[Discuss] Progress report on Debian install for new system

[Alan W. Irwin]

Just to remind you here is the summary of the hardware I am configuring with
Debian testing (lenny):

ASUS P5K-V motherboard with Intel g33/ich9 chipset

Intel e6550 processor (duo-core, 2.33 GHz, low power, low heat, and
therefore low noise and yearly power costs)

2 gb Crucial ddr2 667mhz (good quality ram, life time warranty)

Seagate 7200.10 500gb SATA2 7200RPM

Pioneer 212 DVD-RW SATA

Edge ran their own hardware tests, but after obtaining the box from them I
ran memtest86 for ~15 hours with no issues at all.  I also followed with the
special test9 (3 hour memory decay test) from memtest86 with no issues
reported.

I used a businesscard iso from the daily builds of the lenny (testing)
installer.  I wanted a cutting edge installer (including especially a
cutting-edge kernel) to reliably detect and work with this brand-new
hardware. My LAN already has a dhcpd server on its Linux firewall/router so
I relied on that to provide the needed connection to the internet for the
new box. My strategy of using the latest lenny installer paid off; the
Debian install of a minimal system (turning off everything from tasksel) was
trivial.  The default partioning scheme (using lvm) for my bare 500GB drive
came up with almost exactly the partitioning scheme I would have deployed if
I had done it manually.  Here is the result:

raven:~/dist-upgrade# df -h
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/raven-root
                       6.6G  832M  5.5G  14% /
tmpfs                1004M     0 1004M   0% /lib/init/rw
udev                   10M   92K   10M   1% /dev
tmpfs                1004M     0 1004M   0% /dev/shm
/dev/sda1             236M   15M  209M   7% /boot
/dev/mapper/raven-home
                       446G  200M  424G   1% /home

In sum, a physical /boot partition of large enough size to give me lots of
flexibility in how many different kernels I store in there, and a logical
partitions/filesystems for "/" and for /home which can be resized any time I
need.  (Separate /home is nice because it means the next install won't
interfere with my personal data on /home.) The /lib/init/rw, /dev, and
/dev/shm filesystems were created in some other way that had nothing to do
with the partitioner.  The partitioner also automatically made me a swap
partition.  It was huge (something like 3x the 2GB RAM that I have), but I
left it alone assuming the automatic partitioner knew what it was doing, and
at most I would have decreased it to twice the RAM size which would have
"only" saved 2GB.

After the initial minimal install I tried to configure X and got caught up
in some (expected) problems over the last few days for this very new g33
Intel chipset which includes an X3000 graphical chip.  I finally found an
xrandr workaround this morning for the problem.  The short story is
the RandR extension has changed X configuration substantially from what I
have been used to for the last 11 years.  For details, there is a great
HOWTO at http://wiki.debian.org/XStrikeForce/HowToRandR12 that a Debian X
developer pointed me to.  Be sure and consult that if you are dealing with a
new video card or new video chipset and having trouble configuring X as a
result.

The important X configuration issue I have been fighting is to obtain a
reasonable vertical refresh rate.  It proved impossible to add or select
modelines for X so X chose a horrible one with 60 Hz vertical refresh that
gave me a headache almost instantly for the CRT monitor I am using.  (I am
not sure whether vertical refresh rate is so important with LCD monitors,
but with CRT monitors it is crucial!) Fortunately xrandr (see above HOWTO)
saves the day, but I have to execute that manually with the correct options
each time I enter X to get a decent refresh rate. Currently I am not allowed
to pick a decent refresh rate in xorg.conf using the "PreferredMode" option
recommended by the above HOWTO.  I may be up against some obscure problem
with my xorg.conf file, and the investigation is continuing.

Meanwhile, I am delighted to say that this new integrated g33/x3000 gives me
2600 FPS with glxgears.  Of course, this is just a gross indication of 3D
speed, but to put this rating in perspective, my old matrox g200 card gets
something like 100 FPS.  Note both these rates may be inflated compared to
the glxgears benchmark at http://www.free3d.org/.  For example, the glxgears
widget size very much affects the FPS rating.  However, it appears they just
took default size at the above URL in which case they would be reasonably
comparable numbers, and then the conclusion is that the g33/X3000 is beating
out every other intel embedded graphics chip posted there.

The bottom line is that foobillard and tuxracer (now ppracer) play well with
the g33/x3000 which is enough to satisfy my modest 3D gaming needs, and this
3D speed should be enough to also satisfy any future needs generated by 3D
eye candy for the desktop.  That's a pretty nice throw-in from Intel.  They
also sell chipsets without the X3000 graphics for only a few dollars less.

More to come concerning the following topics as I get to them:

* Learn to configure xorg.conf to give me a mode with a reasonable vertical
refresh rather than having to rely on xrandr to work around this issue (or
if it is an X bug, work with the developers to get it ironed out by giving
them lots of test support for the g33).

* The above DVD-RW obviously reads CD's OK, but there is lots more testing
to do of this device in terms of writing CD's and reading and writing DVD's.
I have seen no Linux or growisofs tests of this device on the web so I have
my fingers crossed there are no Linux issues with it.  It did get rave reviews
in general so I decided to take a chance with it.

* Other hardware to test concerns on-board sound, on-board gigabit NIC (I
have been doing the install with a 10/100 NIC which I know is Linux reliable
just to reduce variables), serial port (to control an APC Back-UPS), and
possibly an on-board external SATA port (I am considering buying an esata
external disk for backup).  I also want to do testing of USB devices beyond
just a mouse (which by the way works fine as a hot-plugged Linux device for
kernel-2.6.22).

* Lots more software to load and test such as a complete development
environment.  (Oh yes, I do plan to do some programming and research with
this machine as well as some modest game playing.)

* Configuring our old shuttle as a thin client.


In sum, despite one almost showstopping problem with g33/X3000 graphics and
X, I believe I am well on my way to what is going to be a really nice Debian
desktop system for a powerful PC which I will access directly and which
Barbara will be able to access indirectly (but essentially at the same
speed) through a thin client.

Alan
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Alan W. Irwin

Astronomical research affiliation with Department of Physics and Astronomy,
University of Victoria (astrowww.phys.uvic.ca).

Programming affiliations with the FreeEOS equation-of-state implementation
for stellar interiors (freeeos.sf.net); PLplot scientific plotting software
package (plplot.org); the libLASi project (unifont.org/lasi); the Loads of
Linux Links project (loll.sf.net); and the Linux Brochure Project
(lbproject.sf.net).
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Linux-powered Science
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