Which to choose FC1 or FC2

[Mark Eggers]

> I have the subject problem,which both have their problems namely:
> 
> FC1/ I have a GeForce fx 5700 video card,it's not detected/supported
> so I get the Vesa driver and so no mplayer and the like.

You should be able to get the NVidia drivers from the NVidia site, build
it, install it, and be happy with Fedora Core 1.  I had this working on
all the Fedora 1 kernels.

The download link is here:  

http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux_display_ia32_1.0-5336

Please note that this will NOT work with unmodified Fedora Core 2
kernels due to a change in kernel stack size.  There have been numerous
threads concerning this both on this mailing list as well as on the
NVidia forums.

This is not just a Fedora Core 2 issue.  Fedora Core 2 gets the arrow in
the back first since it's the first distribution (AFAIK) that has ONLY
4K stacks.  It's the price of being at the leading edge.

Personally, with the better memory management and performance I will not
go back to an 8K stack.

> FC2/ No sound after install/login to KDE,I thought I had it fixed but a
> kernel upgrade killed that so silence.

What is your sound card?  Please note that Fedora Core 2 uses ALSA (as
do all 2.6 kernel releases).  You might want to check the following:

http://www.alsa-project.org/

to see if your card / sound chip is supported.


I have two sound cards on this machine.  I have hand-compiled the latest
alsa modules for both of them and installed them on Fedora Core 2 with
no problems.  It's just one more step I have to remember when upgrading
a kernel (build NVidia drivers - once the 4K stack-compatible driver is
available, build the NTFS module, build the ALSA modules).

Also, when going to ALSA, the default is for all channels to be muted. 
You have to enable the channels by hand the first time.  This is done
using either alsamixer (curses interface) or compiling and installing a
Gnome interface to alsamixer such as gnome-alsamixer
(http://www.paw.co.za/projects/gnome-alsamixer/).

You can get an RPM for Fedora Core 2 - see rpm.pbone.net.

I also do a bit of tweaking to KDE when i have it running.

1) Turn off ARTs since I don't like the delay and don't need the
software mixing.

2) Use an external player for System notifications, such as aplay

Please note that if you do the above two items, the only way to go back
to using ARTs and the internal player is to hand-edit the following XML
file.

~/.kde/share/config/knotifyrc

It's a bug.

The actual nv driver for Fedora Core 2 is tolerable unless of course
you're doing graphics (povray, etc.) or playing games.  Sound is nice
under Fedora Core 2.  Performance is nicer, especially if you run a lot
of services as I do.

My personal preference is for Fedora Core 2, and periodically post "are
we there yet" messages to the NVidia forum (which is all we can do since
it's a closed driver).

Please note that there have been some USB and apmc problems with Fedora
Core 2, older motherboard BIOS loads, and the challenge of writing
proper drivers.  Please Google / check the mailing list to see if you're
going to be bit by one of those issues.

In short:
1) If your sound card is supported under ALSA - go for FC2
2) If you are going to be bit with apmc or USB issues, stay on FC1

Hope this has been of some help

/mde/
just my two cents . . . .