Which distro is best for this layout

bowentwo

Distinguished
Feb 1, 2011
27
0
18,530
First off i had no idea that AMD/ATI was crap with linux before i purchased the system


INTEL I5-760 2.80GHZ 8MB LGA 1156 RET 1
1TB SATA III 6GB/S 7200RPM 64MB CACHE 2
2GB DDR3 / 1600 MHZ MEMORY 2
THERMALTAKE V1 GAMING CPU FAN 1
BLACK AZZA HURRICANE 2000 FULL TOWER 1
BLACK SONY 24X DVDRW 1
12-IN-ONE INTERNAL CARD READER 1
RAID-0 STRIPING 1
ASUS P7P55D-E PRO P55 CROSSFIRE/SLI 1
NO SLI/CROSSFIRE 1
NO OPERATING SYSTEM 1
CORSAIR CMPSU-850TX POWER SUPPLY 1
ONBOARD 7.1 SOUND 1
NZXT SENTRY 2 5.25" TOUCH SCREEN FAN 1
AMD RADEON HD6850 1GB DDR5 PCIE 1
AMD RADEON HD6850 1GB DDR5 PCIE 1

i got two display cards to have two monitors in windows 7 one for gaming and one for web, vent, pc probe.... etc...

I tried installing ubuntu alongside windows 7 but as soon as i used the ati drivers i broke ubuntu.

Just wanting to know if there might be a better distro or away to make those xfx 6850's work

Also if i have the two cards in linux can i duel monitor there as well?

I read the guide to best distro and tried Ubuntu since it was rated #0, anyway could sure use some help please.


Thank you for the help in advance,

Rick
 

bowentwo

Distinguished
Feb 1, 2011
27
0
18,530
Tried Ununtu again but can't get both monitors working or driver to work, wish could go back in time and buy nvidia cards maybe it would have been easier. If anyone has some ideas on how to get both vid cards and both monitors working in any distro i'll gladly try it. As always thanks in advance.

Also how do i clone my hard drive incase i can't get linux going again, i don't want to lose windows 7 it's working very well with all my hardware, ie i got a good install lol. is anyone out there?
 

PreferLinux

Distinguished
Dec 7, 2010
1,023
0
19,460
You shouldn't need to clone your HDD: if there is a problem with Linux, simply format the partition with Linux, and re-install to it. It wouldn't affect Windows.

You should be able to run at least two monitors off one card without any trouble.

I don't really know of any better distros. I use Fedora, but it is not as good for beginners.
 

bowentwo

Distinguished
Feb 1, 2011
27
0
18,530
thanks for the info, but how do i protect the mbr when installing linux alongside a windows 7 install?

Also my wife thinks me installing ubuntu broke our router that's not possible right? lol she can't understand why i want to mess with linux, but i am excited to try it and see what it can do and teach me.
anyways thanks again for the help so far

Oh and i read somewhere that there is an opensource driver for ati cards? is there one for the 6000 series by chance?
 

PreferLinux

Distinguished
Dec 7, 2010
1,023
0
19,460
Well, there are two approaches to protecting the MBR: installing the boot loader to the volume rather than the MBR (which leaves the MBR untouched), or just ignoring it and using your Win7 DVD if there's a problem.

There is no way installing Ububtu (or any other Linux distro) could affect the router.

There is an open source driver for ATI cards, but I'm not sure how it gets on with the 6000 series. It probably works OK. The open source driver will be included with Ubuntu, but it will probably be an older version, so you would have to update that.
 

bowentwo

Distinguished
Feb 1, 2011
27
0
18,530
thank you preferlinux i have another problem i tried to use the live cd but i couldn't connect to the internet, i have a wireless usb nic, a netgear product, since the asus onboard lan quit working. So now i don't know what to do... guess buy a hardware nic?? or is there perhaps support for wireless usb devices?

I got Ubuntu installed but had a hicup on the way, it couldn't install a boot loader so it said i need to manualy install a boot loader before i can get into ubuntu... can anyone help me with how or where a good how to is please?

Again thank you for the help, hopefully i will get ubuntu installed and working with your help :)

I found out why it wouldn't install!! Grub2 can't see the striped 0 1 TB drives x2, i think if i'm right that it's a software raid? trying to figure out how to clone my windows 7 install if possible and undo the raid, god i wish there was an irc chat place here lol.
 

PreferLinux

Distinguished
Dec 7, 2010
1,023
0
19,460
There is some support for USB WiFi adapters. This page has quite a list, with links to drivers, too: http://linux-wless.passys.nl/query_hostif.php?hostif=USB WiFi adapters are generally the most problematic devices with Linux.

Is the RAID a motherboard-based one, Windows-based or Linux-based? If it's motherboard-based, I wouldn't expect GRUB to have a problem, but I've had no experience with RAID.

One way of cloning your Win7 install would be to make a full backup of it, which you can then restore.

Here is a site you may find useful: http://www.tldp.org/ (The Linux Documentation Project)
 

bowentwo

Distinguished
Feb 1, 2011
27
0
18,530
thanks again good info as always :)

it's a mobo based raid design when i try to install ubuntu it hangs up on grub2 cause the path sda/0 sda/1 whatever that means if i got that right, then it breaks and says i have to install a manual mbr.

Ok so i took my old 250gb drive and backed windows up to it in the form of an image file so hopefully when i break the raid i can re"image" one of the 1TB drives, then maybe i can get Ubuntu installed :p

thank you again preferlinux for the help and for helping a noob out lol
 

bowentwo

Distinguished
Feb 1, 2011
27
0
18,530
hey i can run ubuntu 10.10 64bit on live cd with my computer specs but i don't have both monitors so i assume only one video card is being seen, any help greatly appreciated ty.