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Having trouble installing a piece of hardware? Want to know if that peripheral is compatible with Linux?

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Old 03-27-2021, 01:18 PM   #1
hrp1575
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Full hardware advantage distro needed


Hi,

Hope you're all well and safe.

My question is: what distro would take full advantage of the installed hardware?

I need a distro that takes full advantage of the hardware is installed on, every single ounce if possible.

I am open to either an out-of-box distro(Mint, Debian, Ubuntu) or Arch from scratch.

The hardware:
16GB DDR3 RAM
240GB solid state drive
nvidia 8600GT 512MB DDR3
AMD cpu (i forget the actual model, can post later)

Thank you.
 
Old 03-27-2021, 03:30 PM   #2
teckk
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Quote:
16GB DDR3 RAM
240GB solid state drive
nvidia 8600GT 512MB DDR3
AMD cpu (i forget the actual model, can post later)
Nothing exotic there. Any 64 bit distro should run on that fine.

info:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/NVIDIA
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Nouveau
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php...l_mode_setting
 
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Old 03-27-2021, 03:38 PM   #3
Emerson
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All distros run the same Linux kernel, although some may have custom patches. Kernel is the OS, kernel interacts with hardware and makes it work. You want to squeeze out everything from your hardware - build a custom kernel. Generic kernels are exactly what it sounds like - generic. There are kernels tuned for server workload and kernels configured for desktop computers, but that's all. You can take it a step further with your own. Extreme persistence and interest is a must, your first custom kernel may take weeks to polish.
 
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Old 03-27-2021, 05:12 PM   #4
beachboy2
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hrp1575,

Welcome to LQ forums.

Your Nvidia 8600GT will probably cause problems with all Linux distros.

This tutorial using Debian 10 may be useful:
https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-insta...0-buster-linux

First, enable the non-free and contrib repositories.
 
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Old 03-27-2021, 08:53 PM   #5
hrp1575
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Thank you all.

I've decided on compiling a custom kernel. It's been "ages" since I've done that. I got lazy and ran with the "out-of-box" kernels.

Thanks also for the tip on the nvidia card.
 
Old 03-27-2021, 11:43 PM   #6
mrmazda
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Quote:
Originally Posted by beachboy2 View Post
Your Nvidia 8600GT will probably cause problems with all Linux distros.
Code:
# inxi -GISayz
System:
  Kernel: 5.10.16-1-default x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 10.2.1
...
  Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.21.2 tk: Qt 5.15.2 wm: kwin_x11 vt: 7 dm: N/A
  Distro: openSUSE Tumbleweed 20210316
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA G84 [GeForce 8600 GT] vendor: XFX Pine driver: nouveau
  v: kernel bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:0402 class-ID: 0300
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.10 compositor: kwin_x11 driver: loaded: modesetting
  unloaded: fbdev,vesa alternate: nouveau,nv,nvidia
  display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 2560x2520 s-dpi: 120 s-size: 541x533mm (21.3x21.0")
  s-diag: 759mm (29.9")
  Monitor-1: DVI-I-1 res: 2560x1440 hz: 60 dpi: 109
  size: 598x336mm (23.5x13.2") diag: 686mm (27")
  Monitor-2: DVI-I-2 res: 2560x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 97
  size: 673x284mm (26.5x11.2") diag: 730mm (28.8")
  OpenGL: renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 11.0.1 128 bits) v: 4.5 Mesa 20.3.4
  compat-v: 3.1 direct render: Yes
Info:...Shell: Bash v: 5.1.4 running-in: konsole inxi: 3.3.03
Exactly what would those problems be?
 
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Old 03-27-2021, 11:58 PM   #7
Emerson
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Have to agree, my laptop has oldish nVidia and runs well with noveau and also modesetting. Can't use hardware acceleration with Kodi, but nothing is perfect in this world.
 
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Old 03-28-2021, 10:40 AM   #8
onebuck
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Member Response

Hi,

Welcome to LQ!

Quote:
Originally Posted by hrp1575 View Post
Hi,

Hope you're all well and safe.

My question is: what distro would take full advantage of the installed hardware?

I need a distro that takes full advantage of the hardware is installed on, every single ounce if possible.

I am open to either an out-of-box distro(Mint, Debian, Ubuntu) or Arch from scratch.

The hardware:
16GB DDR3 RAM
240GB solid state drive
nvidia 8600GT 512MB DDR3
AMD cpu (i forget the actual model, can post later)

Thank you.
You can look at; Download Linux to choose likely candidates. You can use a Live Gnu/Linux CD/DVD/USB to test drive a particular distribution. Most Live distribution will provide a persistence mode to allow saving of an environment. Some will even do a install to your storage media.

I use Slackware and would suggest you to look at; https://slackware.nl/slackware-live/latest/

Please remember that Slackware64-current is development and not recommended for production use.

Hope this helps.
Have fun & enjoy Gnu/Linux!
 
  


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