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Yesterday I finished setting up my main computer to run Debian Etch. I made the switch from Ubuntu after a year because I wanted to run the same OS on my desktops as my servers. Since I am running Debian Sarge on about 6 servers I maintain, I might as well also run it on my desktops too. Ok well Sarge is a bit old now, so I am running Etch (testing). So far I love it, it might not be as refined as the Ubuntu Desktop but there are a lot of newer versions of the software I run and they “Just Work”.

The hardest problem I had was with the sound on my Mac mini, it just would not work. I ended up compiling a new kernel, which would not load (damn PPC and yaboot, I miss GRUB). Turns out I just did not load the correct modules for the mini on the stock kernel. So now I have my mini running on Debian Etch.

Also over this weekend I was able to load Debian onto my work desktop. I am now the first person at my company to run a Linux desktop (with VMWare running Windows XP for that one Windows program).

FYI: The mini needs to load these modules for sound to work:

# file /etc/modules
snd_powermac
apm_emu
snd-powermac
sr_mod

Eric Davis