I'm planning my first build and have spent a lot of time researching all aspects to include open source options. I have a few questions but I'm still on a learning curve with some of the abbreviations when it comes to OS and other software; therefore I will not take offence if you explain things real simple.
I've noticed some users have trouble with some ATI drivers, it seems that every 6 months if they update to the latest version of Ubuntu/Linux they have to 'reload' or 'update drivers' am I understanding this correctly?
I am planning on using a Gigabyte GA-MA790GP-UD4H mother board. This will mean AMD 790GX north bridge
AMD 750 south bridge
ATI Radeon HD3300 [integrated]
AMD Phenom II X3 720 cpu 45nm socket AM3 [my choice]
AMD OverDrive
Gigabyte Easytune6
Windows XP Pro 32-bit
My question [about the above] is has anyone had trouble with Ubuntu 8.10 when dealing with these components/chipsets/features.
One last question reguarding my OS install order onto a 640 or 750 GB WD Caviar Black SATAII HDD:
I am planning on installing XP Pro 32-bit first then Ubuntu/GRUB next; should I format the entire drive with XP then resize and partition with the Ubuntu/GRUB instalation or should I partion with the XP and only format it's share of the drive?
Or worse case I still do not know what I'm talking about Which is common with us newbie's Thank you for you time and response JLP

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Ga-990XA-UD3, Phenom II 970 BLK @3.5 GHz, 16 GB DDR3 1600 G.Skill Sniper, WD 1.5 TB Black, ATI FirPro V4800 running on Kubuntu 64-bit

No, the unit should run just fine with Ubuntu 8.10. The graphics chip is supported in 2D mode out of the box with the open-source radeon driver and 2D + 3D is supported with AMD's Catalyst driver (which is a one-click install in Ubuntu 8.10.) The chipset is well-supported as I have run 8.10 on a Phenom II X4 920 on a 780G/SB700 unit with no problems whatsoever.



Your choice to install Windows first and Linux second is a smart one. Partition the drive into two partitions with XP's partition tool and then format and install to only one of the partitions. Next, install Ubuntu. It will see the Windows install partition and the empty partition, and will offer to install in the empty partition and add Windows to the GRUB boot menu. That is what you want as then you will use GRUB to boot Linux and Windows.

You can do it the other way around by partitioning the drive under Linux and leaving an empty partition for XP, then installing XP later. The problem with that approach is that Windows XP's boot loader (NTLDR) automatically overwrites any other bootloader like GRUB and does not recognize non-MS OSes by default. You *can* edit C:\boot.ini to add Ubuntu to the NTLDR boot list, but it's far more of a pain than installing Windows first, Linux second, and letting GRUB handle booting.

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Thank MU_Engineer, that is a big help. I've saved it for future ref. so I can find it at build time

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Ga-990XA-UD3, Phenom II 970 BLK @3.5 GHz, 16 GB DDR3 1600 G.Skill Sniper, WD 1.5 TB Black, ATI FirPro V4800 running on Kubuntu 64-bit

Linux partition is a good option but during windows install remember to delete the 1st partition and create it again + quick format ntfs so that windows makes the 8mb empty space otherwise you might get scandisk later having issues with mbr and errors as this has happened to me.

Make sure you have ntfs-3g to be bale to write to ntfs partition, using it for ages already and helps a lot. /etc/mtab and /etc/fstab should ahve correct info listed to mount the ntfs partition correctly with write permission otherwise only read if manually mounted or have to add extre options to get it properly mounted with write permission.

Some windows installs set the ntfs partition to be write protected as useless as this is it can be a pain to write to using kde or gnome sometimes.

For the 3300HD you will be best of loading the xf86 radeonHD driver.

In grub.conf or in livecd boot add the cheat code xdriver=radeonHD and once in livedvd if the resolution is problematic then edit xorg.conf and replace the driver "radeon" or "flgrx" with radeonHD especially if you have newer drivers and remove the modes "1280x1024" any numbering to be empty so it can scan and load optimal resolution.

Best is to make sure you have a old grub version released in the last 3 months or newer as there is lots of added fixes not in some livecd linux distro's.

Ati is working on the Mesa drivers and should be decent by September 2009 if all goes well, rewrite of driver from scratch.

Hope this helps.

This worked on my biostar 790gx .