[Gllug] Re: Alcatel SpeedTouch on Slackware 10

[Doug Winter]

Henry Gilbert wrote:
>                                          Also NVidia proprietory
> installed without a problem, but previously Debian kept spitting out
> the venom. I had to reinstall the driver on each reboot. Being a
> speed-junkie, a permanent NVidia driver scoring 270fps (instead of
> 55Fps, 88Fps on Debian) and the promise of the modem working with this
> distro (after all it does with 2.4.31 untweaked) - I thought maybe
> Slackware found a home here.

That's nothing to do with the distro, well not directly.  I expect you
just had the wrong client glx extension, or some broken X config
settings.  Proprietary drivers are a world of pain on their own,
unsurprisingly.

If you are using the nvidia drivers you need to make sure you are using
their client extensions too - sometimes the installer ballses up and you
end up using the SGI client.  You can check with glxinfo.

Anyway my point really was about kernels not distros, even if I admit to
some feeble debian cheerleading :)

> Had a similar experience looking for a perfect distro for a specific
> laptop. And that was Fedora 4 on a Samsung P28 worked like a dream -
> as long as you don't install ATI proprietory drivers (for some reason,
> everything goes wrong if you do). Also in that case had to install
> proprietory OSS drivers; which worked when Alsa crashed. Yes there
> were loads of kernel recompiling - - but the end result was a charming
> fast-responsive that made me eventually green with jealousy. I never
> find time to tweak my own Linux system; everyone else's gets
> beautifully optimized, nicely decorated + the best apps ever.
> Mine own just sucks :(

Recompiling the kernel doesn't in itself make your computer faster
really.  (I'm sure someone is going to come up with some science stuff
and dispute me here, with various tales of insane speedups from building
your own kernel), but IME it's just a huge amount of grief for little
gain - as long as your distro kernel is a good one and supports your
hardware.

I fear this is a religious point though, and I'm going to get flamed to
high heaven for saying that.

> (ps: maybe I put such effort in the hope they really don't contemplate
> going back to Windows - and if they do, they miss Linux terribly. I
> can't relax until the OS is at its' most optimal settings)

I'm not sure whether to compliment you on your altruism, or wonder
whether you perhaps need to find a healthier obsession :)

doug.

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