Hi, my name is Ivan Paulos Tomé, I live in Brasil, and I want to know what kind of software best fit in combination with Blender and Jashaka, with python support modules and yafray too. The machine will function as a dedicated workstation for animation. I´ve tested some distributions of linux but none of them were completely stable. I don´t understand why Windows do stable. I want to use linux instead of windows for now. I´ve tested Fedora Core - Problems with processor - it´s not optimized. Debian don´t recognize my chipset very well, and I have problems with Nvidia Graphics Drivers ( second VGA and Video out issues ), Conectiva Linux have problems with modules translated to portuguese Brazilian and core functionality in english, others have issues like or not the same. I will display my hardware for now to know if anyone can help me to port my workstation definitely for linux.
Processor: AMD Athlon XP 3200+ 512Cache L2 ( BOX )
Soyo KtVdragon Platinum Plus KT600
1 GB Samsumg memory modules DDR 400
1 DVD Writer LG-8163b
1 IDE 80 GB Seagate Barracuda V
2 Serial ATA 80 GB Seagate
1 Ge force 6800 Double DVI LINK 256MB(nvidia)
1 Ge force 4 MX 4000 PCI DVI-VGA-TV 128MB
1 Net adapter HP NCP3120
I use two monitors to display the work and the GF4 to gave out TV funcionality with Pal-M settings 625X480 lines or 800 I in windows. Thats because I don´t use the GF6800 Tv-out. ( NTSC Better but here we use Pal-m as default )
Whats the distribution best fits in this hardware config ?
Have you tried Ubuntu? http://ubuntulinux.org/ I used Warty (older version) for a while and it detected my hardware pretty well. I’ve just installed the latest version (Hoary) and I’m still deciding if I like it or not. There’s a decent collection of apps available here http://packages.ubuntu.com/ or on the Debian site.
Another distro to try is Dyne:Bolic http://www.dynebolic.org/ , which is a live CD that already has Blender, Jahshaka, Cinelarra (better than Jahshaka IMHO), Kino (great vid capture), and lots of other graphics apps already installed.
mandriva isn´t free anymore, nor conectiva, debian users says to me some images of peer places I have going have some problems with the download of iso´s, unfortunately there isn´t a way to test the md5 sums before to burn a CD or DVD, testing the iso´s on a cd image maker. But I found here a contributing vendor for the original debian CD´s ( 7 CDs ), at a very low price, I will pay and verify if its function well on my hardware. I´m thinking on an render farm too, with server mounted racks with very power processing to a stage mounted near the modeler facility, where we will work in a team. Excuse-me for a bad english. Well, Great, after this tests and solved all problems we will think to powerpc 970 Dual ( X serve ), or Sun´s dual or quad opteron for rendering images on a render farm. Our team consist of 17 People. Hp isn´t discarded too. for now, lets work. Thanks .
…and see if anyone can point you to a good distro.
In my experience, however, if you want to use “distro A” but “distro B” detects your hardware better, you can copy distro B’s configuration files or specific drivers over to distro A and it works just as well. I got my own system working very well that way.
I see your point about stability (I’ve had a similar experience) but most of the time it’s application stability, not overall OS stability. And it’s usually fixable with updates.
Also, have you tried some LiveCDs to see what you like best?
If you have a good connection and some HD space you don’t need to burn CD’s
you can do a HD install
And I don’t work for Mandriva, it’s just some years of experience trying distros
Adeus
