<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">Greg,</font>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">This weekend I confirmed that I can
install Debian 4.0-r3 on the M2A690G machine.</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">This is my first exposure to Debian,
but I can see why so many people like it. I used the 32-bit "net
install" CD. This is a small 180MB file on CD that boots, then
gets most of the applications over the internet, so it always has the most
updated files. The normal process is to install entirely from CD,
then once up and running, download all the updates from the internet.</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">The install also lets you install LVM
as part of the install process. Strangely, it created the following</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">/dev/sda1 --- /boot</font>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">/dev/sda2 -- LVM2 (contains
/ and swap)</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">/dev/sdb1 -- 250MB ext3 not assigned</font>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">/dev/sdb2 -- LVM2</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">It is possible that /dev/sdb1 is set-aside
as /boot copy, and that sda2/sdb2 could be configured as an LVM mirror.
For now, I will assume that if we can get everything working on /dev/sda,
we can then worry about making it mirrored to /dev/sdb.</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">I installed both "web+db"
and "desktop+web+db" the latter took about 30-45 minutes
longer for all the GNOME packages, but it was nice to see the desktop GUI
is very similar to Ubuntu and easy to use. They even have a "Root
Terminal" option, eliminating the need to do "sudo sh" on
the regular "terminal".</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">The "lspci" is slightly different:</font>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">-------</font>
<br><tt><font size=3>00:00.0 Host bridge: ATI Technologies Inc Unknown
device 7910<br>
00:01.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc Unknown device 7912<br>
00:07.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc Unknown device 7917<br>
00:12.0 SATA controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 Non-Raid-5 SATA<br>
00:13.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI0)<br>
00:13.1 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI1)<br>
00:13.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI2)<br>
00:13.3 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI3)<br>
00:13.4 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI4)<br>
00:13.5 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB Controller (EHCI)<br>
00:14.0 SMBus: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 SMBus (rev 13)<br>
00:14.1 IDE interface: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 IDE<br>
00:14.2 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 Azalia<br>
00:14.3 ISA bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 PCI to LPC Bridge<br>
00:14.4 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 PCI to PCI Bridge<br>
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron]
HyperTransport Technology Configuration<br>
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron]
Address Map<br>
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron]
DRAM Controller<br>
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron]
Miscellaneous Control<br>
01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Unknown device
791e<br>
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B
PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 01)<br>
03:05.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+
(rev 10)<br>
03:06.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+
(rev 10)<br>
03:07.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. IEEE 1394 Host Controller
(rev c0)</font></tt>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">------------</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">Note, first three lines indicate "Unknown
device", whereas under Ubuntu they were recognized. Also, line
20 (01:05.0) does not recognize the Radeon X1200, and instead says "Unknown
device 791e".</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">When I did "dmesg | grep pci",
I got the following:</font>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">-----------</font>
<br><tt><font size=3>ACPI: bus type pci registered<br>
PCI: If a device doesn't work, try "pci=routeirq". If it
helps, post a report<br>
pcie_portdrv_probe->Dev[7917:1002] has invalid IRQ. Check vendor BIOS<br>
Allocate Port Service[0000:00:07.0:pcie00]<br>
Allocate Port Service[0000:00:07.0:pcie03]<br>
pci_hotplug: PCI Hot Plug PCI Core version: 0.5</font></tt>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">----------</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">The "pcie_portdrv_probe" line
gets "invalid IRQ" no matter what I did. I tried boot
parms pci=noacpi, pci=nomsi, acpi=noirq. I tried changing the BIOS
setting from PCI=[Auto] to [Manual]. I even set "Plug N Play
OS" to both YES and NO. The forums seem to indicate that this
probably can be ignored.</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">I tried booting in both BIOS SATA=IDE
and AHCI mode, and got nearly identical results, so it appears Debian is
"ahci-aware" in the kernel. The forums seem to imply that
AHCI is the better choice, and that IDE is designed for older software
compatability.</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">Selecting desktop+web+db means it installs
and sets up as default running Apache 2.2.3 and PostqreSQL 7.4, I confirmed
both were running successfully. I also created a small "index.php"
to run ?phpinfo() and confirmed that PHP is at 5.2.0-8 +etch11. I
went on MoodleDocs and found that Moodle supports Debian and PostgreSQL,
but did not bother trying to do a full Moodle installation. I just
wanted to make sure what BIOS settings we should have, and whether there
would be any issue with a Fedora XS / Debian dual-boot environment. So
far, everything checks out.</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">Next step:</font>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">I will wipe the system clean, and install
Fedora 7 from the i386-install-DVD.</font>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif"><br>
-- Tony</font>