Re: Newbie Nvidia/Woody problem
From: Kent West (westk_at_acu.edu)
Date: 11/21/04
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Date: Sun, 21 Nov 2004 10:23:26 -0600 To: debian-user@lists.debian.org
Brian Coiley wrote:
> Many thanks for your reply. I really appreciate your efforts to
> help. Unfortunately, you have overestimated my abilities! I started
> on this literally just yesterday, and doing anything at all is
> requiring a great deal of research and trial-and-error! Specifically:
>
>
As others have suggested, I'd upgrade to Sarge or Sid; Woody is (imo)
unusably old for a desktop system.
(Also, top-posting is generally frowned upon on this list; the preferred
method is to respond just below that to which you're responding.)
> Complete Linux newbie here. Successfully partitioned the disk on my
> W2K box, and got it dual-booting with Woody (installed from a CD
> set). I thought that was pretty cool, and I was going good! Tried
> startx, and got this: (EE) No devices detected.
Rather than trying to use an nVidia driver, you might try VESA. Just run
"dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86" as root and select "vesa" (or,
horrors!, vga) as your video device.
> Regarding Sarge, isn't that unstable? What exactly does that mean?
> How exactly would I switch to it? I deliberately chose to install
> Woody, from a set of CD's, because I felt that for a complete dunce
> like me it would be far easier than downloading and installing
> bleeding-edge stuff that I don't understand.
Yeah; that's the way to reply to email.
"stable" means that this version of Debian as a whole (not individual
packages) undergoes almost no change; only necessary changes like
security fixes. The current version of stable is named "Woody".
"testing" means that this version of Debian is being stretched and
pulled and pushed and prodded in preparation for becoming the next
"stable". The current testing is very close to becoming stable. The
current version of testing is named "Sarge".
"unstable" means that this version of Debian is constantly under flux;
this package being removed; that package being added; another several
packages being merged into one; another package split into several; new
features added to a package; new features breaking a package, etc.
However, the ability of a system to stay usable which has been built
with unstable has no relation whatsoever to the name "unstable". My
desktop workstations all run unstable. My servers run Woody. In my
experience, an "unstable" Debian system is far more stable than a
similarly equipped MS-Windows workstation. All versions of unstable are
named "Sid" (for the kid next door in "Toy Story" that was always
breaking the toys; however, some people think of it unofficially as
Still In Development).
For maximum usability (all the neat toys) on a workstation, I'd
definitely recommend unstable. If you're a bit more cautious, testing is
satisfactory today, but three months after it moves to stable, testing
will tend to break less often than sid, but will stay broken longer than
does sid. (When something breaks in testing, it might be a couple of
weeks before the fix trickles in; with sid, the fix is usually within
hours or days.) However, after testing goes to stable, you can change
your sources.list file to point to stable, and stick with an unchanging
system untll the next version of stable comes out in a year or seven.
For a server, woody is still a good choice in many situations, although
I'd probably go with testing, and then switch to stable when testing
moves to stable.
The advantage of moving to testing or unstable is that you'll get newer
packages that are likely to handle your video system better. As
mentioned, Woody is really ancient now.
At any rate, there's an open-source driver for nVidia (called nv) in
Debian, which is okay, and there's a proprietary driver for nVidia
(called nvidia, I believe), which must be downloaded and partially
compiled which means you have to have headers and maybe sources and
maybe compile your own kernel, etc etc etc.
You also might want to upgrade your kernel. Run "apt-get search
kernel-image-2.6" and/or "apt-get search kernel-image-2.4" to see what
2.6 and 2.4 kernel images are available in your current distribution
(Woody). Then you can install one with a command like "apt-get install
kernel-image-2.6-686-1". The "686" means its compiled to run on a
Pentium system; a 386 would mean its for the entire 386-class of
machines. A "k7" is for AMD, etc. "SMP" means more than one processor
(not likely for most people - you'd likely know if you have such as
system).
-- Kent -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-REQUEST@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@lists.debian.org
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