Libre-software desktop
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Hi, since my laptop is dying, i will "soon" have to buy a new computer.
This time i will get a desktop instead.
Can you please tell me if there is any non-free software needed for this hardware?
Thanks!
Motherboard Intel i7 3.3GHz 4 Cores 8 Threads B75 chipset motherboard (MSI)
Corsair XMS2 32GB DDR3 (4x8GB) 1600MHz RAM
Native PCI slots
Texas instruments Firewire 400 3 ports
250GB SSD SATA III
Seagate 7,200RPM HDD with 64MB of Cache
DVD 24x Dvd±rw (dual ±r)/ram Sata Drive (internal Black)
HD5450 ATI PCIe graphics card
USB ports
Ethernet 1000/100/10 port
VGA
PS/2 connection
HD5450 ATI PCIe graphics card <--- This one needs non-free firmware. Consider nvidia card.
All ATI graphics cards need nonfree firmware for 2d or 3d acceleration,
it will work unaccelerated if at all.
Most Ethernet cards work without nonfree firmware, while some require it
and won't work. There are also ones that need newer kernels than are
included in Trisquel.
Hi, thank you for the input!
So, in general, the graphics and ethernet cards are the only "difficult" parts, right?
Thank you!
I was not sure about the DVD-Drive, USB ports, VGA and PS/2 connection.
Luck&light!
> So, in general, the graphics and ethernet cards are the only
> "difficult" parts, right?
Ethernet cards usually work. Only some Broadcom, 3Com or Atheros (with
a driver not merged with upstream kernels yet) Ethernet cards are listed
as not working on h-node.org; some Intel or Realtek cards use optional
nonfree firmware.
Graphics is difficult; wifi cards are difficult too.
> I was not sure about the DVD-Drive, USB ports, VGA and PS/2 connection.
DVD drives use standard protocols, they work if the (usually) SATA
controller on the motherboard works. (Some DVD drives have digital
restrictions preventing using video discs of different regions.)
I don't know any nonworking USB controllers; PS/2 has one standard
interface for drivers so it will work.
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If you don't go with Intel for the graphics then the 9500GT is probably the card you'll want to get. Its performance is a bit better than the current generation Intels.
The wireless card you will want to get will have an Atheros chipset. AR9285 work well.
25% of the profits go to Trisquel if you get hardware from: libre.thinkenguin.com
Everything is free software friendly and should work out of the box with recent Trisquel releases. The only exception is the new USB N adapters. These will work with the next release of Trisquel. Until then you'll need to install jxself's kernel and download a free software firmware component. Both are under free software licenses so that shouldn't be a problem. Alternatively just get an internal wifi card or the USB G adapter.
Hi, thanks for the input!
"If you don't go with Intel for the graphics then the 9500GT is probably the card you'll want to get" 9500GT is nvidia, right? intel makes grafficcards too?
"25% of the profits go to Trisquel if you get hardware from: libre.thinkenguin.com" well that is cool, but they have no agent in Europe => heaps of shipping + customs costs...
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Intel does not design graphics chipsets that can be used on physical cards. The graphics component is integrated in the CPU. To get Intel graphics you simply buy an Intel CPU with Intel graphics. Intel graphics is not available in/with AMD CPUs. nVidia designs graphics chipsets which are used on motherboards and graphics cards. ATI also designs a chipset which is used on motherboard and available in graphics cards.
As far as ThinkPenguin goes you are mistaken. There are no trade barriers/duties. There is VAT which is collected on delivery if the order is shipped from the United States. You have a choice at check out though to have it ship from the UK. If the UK option is selected you save more than 20% as the VAT is already taken care of for European customers. In actuality your getting a bit of a discount over US customers on the products price. It is about 20% less than if the 20% was tacked onto the products price for European customers. The total is actually as much as 27% less than what customers in the US state of New Jersey are paying.
Customers in Brazil and some countries are actually potentially paying duties as high as 60% in some instances. These are real duties / trade barriers and something customers have a good reason to avoid. Buying local in those cases saves money (potentially). In Europe this is not the case though. There are no additional costs to worry about beyond what you would pay locally.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_processors#GPU_companies
The FSF should ask S3 and Matrox to join forces and develop libre graphics cards. That would give them (some of) the market share they once had. A user would buy a card from them and a Mobo from AMD (free graphics with coreboot!).
Just my 2 cents.
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It's a nice thought. You would have to get the number of users making conscious decisions about GNU/Linux up. As it is not enough people buy systems with GNU/Linux and even those whom do aren't buying free software friendly systems or at least enough users buying from companies which would push/demand it upstream.
Thanks for the input!
It is realy helpful.
@Chris: i think the motherboard (intel) does not have grafics.
I guess that is why they mount a separate card.
"You have a choice at check out though to have it ship from the UK."
that is good to know, i had not figured that out.
-Instead of the HD5450 ATI PCIe graphics card they can mount a nVidia GT210. -The ethernet port is built into the motherboard.
-The DVD is not region specific.
That means all is okay, right?
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1. Motherboards which take Intel CPUs do not need a separate graphics card.
2. I don't believe the nVidia GT210 is a good choice at the moment. There is little or no support from the free software nouveau driver.
3. DVD drives usually need to be set the first time you insert a commercial DVD (video disc) with a set region. Any DVD drive should be OK if I'm not mistaken.
Xeon doesn't ship with onboard graphics unit and P67-chipset motherboards do not have VGA pins. You'd need an external card in these cases.
