I have two boxes on which I want debian.
box-1: 1000mhz AMD, Nvidia GeForce2, 448mb RAM. CMI8738
box-2: 1400mhz AMD, Nvidia GeForce4, 512mb RAM, AC'97

These are home boxes. Multi-media is important. Stability is not *that* critical.

Presently, I have debain 3.1 with 2.6.15-1-k7 on box-1. I have it set to debian testing. It was debian unstable. I also have the nvidia-kernel installed. My big problem with the system is that all the multi-media apps I have tried (xmms,rhythmbox,gxine) instantly give me a "segmentation fault" error. They used to work, I don't know what happened, but I am giving up on trying to fix it. I am going to blow away the entire install and try to get it right next time.

On box-2, I have xubuntu dapper 606, installed. Again, multimedia is a huge problem. I can not get sound to work. I don't get any errors, sound simply does not work. I have worked on this for hours, and I am giving up, in frustration. I have tried xfmedia, xmms, gxine, VLC, and mplayer. None of those work. I loaded the codecs, and setup alsamixer. Curiously, xmms used to work, but stopped working when I install VLC and mplayer. Video plays fine, just no sound.

When I re-install debian, I would like to get it right. I would like to get suggestions. Which kernel should I use? Should I set up as stable, testing, or unstable?

Get the Etch Netinstal .iso here.

Here is a slideshow of the the installation screens.

Look through the slide show, and if you have any questions, address them specifically.

There is left the restart slideshow ... I guess.

Thanks, I've installed debian a few times. I usually use the 3.1 sarge net install. After the install I edit my sources.list for unstable, and update the kernel. I suppose if I updated to testing, it would be about the same thing?

Do you know what kernel version is used by etch? 2.4.x or 2.6.x?

I have noticed that the video driver I chose can substantially affect video performance. As such, should I use the nvidia-kernel? Could the nvidia-kernel be affecting my sound?

When I first installed sarge, it had a 2.4.x kernel, and the sound would not work. I upgraded to a 2.6.x kernel, and the sound worked. It is possible that subsequent kernel upgrade killed the sound again. And ideas about that?

My advice, (repeated) ... Do not install Sarge.