Fedora Core 5 Linux on Asus P5B / Intel Core Duo 2 E6600

NOTE: The following applies to Fedora Core 5 only - not to higher releases.

I just built a linux box from an ASUS P5B Deluxe motherboard with an Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 processor, an old IDE CD-ROM, and two SATA drives.

Trying to load Fedora Core 5 i386 gave the error message that no suitable driver could be found, although it did not specify what the missing driver was for. Poking around the web showed that other people have had the same problem and various sites have posted ideas on how to fix it. The most useful one for me was this:

http://www.blindedbytech.com/2006/11/10/how-to-install-fedora-core-6-on-intel-dg965ss-motherboard/

That describes how the author figured out the right settings but it is a little long winded. To cut to the chase and make his/her post a little clearer, here are the specific steps that worked for me:

1. In the BIOS go to IDE Configuration and change Configure SATA as to AHCI

2. Reboot with the Fedora Core 5 CD and at the initial prompt enter:

linux all-generic-ide pci=nommconf

3. This will start the graphical install and you can configure the disks, etc. as normal.

4. When you get the screen that defines the boot loader you should select grub as the loader, which is the default. You should see the text pci=nommconf in the boot loader options window towards the bottom of the screen.

Change this to all-generic-ide pci=nommconf

5. Finish the install as per usual, reboot and everything should be fine.


The better solution, however, is to use Fedora Core 6 which knows how to handle this motherboard/chip combination. You should still set the SATA mode to AHCI, but you can avoid all the other special configuration steps.