On Fri, Oct 8, 2010 at 5:33 PM, Gary Driggs <[email protected]> wrote: > On Oct 8, 2010, at 5:08 PM, Gnu Turd wrote: > >> it even worth the effort? Will this machine still be pokey, even with >> nouveau installed? > > I don't have any experience with that particular card & driver. But if you > know how much VRAM it has & what kind of apps you'll run on the system you'll > have a better notion of how to proceed. Also, how long will you be using this > system before it's retired?
Actually, it isn't my machine, it belongs to a Mac-using friend of mine who makes his bread and butter doing video production with Final Cut Pro, After Effects, etc. He wanted to teach himself Blender and thought Linux would be better for that for some reason, so that is going to be the main app. I've never used Mac hardware before, but have been using Linux as my OS for 5 years and suggested Debian to him, both because I like it and because it is one of the few distros that still supports the old PPC laptop he wanted to devote to this project. I didn't realize how limited proprietary support was on the PPC architecture, I rather assumed I'd be able to install the Nvidia driver, but that isn't the case. I suspect that once he sees how crummy the performance is with Debian for graphic apps he'll blow Jaguar (or whatever big cat came with it) back on the system, but I thought I'd try to install nouveau on the box to show Linux in its best light, in any case. I realize that if I just wait until Squeeze is released as stable that the kernel will jump ahead and it will be easy to run nouveau but that might not happen for 6-8 months. (Personally, I hope they don't release Squeeze as stable for a loooooong time, I'm very happy with my Lenny desktop and don't much care for Squeeze in its current shape). > As for compiling your own kernel on PPC, check the list archives for possible > roadblocks to installing your compiled kernel. I'd suggest searching for > ofpath & ybin: > > http://lists.debian.org/cgi-bin/search?query=ofpath+ybin&DEFAULTOP=or&author=&list=debian-powerpc&sort=date&HITSPERPAGE=10&language=en There were over 1400 hits for those terms, I scanned the first hundred or so, but didn't see anything. I didn't even know what ofpath & ybin were. I made the terms 'AND' searches and threw in 'kernel' but still didn't see much. I gather yaboot loads firmware, so I can see how that might be an issue, but I think the main problem is that nouveau just wasn't incorporated in to the 2.6.32 kernel yet. > > > -- > To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [email protected] > with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [email protected] > Archive: > http://lists.debian.org/[email protected] > > -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [email protected] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [email protected] Archive: http://lists.debian.org/[email protected]
