Continuing where I left off with my previous post.

This was entirely made in Ubuntu 9.04 using The GIMP.

This is a sketch I just created under the new Ubuntu version, so I tattooed her with the Ubuntu logo!

I worked on this for about 30 minutes, all of it was done in the GIMP 2.6.6 under linux. I think I might make updates to this to clean it up but this is where it’s at for now and I like it! Cheers to all the linux developers out there, OSS is coming along really nicely.

Here is my thread where I posted this on the Ubuntu Forums.

These are two recent sketches I created in The GIMP.

Futuristic War Vehicle

The mechanical contraption above was somewhat inspired by the vehicle in Aliens for those who have seen the movie. However, I didn’t reference anything when I drew it and was really intended as a GIMP test.

The above portrait of a witch was also a GIMP test. I experimented a lot with this working with brushes and colors and many of the tools within GIMP. The final result of the mosaic was due to a filter I applied to the image. The sketch wasn’t really all that good so no big loss.

For those unfamiliar with it Blender is a 3D open source suite capable of modeling, texturing, animation and rendering. I’ve recently been playing around with it after hearing about the incredible progress which has been made on this front over the last few years.

Below you can see a screenshot of the basic interface.

Click on the image for a full size screenshot.

Basic Navigation in the 3D Environment

Chances are, unless someone is there to tell you how to navigate around the 3D environment, it won’t come natural to you. The good news is that all navigation is handled by the middle mouse button of a standard 3 button mouse. After a few minutes of using Blender you brain will form the required connections to do this properly! Here are the precise functions and how to perform them:

 
Also note that Blender is cursor context sensitive. This means the above functions will only work if your cursor is above the 3D view in the center of the screen. If you’re over the “File, Edit, etc” menu these functions won’t work to navigate around the scene for example. This generally applies to all things Blender, if you’re trying to do something and not getting the expected result make sure your cursor is correctly positioned!

Good luck and have fun Blendering!

Over the last year I invested quite a bit of time into learning about Linux, giving multiple distributions a try, and suffering through the learning process. I’ve come to the conclusion that Linux is great for two types of users: the clueless ones who just browse the net, and the super high tech users. The people for whom Linux is NOT a good option are the middle skilled users, most notably gamers! These are the users who are familiar with Windows and expect Linux to work out of the box in the same way Windows does. Anyways, I want to focus on GIMP in this article, as it is one of the applications which most of the bigger distributions will install automatically.

GIMP – GNU Image Manipulation Program is one of the open source alternatives to Photoshop. GIMP is available for Windows but unlike Photoshop it is available for Linux! While this application is not as powerful as Adobe’s industry standard for graphics GIMP will surprise the uninitiated with the raw number of features already implemented in it. Most importantly for people who cannot afford to pay Photoshop’s high ticket price GIMP is definitely worth looking at and you have to try it! Here is a 1 hour sketch I made in GIMP while testing out my tablet under Linux:

So here is a small list of the features which is currently available in GIMP:

• Brushes with pressure sensitivity linkable to opacity or size!
• Texture brushes – .abr (Photoshop brush files) can be imported though many features don’t work yet.
• Blending modes such as Hard/Soft Light available in Photoshop are also in GIMP
• Layers!!!

Here is a screenshot of my desktop showing GIMP in use: GIMP Screenshot. On the left side I’ve parked the main tool selection pallete and on the right you can see a bunch of the other windows which I usually pull up in Photoshop such as the color chooser, the history, the layers and etc.

While the interface isn’t identical to the one used by Photoshop most users won’t have trouble locating basic functions which they use in Photoshop. The user interface is constantly being upgraded with each successive revision of GIMP and some major changes are expected with the 2.5 release which is currently being developed. Considering this is a freely available application I cannot say enough good things about it! Give it a shot and love it!

One thing is for sure, Linux has grown up and is now a very viable alternative to Windows and GIMP is awesome!

I’ve now had a chance to try out both KDE and Gnome under openSUSE on my home computers. Both KDE and Gnome are extremely easy to use for a newbie user and the openSUSE team integrates both desktops into openSUSE so they’re slightly different from the default desktops in other distributions of Linux using Gnome and KDE. For an experienced user the choice is simply a matter of preference but there are a large number of features each desktop does better than the other.

