[PLUG] debian net-install media for modern hardware

[Carlos Konstanski]

Ahh, I've been waiting for this... My 64-bit AMD runs sweetly with
gentoo.  There were some issues a year ago, but they have largely
disappeared.  You asked for binaries, so this is not technically an
answer.  But 64-bit gentoo is a strongly viable option.

The only issues still lingering that I personally run into concern video
codecs.  win32codecs is still only available in 32-bit form, which means
you need to use mplayer-bin to view wma files.  This means that
mplayerplug-in for mozilla is not terribly useful for this type of video
file.  With the advent of 64-bit windows, you'd think that win32codecs
will become available in 64-bit form.

My workaround for this is to visit a page with such a video, right-click
and view source, copy the video's link, and then open mplayer-bin in a
shell with the link in the command line.

I guess that those who use their computer for a lot of video-watching
would argue that 64-bit is a pain, but all other uses seem to be well in
hand in gentoo.  Ruby support was a bit behind a year ago, but now it's
right-on.  I once had an issue getting the latest php 5.x, but that was
also a year ago.  Same with mozilla.  OpenOffice simply won't compile on
a 64-bit CPU, but the openoffice-bin package works dandily, and doesn't
take 24 hours to install.

Dunno about your nic.  If you can find a CD distro that can see your
nic, you can use it to install gentoo.  There's no real need to use a
gentoo install CD.  I much prefer to use a knoppix CD for gentoo
installs.

Another bonus: you don't get stuck with a distro kernel.  I really
dislike those.

Carlos Konstanski

On Tue, 12 Sep 2006, Russell Senior wrote:

> Date: 12 Sep 2006 18:42:34 -0700
> From: Russell Senior <russell at personaltelco.net>
> Reply-To: "General Linux/UNIX discussion and help;	civil and on-topic"
>     <plug at lists.pdxlinux.org>
> To: plug at lists.pdxlinux.org
> Subject: [PLUG] debian net-install media for modern hardware
> 
>
> I just got an ASUS p5ld2-vm motherboard and a core 2 duo cpu to go
> with.  Slapping in my old trusty (crusty?) debian netinst.iso, it
> failed to discover or recognize the intel GigE NIC, which is going to
> make the rest of the net-install a little, er, interesting.  Knoppix
> 5.0DVD did a little better.  Oh, and so far neither is particularly
> liking the video for X11 (at least not on the crufty basement
> monitor).  Anyone with recent debian install experience with advice on
> what works best with modern hardware.  I understand these new fangled
> CPUs do 64bit now too.  Recommendations on 386 vs x86_64 binaries?
>
>
> -- 
> Russell Senior, Secretary
> russell at personaltelco.net
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