On Thu, 26 Feb 2004, Faheem Mitha wrote:
> > Dear People, > > I just started a job at Duke. I've been told to put together a machine > quote for my office. I want to run Debian on it. I tried to persuade my > employer to use Monarch, but was told I have to use Dell. > > I'm not sure of the best way to go about putting together a machine from > Dell which has good general Linux support as opposed to Red Hat support. > > I've taken a look at Dell's Precision line of workstations, but it looks > less than ideal. For one things the descriptions are less than specific > about what hardware is included. Also, there is not as much choice as I > would like. I was hoping to somehow actually be able to do a significant > amount of customization without breaking the bank. > > I'd greatly appreciate hearing about people's experiences of success with > Debian on Dell, and related advice, suggestions, and working > configurations. Thanks in advance. I want to thank everyone on debian-user who responded to my earlier message. I've worked out a tentative spec, which I post below. Here follow some comments/questions. 1) One thing I am wondering about is the "8X DVD+RW/+R, Data Only". I have no experience with something like this in Linux. Can one burn and play DVDs. CD-R/CD-RW's with this thing under Linux? I was wondering if it would be better to get separate DVD (read-only drive) and CD-RW drives to be on the safe side. 2) They are also being rather coy about the ethernet card. I assume (educated guess based on a Trilug post from Daniel Chen and other info) that there is an onboard Intel card (which works with the e1000 driver), I did hear something about a Broadcom card being used too, though. 3) I managed to get the Nvidia GeForce4 MX 440 card on a Dell Optiplex GX270 to work under X. I could not manage to work it with the nv X driver (as of 4.2 in testing) but the proprietary nvidia driver (ndvidia) worked. I hope it will be the same with this "nVidia, Quadro NVS 280". Daniel Chen's message seems to confirm this. A question: I have heard that the nvidia kernel modules are binary. How come they seem to work with pretty much any kernel I try? Usually binary kernel modules (in my experience) are very sensitive to the version of the kernel being compiled against). At any rate, it seems part of the kernel driver is actually being compiled. The documentation says "Since the Linux kernel does not support a binary driver interface, we provide for rebuilding these files on the target machine (or distribution) and then linking with the binary version of the NV kernel driver." but I'm not sure what this means. 4) I opted for SCSI instead of SATA drives, since it seems that the Linux support for the (presumably on-board) SATA controller might be problematic. Anybody with experience on this? A friend of mine said the SCSI controller on Precisions was Adaptec but Daniel said it was LSI, which is presumably well supported by the mptfusion kernel modules. I'd prefer Adaptec, though. 5) I'd welcome suggestions on changes in the configuration below to reduce cost while impacting functionality as little as possible. Thanks. Faheem. *********************************************************************** Dell Precision Workstation 360n Intel=AE Pentium=AE 4 Processor 2.80GHz, 1MB / 800 MHz FSB Operating System: Red Hat Linux WS (V.3) with one year RHN subscription Chassis: Small Mini-Tower Keyboard: Entry Level Quietkey Keyboard, PS/2, (No Hot Keys) Memory: 2GB,DDR400 SDRAM Memory,ECC (4 DIMMS) Mouse: Dell USB 2-Button Optical Mouse with Scroll Monitor: Dell UltraSharp?1901FP flat panel(19.0 viewable), HeightAdjustableStand Graphics Card: nVidia, Quadro NVS 280, 64MB, dual monitor VGA capable Boot Hard Drive: 36GB Ultra 320 SCSI, 1 inch (10,000 rpm) 2nd Hard Drive: 36GB Ultra 320 SCSI, 1 inch (10,000 rpm) Floppy Drive: 3.5 inch 1.44MB Floppy Drive Controller Primary: U320 SCSI Adapter with RAID 0 at No extra charge Sound: Sound Blaster Audigy II with onboard 1394 Speakers: Dell Two Piece Stereo System CD-ROM, DVD and Read-Write Devices: CD-ROM, DVD and Read-Write Devices: 8X DVD+RW/+R, Data Only -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
