So I have migrated from XFCE to GNOME for the time being. I might find the time to explain my reasoning. Some of you might be familiar with the nice menu system in Linux Mint which features dynamic linking features and easy searching. I was wondering if I could import their menu system for GNOME to Debian and found the blog post at bobdom_lx at task3 dot cc. It worked for me and it might work for you.

There are two  processes to installing ATI proprietary drivers the hard way Debian Squeeze is similar to what is done to enable nVidia drivers. I call this the hard way because there are a lot steps and it requires pulling packages from unstable and compiling the module with module assistant. The hard way has not always worked for me. The easy way is installing the driver provided by ATI themselves.

THE HARD WAY

The first thing to do is to enable the unstable repositories to your /etc/apt/source.list:

# UNSTABLE
deb http://mirror.its.uidaho.edu/pub/debian/ unstable main contrib non-free

Now run aptitude update then you need to set the priorities of your repositories so that apt-get upgrade does not default to unstable by editing /etc/apt/prefernces:

Package: *
Pin: release o=Debian,a=testing
Pin-Priority: 900

Package: *
Pin: release o=Debian,a=unstable
Pin-Priority: 300

Package: *
Pin: release o=Debian
Pin-Priority: -1

Now it is time to install the components needed for fglrx (ATI Driver) from unstable (as root):

aptitude -t unstable install fglrx-source

The next step is to make sure module assistant is installed from testing/squeeze and create the module(as root):

aptitude install module-assistant

m-a a-i fglrx

Once that is completed configure Xorg. Assuming you are in X, switch to a new terminal by pressing ALT-CTL FX (where FX represents f1 – f12) and implement the new driver.

Login as root:

invoke-rc.d gdm stop

once that is done create the xorg.conf file

Xorg -config

now edit /root/new.config.org and replace the display device from radeonhd to fglrx. As mentioned above I have had mixed resolts with this method. Sometimes it seems to work sometimes it doesnt. However, downloading directly from ATI seems to always do the trick.

THE EASY WAY

download the appropriate file from here. Then you need to make sure it is exacutible and install from terminal:

chmod +x (filenamehere)

as root:

./(filenamehere)

this will pop up an automated install script to follow and once dead you should simply need to reboot you computer.

In Debian, I had been having problems getting software mixing working with the Intel HDA sound card integrated into my mother board. I decided to try Linux Mint again, knowing it had excellent multimedia support. I had tried it when it first showed up on the seen and remember being impressed with it at the time and wanted to give it another go.Linux mint handled software mixing from the beginning. Whoever has said that “Linux is not ready for the desktop.” has not tried Linux Mint.

It is built from Ubuntu as the base using Gnome, but adds a lot of its own configuration tools, adapted synaptic package, and a nice menu system. The installation is from a live CD and will be familiar to anyone installing Ubuntu or Fedora from live media. The menu system allows for easy search and access to all your applications and ability to bookmark you favorite applications.

Once installed I could watch flash on YouTube and Hulu, listen to mp3s and watch wmv, mpg and avi movies. At first I could use totem to play a comercial (encripted) dvd, but then a few days latter when i tried again, it wouldn’t work leaving me to install VLC. I could not find a solution online; however, others have experienced the same problem. All the applications a desktop user would need where installed, OpenOffice, Firefox, gFTP, pidgin, Transmission, etc. One criticism, was the inclusion of Gnome M Player, M player and Totem seemed redundant.

The crowning achievement of this distribution is that it is multimedia capable from a fresh install. I only had to install the proprietary nVidia drivers via the standard restricted drivers interface common in Ubuntu. Once done, enabling Compiz effects was easy as in Ubuntu. Though Mint is built from Ubuntu as a foundation, it is more then a simple Ubuntu remaster, with the time and detail spent to polishing the user interface, installing all needed media codecs, flash and java. It has the task bar and menu along the bottom, making it comfortable to anyone migrating from the Windows world.

I bought a new case a few weeks ago, The Cooler Master Elite 360. I have gone through my share of computer cases in my time, and the Elite 360 by Cooler Master has been one of the better in the lot. To begin with it is has a screwless design for optical and hard drive bays which actually works. I have had screwless designed cases before and usually found that my optical drives would stick out a bit or not enough, or that the fit for hard drives was to tight, and the screwless mechanisms would jam.  No the Elite 360. It comes with side stripes that you plug into the screw holes of your drive and slides right in and with a click their are firmly secured. The case also has a versicle design that it can stand up like a tower, or sit down like a desktop.  I sit it down and slid it into the vc/dvd player space of an old TV stand I use for my computer equipment. It can handle both ATX and Mico ATX, and was one of the more easier cases to build a system with. The one down side is my MicroATX motherboard comes right to the edge of where the 3.5 bay for a flopy sits. I tried fitting a regular sized hard drive there, but found that edge of the mother board allowed for no room to plug in the sata or power cables, where the IDE connector was in the way. However, that really cannot be faulted to the Case. It did fit an old full size ATX motherboard, which shortly gave up the ghost (that is when I moved my main system into it.)  It comes with one 120mm fan which is nice and quite with good airflow, and has additional room for a second 120mm fan above the CPU and a 92mm fan on the left (when laying down as a desktop).  the one thing I would have liked is if it where made of Aluminum instead of steel. Check it out at NewEgg.com

The QuickCam c500 is supported out of the box in Debian Squeeze by the UVC driver. However, one issue I have encountered is the built in microphone is auto detected by alas and overrides my sound card, forcing me to issue the command (as root):

alsa force-reload

to solve this problem edit /etc/modprobe.d/sound.conf and add:

options snd_usb_audio index=1

Reboot and hopefully all is well.