But I am asking for guidance on how to work it out myself.

I have done a search for a FAQ here, but the search draws a blank.

I can see 4 threads under 'Tutorials' but nothing explaining how to choose a distro.

I have already d/loaded two different Kalyway distros, via BT, but after 24 hrs of d/loading them Windows does not unpack them, saying they are corrupt. Before I try downloading anymore torrents I would like to make sure I d/load something suitable.

I havee seen torrents ranging from 600mb up to 3.5Gb..all often labeled as Full instalations.

What I am looking for is guidance on hoiw I go about choosing a distro.

Can anyone point me in the correct direction?
I have a selection of boxes here, AMD and Dell machines all single core processors around 2 - 2.4 ghz and 1-2 Gig RAM

To know what distro you can use, you have to know your hardware, then look for some distros and check if they have support for all your hardware or at least the basic, if they miss audio, wifi, lan, you can install them post installation, if is support for them of coz.

About your corrupt distro, try to download the ones with a couple files, like the ISO + checksum and maybe some TXT file... but no the ones with severals files with .rar, can be a pr0n, maybe good pr0n but thats not the point... XD

In the installation forum you can open a thread with the system you may try to install, and we can try to help you, theres no just one way to install, this is not windows or linux, the installation change cuz the hardware, you get familiar with the installation in youtube, or try to install in the computer using vmware.

Hope it help ;P

Yes, that does help.

I will have to make decisions as to what machine to use.
Will probably go for the AMD M/B as it is the board that I can put the most RAM in. It is in a chassis with 4 removable drive bays/caddies, so I will be able to swap drives easily

Just looked at the board DFI AD77 KT400 chipset, with AMD athalon XP3000+ CPU

It does boot at present from an on board SATA header conected to a DVD drive...probably have to swap that out for IDE DVD? or do you think SATA will work.
I may have already tried by the time you see this, I have got a sucessfull d/load of Kalyway 10.5.2 Intel AMD iso this morning so wil burn it off and give it a go

I do admit here that I have not yet tried to find what distro to use from the spce, still not sure what to look for. Have to go out and do some real work now. What I have done this morning is this:
Have put a HDD in the machine and stuck slipstreamed Xpsp3 on, and pulled this spec of it via three different PC spec apps. Most info on each is no doubt duplicated,

I have put the info as links to my test server rather than post it all up on this thread to save space here. Plus I am not really sure yet which info is acually required

http://paisnel.homeip.net/amd/AMD.txt
System Specification for PC:
HWiNFO32 Report

If anyone has the time to look through this info that would be great. If not I will do some more research myself later.

I did try this one:
Kalyway 10.5.2 Intel AMD iso in both verbose and safe modes, but it just goes as far as a couple of pages of command lines scrolling past then it re boots. It all moves too quick to see what the last few problem lines are.

Thanks

Neil

Nvm about this one, well you can try with a distro called Lawless or iPC, they have AMD Support, the VIA chipset can be a pain in the arse

btw are you using Sata DVD? HDD SATA? IDE?

go to the bios and check if you have AHCI SATA Support, disable Audio and LAN onboard...

P.S. You have some intel computer around there?

Thanks..but sorry do not understand?

NVM?

So I need a distro that supports the VIA chipset, right?

Cheers

Some of them have VIA chipset support, Im just saying that is hard to get working, what about the other questions?

btw are you using Sata DVD? HDD SATA? IDE?

go to the bios and check if you have AHCI SATA Support, disable Audio and LAN onboard...

P.S. You have some intel computer around there?

Edit....
sorry for ignoring your questions, I see you edited..I think I missed the questions, looks like posts were crossing.

No AHCI mode showing in BIOS

ACPI is disabled.

Booting from SATA DVD....No problem to boot a selection of Windows install CD's, Bart PE Win XP
Unable to boot ANY linux/FreeBSD/ Ubuntu FreeNAS/ Gbox Live DCD distros

HDD's are all IDE

All on board devices are disabled.

Do have some other M/B's around but all slower processors and limited RAM for them.

Have a VMware Leopard distro d/loading now, so will try and learn a bit from that also

Managed to find another mobo, and the install went along with out a hitch but with only 256Mb RAM, but just tried the RAM from the old board and it is good, so 1.75Gb installed. HP Compaq P4 machine small form factor board/chassis

No onboard LAN, or USB support yet, but sound seems to work..at least the internal speaker is producing sounds...not just default beeps, but proper sound.

Will have to find my way round the OS X now to see if I can see where I can find the specs for LAN/USB etc

Cheers for the help

Neil

Edit

two re boots later and LAN detected by itself, and internet connected..still no USB yet

So you installed osx with 256 ram? @.o what version are you running? I have a package for the USBs