[ILUG] Debian

[Gavin McCullagh]

On Sat, 09 Feb 2002, Mark Page wrote:

> Having recently upgraded my PC which includes an NVidia 32 MB video card, I 
> have had to move fron Debian to Mandrake to successfully have my card 
> recognised.
> 
> I want debian back and wonder what is the best way to get X up and running? 
> 
> I was tempted to install a GUI free Debian and then apt-get XFree4. Will this 
> work? Alternatively are there any stable Debian Distros out there with XFree4 
> and the Kernel 2.4 series (as I suspect some of my other hardware will need 
> the latest kernel)?

The best performaing X server for NVIDIA cards in general is their
own proprietary one.  

http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?PAGE=linux

I was using them at one stage and tey worked very well.  Admittedly, you
get a nasty nvidia splash screen when X starts.  Installing them as far as
I recall is pretty well documented.  You can use the nv Xfree86 driver
which works, but not as well.  

Can't honestly recall if I got a tarball or used alien on an rpm, but
either way I remember the install was very straightforward.  This is
debian woody by the way.  If it's for a desktop machine as the graphics
card suggests, I'd say use woody rather than potato as it's becoming a bit
of a pain of late eg having to compile everything cos it's glibc is old.

X4 also comes with woody.  It's worth it for that alone.

Gavin