Q I've been out of the Linux game for a bit, and decided recently to give Ubuntu 5.04 a try. I downloaded the 64-bit version for AMD processors (I'm running an A8N-SLI system). The install went very well, and I liked the distribution instantly. The problems began when I started installing drivers. I downloaded the NVIDIA chipset Linux drivers, and discovered I needed the kernel source to install them. I figured out how to download the source, and the drivers installed OK. But on reboot, I discovered my keyboard would not work. I was able to determine it has something to do with the Linux kernel and the BIOS ACPI timings. Disabling ACPI restores the keyboard functionality, but now the processor dynamic scaling does not work, and I'd rather not disable ACPI if I can help it. I read that there are kernel patches that might solve this problem, but I'm unable to decipher the instructions to patch the kernel. If you can list the steps necessary to do this, and possibly what patch to try, I will figure out the rest.
A ACPI is always a lot of fun, especially with new motherboards that are not 100% supported by Linux. You may want to check out http://acpi.sourceforge.net and see if you can find your chipset in the mix. Often there are patches for specific boards, especially if they are popular. Another option would be to upgrade your kernel to the latest release, which is 2.6.11.9, although 2.6.12 will most likely be available once this is in print. If you have specific errors that the kernel outputs when the keyboard fails to work, these will help you establish what the cause of your problem is. You may also want to disable ACPI for IRQ assignment, but leave it running for everything else, which can be done with the pci=noacpi option. There are a number of Linux AMD64 lists that you could try, some of which are distribution-specific. Ubuntu does not seem to have anything AMD64-specific, but its forums are full of questions from people using 64-bit systems.