please recommend linux for 8800GT

davethe11

davethe11

davethe11

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so my first outing into linux has been a frustrating one, finding out that Fedora 9 does not support recent nvidia cards without some knowledgeable hacks(i've spent much time trying to follow instructions to get it to work, alas I am completely knew to linux - shame it doesn't mention this problem on the Fedora website before you download the 4gig iso etc etc) -forgive me the rant.

What Linux distribution would you recommend for a new user who wishes to get it up and running without much fuss? I'm not interested in a live cd though thanks, I want to install to my hdd.
 
Boo-urns for asking for no fuss!!! (means my fav. Gentoo is out the question for now)

I personally recommend Gentoo, as once you get past the intitial fuss its pretty nice to work with :)

Anyway, to get the much needed basic recomendation out the way you really should give ubuntu a bash (hehehe bash) as its pretty easy to get going (aka NO effort at all) and the propietory drivers are pretty easy to install and get working (from what i remember at least).

Other more adventurous recomendations include debian or arch linux (both well documented like gentoo but arnt quite as ott on the indepthness of the install)
 
thanks pingwing, will keep Gentoo in mind for the future but will give Ubuntu a try for now, I just need a quick install so I can start to learn in ernest, i've already learnt a lot from trouble shooting my now removed Fedora install (using vim for the first time was an experience!) and from using Fedora in vmware, I intend to create a Linux from scratch system but really just need a basic setup to get started.
 
davethe11 said:
I intend to create a Linux from scratch system but really just need a basic setup to get started.
Click to expand...

:eek:

your a brave guy! good luck! (I gave it a go once but ran back to the saftyish of gentoo)

Has the linux from scratch project updated at all recently? could be tempted to give it another go if they've helped out the slightly ott install instructions....

Oooo also you'll probably find ubuntu uses nano as its default text editor. Probably not a big thing but you may have to look about in the ubuntu packagemanager to find vim (if you know it well enough not to bother with nano)
 
probably more stupid than brave! I don't expect too much success with the project, but i'm sure I will learn quite a lot as I go along, and this is my idea of fun! As far as I can gather, the documentation is still being maintained for LFS, and it seems as if they cater for those unfamiliar with Linux (me!). LFS just suits my way of learning: building from the ground up rather than hacking around something pre-built. Thanks for the info on editors as well guys, I must admit though that I will enjoy taming vim :D (or being eaten)
 
I installed Arch linux a couple of weeks ago, you pretty much build it up, it has great docs too, I would suggest reading that.

I however have decided to go back to Ubuntu as I couldn't tell any speed difference between Arch and ubuntu. I assume its because of my quick pc?? Ubunut just works, has emmense support forums and fantastic repo's. Arch was good, I certainly felt it taught me a lot but I just cba with all the maintaince.
 
I've just re-installed Debian (lenny/amd64), so I can tell you the steps it takes to install the nv driver. I too have an 8800gt.

1. download the binary driver from nvidia.com
2. [in console] su [to switch to root user]
3. apt-get install binutils gcc-4.1 make
4. CC=gcc-4.1 ./NV [press tab at this point to complete file name instead of typing]

In step 4, let it run nvidia-xconfig when it asks.

That was it. I'll let you decide if that's simple enough or not :)
 
FoxEye said:
I've just re-installed Debian (lenny/amd64), so I can tell you the steps it takes to install the nv driver. I too have an 8800gt.

1. download the binary driver from nvidia.com
2. [in console] su [to switch to root user]
3. apt-get install binutils gcc-4.1 make
4. CC=gcc-4.1 ./NV [press tab at this point to complete file name instead of typing]

In step 4, let it run nvidia-xconfig when it asks.

That was it. I'll let you decide if that's simple enough or not :)
Click to expand...
After that might wanna install nvidia-settings if you want things like dual screen support.

sudo apt-get install nvidia-settings
 
FoxEye said:
I've just re-installed Debian (lenny/amd64), so I can tell you the steps it takes to install the nv driver. I too have an 8800gt.

1. download the binary driver from nvidia.com
2. [in console] su [to switch to root user]
3. apt-get install binutils gcc-4.1 make
4. CC=gcc-4.1 ./NV [press tab at this point to complete file name instead of typing]

In step 4, let it run nvidia-xconfig when it asks.

That was it. I'll let you decide if that's simple enough or not :)
Click to expand...

You should really use the drivers in the repositories rather than downloading from nvidia's site if you can.

BTW, the nv driver actually refers to the free nvidia driver.
 
i have a 8800gts 512 and ubuntu 8.10 picks it up perfect
i remember 7.10 being a fag and not liking the newness of my 8600gts i had at the time download a live cd and try it before u install
gets better ( lazier for the user lol) every update
 
Linux Mint :)

Yeah, I know it is easy, yeah I know it has a stupid name, yeah I know it is just Ubuntu underneath but it really is the easiest, no fuss distro by a long mark and it will certainly detect your 8800 and more importantly, download the proprietary drivers for you.
 
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