If that's your idea of a Volkswagen computer, I'm slightly scared to see what a Ferrari would be 8}
My system runs straight SATA hard drives on an Athlon64 and hasn't had a system-related problem since I built it.
From your description, I'd guess 3 divergent problems are present:
A) You can only install one distro, and only in 32-bit mode
1) There may not be any Free drivers for your ASUS SLI motherboard (look at places like LinuxCompatible.org)
2) There may not be any Free drivers for your Pioneer SATA DVD drive (have you tried with a different, perhaps IDE, DVD drive)
3) The Motherboard might not like the memory (or vice-versa), try adjusting timing parameters in BIOS or running a BIOS memcheck
4) Your motherboard may have a "Trusted Computing Module" enabled (these things always screw up the whole system in weird ways, Windows has "special" bits to make it work "correctly") See if you have an option to disable this "feature" if it's present (it will be a jumper setting, if the option exists at all).
B) You have trouble connecting to some, but not other, Internet sites
1) Qwest, or AOL, or some other intermediary is providing bad DNS and/or blocking ports
2) You have bad data in local preferences (are you using a new homedir? Have you tried creating a fresh new user account to test Internet?)
3) There is some sort of malware between you and your favorite sites (check routers, etc...)
4) Your router and/or ADSL modem is broken or in a borked state, try resetting both to factory default (warning, resetting these may require a call to Qwest service to re-provision the modem)
C) Not mentioned as a problem, but you cannot easily transfer files between Linux and XP
1) Create, on the XP drive, a small FAT32 partition (2-5G should be adequate) by using gparted to shrink the XP partition
2) Mount the FAT32 partition in Linux (add to /etc/fstab so it's always mounted) as something like /media/XPTransfers
Hope that helps.
==Joseph++
Robert N. Eaton wrote:
> Hi,
>
> After having tried to upgrade my previous box unsuccessfully, I cobbled
> up a new one:
>
> Athlon 64 X2 5600+
> ASUS M2N322 SLI Deluxe MB
> 2GB Corsair xms2dhx memory
> PNY NVIDIA GeForce8500w video card
> 160 GB hd for WinXP
> 300GB hd for Linux
> Pioneer SATA DVR-212D dvd/cd writer/
> Ultra XBlaster atx mid tower case/Ultra 700W Power Supply
>
> OK, so I can't afford a Ferrari. I'm neither an over-clocker nor a
> gamer. This combo runs cool and quiet, and seems solid. It's also
> pretty quick.
>
> The only distro I've been able to load successfully is 32bit
> fedora Core 6. Both Kubuntus choked and went into kernel panic, refusing
> to install. Xandros declined the honor. Fedora 7 seemed to install
> correctly but hosed the MBR and I could neither access WinXP nor Fedora 7.
>
> I'm still have the problem of Linux being unfriendly with the internet
> and not recognizing my email provider. Firefox connects readily enough
> with userfriendly.org, one of my favorite sites. But it won't connect to
> the links in UF's LOTD (Link Of The Day.) It times out trying to
> connect to Google and Bankofamerica.com. Thunderbird and Email
> steadfastly refuses to recognize my account at aol.com. (This is why I'm
> writing to you under WinXP. Please don't ask for long printouts from
> various features in Fedora. I haven't yet found a way to trf files from
> Linux to WinXP. (The other way round I can manage .))
>
> Is it that Linux doesn't play well with SATA ? (Not SATA RAID, just SATA
> hdds and DVD-ROM's.) Is it that Linux doesn't play well with Qwest ADSL?
> That doesn't seem to be it, for it worked perfectly before my old box
> started to flake out. Is it the combination of SATA _and_ ADSL?
>
> I'm getting discouraged. I _like_ Linux-in-general. I _don't_ like what
> it's doing (or failing to do) right now.
>
> Bob Eaton
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