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No real problems in Debian Sid...

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broelling
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No real problems in Debian Sid...

#1 Post by broelling »

For some months (4/5) now I've been running a minimal netinstallation of Debian Sid (in Denmark). My wm is i3 and it is running very smooth. Everything is setup extremely minimal, and I've never been so happy with a main install in the last 20 years when I've been running Linux.
But for about 3-4 weeks ago suddenly my sound started acting up and being very distorted at some times. This must have come after an update (I update about every 2 days because of a lot of updates), but I don't remember which soundapplications were updated at that time. And I've tried different things since then, but not installed "the kitchensink" regarding sound, as I still wanna' have a minimal installation. Just reading a lotta' forum posts and stuff regarding this problem. A couple of days ago I tried 'killall pulseaudio', and it helped instantly. There were still soundquality problems (too trebly), but no distortion anymore. I guess I knew that the problem would reappear as soon as I rebooted, but I didn't do that until today after another update/upgrade, where I saw a lotta' soundapplications from multimedia-debian beeing updated.

And lo-and-behold. No more distortion or bad soundquality at all. So - me happy :)

Just wanna' say thanx to all of you who are involved in making Debian THE best distribution 'out there'. This is definitely the best installation I've tried yet (involving every other major type and distribution of Linux for two decades). And regarding Sid: This is my first problem at all. Everything else just runs smooth, and I've got Firefox 59, Gimp 2.10 and Libreoffice 6 and so on. It just works. Thank you!!! Try it out if you wan't the newest software, and if you wan't a very fast desktop try out the i3 windowmanager...

broelling
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Re: No real problems in Debian Sid...

#2 Post by broelling »

So now I ran into my first real issue with Debian Sid.

After last update on the 20th of june where there were some kernel- and mesa-updates, I can no longer boot into the latest kernel (4.16.0-2-amd64). Instead I can still boot into kernel 4.16.0-1-amd64.

What happens is that Grub boots fine, and then comes the /sda check that also works fine, but after that when lightdm should show up, the screen just turns black/blank, and nothing more happens. And then I wonder - is that a kernel- or a graphics-problem? I would guess the latter...

But I guess I can just keep running on 4.16.0-1-amd64 until some update solves the problem.

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Re: No real problems in Debian Sid...

#3 Post by Head_on_a_Stick »

broelling wrote:is that a kernel- or a graphics-problem?
I seem to recall some stories of a problem with Xorg v1.20 but I'm still on v1.19.6 in OpenBSD-current and I haven't booted Arch in a while so you would have to search for more information.

My Debian stable box is fine though, why not try that instead?
deadbang

broelling
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Re: No real problems in Debian Sid...

#4 Post by broelling »

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:My Debian stable box is fine though, why not try that instead?
Because I like newer software :)

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Re: No real problems in Debian Sid...

#5 Post by None1975 »

broelling wrote:Because I like newer software :)
Then you must also love the problems :D
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Re: No real problems in Debian Sid...

#6 Post by stevepusser »

You also seem to have added deb-multimedia, so you'll have an increased risk of "interesting times".

Just restore from your regular backups if anything breaks. :lol:
MX Linux packager and developer

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Re: No real problems in Debian Sid...

#7 Post by HuangLao »

You jumped the gun when you originally said no problems with Sid. Go watch Toy Story again, that dude has all kinds of problems and so does unstable. If you are going to play the game, then you must be willing to play by its rules, which is quite simple...its a development branch for "Debian developers" and stuff will break, you must be willing to wait for fixes or fix it yourself and submit the patch to be applied, don't update/upgrade daily its safer to do it once per week, but always have a solid backup before updating/upgrading. Oh and enjoy the ride, my brother used to have a magnet inside his 66 Mustang that read: "Get in, Shut up, Hold on". I think that sums up Sid nicely. :mrgreen:

Ref: http://pixar.wikia.com/wiki/Sid_Phillips

broelling
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Re: No real problems in Debian Sid...