I originally started with Gnome under openSUSE 10.2 about a year ago. Subsequently I tried Ubuntu’s Gnome and eventually installed openSUSE’s KDE as I built my new system and was shocked at how complete KDE is. For a user familiar with Windows I think KDE is clearly the easier desktop to get used to. Overall I give KDE the nod for being much more feature rich than Gnome and simply more polished. However, after playing around with KDE (the 3.5 version) I installed Gnome on the new system and have now went back to using it rather than KDE.

I’m honestly not sure why Gnome appeals more to me. Maybe it’s the stupid footprint logo or something which I like so much about Gnome but either way I prefer using it even though I see how much more polished KDE is. If someone can give me a rational explanation for this I would really like to hear it.

There is one thing which I wish openSUSE had implemented better in Gnome though – the Software Management window under YaST. Take a look:

While this window is functional and has given me little problems now that I know what it’s purpose is I am frustrated knowing how much better it is under KDE. I’m almost tempted to log out of Gnome and switch over to KDE just to do software updates. Under Gnome I really miss seeing the info the KDE version of the same window provides.

Anyways, I’m just venting, I’m looking forward to openSUSE 11 with KDE 4.0. The wonderful thing about Linux is that you can make such decisions anytime you want, and it’s free! While I am using Gnome because I am strange I really think KDE is awesome. If only all the choices I had to make in life were such as this one…

I’ve decided to put together a guide with some screenshots answering the newbie’s questions on how to install graphics card drivers under openSUSE 10.3. For those unfamilar with openSUSE, it is one of the better known distributions of linux… because there are many distributions what is contained in this guide may not work if you have another distribution like Ubuntu or Fedora.

This guide will focus on installing using YaST because it is in my opinion the best way to install the drivers and to familiarize the users with how YaST works. There are other ways to install graphics drivers including one-click install and manual driver command-line installations. I believe the one-click install works for most people but some people simply have to suffer through the manual installation and after having done a few myself … I can testify it is painful and frustrating.

Also, the screenshots provided below are specific to my hardware but the main steps you must follow should be the same as I’ve described in the text. The screenshots are only included to help guide you through the process.

Quick review of openSUSE:

One of the biggest advantages of openSUSE over other distributions is the fact it is mainly developed by a very dedicated company (Novell) and is in my opinion the best and most integrated open source linux distribution. Open source means you can download all the code for the entire operating system and applications which come on the default DVD. However, graphics drivers are NOT open source and must be downloaded and installed subsequently by the user if they choose to do this. For most things like browsing the internet, emailing or writing office documents you don’t need the proprietary drivers, but if you plan on doing any gaming or installing a fancy 3D desktop you must get this done.

Also, in my experience openSUSE seems to have better hardware support as I’ve hit snags installing other distributions on very new hardware in the past while SUSE never complained. Out of the box (right after a new install) openSUSE will shock you with just how much software it comes with especially in terms of regular office productivity. The default KDE openSUSE install comes with OpenOffice and a choice of two elite web browsers: Konqueror and Firefox. The Konqueror browser is also used for system-file browsing similar to how internet explorer is used under Windows.

I’m a big fan of the KDE environment but there is a custom Gnome desktop which can also be used under openSUSE. Both KDE and Gnome are fully functional desktop environments similar to what regular Microsoft Windows users are familiar with. Anyone familiar with Windows will have little problems getting around either of these two desktop environments – I use both KDE and Gnome on different systems and really don’t have a preference but for this guide all screenshots were taken under KDE though I doubt this will be a problem.

Having said this I understand for the linux newbie openSUSE may not be ideal distribution (most user friendly) until they find out where things are! I first tried openSUSE 10.1 over a year ago (not sure when) and attempting to install the graphics drivers caused me to dump the project for a while. In this regard the newest version of Ubuntu is much better – with just a couple of button clicks you’ll get the drivers installed and never have to google anything… the fact you’re here means you probably googled “install linux graphics drivers” right? Doing manual driver installs and having to troubleshoot error messages or crashed X-server is simply a daunting task for anyone not familiar with linux.

