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Redmond Linux-- Great for Newbies! Anyhow-- a couple of questions...

M

michaelsaxon

Golden Member
First off, I have to say that this Redmond Linux is a GREAT way for Windowsphiles to get into Linux... It is a very polished, easy to install distribution. I am having a few problems, though, and need some advice:

First, my Philips Acoustic Edge is NOT SUPPORTED by linux. I've written Philips to see if they intended to ever release linux drivers and I received a non-commital response saying "we are evaluating the linux community as a valid... bla... bla... bla..." but essentially said there was no immediate plans for a linux driver. Is my only solution to get a new sound card then? I'm considering upgrading to an Audigy. Is it supported in linux?

Second, my ATI TV Wonder VE does not seem to work with the provided TV tuner program: MoTV... It appears I've set all the settings properly (cable, NTSC, etc.) but I just get garbage in the viewing box. Any suggestions?

I'd LOVE to make this a good alternative to Windows XP-- but still have to work out a few kinks to make it realistic. Any help / advice is appreciated. Thanks.
 
Audigy isn't supported yet AFAIK. However the SB Live is supported quite well under Linux. I'm just using a $10 Yamaha YMF724 PCI sound card in my Linux box (I've used a SB Live before though and it worked quite well).

As far as the tv tuner . . . good luck. I've never been able to get my ATI TV Wonder to work in Linux at all (of course the thing barely works in Windows). From my understanding ATI just changed the reference design too much and their proprietary components just don't work on a Linux setup (where almost all the drivers are reference-type).
 
Audigy is supported, but not well. Its basically beta, but the ALSA drivers seem to work. Or so I hear. As far as the TV tuner stuff, do people really use it?
 
I guess it is unrealistic for me to think that linux is up to replacing Windows on my desktop completely... I guess it will just be something to goof with... thanks!
 
<< I guess it is unrealistic for me to think that linux is up to replacing Windows on my desktop completely... I guess it will just be something to goof with... thanks! >>

Bzzt. Wrong Answer. The correct answer is "I guess I just need to take a look at hardware compatibility lists when I buy hardware. If it's new, it'll be a viable purchase in a few months when drivers become available."

<-- 6 months windows free, and lovin every minute of it (even the gaming is better here).
 
Actually... I think your buzzer was buzzed prematurely... if you read my message carefully, you'll see that I said it was unrealistic for "my" desktop-- not yours.

I started with Linux AFTER I had a fully-functioning Windows machine. I also have a Pentium 133, but couldn't get Linux with a GUI running on it, so compatibility lists were out of the question as I am running it dual-boot on an existing machine. Hence also my question in the original message about whether an Audigy would work with it so I could plan an upgrade appropriately.

Now, the fact remains that there is much more robust device support in Windows than in Linux. If certain distributions of Linux want to compete in the desktop environment, then they will need to have much more robust driver support.

Which games, by the way, are you playing on Linux? I know that some can run on it, but didn't think that a LOT could...
 
<< Actually... I think your buzzer was buzzed prematurely... if you read my message carefully, you'll see that I said it was unrealistic for "my" desktop-- not yours. >>

Bzzt. Sorry. I guess i just have an itchy finger tonight. I also happen to be the person who believes that Linux is right for everyone's desktop (minus the gamers). 😉

<< I started with Linux AFTER I had a fully-functioning Windows machine. I also have a Pentium 133, but couldn't get Linux with a GUI running on it, so compatibility lists were out of the question as I am running it dual-boot on an existing machine. Hence also my question in the original message about whether an Audigy would work with it so I could plan an upgrade appropriately. >>

Creative is cooperating quite a bit more i providing support to get drivers written. ALSA has beta support and is coming along nicely. Check back in maybe two months.

<< Now, the fact remains that there is much more robust device support in Windows than in Linux. If certain distributions of Linux want to compete in the desktop environment, then they will need to have much more robust driver support. >>

I'm afraid I have to agree with you here, Linux driver support could use a little work; although it's not necessarily the fault of Linux. Take the problem with the response you got from Philips; they won't commit because they don't think the amount of users justifies their resources. Users get turned off from Linux. It's a vicious circle.

There's also the problem where companies don't want to write drivers, but also will not release technical documentation so that a driver can be independtly written. IIRC, this was a problem with Promise.

I wish more companies would take the route of Nvidia and write their own drivers. Granted, I wish they were open sourced, but beggars can't be choosers. I've done a lot of Creative bashing in my time, but it looks like they are assisting somewhat in getting Audigy drivers written.

<< Which games, by the way, are you playing on Linux? I know that some can run on it, but didn't think that a LOT could... >>

Not a lot can. I am currently going through some kind of emulation fixation. SNES and PSX emulators provide great fun. Otherwise it's just the usual. Quake3 and Return to Castle Wolfenstien because they go easily (OpenGL rocks!). I'm such an Unreal Tournament Lover that I bought the ported version. I've had moderate success with wine with Red Alert2. Havn't had much other time to experiment.

So, as I was saying above, Linux is right for everyone's desktop....... 😉
 
uh, more than minus the gamers..

i mean, i'm sure there's TONS of periphers unsupported by manufacturers and linux itself...

i.e. mp3 players, scanners, printers, etc...
 
uh, more than minus the gamers..

i mean, i'm sure there's TONS of periphers unsupported by manufacturers and linux itself...

i.e. mp3 players, scanners, printers, etc...

As far as the home user is concerned, the majority of Epsons and HP's made within the last 2 or 3 years are supported (on either parallel or usb). Not too sure about Lexmark.

I'll bite on mp3 players. AFAIK, the only supported mp3 player is the Rio. Someone correct me if i'm wrong.

