From: Jeff Shultz 

I didn't believe I could do it, but it appears that I may have finally
stepped just beyond the bleeding edge of current Linux capabilities with
this sytem.
It all comes down to device drivers of course, and the apparent inability
of hardware manufacturers to write ones for Linux for their current
hardware.
I found 3rd party drivers for my ATI 9600 Pro that appear to work.
http://www.schneider-digital.de/html/download_ati.html get the
glx1_linux_X4.3.zip package.
The 9.2RC1 of Mandrake Linux contains support for the Serial ATA (so did
9.1, sort of, but it didn't work very well) on my Gigabyte GA-7NNXP board.
I haven't tried the hardware RAID under 9.2, but I'm not especially hopeful
 - it wasn't recognized under 9.1. The Intel-based gigabit ethernet
controller was recognized... but since it isn't a 100/1000 controller as
far as I can see, it's pretty useless. The nVidia nForce2 Ultra400 based
10/100 network port is recognized by 9.2... but the install program gets
all weird and doesn't seem to be doing anything. And it doesn't offer a
"cancel" option either. So I'll stick a spare Linksys card in
there and that ought to work.

I've got one question that isn't mobo related, but hopefully those with
more current mobo configuration skills than I have will be able to help.
Boot up is reporting the CPU as an "Athlon XP running at 1250mhz"
regardless of the CPU ratio (which I'm assuming is the clock multiplier) I
put in). Right now the mobo is set at the CPU ratio of "Normal"
which sorta baffles me... especially as the correct one, 12.5x of 166mhz,
isn't available as an option. Any ideas on if "normal"  is
actually doing the right thing, or should I set the ratio at 12 and forget
about it?

This has been interesting... and I'm glad I've got a couple weeks before I
go back to work.
--
Jeff Shultz

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