Graphics driver install:

The recommended way to install anything under openSUSE is to use the YAST Control Center. Under the openSUSE menus this is accessible through Applications > System > YaST (Administrator Settings)

After entering your root password you’ll be greeted by the following menu:

I recommend adding YaST to your favorites/desktop or “quick launch” menu because I’ve found myself using it almost daily once I figured out what it’s for… to do this right click on the icon before launching it and select “Add to Favorites.” Now that this is done you can access it quickly without having to do the full navigation path of Applications > Systems blah blah blah…

Because openSUSE is one of the biggest linux distributions and Novell tests and integrates applications into openSUSE it is very important to use the distribution specific repositories. A repository is similar to a website/ftp location from which you can download software to your computer and install it. If you carefully read the instructions from both nVIDIA and ATI websites when attempting to install drivers you’ll probably find a link to the SUSE repositories, but there is an even easier way through YaST!

You’ll notice immediately after launching YaST that the first option on the top left is “Software.” You can navigate the other options later but everything we need to install graphics drivers is under the Software tab. First you must set up the repository from which you’ll download the graphics driver and install it. If you have the info you can manually configure it using the properly labeled option… or you can select “Community Repositories” and wait a few seconds while the various repos are downloaded.

You’ll notice in the screenshot above there are repositories for both ATI and Nvidia so select the one you need. I have an Nvidia card so that’s the driver I’ll install. Make sure the check-mark is visible, simply selecting the repository and highlighting it in blue as shown in the screenshot above for the Packman repo is not good enough to tell openSUSE you want this repository available. By the way, while you’re here I suggest selecting the Pacman, Openoffice and X11 repositories too but we only need the ATI/Nvidia repo to continue right now, once you’ve made your selections click “Finish” on the bottom right and wait until everything is set up.

Next in YaST select Software Managment and you’ll get this window after a short wait while openSUSE figures out everything you have installed and checks all the repositories it has set up:

Ok, the first time you see this you’ll probably be a bit confused… in time you’ll know this screen and love it a lot more than the Windows Installer. At the top left of the screen right under “File” you’ll see a dropdown selection menu by the “Filter:” label. Click and select “Repositories” from the drop-down and then select the Nvidia Repository – from here you’ll need to select the correct driver for your graphics card. If you don’t know which one you need you should consult the Nvidia driver download website and notes, it is not hard to figure out. You’ll also need to select the correct X11 version to work with the Nvidia driver as shown here:

Once this is done select “Accept” on the bottom right and let openSUSE configure itself.

You can use YaST to install new softwre and also to update your old software or hardware drivers. Keep in mind it takes a few days/weeks after Nvidia releases a new generic driver for the updated openSUSE version to show up in the repository. Unless you have a very pressing need I recommend waiting until the driver in the repository shows up and don’t fight the manual install.

Once you’ve installed your graphics drivers you might have to set up your resolution and enable 3D though most likely after the install/reboot the hardware will come up with optimum settings if you’re using an LCD. Either way you can configure through YaST once again but choosing Hardware > Graphics Card & Monitor

Make sure if you have to manually set refresh rates you don’t break your monitor, consult the monitor manufacturer’s website and look for a user manual which will show you the horizontal and vertical frequencies for your hardware. This should be rare as Nvidia is very thorough with updating monitor definitions in their drivers and by default after the install everything should work correctly.

Extra Setup After Installation:

Now even though the installation was successful your system must be “told” to use the Nvidia driver properly. This requires the sending of a few commands. Open up a terminal window and log in as a su, after entering your password type “Init 3″ which will pop you into a command line interface. You’ll once again have to log in and come up to su, once this is done use the following sequence of commands:

The above sequence of commands modifies your xorg.conf file and allows you to use 3d acceleration and Compiz Fusion. You’ll have to take some more steps to completely enable Compiz Fusion later on of course.

Troubleshooting:

If everything worked as it was supposed to there would be no need for me to write this guide. With any version of Linux it is simply inevitable you’ll run into problems even by following procedures such as the one above. Unfortunately I might not be able to help in case you do have problems, but others may be much more capable. So if you do run into problems using the method outlined above or a manual install I suggest visiting the nVIDIA Linux Forum and dropping a question there.

Please let me know if this was a useful guide for you by leaving a comment below. I’m considering doing more of these in the future so hopefully some people find it useful. No comments means nobody cares… If you’re brand new to Linux and this was helpful to you, welcome to the world of open source, cheers!

I’ve decided to document my system which I built just around X-Mas because I’m really thrilled with how everything worked out. It had been more than 5 years since the last system I built but having previously done this I was not too worried about running into potential problems.