#8 Post by broelling »

With this mornings upgrade came a lot of nvidia-related updates, and lo and behold. Now kernel 4.16.0-2-amd64 runs great again. I'm happy that patience is one of my virtues :)

bdtc1
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Re: No real problems in Debian Sid...

#9 Post by bdtc1 »

You might be happier with Testing.

broelling
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Re: No real problems in Debian Sid...

#10 Post by broelling »

bdtc1 wrote:You might be happier with Testing.
Absolutely not - I really love Debian Sid. Makes running a computer like dealing with real life. Problems does appear sometimes :)

Wheelerof4te
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Re: No real problems in Debian Sid...

#11 Post by Wheelerof4te »

Unless you really need (more like want?) the latest KDE or GNOME version, there is not much point to running development versions of Debian. Aside from developing it and/or reporting bugs.

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pylkko
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Re: No real problems in Debian Sid...

#12 Post by pylkko »

+1

Most of the packages exist in newer versions as backports, or in steve's multimedia repo or if they don't it is possible to backport them yourself. This kind of dwvalidates the argument 'I use a development branch because I want newer software'. Especially so since there are many real released distributions with the latest GNOME or KDE etc (fedora, ubuntu whatever)

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Re: No real problems in Debian Sid...

#13 Post by kedaha »

+1
Just as in the saying, "All roads lead to Rome" the purpose of experimental, sid and testing—all developmental branches—lead to the production of a succession of stable releases. Why stable? Well, if you run a server, or even a desktop system for production, any other choice could be a nightmare but—without wishing to sound patronising— if you just run a desktop to learn about linux or for fun and games. then, as Osamu Aoki, the author of the Debian Reference Manual puts it in the aptly-named section "Life with eternal Upgrades":
I know many readers of this document wish to run the testing or unstable suites of Debian as their main system for self-administered Desktop environments. This is because they work very well, are updated frequently, and offer the latest features.
No real problems? One should never be too complacent:
The use of testing or unstable is a lot of fun but comes with some risks. Even though the unstable suite of the Debian system looks very stable for most of the times, there have been some package problems on the testing and unstable suite of the Debian system and a few of them were not so trivial to resolve. It may be quite painful for you. Sometimes, you may have a broken package or missing functionality for a few weeks.
Quite painful? :shock: No thanks! I've always run Debian stable for my desktop systems but that's mainly because I wish to get work done rather than having a lot of fun. :wink:
But let me be the last person to begrudge anyone having a lot of fun. :)
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broelling
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Re: No real problems in Debian Sid...

#14 Post by broelling »

kedaha wrote:But let me be the last person to begrudge anyone having a lot of fun.
Well it really is fun. Today some 150+ updated packages including kernel 4.17.0-1-amd64 and a new nvidia-driver. And it runs really smooth :)

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Re: No real problems in Debian Sid...

#15 Post by 4D696B65 »

broelling wrote:
kedaha wrote:But let me be the last person to begrudge anyone having a lot of fun.
Well it really is fun. Today some 150+ updated packages including kernel 4.17.0-1-amd64 and a new nvidia-driver. And it runs really smooth :)
My nvidia boxes flash the screen for 1 to 10 min then load gdm3

Wheelerof4te
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Re: No real problems in Debian Sid...

#16 Post by Wheelerof4te »

I ran Sid for about a month and half without major problems. One day, my desktop completely froze 5 mins after booting on 4.16 kernel, Chromium stopped playing Youtube videos and Wayland was having micro-seizures every 10 seconds.

It wasn't fun. It was ugly and frustrating. Stable is the King.

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Re: No real problems in Debian Sid...

#17 Post by kedaha »

Even running a stable web or email server, where even a miniscule error can throw a spanner in the works, requires considerable administrative efforts especially during initial configuration but, imagine running sid! No real problems? You can bet your life there would be and that the system would break every so often.

It's advisable to run stable for production, i.e., for getting work done. The purpose of sid and testing is not "to get the latest software" but to track development but it's far better in a case of Shiny_New_Stuff_Syndrome to backport the stuff to stable.

Stable is Debian's core distribution and the main reason why folks depend on is it's stability,security and reliability. But each to his own. :wink:
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