Intel Motherboarding
If you’re trying to install the Intel(R) Chipset Software Installation Utility (aka drivers) from a CD and you encounter a message like “usbehci.sys on (Unknown) is needed”, you may want to try installing Service Pack 2 if you’re on Windows XP. Worked for me.
Speaking of Intel, kudos to them for having the best website of any motherboard manufacturer I’ve bought from. Their motherboard pages have
- High resolution pictures of the boards.
- Detailed specs for each available “configuration”.
- BIOS updates (including old ones) in 4 different formats including bootable CDs.
- 3 effective ways to identify an Intel board (BIOS string, sticker label on board, part number)
- Detailed information on where temperature sensors are located.
They also support the Linux community by releasing quality open-source graphics drivers. Very, very nice.
If you want to install Ubuntu on a 965-based Intel board like the DQ965GF, I recommend the third Fiesty Fawn milestone, Herd 3. With Herd 3, you get the 2.6.20 kernel which supports KVM, a loadable kernel module to support hardware virtualization (scoooore!).
Because the 965 chipset is new, there are still some kinks. At first the installer crapped out and left me with:
BusyBox [ver] Built-in shell (ash) Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands. /bin/sh: can't access tty; job control turned off
Later on, I got garbled X graphics.
The solution to these problems was to add “vga=771 all-generic-ide pci=nommconf” to my kernel options line after booting to the install CD (hit F6 when the installer while you’ve got the “Start or install Ubuntu” menu item selected). Your final options line should read “file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper initrd=/casper/initrd.gz vga=771 all-generic-ide pci=nommconf quiet splash –”. I removed “quiet” and changed “splash” to “nosplash” also.
Windows XP Profession rebooted every time it tried to load “mup.sys” during bootup. The fix was to change the BIOS setting for Configure SATA As” (Advanced Tab -> Drive Configuration) from “AHCI” to “IDE”. Note that this will nix any benefit you get from SATA.
Some of these links were helpful:
