dabigin wrote:
I really love windows and well its my main operating system. Since I am a IT student as well as a gamer I got this for both worlds. I would
like to have linux and be able to utilize the full power of the rog laptop i bought (which im very happy i did it rocks). I am enjoying it and
those who are having problems read the forums and your problems will be addressed or you will be helped. Most gamers know the in's and outs of the computers/laptops very well.

Later my ROG brothers!
peace

I've been using Debian 6.0.3 Squeeze (Stable) on my G74 since I got it last October. Its really great with Linux: in fact I get 200MHz more out of my CPU with Linux (for some reason Windows' implementation of ACPI constrains turbo on the G74's core i7 2630QM to a max of 2.7GHz, whereas the chip is supposed to do 2.9...this is a known issue with the G74 and a common fault pointed out in some reviews, eg. http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Asus-G74SX-3DE-Gaming-Notebook.56809.0.html). With Linux I get a full 2.92 GHz from Turbo on my i7 2630. Using the CPU to it fullest speed potential in my mind is a decent trade-off for no control of the keyboard backlight, volume and screen brightness, and touchpad disable/enable via hotkeys (ATK): seriously, thats all I'm missing by not using windows. I can control screen on/off, wifi enable/disable via the key combos in linux. Also in Linux you will not experience the common well documented problems of the G74 that we on his forum help people troubleshoot (e.g. annoying keyboard lockup when you disable touchpad in BIOS, crazy sensitivity of touchpad, throttling of CPU when at full load, buggy 3rd party drivers, etc). As well linux addresses all 32GB of RAM I've stuffed into My G74, whereas windows home premium that came with the G74 is purposefully gimped not to.

First thing you should do is get a 3.X kernel with your distro: don't use the (quite) old 2.6.32 stable kernels floating around. If you've ever compiled your own kernel, there are some ASUS specific device drivers in the kernel options that you can turn on in the compile that allow the asus hotkey combos to control the above things you're missing by not using ATK, though I've never tried them specifically: I'm quite happy with the stock 3.0.0.3 kernel image.

NVIDIA also supports linux with the latest drivers for the GTX560M: grab 'em from here: http://www.nvidia.com/object/unix.html In fact this is the only 3rd party driver I use...everything else runs 100% fine with the device drivers in the kernel controlling them.

I use grub to control my G74 in a dual-boot config: windows 7 is on its own little isolated partition, where I can use excel (my favorite tool for research), game a bit, and let my wife store and watch her movies and pics. I'm going to turf this partition and switch over to 100% linux and run windows in a VM when things at work quiet down a little.

Good luck, and I stand by to help you out!

I have tried out the latest build of the Ubuntu linux and I have to say the keyboard lights up and everything. They must be making some progress somewhere. I can also use the function keys on my laptop and they work! how about that?

me too,I use grub to control my G74 in a dual-boot config: windows 7 is on its own little isolated partition,