The Hardware:

This was by far the hardest part of the process for me. It had been close to a year since I considered building a new system, frankly my biggest problem was the lack of competition from AMD on the quad-core CPU battlefront. I was very interested in making a quadcore system from the moment the Intel quads hit the market and the long delays from AMD simply left me hanging. When the Phenom CPUs finally hit the market it was a bit disappointing – clearly not only were they slower than the equivalent Intel chips but they couldn’t even compete in performance per clock cycle. This is performance/clock is a front AMD had been ahead of Intel for many years and I almost jumped the gun on a new Intel chip.

However, the AMD-fanboy inside me simply couldn’t cope with the consequences of building an Intel computer for myself, and I was also impressed by the 790FX motherboards as they came out. As I don’t do much gaming and AMD had beens so good for me over the years I decided to simply stick with AMD and if the CPU has problems I would eventually upgrade it to a newer model in a year or two.

Amazingly the next biggest challenge came when deciding what case to buy! Has anyone looked at all the PC enclosures available today? First off it is very overwhelming, a few years back the good case manufacturers could be counted on the fingers of one hand, these days there are dozens of manufacturers many specializing in custom built cases which cost hundreds of dollars. Sadly finding a solid case with good airflow and a basic appearance was my goal – I dislike see-through doors and LED fans. This made my search fairly narrow but still took me more than a month of browsing online and reading reviews to finally settle on a case. Even though I wanted a case which only had 120mm fans on it I did settle for 92mm fans in the end.

Another battle for me was the graphics card. I have had all types of cards in my systems over the years. Similarly to the CPU I am a bit fond of ATi cards – unlike the CPUs however I have a very functional reason for going with nVIDIA though – their linux support is far better. The next issue was the newest cards available on the market from nVIDIA were impossible to purchase – actually within a week of the 8800GT hitting the shelves it was sold out and significantly overpriced. I was giving the Radeon 3800 series a good hard look in the meantime – they were available – but more than a month after their public release there was no linux driver support for these cards! In the end the linux driver lagging support from AMD convinced me to buy the first available 8800GTS card which was released to the market almost immediately as they became available for purchase.

So here is a complete list of the hardware components, I bought almost everything from Newegg:

• Antec Titan 650 Case
• Asus M3A32-MVP Deluxe AM2+ AMD 790FX Motherboard with Wifi
• AMD Phenom 9600 Agena
• Gigabyte nVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 512 MB G92
• G.Skill 2GB DDR2 1000 SDRAM – four of these babies total of 8GB of RAM!
• Samsung Spinpoint T 500GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA 3.0 GB/s – two drives with the plan to use them in RAID1

Well there were other hardware components of course but these were the big ones. I’ll provide a detailed overview of some of these components below especially the case which was an absolute joy to work with!

Antec Titan 650 Case

I had settled down on the case before I even started seriously considering the choice of CPU for the system and I ordered it about a week or two prior to the rest of the system. Once the case arrived I was immediately sure I had made the right decision, this case had everything I wanted in a computer case.

Above you can see a photo of the new black case after it was unpacked standing next to my old blue workstation. First off the case is huge and easy to work around in, it is meant for servers or workstations and there is nothing compact about it. From the photo you can see the case is actually not as tall as my older case which is also an Antec derrived case. However, the new case is much deeper thus giving you a lot of extra room to properly set up your motherboard and install gigantic graphics cards. This case will fit the longest graphics cards you can find on the market without any problems.

Secondly this case has great ventilation. It only comes with a 120mm fan installed in the back but I opted out to install the optional 92mm fans on the front to make sure it can breathe comfortably. There is also a window on the side door which can be used to fit a 80mm fan to help keep graphics cards cool by blowing cold air directly into them, once again this is something only overclockers may be interested in. I’m not a fan of the side vents at all – however I’ve ended up using this side vent to look inside and see if the motherboard power LED lights up when power is applied.

As you can see the rear of the case is very clean – the major ventilation is provided by the big 120mm fan on the rear. The power supply also has it’s own 120mm fan which is mainly intended for the cooling of the power supply but it does provide some pull of air from the front of the case too. By the way the case does not come with any fans installed outside of these two – frankly they’re not really required especially if you’re going to run some of the newest hardware components and are not planning on doing overclocking. Also keep in mind this case is intended for a server and in generals server systems do not employ overclocking but rather massive RAM quantities and multiple CPUs in order to perform their function.

