Installation Issues with Asus M4N78 Pro MOBO

[naiknb]

Hi Guys,

Not sure if this have been discussed anywhere already but did a lot of research and didn't find any answer so posting it here.

I got this new Asus M4N78 Pro MOBO with Nvidia chipset and am now on verge of dumping LinuxMCE and move to Windows7 which sounds more promising atleast I can install and watch movies and TV through it.

I am having no luck in installing LinuxMCE on this MOBO. I am using AMD 64 CPU i tried both 32 bit version and 64bit. Installation just doesn't proceed. I tried with removing quiet and splash and I found that it hangs onto initframs. After googling I found it's because of SATA DVD drive and HDD. And the suggestion was to use linux all_generic_ide which I did still no luck. Please help me out here as I really don't want to move to Windows but looking at the time I have put in I don't see any other alternative at this stage.


Thanks in davance

[merkur2k]

perhaps you should have researched hardware compatibility *before* making a purchase.
with a board that new, your only choice is probably to try the 0810 alpha release, but even that is an unknown.
but if all you want is a media center, perhaps windows 7 is enough. just remember that LinuxMCE is so much more than just a media center.

[naiknb]

Yeah I realized that but as most of the post were talking about Nvidia support and this chipset was under support I went under the assumption that it should rather work. My bad i guess.

Yeah I know LMCE is far beyond just media centre. And my plan to use it was to have everything under one box. I also got Digium FXO and 4Port PCI gigabit lan so that i can even replace my wireless router switch and use this box for everything. Wanted to make it as my gateway

[pigdog]

Hi naiknb,

Please don't go shooting LMCE because you can't load Kubuntu 710.

If you wish, please try the 810 variant of Kubuntu to see if that gets you past your install problem.

Then you can install the alpha release.

[qball4]

The M4N78 Pro works fine with 0710, just not out of the box. It's kind of a hassle, but here's what you need to do to get it to work:

1. Make sure to use a supported PCI or PCI-X NIC for at least the initial installation
2. Install using 0710RC2 i386 DVD
3. When the installer asks you to remove the DVD and reboot, do so, but hit ESC at the GRUB loader and select recovery mode
4. Upgrade the kernel to 2.6.28 or later following the wiki instructions
     4a. Be sure to build the Realtek PHY into the kernel (Device Drivers->Network Device Support->PHY Device support and infrastructure->Drivers for Realtek PHYs)
     4b. Be sure to pay particular attention to the mythtv-backend script modification section
     4c. Be sure to run an update-grub after copying the new kernel and generating the initrd.img
5. Reboot, but hit ESC at the GRUB loader again and select recovery mode for the new kernel
6. Update your video driver
     6a. wget http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/180.29/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-180.29-pkg1.run
     6b. chmod +x NVIDIA-Linux-x86-180.29-pkg1.run
     6c. ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86-180.29-pkg1.run
7. Reboot
8. If the installer overwrites the 180.29 driver with nvidia-glx:
     8a. switch consoles
     8b. telinit 1
     8c. re-run the NVIDIA installer as in 6c
     8d. Reboot
9. Follow the wiki instructions for http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Single_to_Double_NIC
10. SP/DIF or toslink connections on the M3N78 and M4N78 series boards under 0710 require the Asus breakout board. Just do a search on ebay for ASUS SPDIF. You will also need to run the Alsa update script. See http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=6589810#post6589810

If that is too much work for you, try the 0810 alpha as others have suggested. Remember, though, it is still in alpha for a reason. I have an M4N78 Pro as my core and 3 M3N78-VM MD's working smoothly with 0710; it just takes a little work and a lot of patience.

Best of luck,
Matt

p.s. I wrote this holed up in bed loopy on cough medicine so I apologize in advance if anything isn't clear

[naiknb]

Hi pigdog,

I am not at all shooting @ LinuxMCE. I very well understand the issue is underlying my H/W and hence I am here on this forum for any help.

Well any how I did took the advice and install Kubuntu8.10 install finished fine. My network card works perfectly fine. It detected there are NVidia restricted drivers available and it installed it and all was good.

I couldn't get HDMI video or sound though.

[naiknb]

Hi Matt,

Thank you for such a detail instructions. But I have already gone the 8.10 path. Though HDMI is still not workins so might have to goback this path.

I got system up and running with 8.10 but when i select 1080p or for that matter any other resolution with HDMI as out my TV says incompatible signal. I am having Samsung series7 50" full HD plasma.

[qball4]

You might need to look at your xorg.conf settings and manually specify the horiz and vert sync rates. I have a Samsung LN series LCD that worked fine with the standard AV Wizard conf but a Samsung HP series plasma that needed specific (more restrictive) settings.

