*I decided to give this its own thread from the official asus thread because I'm sure its a topic many are interested in.*
I am dual-booted with windows xp and Red Hat Fedora Core 3 and I'm loving it. There is a ton of crap you have to piddle through to configure linux on the system, but in the end it was quite worth it to experiment with an open source os, and the piddling only took a day or so.
If you choose fedora, make sure to do it after your windowsxp install, and make sure you have some unpartitioned space to use for that installation. Basically when I first installed windows on my 120 gb drive I partitioned it to 40 gb because I knew I was going to be trying to move to a linux os. Fedora had 80 gb of space to play with, and it formatted the whole 80 for itself... this is why I tell you to do it after windows, because windows asks you to partition your drive, but fedora automatically takes however much space you have left. I threw some dummy partitions in so that I could put some other linux on in the future if I should choose. One of those partitions was a fat32 partition which I describe more handily in a post to this thread below. The size of that fat 32 partition was 10 GB, so there was actually 70 GB (63.33 in real life) that fedora had for installation.
The cd from http://www.sysresccd.org/ is pretty freakin awesome for setting up partitions. You have to boot your computer with this in as you would with any boot cd. Once it says boot, press enter... once it gets to the command line type run_qtparted Once you're done with your partition tweaking you close out of qtparted, and to shutdown your system, type halt
When you turn the comp back on, be ready to take your cd out before it boots.
About the qtparted program... any changes you make have to be commited with the commit button before they will actually be created and take effect. I didn't use this to mess with my xp partition, since I had already decided when I installed xp what its size was going to be, so be careful if you decide to mess with that.
You should experiment with Linux itself by downloading or buying the Knoppix cd if you haven't already. Version 3.7 is the latest I believe. Knoppix is really really good at preconfiguring the components in your system. If the screen goes black, don't worry, knoppix is probably just trying to uncompress the desktop off your cd. It has 2 GB of programs compressed onto the cd, but only uncompresses and runs the things you ask for.
You can find knoppix and info about it here http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html
Knoppix is run completely in your system memory, and doesn't touch your hard drives at all. Once you turn off your computer, it was as if it was never there. The same is true for that system rescue cd I mentioned earlier.
But yes, I'm running linux (Fedora), using a i386 distro (don't really care to fiddle with 64 bits yet), I installed the nvidia linux graphics drivers, and I'm starting to get used to using a command line for a few tasks here and there.
Oh, and Fedora automatically sets up a dual boot program so you don't have to worry about that.
If you choose Fedora, this is the link with information to help you with Nvidia graphics, java, flash, and everything http://www.fedoranews.org/contributors/stanton_finley/fc3_note/ Follow those directions and you'll be at the level of functionality you would be with windows. Also digging through the threads at FedoraForum.org can also be useful if you have some time to spare.
Just so everyone knows my configuration:
A8n-sli
athlon 3000+
msi 6600gt
512 MB ram (256x2)
120 gb Seagate Sata hard drive
Benq 1620 dvd writer
Antec Neopower 480
sony floppy (lifesaver)
So, important things to note... My only hard drive is Sata. I have my dvd writer on the primary ATA. My Sata is on the silicon controllers. I don't have a soundcard yet... either will get an audigy platinum once I've saved up, or just wait for the next generation of audigy which supposedly should debut this year. Fedora, however, recognized ac'97 audio out of the gate, so I do have sound and even watched collateral on the system last night with the program Xine.
I have a lot to learn, but I'm already finding I'm using Linux twice as much as windows.
Update: since it seems that this page is actually getting some views, I will give some recommendations for a fedora core 3 install.
First, I highly recommend against a full install unless you really need everything. This will install all types of foreign language dictionaries and server software that is just not practical. I would choose the custom install option. This will let you select packages which might be important to you. Next to each package collection is a link that says details... click on that to choose which programs in that package you would like. This is very simple when You're doing it even though it might be confusing to read it now. Now you must select the development tools package to be installed for sure, because the nvidia driver needs gcc to compile itself to the kernel.
When you finish installing, the first thing you need to do is an update, though this will only really work for you if you have a broadband connection such as cable or dsl.
Click applications, go to system, then click terminal.
In the terminal type yum update
It will ask for your root password, after that it will update your system including the kernel and this will probably take an hour, so you could do what I did and watch some sitcoms. Somewhere in there it will ask you to install the packages, which you have to give a "y" to and hit enter, so keep an eye on it every now and then.
After you finish that, you need to restart your computer. Once you get back to Fedora, it is time to follow the directions for your nvidia graphics driver (if you have nvidia) from that fedoranews link above. Follow those directions to the T.
That should give you more than enough to fool around with for awhile, and you will be up to date and will have your video working at the right frame rates.
