New linux box

New linux box

[S. Barret Dolph]

Well, my problems have much to do with hardware and it is time to get a new 
box. My old box ran for 6 years with Mandrake and never crashed. (X-windows 
crashed when setting up Matrox 450 though.) My question is what hardware is 
good to avoid. I only use my computer for work, no games, but I am on it at 
least 6 hours or more a day. I care mostly about stability and don't really 
care too much about speed. So more to the point are any of you aware of 
hardware that is a nightmare to install. Or a site which can help.

Cordially,
S. Barret Dolph
Taipei Taiwan
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Re: New linux box

[Peter Garrett]

You might want to look at

http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Hardware-HOWTO/

seems a bit outdated (2002-11-12) but it looks informative.

For Mandrake try

http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/fhard.php3

On Tue, 2004-01-27 at 01:13, S. Barret Dolph wrote:
> Well, my problems have much to do with hardware and it is time to get a new 
> box. My old box ran for 6 years with Mandrake and never crashed. (X-windows 
> crashed when setting up Matrox 450 though.) My question is what hardware is 
> good to avoid. I only use my computer for work, no games, but I am on it at 
> least 6 hours or more a day. I care mostly about stability and don't really 
> care too much about speed. So more to the point are any of you aware of 
> hardware that is a nightmare to install. Or a site which can help.
> 
> Cordially,
> S. Barret Dolph
> Taipei Taiwan
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-newbie" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
> Please read the FAQ at http://www.linux-learn.org/faqs

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Re: New linux box

[Ken Moffat]

On Mon, 26 Jan 2004, S. Barret Dolph wrote:

> Well, my problems have much to do with hardware and it is time to get a new
> box. My old box ran for 6 years with Mandrake and never crashed. (X-windows
> crashed when setting up Matrox 450 though.) My question is what hardware is
> good to avoid. I only use my computer for work, no games, but I am on it at
> least 6 hours or more a day. I care mostly about stability and don't really
> care too much about speed. So more to the point are any of you aware of
> hardware that is a nightmare to install. Or a site which can help.
>
> Cordially,
> S. Barret Dolph
> Taipei Taiwan
> -

 If it's that old, your biggest problem on anything new might be noise!
For stability with an Athlon or P4, don't skimp on the power supply.  If
you don't need a lot of power, maybe something based on a via C3 might do
- but make sure you install i586 or i386 binaries, gcc usually thinks
C3s are i686 but they don't have the 'cmov' instruction.

Ken
-- 
This is a job for Riviera Kid!
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Re: New linux box

[Theo. Sean Schulze]

Ken,

Are you referring to one the VIA Mini-ITX boards with the C3s or EPIA-M's installed?  I have one of those, and from the reading I have been doing, it seems I am going to have quite a time of it configuring it under Slackware.  VIA distributes binary drivers for their C3/EPIA-M boards, but the modules are built for a limited number of distros running stock kernels.  They do have drivers that are distro independent, but I understand that they require a good bit of configuration to get working.

If I weren't too worried about speed and wanted a small quiet box, I think I'd go more for one of the small form factor (SFF) boards and cases, such as Shuttle or Biostar.  Right now, I am resisting the temptation to get a Shuttle SN45G to build as a firewall or PVR (if I get too frustrated with the VIA EPIA-M).  Doesn't have the onboard video, so you can add a dependable video card of your own.

If your experience with the C3 has been different though, let me know.  I want to set this VIA board up as a PVR.  Other than early, not-really-serious attempts to install the VIA video drivers, I haven't started messing with the VIA-specific parts of it yet.  Still trying to get Freevo or MythTV to run on a Slackware distro.

