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Questions about GIGABYTE products => Motherboards with AMD processors => Topic started by: Thorinx on April 10, 2012, 12:54:01 pm

Title: Linux GA-990FXA-UD7
Post by: Thorinx on April 10, 2012, 12:54:01 pm
Hello

I have this motherboard GA-990FXA-UD7 (BIOS F8). I try to install Linux but I have many problems, because the distro don't recognise the Hard Disk. My question is, It's possible install Linux on this Motherboard?

I searched on Google but I don't find any information.

Thanks
Title: Re: Linux GA-990FXA-UD7
Post by: MarkJohnson on April 10, 2012, 05:26:52 pm
Make sure you sata cable is plugged into your first SATA port.  I think it is SATA_0.  Don't use the Marvel SATA port (Usually gray and labeled SATA_6 and SATA_7) as it may be disabled and may not have as good support.

If you're out of ports, you can try enabling the marvel controller in the BIOS.

Luck
-=Mark=-
Title: Re: Linux GA-990FXA-UD7
Post by: Thorinx on April 10, 2012, 08:14:59 pm
Yes!!! Thanks good!!!!
Title: Re: Linux GA-990FXA-UD7
Post by: axel on May 15, 2012, 08:42:12 am
I will hijack this thread a  bit ...

I have the same motherboard, but I can't get it to work.

I tried putting the HDD in the Sata_0 port, and boot Ubuntu 12.04 x64 LTS, and it does boot ... it gives me some graphic (a pink screen, and what looks like a keyboard and a person) for a short while, then it all goes black and all i see is a liiite blinking white "_" in the upper left corner.

No prompt, no shell nothing else... just that.

I've tried Linux Thorvalds sugestion ( https://plus.google.com/102150693225130002912/posts/QLe3tSmtSM4 ) and i've tried different distributions, but nothing so far works.

What's really annoying me is that winXP works fine ... and installed (almost) without a hitch.

Any suggestions?

Best regards
/Axel
Title: Re: Linux GA-990FXA-UD7
Post by: Vezina on May 15, 2012, 12:45:01 pm

What's really annoying me is that winXP works fine ... and installed (almost) without a hitch.

Any suggestions?

Best regards
/Axel

Why the  "almost" ?!

Try a Mandriva version ,the Live CD-s seemed to work with my AMD 970 chipset based board.See if that boots up properly.

Title: Re: Linux GA-990FXA-UD7
Post by: axel on May 15, 2012, 02:47:48 pm
Thanks for the reply!

Well, winXP did install, but it was a bit of a hassle to get to install, but it eventually did in the end!

I will try Mandriva ina a few hours.

Best regards
/AXel
Title: Re: Linux GA-990FXA-UD7
Post by: axel on May 15, 2012, 05:41:59 pm
Mandriva does boot perfectly, from the CD  this is a step forward!

But why doesn't Ubuntu boot? Not even the live CD ...

The Mandriva i'm running at the moment seems to be a quite old release (Mandriva 11) , and the Ubuntu release was a  very new one.

Best regards
/Axel
Title: Re: Linux GA-990FXA-UD7
Post by: Vezina on May 15, 2012, 06:02:38 pm
I am not very  knowledgeble on linux ,but i have tested various distros in time.

Even though Ubuntu has a lot of attention for some reason i have never liked it and it never worked properly for me on my AMD CPU based system (thats what i ve had since 2002).

I ve always liked Simply Mepis or Mandriva.
Last time i tried Mandriva i was satisfied that everything was working including sound out of the box.

Maybe the guys at Ubuntu did not test something properly before releasing or some BIOS code update from Gigabyte broke some routine for Ubuntu.

If games would have worked under linux i would have used Mandriva most probable ,better looking desktop :)
Title: Re: Linux GA-990FXA-UD7
Post by: axel on May 15, 2012, 07:53:26 pm
Ok, noted =) .

Maybe I should just give Mandriva a try and. It's not all that different, it's still Linux.

The neat thing about Ubuntu are the software repos...

Anyhow, thanks for the help and updates!

Best regards
/Axel
Title: Re: Linux GA-990FXA-UD7
Post by: axel on May 16, 2012, 07:16:02 am
Got an e-mail from a friend, he gave me this link: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1896052

Seems as if someone has had problem and solved it using a slightly different approach. I'll give that one a try this evening.

Best regards
/Anders
Title: Re: Linux GA-990FXA-UD7
Post by: kosobai on May 16, 2012, 08:45:59 am
By all accounts UEFI is a PITA.

To get my Win 7 / Ubuntu 12.04 up and running, first I had to set 'non-efi' boot option in the BIOS, then scrub the HDD completely with Killdisk and reinstall W7. You must use Killdisk or Ubuntu won't recognise the W7 partition (assuming you want to dual boot). After that, I booted Ubuntu from the install CD and installed it alongside W7 with no problems.

Only enable EFI boot if you absolutely have to: i.e. you need to boot from a HDD exceeding 2.2TB. The current implementation of EFI in Gigabyte boards is just a hack, and frankly, it shows.