uATX integrated mobo for linux use

[Kenshin911]

Hi. I'm looking at doing a build for a linux system. I would like to build a uATX linux system. (Haven't decided the flavor yet. I'm new to linux) Anyways, I want to keep the system low cost. In the spirit of that, I would like to use an integrated graphics board. I haven't decided intel or amd yet, but I'm leaning towards AMD since they have more options on the low price range. So anyways, I want a motherboard that will work right with whatever distro I throw at it, and not have to worry about doing something strange to get it to work right. I want it to just work.

What motherboard should I be looking at?

 

[Kenshin911]

anyone?

 

[Zap]

BUMP

I would be interested in this as well, especially if "better" IGPs such as AMD 690G has reasonable support under Linux. Would be great to be able to build a dirt cheap (with free OS) Linux box for basic apps and still be able to run games like WoW.

 

[Skott]

I'm rather noobish about Linux but wouldnt most mobos run Linux without a problem?

 

[imported_Kreed]

I am also looking for a uATX board for linux. From all that I've read (especially at http://www.phoronix.com), it would seem as if:

- Nvidia and Intel chipsets have been the way to go as they have better drivers for linux
- The edge might go to Nvidia as Intel aren't as quick in releasing their graphics drivers
- The landscape might be changing with AMD recently releasing technical specs on their graphics processors to the open source community
- There's a lot of work being done on drivers for the 690G (apparently)
- Whilst AMD has been doing a lot of work on the linux drivers for their Graphics chips, I am not sure if they've done much work on drivers for other components in their chipsets e.g. SATA, sound etc.

I don't know how much of the above is true. Perhaps someone with intimate experience with Linux and uATX boards can shed some light on this. I think I will be going for an Nvidia solution (Abit AN-M2HD) because my gut feeling is that AMD drivers are still not quite up to scratch yet. This may all change in 6 months time and AMD may well become the leading linux solution. But for now, I just want something that works (now and not in the future).

 

[hans007]

if you want the least hassle possible, i would go with an intel one with ich7.

that is what all my systems are. if you are buying new stuff anyway just grab a new intel g31 board ... or if you want to spend less get a 946gz , 945gc, 945gz or one of those. ich7 has native ide, and has a lot of support since its pretty old. the northbridges are all supported on the lastest intel xorg driver.

 

[AmberClad]

I don't remember if I've ever used my Intel IGP uATX boards in integrated graphics mode in Linux (I think I've only use them with an Nvidia card, and that's worked just fine). But I have used regular ATX and laptop boards with various versions of Intel IGP under Linux, and I don't recall much hassle.

Really, the only type of mobo, regardless of form factor, I'd be semi-concerned about under Linux are ones with ATi chipsets. I haven't heard good things about ATi Linux drivers. I realize that's changing with the move to open source, but it might be too early to see the results.

 

[tcsenter]

As always with Linux, go with something at least one hardware generation behind for the most stable and fully-featured driver support, preferrably two generations behind.

Intel 945G (GMA950) would be fine, as would NF6100/6150. Anything newer is just asking for glitch-heaven and partial feature support, especially the newest.

 

[Zap]

Take a look at the last few sentences of this post by Gary Key (he's writing the motherboard articles for Anandtech).

Linux Support-

Hands down the NVIDIA 6100/6150 boards first then the Intel G965/945G/946GZ boards. VIA support was decent but the ATI/AMD chipsets are just not up to the level of the others, yet.

There ya have it. I'd say get a socket AM2 board using the Geforce6100 chipset with 2GB of cheap DDR2 and a cheap dual core CPU.

From what Gary says, seems like the AMD/ATI chipsets as well as the newer Nvidia 7000 series and newer Intel G31/33 series aren't as good as the Nvidia 61XX series for Linux support, which makes sense. Kind of like what tcsenter said in the previous post - go one generation behind.

 

[hans007]

Originally posted by: tcsenter
As always with Linux, go with something at least one hardware generation behind for the most stable and fully-featured driver support, preferrably two generations behind.

Intel 945G (GMA950) would be fine, as would NF6100/6150. Anything newer is just asking for glitch-heaven and partial feature support, especially the newest.

intel is pretty good about the binary driver for the video now. i think the main thing you want to worry about is the south bridge becuase newer ones with external IDE chips

such as the 965 and g33 / p35 boards some of the external chips are not supported in linux such as those by jmicron or marvell. or they might be now, but could be a pain.

if you have all SATA in your machine it should beok, or just get something with native IDE like tha ich7 boards.


also you want to make sure you get one with a lan card that is supported. a lot of boards have gigabit now, but some brands do not have great driver support like say... a broadcom or marvell i've heard have some problems.

oddly if you get stuff with cheaper chips they are really friendly with the linux community. realtek for one has really good open source support .

 

[AmberClad]

Originally posted by: hans007
intel is pretty good about the binary driver for the video now. i think the main thing you want to worry about is the south bridge becuase newer ones with external IDE chips

such as the 965 and g33 / p35 boards some of the external chips are not supported in linux such as those by jmicron or marvell. or they might be now, but could be a pain.

if you have all SATA in your machine it should beok, or just get something with native IDE like tha ich7 boards.


also you want to make sure you get one with a lan card that is supported. a lot of boards have gigabit now, but some brands do not have great driver support like say... a broadcom or marvell i've heard have some problems.

oddly if you get stuff with cheaper chips they are really friendly with the linux community. realtek for one has really good open source support .

I have a G965, with a JMicron controller (my Linux install runs off an IDE drive, not my SATA, like my XP install) and a Marvell LAN chipset. It all works just fine without additional kernel tweaks with the default Slackware kernel. I've also used two previous systems with the Broadcom NetXtreme and an earlier Broadcom chipset, and that was also supported.

 

[hans007]

Originally posted by: AmberClad

Originally posted by: hans007
intel is pretty good about the binary driver for the video now. i think the main thing you want to worry about is the south bridge becuase newer ones with external IDE chips

such as the 965 and g33 / p35 boards some of the external chips are not supported in linux such as those by jmicron or marvell. or they might be now, but could be a pain.

if you have all SATA in your machine it should beok, or just get something with native IDE like tha ich7 boards.


also you want to make sure you get one with a lan card that is supported. a lot of boards have gigabit now, but some brands do not have great driver support like say... a broadcom or marvell i've heard have some problems.

oddly if you get stuff with cheaper chips they are really friendly with the linux community. realtek for one has really good open source support .

I have a G965, with a JMicron controller (my Linux install runs off an IDE drive, not my SATA, like my XP install) and a Marvell LAN chipset. It all works just fine without additional kernel tweaks with the default Slackware kernel. I've also used two previous systems with the Broadcom NetXtreme and an earlier Broadcom chipset, and that was also supported.

ah, i guess it depends on the distro.

i havent had a g965 in a while, but i know when ubuntu 6.10 was new, people had problems with the jmicron controllers and some marvell cards.

i just sort of steer away from it just in case, but i guess those chipsets are old now so thats probably why there is support.

 

[AmberClad]

Originally posted by: hans007
ah, i guess it depends on the distro.

Yep, I've actually been a little surprised that some distros that you don't immediately think of as being user friendly (like Slackware, with its DOS-era style installer) do quite well right out of the box, sometimes better than the enterprise distros like Red Hat/Fedora. I've had LAN chipsets that didn't have built-in kernel support with the "stock" kernel that gets installed with some distros in the past.