I did decide to install the two fans which are optional on the front and purchased a couple of Antec TriCool 92 mm fans along with the rest of the hardware. Even with the 92mm fans the case is very quiet, this must be due to the very sturdy construction of the case and the thick steel material (1mm) the monster is built out of! I can’t emphasize enough how well the case parts fit together – side door which you will most commonly have to remove in order to access the insides snaps in perfectly and there’s simply no vibration once it’s installed correctly.

Above you can see the little gate which you install the 92mm fans onto in the front of the case. This is immediately next to the hard drives and any air flow generated by the front fans will directly cool the hard drives you have installed.

The only things I would change about this case are the material of the front cover/door and the fact the case does not come with a speaker. While the speaker really is optional and only helps out when troubleshooting motherboard/CPU hardware installs by outputting series of beeps during the POST and booting sequence I believe they could’ve provided a loose speaker for those who need it without making it part of the case. The front of the case, including the hinged door, are made of plastic which is in fairly sharp contrast to the rest of the thick rolled steel construction. If they make the doorway and front vent out of steel this would be simply the best looking case ever and would add a lot more prestige to the brand. Even with the plastic I still think it’s one of the best cases I’ve ever seen only to be challenged by much more expensive Lian Li and CoolerMaster Stacker cases which cost hundreds of dollars more and DON’T come with a 650 Watt power supply!

Attaching the hard drives is simple. The case came with rails for the hard drives similar to many other newer cases, these rails (shown in the photo above) are well insulated with rubber to minimize hard disk vibrations from spreading to the rest of the case. Also the rails fit perfectly into the hard drive structure of the case and snap resoundingly into place once pushed into the installed position. To install a new hard drive you have to remove the side door and the front cover of the case which becomes unhinged easily when the side door is removed. Once you’re familiar with this workflow it takes less than a minute to open up the case and replace a hard disk and you never have to work inside the case with a screw driver.

A final note for the case: this case supports any and every workstation motherboard. From micro ATX (which would be silly) to the super extended titanic quad CPU workstation motherboards made by Tyan. Please don’t take this to mean you can mount a rack board in here, it’s a workstation case not a refrigerator… If you’re planning on putting a single or dual socket motherboard into this beast you’ll have plenty of room – I imagine the quad socket boards might be just about right but I don’t have one at my disposal to test the theory. Anyways, Antec claims this case fits EATX mobos and I believe them!

Motherboard – Asus M3A32-MVP Deluxe AM2+ AMD 790FX

After reading some of the earliest available reviews about this motherboard I immediately became convinced I wanted it and this sealed the deal for me if I was going to get AMD or Intel. Once I made up my mind on the motherboard I still considered whether to buy an X2 5000+ Black Edition CPU but really convinced myself to spend a bit more money and buy the quad-core chip instead. Here is a photo of the motherboard prior to adding the CPU, RAM and sliding it into the case:

Any time you have to install a CPU into a motherboard I encourage one to wear an anti-ESD (electro-static discharge) wrist strap. Such straps are very cheap and are comfortable to wear. This is very important, at the very least you should try to ground yourself properly by touching a neutrally charged object. Failure to ground yourself properly may result in the destruction of your CPU the moment you touch it! While newer hardware touts improvements in ESD protection these chips feature such small wiring inside that even a couple of volts getting through will wreak havoc on the internal circuitry. The chip might work even after a jolt but might die much sooner or simply be unstable… anyways, consider yourselves warned! I’ve had a few friends who destroyed their CPUs through ESD and went out and bought myself a strap for some peace of mind.

About the motherboard – according to Asus it is one of the highest quality motherboards they’ve put out – particularly the materials used for the capacitors on the board are the main reason why the motherboard is so expensive (+$200)! However, these high quality materials ensure clean voltage which will keep your CPU (and other hardware) alive much longer and they also provide lots of headroom for overclocking for those who are interested.

On the side of the motherboard you can see the pretty boxes my G.SKILL RAM came in on. Not only were the actual modules absolutely beautiful – yes I’m talking about computer hardware here – but even the boxes they came in were slick looking. I especially like the work G.SKILL put into designing the logo and engraving it into the heat-sinks of the modules.

