64 bit linux drivers

[aeiou]

I am looking for 64bit linux drivers for my mobo (asrock939dual sata2 with the uli m1695 chipset). All I can find at uli is what seems to be the 32 bit driver. Any ideas? alternatively, are there any 64bit distros that will work with this chipset out of the box?

 

[klingens]

Never ever look a manufacturers sites for drivers. Either it's in the latest Linux kernel, or it's not. Only exception for normal consumer hardware is nvidia or ati videocard drivers. The stuff on your mobo should most probably be in there already. So get a distro with a recent kernel. Current is 2.6.15

 

[aeiou]

do you think k/ubuntu 5.10 would work?

 

[klingens]

Most probably yes

 

[khiloa]

Yes, that is a good, up to date distro that should work with about anything.

 

[aeiou]

thanks. I guess the initial problems I was having were probably just because I was using an old install cd (ubuntu 5.04)

 

[khiloa]

Once it is installed, even if it is a tad out of date, you should be able to update everything just fine.

 

[aeiou]

Yeah, the only problem was that I didn't have any networking drivers for it, so I couldn't easily update it.

 

[khiloa]

Oh, I see.

 

[klingens]

This is a nvidia (nforceX) based board? if so: modprobe forcedeth for the network card driver

 

[aeiou]

no, its a uli m1695 chipset

 

[aeiou]

I installed ubuntu 5.10 but I still can't get the networking working. Any ideas?

 

[khiloa]

Have you tried modprob'ing the different modules like klingens suggested?

 

[aeiou]

Its not an nforce chipset. will that still work?

 

[khiloa]

Doh, try modprobe uli526x instead.

(got that from this link -> http://www.linuxquestions.org/hcl/showproduct.php?product=3219&cat=all )

 

[aeiou]

Hmm... maybe I'll try a different distro. when I tried that command it said that Module uli526x was not found.

Or would recompiling the kernel work? I did that once, but I don't really know how, but I bet I could get it to do it if I had to.

 

[khiloa]

You could make your own kernel but you probably won't have to.

Search the UbuntuForums http://ubuntuforums.org/ for your mobo / chipset and see if someone else has posted about it there, they have quite an active community. You could even repost the question there if you have to.

 

[aeiou]

There was a good thread there on how to do it, but I just didn't really understand a lot of it. I kind of a noob when it comes to linux (I've messed with it a bit off and on for quite a while, but I've never really gotten a grasp of it), so I really need a step by step easy to follow explanation. We'll see. I'm currently downloading suse10 and knoppix4.0.2, both of which sound like they support it, so we'll see. Not sure that I want to try suse again. Knoppix is nice, but it wont be 64 bit (I think) . I know gentoo would probably solve my problems the best, but I just don't have the time/patience/knowledge for a gentoo install. It seems so hard to find a good distro that is easy to install, powerfull to use and has good hardware support.

 

[Gnufsh]

There was a good thread there on how to do it, but I just didn't really understand a lot of it. I kind of a noob when it comes to linux (I've messed with it a bit off and on for quite a while, but I've never really gotten a grasp of it), so I really need a step by step easy to follow explanation.

Link to it and see if we can make sense of it for you.

 

[aeiou]

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=83710&highlight=asrock