Nvidia FX5200, GeForce 7200 GS
Hello Trisquel aficionados,
I was wondering if switching to Trisquel might be a good idea.
Having installed Wheezy Debian LXDE over a year ago on a friend's computer, there seems to be a problem which may be linked to the graphics card. So I'd like to know if your experience with such a card and Trisquel is good.
This is a PIV, socket 468, with 1Go Ram and an Nvidia FX5200 graphics card that I added to boost the computer a little. The onboard card is Intel yet removing the graphics card made things worse.
I didn't install the Nvidia proprietary drivers.
The computer is rather sluggish, especially Iceweasel. This sluggishness appeared as soon as I installed Debian. I had to install Firefox from the Mozilla website to speed up things a bit. This friend doesn't visit heavy load websites. The computer ran fine with Lubuntu 12.04.
Of course, when I get the chance I'll put some new thermal paste on the CPU. Maybe, the problem is there. Yet Iceweasel sluggishness may be related to the graphics card.
Does anyone have this old FX5200 card and is it okay with Trisquel LXDE?
It is beginning to be difficult to find an easy and light enough distro for oldish computers.
As for the GeForce 7200 GS, I'm using it on Jessie on a computer which ran Wheezy without any problem. The nouveau driver seems to be incompatible with Gnome Shell — which I think is a shame since the card is over 7 old — so I installed LXDE, yet from time to time, not at all on a regular basis, the top panel that hosts the launch bar and all the rest of it, appears streaked with all kinds of colors. So when that happens, I log out and log in again and the panel looks all right.
Does anyone have some experience with this video card?
Of course, I can try Trisquel on a stick but it may not be the same experience as running it a while.
Many thanks in advance for your suggestions :-)
Hello there,
Well, I tried Trisquel 7 on a stick, on the computer with the nvidia GS 7200 graphics card, and the desktop didn't appear but this screen does instead:
http://pix.toile-libre.org/upload/original/1434708192.jpg
However Trisquel 7 runs smoothly on a sandy bridge (Intel insider, yuk) Intel graphics laptop.
I think I'd better stick with Debian Jessie :-)
My experience is, that Trisquel v7.00 has a problem with Nvidia Geforce FX5200 and AMD/ATI Radeon AGP-Grapgicscards. A good choice is a Matrox G450 or better. Otherwise your hardware works with Debian Jessie (8.0) with enabled nonfree-sources better. There are more distros to test:
http://www.gnewsense.org/
https://getfedora.org/
https://manjaro.github.io/
http://www.pclinuxos.com/
http://tanglu.org/
http://elementary.io/
http://kororaproject.org/
I am a translator!
This is a libre software forum. Please stop recommending proprietary software and distros containing proprietary software. Consider that proprietary software (firmware included) is never a solution but a huge problem. Forums like this and distros like Trisquel were made in the first place to avoid the users such problem, that is, being forced to use proprietary software.
I see no problem with recommending Debian with proprietary firmware to
people who have (alas) purchased devices incompatible with solely free
software. Ideally, all our devices would work with free software and
we'd all be running Trisquel, but that is simply not the case. The vast
majority of people would be unwilling to throw away that nice new laptop
they just bought for the cause of freedom- but that doesn't mean we
should just refuse to help them as much as possible. Running Debian
(even with proprietary firmware) is clearly preferable to running, say,
Windows.
One of the arguments deployed against Debian by the FSF is that the
existence and incorporation into documentation of the contrib and
non-free repositories by the Debian Project can lead many astray,
tempting them to install non-free software- the gateway effect. But the
gateway effect works the other way, too. When a Windows user (unaware of
the cause of freedom) migrates to Debian, she immediately sees the DFSG
being thrown about, non-free software being discussed in the forums and
the documentation, and this inevitably leads to exposure and at least
some sort of awareness of the cause of freedom. Ideally it would be made
clear to the new user by the recommender that Debian is not the final
solution, and the next computing device bought should support free
software, but even if this is not the case, she will be exposed to the
cause.
This is what happened with me. I was a Windows user. I decided (my
hatred for Windows 8 having reached fever pitch) to switch to 'Linux',
as I then called it. So I switched to Debian with proprietary firmware
to support my nice new flashy laptop, and became aware of the cause of
freedom through Debian. I then switched back to using my old machine
running Debian with only main enabled, and then settled on Trisquel.
Debian was what instigated my free software journey.
Debian is unique amongst the distros that distribute non-free software
in the way it is clearly separated out and discouraged. The inclusion of
non-free software was always inevitable in a project that size- the
convenience panderers were bound to win. There is no good way to include
non-free software, but Debian did it the best.
I agree though, that here is no place to be advocating non-free software
in any way, shape, or form. As unfortunate as the use of Debian is, it
is a useful gateway measure to win more over to the camp of freedom.
> I agree though, that here is no place to be advocating non-free software in any way, shape, or form.
Then why the huge post if you agree that this forum is intended to be for solutions/workarounds using only free software?
moxalt wrote:
> I agree though, that here is no place to be advocating non-free software
> in any way, shape, or form.
You started the same post with "I see no problem with recommending
Debian with proprietary firmware to people who have (alas) purchased
devices incompatible with solely free software.". So apparently you're
okay with recommending non-free software here because you value the
convenience of using hardware the user has instead of getting hardware
one can operate sufficiently well with only free software.
I don't believe in throwing out functional hardware just because certain
components will not work without non-free firmware. Ideally, one would
buy hardware that supported free software, (as I do) but in the vast
majority of cases this simply isn't going to happen. The cause of
software freedom can never make any progress if we shun those who have
bought devices with closed components. Even GNU releases free software
for Windows.
This may not be fanatic enough for you, but I put the environment before
free software. Make do with the hardware you have, run free software on
as much of it as you can and minimise usage of that on which you can't,
and next time round buy freedom-respecting hardware. I run Trisquel. My
computer has a non-free BIOS, and isn't supported by coreboot. That
doesn't mean I'll just chuck it out and buy a Libreboot (as much as I
would love to)- I'll wait until I actually need a new computer.
Again, running Debian with non-free wifi firmware is vastly preferable
to running Windows. Maybe I'm still trapped in the 'Debian mindset', but
it seems fairly rational to me. My first recommendation to anyone would
be Trisquel. If that is not possible, Debian is as good as it gets.
PS. That was a pretty stupid way to end a post. I was tired. Sorry.
I am a translator!
I see no problem in using any libre (100% libre) OS. I do see a problem when someone recommends non-free distros on a Trisquel forum.
There are better solutions to this particular problem rather than recommending elementary OS and similar nonsense. Did the OP try Trisquel 6 for instance?
Maybe an older kernel with older drivers for the Nvidia card he owns would cut it.