Cheers,
Sean

On Mon, Jan 26, 2004 at 03:57:28PM +0000, Ken Moffat hunted and pecked out:
> On Mon, 26 Jan 2004, S. Barret Dolph wrote:
> 
> > Well, my problems have much to do with hardware and it is time to get a new
> > box. My old box ran for 6 years with Mandrake and never crashed. (X-windows
> > crashed when setting up Matrox 450 though.) My question is what hardware is
> > good to avoid. I only use my computer for work, no games, but I am on it at
> > least 6 hours or more a day. I care mostly about stability and don't really
> > care too much about speed. So more to the point are any of you aware of
> > hardware that is a nightmare to install. Or a site which can help.
> >
> > Cordially,
> > S. Barret Dolph
> > Taipei Taiwan
> > -
> 
>  If it's that old, your biggest problem on anything new might be noise!
> For stability with an Athlon or P4, don't skimp on the power supply.  If
> you don't need a lot of power, maybe something based on a via C3 might do
> - but make sure you install i586 or i386 binaries, gcc usually thinks
> C3s are i686 but they don't have the 'cmov' instruction.
> 
> Ken
> -- 
> This is a job for Riviera Kid!
> -

-- 
Theo. Sean Schulze
tschulze@teamfinders.org
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Re: New linux box

[Ken Moffat]

On Mon, 26 Jan 2004, Theo. Sean Schulze wrote:

> Ken,
>
> Are you referring to one the VIA Mini-ITX boards with the C3s or EPIA-M's installed?  I have one of those, and from the reading I have been doing, it seems I am going to have quite a time of it configuring it under Slackware.  VIA distributes binary drivers for their C3/EPIA-M boards, but the modules are built for a limited number of distros running stock kernels.  They do have drivers that are distro independent, but I understand that they require a good bit of configuration to get working.
>
> If I weren't too worried about speed and wanted a small quiet box, I think I'd go more for one of the small form factor (SFF) boards and cases, such as Shuttle or Biostar.  Right now, I am resisting the temptation to get a Shuttle SN45G to build as a firewall or PVR (if I get too frustrated with the VIA EPIA-M).  Doesn't have the onboard video, so you can add a dependable video card of your own.
>
> If your experience with the C3 has been different though, let me know.  I want to set this VIA board up as a PVR.  Other than early, not-really-serious attempts to install the VIA video drivers, I haven't started messing with the VIA-specific parts of it yet.  Still trying to get Freevo or MythTV to run on a Slackware distro.
>
> Cheers,
> Sean
>
(Sean, please can you fix your line length ?)

 Did I say I've used one ?  I'm just going by reviews and comments on
other lists, and the experience of people I respect.  I'm thinking about
getting one eventually to replace my firewall, so I haven't given any
consideration to drivers for fancy stuff - but the original question was
about a machine for doing basic stuff.  If anybody is minded to try one
of these, it's probably worth looking in the mailing lists for your
favourite distro to see if anything shows up.

 I haven't used SFF stuff either, but all the reviews I've read suggest
they're significantly noisier than C3s (I'm thinking of the lower-speed
fanless C3 processors here), need full-size power supplies (more noise),
and are a standard (overspecified for many things) processor in a box
with limited potential for upgrading.

Ken
-- 
Bring back the PIII :)
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Re: New linux box

[caszonyi]

On Mon, 26 Jan 2004, S. Barret Dolph wrote:

> Well, my problems have much to do with hardware and it is time to get a new
> box. My old box ran for 6 years with Mandrake and never crashed. (X-windows
> crashed when setting up Matrox 450 though.) My question is what hardware is
> good to avoid. I only use my computer for work, no games, but I am on it at
> least 6 hours or more a day. I care mostly about stability and don't really
> care too much about speed. So more to the point are any of you aware of
> hardware that is a nightmare to install. Or a site which can help.
>

If you want stability don't use the latest and greatest hardware (Video
card and motherboard chipset).

It is ussually good to avoid Nvidia because they have usually binary only
drivers and they are not stable.



> Cordially,
> S. Barret Dolph
> Taipei Taiwan
> -

Calin

--
"A mouse is a device used to point at
the xterm you want to type in".
Kim Alm on a.s.r.
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