Debian experiences

[Ben Scott]

[replying on-list to an off-list reply, with the author's permission]

On 11/3/06, Paul Lussier <p.lussier at comcast.net> wrote:
>> I picked up a new Dell Precision 380.
>
> We've got several of those around here, and they don't seem to have
> any problems.  We're running with a 2.4.32 kernel, the nVidia kernel
> stuff, etc.  We haven't had any X problems on them that I know of.

  Lesse.. this is Debian "Etch", most recently with kernel
2.6.17-2-686 and xorg 7.1.0-5.  The hardware is a Precision 380 with
an NVidia Quadro NVS 285 (NV44).

  The open source "nv" driver causes video corruption around the
insertion point in many GUI widgets -- most noticeably in Firefox.
It's especially bad if I use the arrow keys to move point back and
forth -- I get "cursor droppings" all along the text.

  The binary "nvidia" driver works fine, but it seems like every other
time I run "apt-get dist-upgrade" it upgrades the X server out of
existence.  Sometimes it's been that the binary kernel module
disappeared.  Other times, it's been that the X driver (nvidia-glx)
has disappeared.  Sometimes I've been able to "fix" things just by
requesting the proper packages again.  Other times, they're actually
disappeared from the repository, and I've had to wait a day or two
before they re-appear.

  However, this latest episode has been going on for at least two
weeks, and the nvidia driver still hasn't come back yet.

  Now, I could just go and grab the package NVidia distributes, but to
me, that's a workaround.  The packages *were* there, but now they're
not.  That's the bug.  I'd like to know why they're gone, at least.

> Also, have you played with aptitude?  It's supposed to be the next
> generation of apt-get.

  I have.  It's kind of like dselect done better.  I find do find
aptitude confusing when nested levels of dependencies get involved,
and Synaptic is less confusing in those cases.  Occasionally I will go
with a GUI.  ;-)

> Try apt-get moo, then try aptitude moo (then start adding on
> increasing numbers of -v to aptitude moo :)

*chuckle*

-- Ben