Re: Dell 8100
> I have the 8000 with the ATI Rage Mobility, and I still can't XFree86
> running, it has been four months of pain. I hold out hope for the next
> release of X, but if that fails me, I'm going to have to go do RH. (Better
> than Windows I suppose, but still not Debian)
I know this is going to sound rather twisted, but if you succeed in getting
it working under Redhat, even briefly or poorly, you can use *precisely* the
same information under Debian. What would really make a difference is learning
whether the config files, or the binaries make the difference for you.
If it's a matter in the binaries, you can use dpkg-divert to mark up that
the applicable xfree86 parts have been diverted ... that is, so that you can
safely install X based software, but an upgrade to the xfree86 server package
puts its own files in the diverted place instead of squashing your well behaved
binary.
BTW I have heard, and am willing to believe, that DELL uses tuned compilations
for their systems. So if you are talking about a version of RH that came with
your machine... yes, you might get better results from that than from either
a standard RH disk or standard Debian. And the answer there would be the same;
if they tuned the binary, use a copy of it with whatever distro you finally
settle on.
...and if you discover that to be the case I'd *definitely* be on the horn
with them to find out what compilation options or other tweaks they did for
you. You might want to use some future version of X, and you can't trust
that they'll bother to compile it for you when you need it. The point of
Linux (imho) is the freedom to be self sufficient...
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