[Sheflug] Moving Full PC System Over To Linux

["Wonkey Donkey" <wonkey_donkey [at] xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi all,

Well as the title says, I'm planning for moving my main PC over completely
to Linux (Gentoo 2004.2 when it is released next week).

But, its not as straight forward as just installing a new OS, as there are a
number of hardware changes I want to make as well, and thought it would be a
good time to do them.

First of all, the hardware:

ASUS P4C 800-E Deluxe M/B
P4 3.2 CPU (Northwood)
1 Gb Mushkin Special Memory <-- Very nice stuff too!
Intel Gigabit Network (On M/B)
Soundblaster Audigy Platinum
2 x 36 Gb WD Raptor drives
2 x 250 Gb HGST Deskstar drives
Ricoh DVD Rom/CD Re-Writer
NEC 2510 Dual-Layer DVD Re-Writer
Nikon Coolpix 2000 Digital Camera
Logitech Webcam Pro 4000
Logitech Mx 510 Optical USB Mouse
Canon i965 Inkjet Printer
KC Technology Infra Red Adaptor (Works through USB port)

I also have an external firewire housing, unused as yet, in which I plan to
put the 250 Gb drives.

I doubt I will be able to boot from CD if they are both fitted in the
enclosure, so they will have to stay in the main PC I think.

The 250 Gb drives have approx 150 Gb of stuff stored between them, which
could of course all be moved onto one.

The Raptor drives are currently used as (1) main boot drive, (2) local drive
D which only holds the user data that I access constantly ie. emails,
documents, stuff like that (And yes, there are a lot, despite the size of
the drive).

What I'm basically looking for is:

1.    To find out if anyone has any of the above mentioned hardware, which
is confirmed to run ok under Linux (I've heard mixed reports of SATA
working, and its performance).
2.    To find out if anyone has used external storage over a firewire link
succesfully.
3.    A reasonable partition layout, given the drive space available.

I currently have the 250 Gb drives split into a total of 5 partitions, for
Music, DVD, ISO images (Lots of these!), VMware Virtual Images (Which I will
still need), and a final 'work' partition.

(I know the above partitions may sound a little OTT, but, putting ISO mages,
DVD images, VMware virtual drives and approx 6000 mp3's on a single
parition, in my mind, just isn't realistic).

I'm envisaging using similar partitions under linux, and then just mounting
them as /iso, /music, /dvd etc etc.

One or both of the raptors can be used for the boot drive, although again,
using ICHR5 for raid under Linux, I've seen mixed reports on that too. (If
this did work as RAID, I cant even begin to think about how good the
performance *could* be).

The kernel Im used to using (on my laptop) and am happy with is 2.6.7.

One of the options I thought about was booting from a single raptor drive,
and mounting the other as /user.  But I've never actually setup Linux on
anything other than a single drive with just 3 partitions for /, /boot and
/swap. (Not the ideal setup I know, but thats why I want to get it right
from the start this time around).

I also saw on a forum, that the Audigy soundcard does run, but you can't use
the supplied cable through the digital output.  This cable is the *only*
option I have to use it, so I'd be particularly interested in hearing if
anyone else has done this.

I realise this request is quite a wide ranging one, but if anybody has any
comments/suggestions, I'd sure like to hear them!

Steve.

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