Motherboard stupidity of the day

[Daniel Feenberg]

On Sat, 15 Sep 2007, David Kramer wrote:

> So I'm shopping for a motherboard, now that I picked the processor. Gotta=
=20
> support Core 2 Duo, 1333Mhz fsb, at least one real COM port, NO onboard=
=20
> video, and somewhat sane layout.
>
> So I find this board that looks great.  It's the Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3.=20
> Googling for reviews, I find
> http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/406
> which contains:
>
> "It is very important to notice that the single ATA/133 port available on=
=20
> this motherboard is controlled by the JMicron chip, not by the chipset. T=
his=20
> means that if you still have a parallel IDE optical drive it will only be=
=20
> recognized on Windows after you install the =93Gigabyte SATA2=94 driver. =
The=20
> problem is that this driver comes on the motherboard CD-ROM, and you won=
=92t be=20
> able to install it, as the system does not recognize your optical drive. =
You=20
> can download the driver from the net, however the driver for the on-board=
 LAN=20
> port is also on the CD-ROM=85 The only option you have is to copy the JMi=
cron=20
> driver from the CD to a floppy disk or a USB pen drive using another PC. =
This=20
> problem happens not only with this motherboard from Gigabyte, but also wi=
th=20
> all other motherboards based on Intel P965 chipset we=92ve seen to date. =
Of=20
> course if you have a SATA optical drive you won't face this issue."
>
> My research so far is inconclusive whether this mobo will have problems w=
ith=20
> a recent distro (part because so many of the reported problems are from=
=20
> overclockers, and partly because it seems like there's been quite a few=
=20
> versions of this board), but.....
>
> How do you make a motherboard that Windows can't access IDE devices=20
> with???!!!?!
>
> (posted for humor value.  The above is a rhetorical question)
>

This isn't that uncommon a situation for OEM motherboards. The engineer=20
designing the board can generally count on the downstream vendor to add=20
the windows driver when the full computer is manufactured. He wouldn't=20
care that a standard windows retail copy wouldn't install, since the=20
windows customer is unlikely to notice that. This is the situation the=20
windows "recovery disk" was intended to cover. It is more unusual for a=20
motherboard sold in a retail box, and is probably a mistake on Gigabyte's=
=20
part, since it will likely annoy retailers who will get complaints and=20
returns.

For the Linux user in this situation, the possibilities for getting the=20
drivers installed are many - USB thumb drives, USB ethernet (works well=20
for us during setup), PCI ethernet, etc. Anyting that can establish=20
contact with the outside world can be used, and there has always been=20
something that could be installed temporarily for this purpose.

Daniel Feenberg


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