To continue further just add the other things from that fedoranews link.
I am dual-booted with windows xp and Red Hat Fedora Core 3 and I'm loving it. There is a ton of crap you have to piddle through to configure linux on the system, but in the end it was quite worth it to experiment with an open source os, and the piddling only took a day or so.
If you choose fedora, make sure to do it after your windowsxp install, and make sure you have some unpartitioned space to use for that installation. Basically when I first installed windows on my 120 gb drive I partitioned it to 40 gb because I knew I was going to be trying to move to a linux os. Fedora had 80 gb of space to play with, and it formatted the whole 80 for itself... this is why I tell you to do it after windows, because windows asks you to partition your drive, but fedora automatically takes however much space you have left. I threw some dummy partitions in so that I could put some other linux on in the future if I should choose. One of those partitions was a fat32 partition which I describe more handily in a post to this thread below. The size of that fat 32 partition was 10 GB, so there was actually 70 GB (63.33 in real life) that fedora had for installation.
The cd from http://www.sysresccd.org/ is pretty freakin awesome for setting up partitions. You have to boot your computer with this in as you would with any boot cd. Once it says boot, press enter... once it gets to the command line type run_qtparted Once you're done with your partition tweaking you close out of qtparted, and to shutdown your system, type halt
When you turn the comp back on, be ready to take your cd out before it boots.
About the qtparted program... any changes you make have to be commited with the commit button before they will actually be created and take effect. I didn't use this to mess with my xp partition, since I had already decided when I installed xp what its size was going to be, so be careful if you decide to mess with that.
You should experiment with Linux itself by downloading or buying the Knoppix cd if you haven't already. Version 3.7 is the latest I believe. Knoppix is really really good at preconfiguring the components in your system. If the screen goes black, don't worry, knoppix is probably just trying to uncompress the desktop off your cd. It has 2 GB of programs compressed onto the cd, but only uncompresses and runs the things you ask for.
You can find knoppix and info about it here http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html
Knoppix is run completely in your system memory, and doesn't touch your hard drives at all. Once you turn off your computer, it was as if it was never there. The same is true for that system rescue cd I mentioned earlier.
But yes, I'm running linux (Fedora), using a i386 distro (don't really care to fiddle with 64 bits yet), I installed the nvidia linux graphics drivers, and I'm starting to get used to using a command line for a few tasks here and there.
Oh, and Fedora automatically sets up a dual boot program so you don't have to worry about that.
If you choose Fedora, this is the link with information to help you with Nvidia graphics, java, flash, and everything http://www.fedoranews.org/contributors/stanton_finley/fc3_note/ Follow those directions and you'll be at the level of functionality you would be with windows. Also digging through the threads at FedoraForum.org can also be useful if you have some time to spare.
Just so everyone knows my configuration:
A8n-sli
athlon 3000+
msi 6600gt
512 MB ram (256x2)
120 gb Seagate Sata hard drive
Benq 1620 dvd writer
Antec Neopower 480
sony floppy (lifesaver)
So, important things to note... My only hard drive is Sata. I have my dvd writer on the primary ATA. My Sata is on the silicon controllers. I don't have a soundcard yet... either will get an audigy platinum once I've saved up, or just wait for the next generation of audigy which supposedly should debut this year. Fedora, however, recognized ac'97 audio out of the gate, so I do have sound and even watched collateral on the system last night with the program Xine.
I have a lot to learn, but I'm already finding I'm using Linux twice as much as windows.
Update: since it seems that this page is actually getting some views, I will give some recommendations for a fedora core 3 install.
First, I highly recommend against a full install unless you really need everything. This will install all types of foreign language dictionaries and server software that is just not practical. I would choose the custom install option. This will let you select packages which might be important to you. Next to each package collection is a link that says details... click on that to choose which programs in that package you would like. This is very simple when You're doing it even though it might be confusing to read it now. Now you must select the development tools package to be installed for sure, because the nvidia driver needs gcc to compile itself to the kernel.
When you finish installing, the first thing you need to do is an update, though this will only really work for you if you have a broadband connection such as cable or dsl.
Click applications, go to system, then click terminal.
In the terminal type yum update
It will ask for your root password, after that it will update your system including the kernel and this will probably take an hour, so you could do what I did and watch some sitcoms. Somewhere in there it will ask you to install the packages, which you have to give a "y" to and hit enter, so keep an eye on it every now and then.
After you finish that, you need to restart your computer. Once you get back to Fedora, it is time to follow the directions for your nvidia graphics driver (if you have nvidia) from that fedoranews link above. Follow those directions to the T.
That should give you more than enough to fool around with for awhile, and you will be up to date and will have your video working at the right frame rates.
To continue further just add the other things from that fedoranews link.
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