The motherboard also comes with a special memory module cooler which I ended up not using. First off it requires a very small screw driver to actually relocate the component which bolts onto the motherboard’s North Bridge to match different types of memory modules. Secondly, the cooler is set up for two RAM modules but subsequently you can add another two modules and configure it to partially cool each of the four modules. In my case this turned out to simply not work in practice because of how thick my RAM modules were with the heatsinks already installed on them. I ended up abandoning using the extra heat sink but for folks who are into heavy overclocking this might be a huge bonus and according to Asus it helps to cool the modules very effectively.

The motherboard also comes with a Wifi router! I don’t believe in wireless and currently don’t have any wireless connections around the house so I immediately disabled it in the BIOS but this feature alone may sway lots of buyers towards this motherboard.

The CPU and RAM install went without a problem.

The AMD Phenom CPU came bundled with a factory heat-sink and fan. I decided to use these for now and seeing if the chip runs hot before investing in a different type of cooling. Also I have no plans of overclocking this CPU. Subsequently it turned out this cooler is very efficient and my CPU never goes over 50 degrees Celsius under load. You can once again see the beautifully designed RAM modules in the photo above!!! I think they’re sexy! Even more sexy is the kitchen sink pictured here as proof of everything which went into the building of this system – har har!

RAM Warning – Good luck getting it to 1066!!!

I must say here that I don’t know where the problem is. The BIOS on the motherboard is very extensive and provides good guidance here, I spent a few hours trying to get it to work and after concluding I am NOT an idiot by consulting with one of my overclock freak friends I’ve decided there is simply a problem. This might be a problem with the motherboard, or the RAM, or the combination of both… or simply a limitation on the capacity. None of it makes sense to me because the motherboard clearly supports this, so do the RAM modules on their own, I think it’s the total capacity in my case but I really wish I knew exactly where the problem lies.

While at first I thought I had the RAM over-clocked properly through the BIOS after adjusting the voltage to it and booting into Windows went ok… CPU-Z showed otherwise! Linux hardware monitor tools have also hinted at the fact I cannot properly overclock the RAM to work at 1066. I believe this is partly due to the fact I’m running 8 GB of RAM, some people have reported much better results with 2×1 gigabyte configurations. Frankly said I’ve not cared too much about it, I wanted the RAM capacity more than the theoretical benefit of being able to run it at 1066 and thusfar I’m very pleased with the setup – I’ve yet to actually need a swap file!

Graphics Card Install

Before installing the graphics card I slid the motherboard into the case and started connecting all the cables for power, SATA and the case wiring for the front USB, Firewire and power/reset buttons. The motherboard came with this awesome little adapters for this job:

This makes the job of installing the motherboard into any case a breeze and saves you from trying to connect the power/reset button wiring into a crammed case.

As you can see the actual wires belonging to the case were already well labeled in my case but in the past I’ve worked with cases which weren’t so user friendly. Really though, I must commend Asus on including such a nice feature into their motherboard, very impressive!

Here is a photo of the Gigabyte graphics card. There are apparently a couple of different variants of 8800 GTS (g92) cards produced by Gigabyte including one with a Zalman cooler – the one I got was the reference design as provided by nVIDIA which does use two slots once installed because of the thickness of the cooler on the card. While this isn’t a big problem and I only plan on using one card in my system it immediately blocks one of the only two PCI slots available on the motherboard I purchased! Seriously though, I can’t complain, if I didn’t care for the performance I could’ve easily purchased a lower end card which doesn’t use two slots.

Going back to the case – the graphics card shown above is long! While it may have problems fitting into some cases (like the Antec 900) this case swallowed it whole and there was plenty of room to spare.

Operating Systems:

Obviously with 8GB of RAM I would have to run 64-bit operating systems to make full use of this hardware so I forked out the money for the OEM Windows Vista 64 bit OS while I was buying stuff from Newegg. I had heard many bad testimonials about Vista and was a bit weary but I had plans to use Linux on this computer and I was sure Vista issues would be resolved eventually. The biggest thing I was afraid of is investing the money into XP64 and a year or two down the road there might be something I need Vista for… then what? More money down the drain. Microsoft has chosen not to support DX10 (direct x) on Windows XP for example, there will be other things too which soon won’t work under XP. Really, they have an amazing business model! I’ve been trying to use Linux more and more over the last few years just because of this business model and I’ve almost completely made the switch now.

