Installing Ubunto on AMD/Gigabyte/NVIDIA mobo

Peter · External Since: Jul 28, 2007 Posts: 2

Hi

I'm thinking of building a small LAMP server based on a dual core AMD
system:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+
Gigabyte mobo GA-M61PM-S2 that according to the gigabyte site has:
* NVIDIA® GeForce 6100 / nForce 430 chipset
* Super I/O chip: ITE IT8716
* Integrated Peripherals:
1. T.I. IEEE1394 controller
2. Realtek RTL8211 Gigabit Ethernet controller
3. Realtek ALC883 Audio Codec

I will use SATA II/NCQ disks in a RAID configuration

The distro I'm thinking about is the Ubuntu server distro; other
suggestions welcome Smile

A couple of questions:
* Should I expect challenges in installing Ubuntu on such a system;
and would I have proper support for raid/sata II?
* Any other things I should be aware of?

Thanks!
Peter

Stefan Patric · External Since: Apr 15, 2004 Posts: 153

On Sat, 28 Jul 2007 21:27:48 +0000, Peter wrote:

> Hi
>
> I'm thinking of building a small LAMP server based on a dual core AMD
> system:
>
> AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+
> Gigabyte mobo GA-M61PM-S2 that according to the gigabyte site has:
> * NVIDIA® GeForce 6100 / nForce 430 chipset * Super I/O chip: ITE
> IT8716
> * Integrated Peripherals:
> 1. T.I. IEEE1394 controller
> 2. Realtek RTL8211 Gigabit Ethernet controller 3. Realtek
> ALC883 Audio Codec
>
> I will use SATA II/NCQ disks in a RAID configuration

Pretty powerful system. Will it be serving commercial accounts, an
office setting, or just personal use?

> The distro I'm thinking about is the Ubuntu server distro; other
> suggestions welcome Smile

>
> A couple of questions:
> * Should I expect challenges in installing Ubuntu on such a system; and
> would I have proper support for raid/sata II? * Any other things I
> should be aware of?

Everything should go smoothly. Ubuntu has the reputation: "It just
works!"

The only thing that might be a problem is doing the install from a SATA
CD or DVD drive. I had several Linux Live/Install CDs choke on a 64-bit
system when it got to mounting a SATA DVD drive. One of these was
Xubuntu 6.10 (Edgy). I wasn't trying to install the distro. Was only
using the LiveCD to check the hardware to see if everything was working
and set up correctly before installing Vista Ultimate on it for a
friend. FYI: Only Fedora 7 32-bit LiveCD booted all the way to the
desktop.

In any case, Ubuntu should do just fine, and since by default, it does a
LAMP install, and that will make your life so much easier. Better than
building everything from source, installing and configuring manually.

Good luck...

Stef

Peter · External Since: Jul 28, 2007 Posts: 2

On Jul 29, 7:07 am, Stefan Patric <toot... RemoveThis @yahoo.com> wrote:
> On Sat, 28 Jul 2007 21:27:48 +0000, Peter wrote:
> > Hi
>
> > I'm thinking of building a small LAMP server based on a dual core AMD
> > system:
>
> > AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+
> > Gigabyte mobo GA-M61PM-S2 that according to the gigabyte site has:
> > * NVIDIA® GeForce 6100 / nForce 430 chipset * Super I/O chip: ITE
> > IT8716
> > * Integrated Peripherals:
> > 1. T.I. IEEE1394 controller
> > 2. Realtek RTL8211 Gigabit Ethernet controller 3. Realtek
> > ALC883 Audio Codec
>
> > I will use SATA II/NCQ disks in a RAID configuration
>
> Pretty powerful system. Will it be serving commercial accounts, an
> office setting, or just personal use?
>
> > The distro I'm thinking about is the Ubuntu server distro; other
> > suggestions welcome Smile

>
> > A couple of questions:
> > * Should I expect challenges in installing Ubuntu on such a system; and
> > would I have proper support for raid/sata II? * Any other things I
> > should be aware of?
>
> Everything should go smoothly. Ubuntu has the reputation: "It just
> works!"
>
> The only thing that might be a problem is doing the install from a SATA
> CD or DVD drive. I had several Linux Live/Install CDs choke on a 64-bit
> system when it got to mounting a SATA DVD drive. One of these was
> Xubuntu 6.10 (Edgy). I wasn't trying to install the distro. Was only
> using the LiveCD to check the hardware to see if everything was working
> and set up correctly before installing Vista Ultimate on it for a
> friend. FYI: Only Fedora 7 32-bit LiveCD booted all the way to the
> desktop.
>
> In any case, Ubuntu should do just fine, and since by default, it does a
> LAMP install, and that will make your life so much easier. Better than
> building everything from source, installing and configuring manually.
>
> Good luck...
>
> Stef

Many thanks Stef!

> Pretty powerful system. Will it be serving commercial accounts, an
> office setting, or just personal use?
I'll do a bit of all of it; I'm basically new to Linux so I really
look forward to learn; I'v got a private site and a couple of
commercial ones I hope to run from home on a 24/1 Mbps adsl uplink for
the time being. Initially, they will be low volume sites but, hey, who
knows Smile

?

> The only thing that might be a problem is doing the install from a SATA
> CD or DVD drive.
So I suppose I'll just put the CD on a PATA port instead? Or - can I
do a network install?

Again, many thanks
Peter

David M · External Since: Jun 07, 2006 Posts: 98

This message is not archived

Stefan Patric · External Since: Apr 15, 2004 Posts: 153

On Sun, 29 Jul 2007 10:29:50 +0000, Peter wrote:

> On Jul 29, 7:07 am, Stefan Patric <toot... RemoveThis @yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> [snip]
>
>> Pretty powerful system. Will it be serving commercial accounts, an
>> office setting, or just personal use?
>
> I'll do a bit of all of it; I'm basically new to Linux so I really look
> forward to learn; I'v got a private site and a couple of commercial ones
> I hope to run from home on a 24/1 Mbps adsl uplink for the time being.
> Initially, they will be low volume sites but, hey, who knows Smile

?

Well, then, you got way more system than needed currently. So, when and
if you ever add customers or have increasing traffic, you won't have to
upgrade the hardware.

Also, I'd check with you ISP about hosting commercial clients. There
might be problems. I've done this via a "home" account, but as with you
it was very low volume, so they didn't object.

>> The only thing that might be a problem is doing the install from a SATA
>> CD or DVD drive.
>
> So I suppose I'll just put the CD on a PATA port instead? Or - can I do
> a network install?

That is a solution -- PATA drive, but see if Ubuntu Server can handle the
SATA drive first. Why waste time installing another drive? If it ain't
broke, don't fix it. Wink

A network install will only work, if the CD can boot and set up a working
base system and network connection. If it chokes on the SATA drive, it's
time for Plan B.

Stef