LINUX, and a totally unrelated non-linux RAID question.

[Forsythe]

Question Part 1: Linux

I'm a Linux noob, never used it. However, i'm a nut with computers and very good at figuring things out. I have a 400Gb harddrive (refer to second question) with loads of partitions, some with programs, some with ripped dvd's, some with small programs, others with Maya created art or photoshop, these can often be like 1Gb, if i'm really geeking it.
What Linux would you recommend a person such as i should use? This is what i'm hopefully gonna continue to use, not just over a period.
Additional, hl² and EVE -Online, play both of them a lot, and only those two games, any way to run them on linux? (cba to search, some of you might know)
And how do i watch dvd's on Linux?

Question Part 2: RAID

Now, i might be able to backup my contents, and my harddrives are 2 WD harddrives, same distribution. My motherboard is the Abit IC7-MAX3.
How do i setup RAID, without buying any specific hardware, it's supposed to have a raid controller, but i have no idea about anything. Will it be possible to partition the raid-zero'd drive so i can have Linux on one partition, and windows on another?

Question Part 3: PIO

I'm having problems with my primary, or indeed secondary, IDE channels being set to PIO transfer mode, that's 33mb/s instead of UDMA5, which is 133mb/s. This creates loads of lag (naturally). This is Slave/Primary independent. I suspect DC++ or ODC, but i'm not sure. I suspect it because it seems that the drive i have my share on, is the drive that get's pio'd (One should make this a term to mark stupid people, like, he's a fvcking PIO, oh man, he's a real UDMA, ok, i'm a nerd, it's 4:45am here).
Does anyone have any clue on what's going on? This seems to be a windows problem because when i reinstall it fixes itself. (Is it a virus?) I am ofcourse using Nortong Antivirus +Firewall + alotta things. It's a 120$ package, it's really great, but fairly expensive, so it better d@mned work..

 

[Zelmo3]

Watching DVDs is easy enough. Get Xine and google for a way to make DVDs work with it (it's out there, just can't be posted here). Chances are Xine comes with whatever distro you're looking at.

Doing RAID with the onboard controller isn't going to work. As of the 2.6 kernel series there's no support for onboard RAID, and getting it to work with a 2.4 kernel is tricky at best. You can usually opt for software RAID when you're installing Linux, and I think it can be done in WinXP Pro after it's installed. Software RAID is said to be as good as onboard RAID and almost on par with the more expensive true RAID hardware.

 

[Forsythe]

Originally posted by: Zelmo3
Watching DVDs is easy enough. Get Xine and google for a way to make DVDs work with it (it's out there, just can't be posted here). Chances are Xine comes with whatever distro you're looking at.

Doing RAID with the onboard controller isn't going to work. As of the 2.6 kernel series there's no support for onboard RAID, and getting it to work with a 2.4 kernel is tricky at best. You can usually opt for software RAID when you're installing Linux, and I think it can be done in WinXP Pro after it's installed. Software RAID is said to be as good as onboard RAID and almost on par with the more expensive true RAID hardware.

I think i'm confused on the whole "how RAID works" then.I might need that explained...

 

[Forsythe]

*sigh* bumpety bump bump...

 

[Nothinman]

What Linux would you recommend a person such as i should use?

It's personal preferance, you should just pick a few and try them out and see what you end up liking. Personally, I'm a big Debian zealot.

Additional, hl² and EVE -Online, play both of them a lot, and only those two games, any way to run them on linux? (cba to search, some of you might know)

I believe HL2 is supported by Cedega (or whatever the WineX people are calling themselve now), but I doubt you'll get any help from Valve and I try to avoid WINE as much as possible. As for EVE, same thing, check the Cedega web site and see if it's working. Chances are that if you want to game on something other than Quake or UT (or one of the OSS games out there) that you'll probably want to run Windows and save yourself the hassle of fighting with WINE.

And how do i watch dvd's on Linux?

However you want. I use mplayer, some people like totem, xine, VLC, ogle, etc.

How do i setup RAID, without buying any specific hardware, it's supposed to have a raid controller, but i have no idea about anything. Will it be possible to partition the raid-zero'd drive so i can have Linux on one partition, and windows on another?

It's definately possible, but it's hard to gauge how hard it will be. Most cheap onboard RAID controllers are just some bootstrap magic with all of the real work done by the driver in software. Linux supports a bunch of them, but without knowing the chipset it's impossible to tell you whether it'll work or not.

I'm having problems with my primary, or indeed secondary, IDE channels being set to PIO transfer mode, that's 33mb/s instead of UDMA5, which is 133mb/s.

Windows (and Linux) fall back to PIO after some read errors in DMA mode, this could be anything from a dying drive to a bad cable to interference in the box, it's hard to tell. Windows EventViewer (and the linux kernel once you get Linux up) will usually say something about why they failed back to PIO.

I think i'm confused on the whole "how RAID works" then.I might need that explained...

When talking about IDE RAID the best way to describe how it works is usually "poorly".

 

[Forsythe]

I'm using two SATA drives. Any better?

 

[Nothinman]

I'm using two SATA drives. Any better?

Same thing, different flavor. The problem is the controllers, not necessarily the drives. IDE was designed to be cheap, that's why there's no drives that do 'disconnect' which kills performance when you try to use 2 drives on the same wire and the SATA "fix" for this was to make it so you can only put one drive per cable, that's an ugly bandaid of a fix IMO. But IDE is cheap and performance has gotten good so it's what most people use.

The best way to find out if your hardware will work is to get a copy of Knoppix and boot it up, it runs entirely from CD so there's no chance of it damaging your system unless you do something yourself.

 

[Forsythe]

Bump

I often see "MIKE" in ATOT, what's is that?

Need help :/

 

[funggorgor]

if you are a linux noob
Mandrake Linux is your friend