Here is what is wrong with the ASUS P5B series: the JMicron PATA/IDE controller is not yet supported under Linux. Two or three of the people in charge of building/maintaining the Linux kernel have now admitted that they made a "stupid error" overlooking the JMicron.

Patches are already out and anyone interested should google about a bit for "Linux JMicron patch".Whether these are of any use will obviously depend on your level of technical expertise. If you are very much a newbie as I am, they are merely, as we say in Dutch, "a patch on a wooden leg". So all I can do for now is wait for the final version of 2.6.18. I hear that it will feature in the next Ubuntu but then that one is not expected to come out before the end of October. So only two more months to go...

I am getting a bit impatient so I will now have a try with a floppy or a hard disk install. No cd/dvd required in those cases but for all I know the Jmicron issue may still pop up some way to ruin the only remaining option. By the way, does anyone know a good site which explains floppy and/or hd-install?