PC as soon as I can, just like to thank you all for your advice, help and links, lots to read up on.