Hi, I'm thinking of upgrading my Xubuntu setup to use a GA-P55A-UD2 or GA-P55A-UD7 MB. Has anyone had experiences of using these motherboards with Linux? My main concerns are to do with sata compatability, the basic Intel sata parts are AFAIK compatible, but I'm not sure about the 6Gb ports (Marvell 9128) ( the 2 Gigabyte sata2 ports, and the 2 esata JMB362 on the UD7 ). I'd rather not bother with non in kernel drivers as it tends to causes problems when upgrading. Many Thanks
Well reading the fine manual for the UD7 downloaded from the web site it seems that all onboard sata controllers support AHCI, which is quite positive as I'll be using software raid anyway. It seems that TRIM is supported in 2.6.33 and later kernel which means I'll probably have to install Maverick instead of Lucid. There might some issues with random failures of of the NICs under Maverick, probably a driver or configuration issue. Not sure about NEC D720200F1 usb support. I think the ALC889 will be fine for my basic usage.
I'm running 2.6.33 just fine in Lucid, and it avoids having to upgrade to Maverick. TRIM works just fine on my OCZ Vertex Turbo. Sound and USB should be fine, but unless you find someone with that exact mobo (which, to be fair, is what you asked) then I think you're just going to have to try. I'm yet to find anything basic (like a USB or SATA port) that isn't supported in Linux.
