on Thu, Mar 08, 2001 at 10:39:35PM -0500, Jonathan D. Proulx (jon@ai.mit.edu) wrote: > On Thu, Mar 08, 2001 at 05:04:15PM -0800, Jim Richardson wrote: > > : 1) How "good" is laptop support ? apm, pcmcia, etc > > This is kernel stuff, what are you looking for the Distro to do > to/with it. It's there to use, I've set up a few laptops with Debian > and had no complaints. If I recall apm isn't in the stock Debian > kernel (or wasn't), but I tend to roll my own anyway... apm is in the stock kernel, but disabled on boot, a LILO or boot parameter is required to enable it. > : 2) I want to use 2.4.x kernel to get access to good usb and iptables > : is this stable enough for general use ? > > general use yes, mission critical, I'd say not tested enough yet. More data: if you want to use reiserfs (useful on a laptop), 2.2 is currently better than 2.4 -- more stable, fewer problems. There *is* some USB support under 2.2, just not as much as might be desireable. So you've got a compromise to make here. I'm running a 2.2.18 kernel with reiserfs, don't use USB devices. > : 3) Can I use the stable dist, and add the unstable/testing packages > : I want, like latest gnome, without too many problems or is it > : either/or? I'd in general recommend testing if you want to have more relatively current packages. Trick I just learned from Rick Moen regarding security updates: put the 'security' apt reference lines into your /etc/apt/sources.list file. There've been issues with security updates on the testing distribution (essentially there are now three bases to cover, testing may get overlooked), this will ensure that you at least get the higher-numbered package updates from the stable track. In general I tend to encourage *not* mixing packages across stable/testing/unstable. You can do it, and will probably get by with it, but there are increased complexities as a result. > : 5) Can I "downgrade" packages easily if they cause probs? > > if you can still get your hands on the .deb that was working for you > you can force a downgrade. Note the "if". This can be an issue. In general, unstable/testing .debs aren't kept around once they've been supersceded. -- Karsten M. Self <kmself@ix.netcom.com> http://kmself.home.netcom.com/ What part of "Gestalt" don't you understand? There is no K5 cabal http://gestalt-system.sourceforge.net/ http://www.kuro5hin.org
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