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Hello Again,
So I got my whole system installed with Debian on
the AMD64 (pure64) stuff and it seems to run well. I'm planning on using
my new system as a HTPC and I was thinking about running the AMD64 version of
Debian. Is this a good idea? I've been getting used to Slackware
over the past year or so (I'm a newbie to linux); running it on another machine
in my house and I feel fairly comfortable with upgrading the kernel and getting
external software running. However, when I got the Debian release and
installed it, I found that there is quite a bit different between the two
distributions.
One of my problems is that I can't recompile a
kernel and get the frame buffer working (using vga=0x318 with the boot
options). I find that using linux in a 1024x768 frame buffer is much
more efficient than the 80x25 default. I've learned how to use grub (it's
nice) and I learned how to use mkinitrd so that my system will load
required modules before the kernel gets loaded to avoid panics; but I cannot
seem to get the frame buffer to work. When I set vga=ask in the grub
option and reboot to that entry, It asks like it should. When I try 318
and the screen just goes black (system still boots, can hear disk access, and
log in then reboot blindly). I can choose 0 (80x25) and it'll work
fine. I tried compiling the VESA FB into the kernel (Y instead of
M) and also with Console FB support and it still didn't work.
Now here's the kicker: when I use the precompiled kernel that came with the
pure64 release and add vga=0x318 it works like a charm. What's up with
that?
Also, I noticed that the precompiled kernel is
compiled with gcc 3.4. I believe I am running gcc 3.3... I've
been trying to figure out what the differences are between all the 64-bit
releases of Debian. The how-to doesn't outline them very well. Could
someone give me a list and outline the biggest differences? From what I
understand, this is my current concept of it:
Pure64 - gcc 3.3, most stable
Sid - gcc 3.4, not so stable
Sarge - not sure what this is... is it the same as
the pure64?
Can anyone help me out?
Thanks,
-Greg
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