Linux does have a generic scanner driver that supports 43 scanners as of 2.4.17. Check out /usr/src/linux/Documentation/usb/scanner.txt for info.
 
michaelsaxon, if that is your real name (always wanted to say that), unfortunately I don't see it happening anytime soon. I've never had good luck with Philips products anyway. Depending on how much sound quality you like, you might just get another card. Or if you're not too far away from buying another pc, I would check the hardware compatibility lists.
 


<< <-- 6 months windows free, and lovin every minute of it (even the gaming is better here). >>


This statement right here just proves everything you said is most likely a lie. As this is an impossibility about the gaming being better. Its also a typical response from Linux lovers.
 
n0cmonkey: I use my TV tuner quite a bit. It's great fot getting video into the computer (archiving TV episodes and things) and also for watching whatever I want when my roomate had the tv first.

 


<< Now, the fact remains that there is much more robust device support in Windows than in Linux. >>



When Windows will run on sparc4m, alpha, sparc4u, x86, PPC, and a number of other platforms then I will believe this. 😉



<< n0cmonkey: I use my TV tuner quite a bit. It's great fot getting video into the computer (archiving TV episodes and things) and also for watching whatever I want when my roomate had the tv first. >>



I guess that makes sense, but I dont watch much tv anymore... *shrug*



 
<< <-- 6 months windows free, and lovin every minute of it (even the gaming is better here). >>

This statement right here just proves everything you said is most likely a lie. As this is an impossibility about the gaming being better. Its also a typical response from Linux lovers.

I'm definitely guilty of being a Linux lover, so it is apropo to get that you get the typical response 😉

I guess I should elaborate. I'm not a hardcore gamer (20 hours a month, if I'm lucky). The games I do play run better on Linux. Quake3 nets me 12 extra fps on Linux. I'm sure RTCW follows suit. UT on the other hand is about 10fps slower. My SNES and PSX emulators also run better on Linux (especially given that Windows will not recognize my Sidewinder game pad). Other than that, I don't play many other games.

Let me restate then: the gaming is better here for me. If I had the time to play games like I used to, then I'd play games that don't run as easily in Linux and the space on my hd reserved for windows would be used.
 
Gaming is the best with OpenBSD (for me). I can setup my computer with OpenBSD and be confident its fine while I play my ps2! Other than that I dont play games (evident with my selection of a Matrox video card 😉)
 
I'm amazed that you get higher frames/sec in q3 BlackOmen. My performance is significantly slower.

Example: Playing Urban Terror (A mod for q3) in Windows, I can run at 1600x1200x32bit, everything max 'cept for vertex lighting. I bench 90-97 frames/sec. In Linux, running 1280x1024x32 max settings 'cept for vertex lighting, I average 75-80 frames/sec. In open areas, this drops to 40ish, and can even get into the teens on especially large levels.

I can't actually run a q3 demo in Linux for some reason. When I click play demo, it just dumps me back to the main screen, and no errors show up in the console.

Anyways, my 3d performance in Linux is significantly worse for me than in Windows, but if you know why, I'd be all ears.
 
spazntwich1: I notice in your system profile that you have a geforce3. You are running the nvidia drivers for your card, right? Also, do you have sideband addressing and fastwrites enabled in the driver? If you don't know, you prolly don't. Are you getting 4x agp? Enter cat /proc/nv/card0 to see. If you get no such file or directory, you need to install the nvidia drivers.
 


<< n0cmonkey: I use my TV tuner quite a bit. It's great fot getting video into the computer (archiving TV episodes and things) and also for watching whatever I want when my roomate had the tv first. >>




I use a hauppauge in Linux myself... have for years.. it works great.. the ATI CARD IS supported btw... it uses the same driver as the Hauppauge (bttv)...

Here for info on setting up the driver (usually consists of "modprobe bttv"):
BTTV HOW-TO: http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/mini/BTTV.html

http://www.metzlerbros.org/bttv.html
http://bytesex.org/bttv/




Also I have been playing this with these:
http://dvr.sourceforge.net/

http://www.funktronics.ca/openpvr

 


<< spazntwich1: I notice in your system profile that you have a geforce3. You are running the nvidia drivers for your card, right? Also, do you have sideband addressing and fastwrites enabled in the driver? If you don't know, you prolly don't. Are you getting 4x agp? Enter cat /proc/nv/card0 to see. If you get no such file or directory, you need to install the nvidia drivers. >>



I've got the Nvidia drivers installed. 4x AGP is running, sideband is "Supported but Disabled", and Fast Writes are apparently unsupported. Don't ask me why it says they're unsupported, but I might have disabled the option in BIOS because of reports of instability.

I'll look into enabling them, and I'll see how my performance does.
 
Just read the other day that HP is now going to be building Linux boxes for the mainstream. If people start buying these I think we're going to see a big change in driver support for Linux. IBM is already commited to Linux and now HP seems to be, no manufacture will want to be left out in the cold if there's a market.

Also read a leaked email from Microsoft about a month ago. They are planning a campain against Linux because they are starting to fear the acceptance of it in the business world.

Interesting times for Linux.
 
Well, based on a review I read, I decided to install it on a box here at work. It handles browsing the domain, sharing files with other W2k/XP client boxes, etc. just fine. It's actually a rather impressive out-of-the-box product. We run Debian here for our linux servers and 2k for most of our desktops, but it's nice to see a desktop OS that could compete sometime in the future with MS.

Rob
 
DLed this yesterday, I have seen some good reviews of it too, I will probably try and install this weekend and play with it. It is now called Lycoris Linux here is the link. Lycoris
 
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