:Matt

edit: you also should probably update the video driver to at least 180.29 and still run the ALSA update script. As well, make sure the output is unmuted in alsamixer. Audio over HDMI currently does not work either.

[Kooma]

(here we go, my first post here)
Hi!
I'm about to order the same MOBO, since I really like the idea of low power possibility of Asus's EPU  that doesn't exist in M3N78-EM.
So, based on your experience, I'd be pretty safe with this board?

Thanks.

[naiknb]

Ok i have now installed LMCE all the needed drivers still having below problems.

Thanks for the assistance manually installing NVidia drivers seems to be more preferred. So i followed Matt's instruction and installed NVidia I can now have HDMI video still no HDMI audio. Though aplay -l shows HDMI audio as preferred and I did the settings in the mixture to use HDMI audio.

Another thing is when I start LMCE it complains that it failed mythtv and mediatomb UPNP. Though I can see mythtv installed under KDE but still haven't been able to get channel listings. I am using LeadTek2000H tuner card.

[qball4]

@Kooma:
The board *will not* work out of the box without some work on your part for 0710 (see previous posts). I can't vouch for 0810 and stability with the board because I haven't spent enough time with it. That being said, what little I did with 0810 went pretty smoothly.

@naiknb:
Did you make sure to change your /etc/init.d/mythtv-backend script to account for HPET? If not, download this and replace it: http://www.mediafire.com/?xyguiltqzkn

:Matt

[naiknb]

Hi matt,

Thanks for you inputs. Here is what i did and have worked perfectly fine I have repeated this task many times to make sure it works always.

1) Download and install Kubuntu8.10 from http://mirrors.ccs.neu.edu/releases.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/8.10/kubuntu-8.10-desktop-i386.iso

2) After standard install upgrade packages through packge manager (I prefer that you can use apt-get)

4) Download from NVidia website latest driver and follow the instructions. The best way is Ctl+Alt+F1 and stop x11-common and you should be able to install NVidia drivers after install reboot

5) Download Alsa update script install and reboot.

At this stage you should get aplay -L displaying 3 subdivices which includes HDMI (Though despite of HDMI being shown as audio output I still haven't got success with Audio through HDMI)

6) Grab new installer from here http://deb.linuxmce.org/ubuntu/new-installer-alpha-latest.tar.gz

7) Follow new-installer instructions (pre-install / mce-install / post-install)
Note: Just copy /var/cache/apt/ as this is the pace where pre-install will download all the LinuxMCE binaries. This will just save you time incase if you want to repeat your install. But still do pre-install as it will download any files which are updated since your download

I have been able to put this to get a running LinuxMCE on my Asus M4N78-Pro mobo, Belkin N1 wireless


Now once i sort out my HDMI I am nearly 50% to what I want to achieve.

I am planning to put in this 4-port ethernet card http://www.routerboard.com/popup.php?kods=77&sess=bc66207ec765bb1620af214bf7b5a020

Searching for PCI or PCIe cable modem so that I can put that too into but can't find any for a decent price. After putting all this in and running Squid I should be able to have a complete gateway with media server plus home automation



Cheers

[Kooma]

naiknb, what's the status on your setup nowadays?
Could you please make a wiki on how to update all the required drivers for this motherboard?
So far I've been able to follow the installation info for 810 succesfully, yet, I cannot use the on-board NIC and don't know how to update the drivers for that.. Pitiful newbie, but most likely I'm not alone :-?

[naiknb]

Hi Kooma,

I am still struggling with audio neither HDMI or SPDIF out is working for me at this stage. But I have noticed that NVidia have released a new version of their drivers hope that fixes it. At this stage have the system in dual boot and using Windows7 MCE all 7channel working but I want to get back to LMCE (I just love its interface)

Yes sure once I am done with my audio settings successfully I will put it on wiki. BTW i also tried mythbuntu 9.04 and it have all the required drivers and it just worked out of box though audio was only stereo so I removed it.

As for this box Kubuntu8.10 I have no problem with onboard NIC it just picked it up without any issues. I also updated the asus bios from their website.

[daddylicious]

Hey ,

 i just recently bought that board ang got the hdmi audio working by installing de latest alsa drivers.
after that i opened alsa mixer in a terminal window and unmuted iec.... .
Don't be mistaken, the alsamixer wil still show it's a version 1.0.17, but it is a later version ( mine is the 1.0.20 if i'm not mistaken)
The onlything i have still to find out is to get the spdiff working.
I've read somewhere, the easy way out is to install a s/pdiff bracked, maybe i will get 1 tomorrow and try that.

Oh, i'm using mythbuntu 8.10 and i'm a newbe