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If you want to go with an Intel motherboard, you should take the one with the most performant integrated GPU available. This would normally mean motherboards for the core i3-7 family. If it's too expensive, there is the GMA X4500 integrated graphicscard. To get it, you should look for mainboards with the following chipsets:
G41 (lower end), G43, G45 (somewhat higher end), GS45, GM45, GM47 (can't find further information on those, they are supposed to have the X4500 however).
I got a motherboard with G41 and everything works perfectly, ethernet, graphics, SATA controllers, onBoard audio (which is of high quality for onBoard audio btw). It supports either DDR2 or -3 memory and Core2 CPUs.
G43 and G45 will have a PCIe slot of revision 2.0 (as opposed to 1.1 on G41). G45 will have a X4500HD integrated graphics, not sure how much more powerful it is, seems to be just a higher clocked version of the same thing.
You didn't mention the CPU model. You might be interested in checking its Trusted Computing status.
don't know more than it is the b75 chipset i7
Hi they offer a 7300GS instead of the nVidia GT210.
Is a 9500GT a better card and why? I found there are 1GB, 512MB and 256MB...
Thank you all!
cheers
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9500GT is the best choice at the moment if you go with an NVIDIA graphics chipset/card. It's well supported by the reverse engineered free driver project nouveau. The newer chipsets/cards are not supported or barely supported.
The best option is to use the Intel graphics. Intel is cooperative on the 3d acceleration front as far as free software is concerned.
NVIDIA/ATI are not. It's better to avoid these companies if at all possible.
Hi Chris,
thank you for the input!
So you mean not using a graffics card at all but using graffics from the motherboard, right?
How do i set that?
Cheers
This is how:
- You buy an Intel processor which has a GPU build-in.
- You also buy a motherboard which can work and provide video with such a CPU.
- That's all.
You don't buy a video card.
PS: You really should buy from ThinkPenguin, if it's not too hard for you. It's practically the only computer seller who supports this community. The community needs that support.
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Yes- buy just about any 3rd generation Intel CPU with a compatible motherboard and VGA port should ensure there is no need for a separate graphics card.
If you get a 4th generation CPU and motherboard you will need to upgrade to the 3.8 kernel.
If you do this you won't need to buy a graphics card.
Mampir and Chris are very helpful.
Myself when I bought my desktop computer it was an old one with an old motherboard G41 with Intel 4th gen graphics X4500(no HD).
X4500HD means there's acceleration for the non-free/non-libre h.264 video codec. I don't like h.264 and try to use WebM/Theora as much as possible, so HD gave me 0 benefit in free/libre terms.
Now I'm using 4500MHD because this is a laptop(Dell Vostro 1015), and the MHD version is slower and less powerful than the Desktop version X4500, but still I can play some games that require 3D and 2D-like effects.
Intel gen 4 graphics cards(like the X4500) are the last Intel graphics processors that got embedded in the motherboard, as later generations like Intel gen 5,6 and 7 are embedded inside the CPU.
To my knowledge Intel has the best support for free/libre graphics driver software. I had read about a possibility that there's some proprietary microcode in the CPU, but I don't know if we can do much about that, maybe all or most CPU's have such microcode, who knows... I don't.
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There is a lot to be irritated about with how things are going in the world. However if people step up to the plate, fund free software friendly projects, buy from free software friendly companies, etc. things can potentially change.
I've seen a number of small leaps in the last five years, and now I see more people becoming aware of the problems every day. This is partly because of the severity of the actions by companies like Microsoft, the government, and others. Some might call it humorous. That is the more companies/governments do to thwart freedom the more they push it forward.
As an example when people can't install GNU/Linux because of systems like secure boot and other types of DRM they end up getting introduced to free software and why its important. That leads to hardware that isn't restricted and the more hardware sold that doesn't have these restrictions the more incentive there is to reduce the non-free dependencies and other types of digital restrictions.
I have an ACER TravelMate 5720 laptop.
Will it work properly with Trisquel ?
Intel Core DUO CPU T7300
Video Card Vendor: Intel
Renderer: Intel 965/963 Graphics Media Accelerator
There is a webcam .
On 11/07/13 00:19, chris.arijs wrote:
> I have an ACER TravelMate 5720 laptop.
> Will it work properly with Trisquel ?
>
> Intel Core DUO CPU T7300
>
> Video Card Vendor: Intel
> Renderer: Intel 965/963 Graphics Media Accelerator
>
> There is a webcam .
Unless the wireless card is an Atheros card, wireless probably won't
work in Trisquel. This is the most common hardware issue. Otherwise, you
could always try a Live CD and see if it works without changing anything
on it.
Intel video cards often work well with Trisquel, AFAIK.
Andrew.
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The webcam and the wireless card can be problematic. However, with Acer you have a higher chance of being able to install a mini PCIe card, this will solve the issue with wireless networking!
Tails is detecting my wireless card
Ubuntu 12.04 TOO
Trisquel NOT !
Strange
On Thu, 11 Jul 2013 23:17:47 +0200 (CEST)
name at domain wrote:
> Tails is detecting my wireless card
> Ubuntu 12.04 TOO
>
> Trisquel NOT !
>
> Strange
Can you post your lspci output?
...just for the record: the 7300GS did not work, now the 9500GT is in and it works...
For the solution without the graficscard i am not sure where to plug in my monitor, but there is no need for it anymore anyway.
Thank you all!
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