[clue] fun (not!) with a new computer

[Dennis J Perkins]

I'm responding from my tablet and it looks like I can't bottom post.  Apologies.

It was a problem with SATA and video that made me try Arch Linux.  None of the other distros could handle such a new South bridge chip.  Of course, that meant I had to do some things manually, such as installing X.

That board uses the Radeon HD 4250.  AMD's Catalyst driver or Xorg's xf86-video-ati driver should work and give you the desired resolution.  Xorg should be able to handle this automatically without configuring.

You can use UUID instead of SDA, SDB, to specify the drives to avoid worrying about drive order.  I don't recall the command for determining the uuid of a drive.

You can buy SATA cables that have a straight connector and an L connector.  Maybe Micro center has them.  Or try New egg.

Collins Richey <crichey at gmail.com> wrote:

>Having purchased all the parts for a new computer months ago, I never
>got around to outting everything together, but my primary linux box
>failed, so here I am having lots of fun.
>
>FWIW, the MB is a gigabyte 880GA-ud3h with AMD PhenomII cpu and 8G
>memory. The MB has on-board raid1 capability, so that's how I setup
>the pair of 1TB hard drives. Eventually this will be a good setup, but
>the birthing pains are annoying to say the least. Here are some of the
>depressing things I've encountered.
>
>* A knoppix 5.x DVD will not run completely - unable to startx because
>of the on-board ATI video (may ATI be forever cursed!).
>
>* I tried various distro DVDs lying about with little success, but I
>did have a Mint 12 DVD that works after a fashion (it's gnome, and may
>gnome be forever cursed!). I'm running from that livedvd at the
>moment. Most everything (sound, internet, raid1 drives, etc.) works
>from the livedvd envirornment. I successfully completed an install to
>harddrive, and all the files look ok when mounted and inspected
>running from the livedvd
>
>* Unfortunately the system will not boot from the harddrive. More
>info. I have an extra pair of non-raid sata harddrives cabled in (from
>the previous machine, for eventual recovery of files). The
>[/]boot/grub partition on the raid1 drives has a standard grub2 setup,
>and the grub.cfg looks pretty normal. However, at boot time, I get
>dropped into a grub batch prompt. It appears that the system is
>detecting the grub setup from my old drives (the prompt is from grub
>not grub2) and I don't seem to be able to convince it to find anything
>on the raid1 drives.
>
>* It looks like I'll have to open the case again and recable the
>drives. Bummer. That's not a simple operation with this case/MB, The
>sata connectors have a right angle turn outwards at a case position
>where you need the tiniest of fingers to insert the connectors.
>
>* I haven't found anything thus far that will allow me to specify the
>order of drive search at boot time. Do any of you have experience with
>this type of problem?
>
>* Another question. In the MB instructions for the sata connections
>there is a recommendation "cable the l-shaped end of the sata cable to
>the harddrive". Some of the sata cables are straight on both ends, and
>some are l-shaped on both ends. Do any of you know more about this?
>
>-- 
>Collins Richey
>     If you fill your heart with regrets of yesterday and the worries
>     of tomorrow, you have no today to be thankful for.
>_______________________________________________
>clue mailing list: clue at cluedenver.org
>For information, account preferences, or to unsubscribe see:
>http://cluedenver.org/mailman/listinfo/clue