First came the Windows Vista 64 Bit Ultimate install. After everything was properly connected I pressed the power switch, saw the lights come on and fans spinning and … nothing! A black screen refusing to power on! Quickly checking the cables I immediately confirmed the graphics card was indeed powered with the extra six-pin connector. As a matter of fact this was the loudest damned thing in the entire case as it was blasting at 100% fan speed. My next thought was that I have a dud graphics card as clearly the rest of the system was powering up… well it turned out I had missed a power connection to the motherboard. Besides the main power cable there is a small 4-pin connector which plugs very close to the CPU – as a matter of fact there’s space for another 4-pin cable just like it which is blocked off from use – I’m wondering if this must also be plugged in should I ever consider running quad crossfire graphics cards… anyways! Once the power problem was resolved the system came up, I could get into the BIOS and start playing around.

Booting off the Windows Vista CD was not a problem but it refused to recognize the RAID 1 array I had created in the BIOS. Inserting the CD which came with the motherboard did nothing – there was apparently no driver there for Windows Vista to help recognize the RAID config! Subsequently it turned out a driver can be created by booting up through the Asus CD and following the instructions then storing the file onto a USB key. But before I found this out (who reads motherboard manuals anyways?) I un-RAID-ed the hard disks and unplugged one of them and proceeded to install Vista onto it. This time I had no issues at all and managed to get through the entire install fairly quickly and without any trouble.

Once in Vista I was quickly annoyed with the so called “security” features this OS is famous for. However, I decided to suck it up and not disable anything just yet. The biggest shock came when attempting to install the WHQL nVIDIA drivers though… it turned out they had packaged the 32-bit uninstaller with the 64-bit install and the driver would abort in the middle of attempting to install itself. So much for WHQL… lucky for me the beta driver worked and didn’t have this bug in it. After the graphics driver was installed I could bask in the glory of Windows Vista and the famous Aeroglass! Not that impressive considering what I had already seen in Linux on my old box but still neat. After I managed to install everything I needed on the computer the annoying pop-ups stopped appearing and using the computer became much friendlier. I did have a few BSODs in Vista since installing it – however I believe it is a hardware problem with my setup because the only time they happen is if I leave a USB stick plugged into the front of my case. Outside of this I have not managed to crash Vista and I’m not really sure why so many people are complaining about it.

Wait… let me rephrase this. I am sure why so many people are complaining! It’s a resource hog. Just booting up into Vista x64 was taking up over a Gig of RAM! Of course I have 8GB so no big deal in my case but I can see how someone attempting to run this OS on old hardware will quickly run into problems once they open a few applications.

Next came the Ubuntu x64 install. I was determined to give Ubuntu a shot after reading an interview online with one of the folks from Canonical. I am not sure who the man was and don’t have a link to the interview but he said some things which impressed me very much… stuff about how Linux should be in terms of ease of use. Not only was I in agreement with what this guy said but the attitude impressed me so much I remembered to download and give Ubuntu a shot even though I had been using openSUSE for months and was quite fond of it. Well the Ubuntu install didn’t happen on the AMD Phenom hardware. After inserting the live CD and selecting Install the system froze repeatedly! NOT GOOD! It turned out this has something to do with the gigabit ethernet controller on the motherboard but who searches the internet for problems when an operating system fails to install! Subsequently, as seen above with the RAID driver issue, I ran out of patience and quickly downloaded openSUSE 10.3 x64 for a try. This worked without any issues and for once installing the graphics drivers under Linux was easier than under Windows! Here’s a screenshot:

Link to my openSUSE desktop

As I was already quite familiar with openSUSE I really didn’t waste much time configuring this thing to the way I like it to be set up.

Edit: It has now been a few months since the initial install. The last remaining items on the configuration list were resolved. My greatest annoyance came from my inability to properly set up the RAID as I wanted. It turned out the black SATA ports were NOT the Marvel chip ports, after consulting with the motherboard’s hardware manual I finally got the RAID setup working properly. Another item which has changed from my initial setup was that I decided to give Fedora 8 a shot and have now been running it for a little longer than 5 months with no desire to upgrade to 9 or to switch to another distro because everything is working perfectly.