Help choosing a distro

[LNCPapa]

Yep - I sure do - and I've already installed the VB Additions in the OS. I also have the video mem set to 128 in the VM.

 

[caravel]

open a terminal in the guest and post output of:

glxinfo | grep render

 

[LNCPapa]

glxinfo | grep render
direct rendering: Yes
OpenGL renderer string: Software Rasterizer
    GL_NV_conditional_render, GL_NV_depth_clamp, GL_NV_fragment_program,

Haven't had much time to do any troubleshooting yet so I haven't really tried anything.

Also, for grins

cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf 
# VirtualBox generated configuration file
# based on /etc/X11/xorg.conf.

Section "Monitor"
  Identifier   "Monitor[0]"
  ModelName    "VirtualBox Virtual Output"
  VendorName   "Oracle Corporation"
EndSection

Section "Device"
  BoardName    "VirtualBox Graphics"
  Driver       "vboxvideo"
  Identifier   "Device[0]"
  VendorName   "Oracle Corporation"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
  SubSection "Display"
    Depth      24
  EndSubSection
  Device       "Device[0]"
  Identifier   "Screen[0]"
  Monitor      "Monitor[0]"
EndSection

and Screenshot

 

[caravel]

It's using software rendering.

Post outputs

grep EE /var/log/Xorg.0.log
grep WW /var/log/Xorg.0.log

apt-cache policy libgl1-mesa-dri

 

[tehbanz]

i'm a long time linux user, started with ubuntu 8 or so, just recently got into different distrubutions. first i switched straight to debian squeeze, I absolutely LOVED it, got it all configured and had it running all smooth and sexy for like a week.
Then X got an upgrade which broke my nvidia drivers (switching to nouveau was not an option) i tried to revert to my old version of X but kept getting weird issues after that. i then decided to poke around and find a new distro.

I used PCLinuxOS for awhile, but found it horrendously bloated and had very poor support, their forums were nearly dead and google results hardly found any info on pclos. So, on to a new distro

thus Arch enters, and let me say i am impressed. Arch is rock solid and a VERY core linux distro, i've got all my hardware configured and am now on to configuring my WMFS. it uses the "Pacman package manager" similar to apt-get for those debian users out there (Install a package pacman -S foo) and it also includes the painstakingly maintained "AUR" package repository which has much of the software and hardware drivers/firmware all users need.

Another thing arch likes to boast is their philosophy they follow the KISS (keep it simple stupid!) idea really close and believe simplicity is elegant and essentially what most linux users strive for.

The main thing i love about Arch is their documentation, it's EXTREMELY well maintained, most everything you need to find can be located on their wiki and forum response time is roughly under 30 minutes.

Also, Arch is very lightweight I believe my entire root partition is currently under 1gb with a max of 15gb, incredibly fast, and elegant.

If you're sick and tired of your generic ubuntu i recommend giving it a try. hell run it in a VM for awhile, guarantee it will become your distro of choice soon!

 

[steeve]

nice words, tehbanz

yes, i share your enthusiasm for arch - i have built a couple of nice arch setups.

it is a lot of fun to be able to custom build a system almost from the ground up. and the arch community is very active and supportive - the great documentation and repos. pacman makes it super easy to install new components.

i got off to a bad start with arch, though. because the arch installer is quite "stripped down" and no gui of course - you have to know what you are doing. partition names used by the installer were different from what i expected and the worst happened - the old "write over existing partitions" trick.

anyway i was able to recover most of the material, put it down to experience (everyone has to go through it once, right?) and arch and i went to build a nice friendship

 

[Leeky]

Aye, we've all been there. I lost count of the partitions I killed in the very beginning. I even once did it twice in a row with Slackware, being too tired and otherwise distracted really does sometimes spell disaster when using the command line.

I genuinely think its something you have to do sometimes in order to learn something.

 

[steeve]

well i hope i have learned now!

actually, as a result of such disasters (and as you say, they can just be caused by tiredness or momentary loss of concentration/judgenment) i sometimes now physically disconnect my drives with valuable data before installing a new OS. then integrate them back into the boot system later.

it seems to me that the picture is something like this - only a small 'plateau'

 

[Leeky]

I actually did it fairly recently with a Windows installation. I removed both of the partitions on the previous disk without thinking, and then proceeded to install on a completely separate hard disk. Took me 12 hours to do a deep surface scan, and then about 24 hours on and off to filter through over 10,000,000 files to retrieve it all. :haha:

The cause; tiredness and frustration having spent the greater part of a day swapping out components on my new build to no avail. I actually did it re-installing W7 on my backup PC in the early hours of the morning. Thing is I wiped the disk I didn't even need to touch to begin with.

I now run a RAID for my data backup, and all my "home folders" are linked to that, so I never have that issue again.

So I clearly haven't learnt. :haha:

 

[caravel]

first i switched straight to debian squeeze, I absolutely LOVED it, got it all configured and had it running all smooth and sexy for like a week.
Then X got an upgrade which broke my nvidia drivers (switching to nouveau was not an option) i tried to revert to my old version of X but kept getting weird issues after that. i then decided to poke around and find a new distro.

I assume that was while squeeze was still testing? The stable branch does not get updated versions of packages, which is why it doesn't break.

It also very much depends on how you installed proprietary drivers. If you did it the "debian way" - installed from the repos - it will get updated along with xorg. If you installed it from the "nvidia_installer_name.run" shell script then you do need to reinstall it almost every time there is an xorg update or kernel update.

I genuinely think its something you have to do sometimes in order to learn something.

+1

It's a case if "you break it, you get to keep both pieces" (an old one, but a good one).

I've also messed up partitioning on a few occasions, "we've all been there" indeed...

 

[steeve]

Took me 12 hours to do a deep surface scan, and then about 24 hours on and off to filter through over 10,000,000 files to retrieve it all.

a grueling process. what software did you use for the recovery? (note the underlying fear that it may happen again)

I assume that was while squeeze was still testing?

that's the great thing about debian - you can choose whether you want to live safely or 'on the edge'

 

[Leeky]

Aye, but on the edge is still more stable than Ubuntu's current version! :haha:

I used Recuva. I've always had great success with it, but recovering everything is a gruelling process. The process is much faster if you search one filetype.

 

[steeve]

more stable than Ubuntu'

indeed

I've always had great success with it

good to know, but hoping i will never need it!

 

[onlyjustincase]

I want to dual boot Win 7 Ultimate with a linux destro as I am a computer tech but i don't know how to use linux.

From my reserch there are many different versions of this and i don't know which would be beneficial to me.

I need one that will fulfill my needs as a Tech. I really dont want a watered down version of this OS.

Can you guys help me out thx in advance

Gday HiDDeNMisT,

I would recommend Mandriva for someone new to Linux. They have both a free version and a very cheap paid version which includes some commercial software. They even have a mobile version which is run off a USB key. Also you can plug into Penguin Liberation Front to get more packages which are not found in the base distribution.