Linux support for i845G chipset?

[CrazySaint]

I'm gonna setup a Windows/Linux dual boot system. My motherboard is the Asus P4B533-V, but I've heard that Linux has limited/spotty support for the i845G chipset. Is this true? Are there some distros that have better support than others? The distros I'm most interested in are Mandrake and SuSE.

 

[Abzstrak]

I believe its a kernel bug in 2.19.X with the onboard video.... pretty sure that it can be rectified by passing a mem= at grub or lilo...

I've never run into it (dont run intel's) so U'll need someone to give you specifics, but I think you just need to specify a bit less RAM than you actually have (like 488MB instead of 512MB

Good luck

 

[NotALlama]

Unfortunately, the i845 family of motherboards are not supported right now in the default kernel, they require to be patched or you need to use a prerelease kernel. FreeBSD beat Linux to the punch on this one, as the chipset was supported a couple weeks ago with the release of FreeBSD 4.7.As for the integrated video, XFree86 4.2.1 doesn't support his device. The next release of XFree86, version 3.0, will include support, but until then you either need to use the vesa driver or the current CVS version. In my opinion, Red Hat Linux would be the best bet on this system, because they provide an i845G XFree86 driver. The i845G is not unsupported, just rather requires some in depth assistance to setup.

 

[CrazySaint]

Hmm...thanks for the replies. That kinda sucks, as I was hoping to get a Linux dual boot setup sometime in the next few days with a minimum of hassle. Does it help any that I've disabled the onboard video and am using a Radeon card? Is it possible to download i845G XFree86 drivers for other distros? What affect would non-support for the chipset have on running Linux? Would it simply not run, run very slowly, run but with problems?

 

[Hamburgerpimp]

I set up Red Hat Linux 8.0 on my system with no problems. I'm using the 845G chipset, so I don't have onboard video. Everything installed fine and I'm dual booting. Actually, tribooting with Win2K/WinXP.

 

[Abzstrak]

I forgot to mention, I have heard of people running 845's fine with linux (Gentoo in particular), but with add-on video cards.... so your probably fine with that radeon in there. Pleas note that Radeon support is kinda shotty in linux too, except for the last few cards that ATI has released

 

[Derango]

Originally posted by: NotALlama
Unfortunately, the i845 family of motherboards are not supported right now in the default kernel, they require to be patched or you need to use a prerelease kernel. FreeBSD beat Linux to the punch on this one, as the chipset was supported a couple weeks ago with the release of FreeBSD 4.7

Uh...this is just plain wrong. My i845D works great in linux, and has worked great for the past 3-4 months or so.

 

[CrazySaint]

Originally posted by: Derango

Originally posted by: NotALlama
Unfortunately, the i845 family of motherboards are not supported right now in the default kernel, they require to be patched or you need to use a prerelease kernel. FreeBSD beat Linux to the punch on this one, as the chipset was supported a couple weeks ago with the release of FreeBSD 4.7

Uh...this is just plain wrong. My i845D works great in linux, and has worked great for the past 3-4 months or so.

Thanks I'm presently downloading Mandrake - should be done in about 4-5 hours

 

[Dug]

The 845G is different than the 845D.

I loaded up RedHat 8 on my 845G. And it works, but not the best it could. I can't load Geforce 4 drivers, and there's a list of modules not loaded when you look under the chipset. So I'm stuck at 60hz on my screen (Same with Mandrake 9)

 

[CrazySaint]

Originally posted by: Dug
The 845G is different than the 845D.

I loaded up RedHat 8 on my 845G. And it works, but not the best it could. I can't load Geforce 4 drivers, and there's a list of modules not loaded when you look under the chipset. So I'm stuck at 60hz on my screen (Same with Mandrake 9)

Ouch So am I stuck with RH8? Abztrak said Gentoo works well with i845G, maybe I'll go with that...

 

[Dug]

Ouch So am I stuck with RH8? Abztrak said Gentoo works well with i845G, maybe I'll go with that...

Your not really stuck. It's not that RH8 or Mandrake won't work (it will) its just how well.

(It'll be just like running Windows without the INF drivers, or if you have a VIA chipset, without the 4in1's. It runs but slow in comparison)

 

[Priit]

Besides onboard video, everything else should be supported (IDE, AGP, sound).

 

[CrazySaint]

Ah ok, I feel better now If the integrated video is the only thing that won't be supported, then that's not a problem. Thanks again, guys