Although the Debian repos have Compiz available, I have had bad experiences with what should be a routine installation. Although I have had good experiences utilizing the now outdated Beryl repos and software. To install Beryl for Debian Etch AMD64 add the following repos to your apt sources file:
deb http://debian.beryl-project.org/ etch main
deb-src http://debian.beryl-project.org/ etch main
Add the gpg key:
wget -O - http://debian.beryl-project.org/root@lupine.me.uk.gpg | sudo apt-key add -
Install Beryl:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install beryl-manager emerald-themes
Update xorg.conf (sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf):
then added these two lines under the “Screen” section
Option “XAANoOffscreenPixmaps”
Option “AddARGBGLXVisuals” “true”
then added these lines under “Device”
Option “AllowGLXWithComposite” “true”
Option “RenderAccel” “true”
added one line under “Server Layout”
Option “AIGLX” “on”
Finally at the end of the file add these lines
Section “Extensions”
Option “Composite” “Enable”
EndSection
Share, Enjoy, and Support:
With Debian Lenny you can update to the 2.6.26 kernel, but in VirtualBox support for this version is not ready. A kernel panic will not allow the system to boot into a stable state, therefore for the time being users must retain use of 2.6.24. One major drawback is that there are no headers for the 2.6.24 kernel in Lenny. This forces VirtualBox users to wait to install guest additions, thus slightly decreasing stability because of the timing benifits associated with the VirtualBox kernel modules.
Overall because of this it is most likely best to still use Etch until Lenny progresses a bit further, specifically including some needed kernel headers or VirtualBox provides an update for better support of the 2.6.26 kernel.
Share, Enjoy, and Support:
Nagios allows you to graphically monitor your virtual servers from a single web page. No longer will you have to load each individual website or web service in order to verify consistent operation. Nagios can be downloaded directly from their website at:
http://www.nagios.com
On the Nagios homepage is a link to a 15 minute tutorial, which is relatively straight forward, and works like a charm. My next blog post will cover the same material that is included in their 15 minute tutorial. In this post I want to briefly discuss which guest operating system to use for maximum stability. I highly recommend Ubuntu JeOS for your virtual OS specifically because the kernel works flawlessly with the host operating system. To recap, I currently use Debian Etch as my host OS, and with JeOS as the guest the host CPU load is only active when the guest is actually processing data. I previously used Debian Etch also as the guest OS, and it would have a constant CPU load on the host. This was not at all desirable, and with a quick transition to JeOS the problem was swiftly resolved.
The first step to get Nagios up and running in a VirtualBox guest OS is to install a clean JeOS in a new guest OS.
Step 2 is setting up Nagios. You can follow the 15 minute tutorial on their website, which is indeed perfect, but I will also post the procedures asap.
Share, Enjoy, and Support:
Debian is well know for its long time periods between releases. It is 100% worth the wait. The stability of Debian is simply UNRIVALED. If you plan to deploy a server environment, or you want your laptop or desktop to run at optimal performance then Debian is for you. The new version is Debian Etch Revision 2. Secure, stable, and reliable is what you’ll get.
http://www.debian.org/News/2007/20071227
Share, Enjoy, and Support:
First see if your ALSA is muted!! Either use your Gnome volume manager, or type in a terminal:
alsamixer
Make sure all the channels are illuminated green. Use the “m” key to toggle mute.
If this does not work try installing esound built from source. Esound lives in the following repository:
http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/gnome/sources/esound/0.2/
And the most recent version, as of this blog post, can be downloaded here:
http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/gnome/sources/esound/0.2/esound-0.2.38.tar.bz2
Unzip the file, and install the build dependencies:
sudo apt-get build-dep esound
Then navigate to the esound folder, configure, make and install:
cd Desktop/esound
./configure && make
sudo make install
Reboot, and most likely hear sounds. This issue was particular to a Debian Etch system with an ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe motherboard. If you still don’t hear sound you can try re-installing ALSA from source. Give a google search for ALSA and you will find the homepage to download the source from. Compile and install the alsa-driver package, but first install the build dependencies:
sudo apt-get build-dep alsa-driver
Share, Enjoy, and Support:
To retreive relatively useful information about software versions use the version proc. It will tell you your kernel, gcc, and OS version. For instance an up to date Debian Etch should read 4.1.1-21 or greater. To view the version proc use cat:
cat /proc/version
Share, Enjoy, and Support:
Debian Lenny will be the name of the next Stable Debian release. It has been over one year since the release of Debian Etch, and consistent with their release schedule, it should be a fare amount of time until Lenny debuts. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as Debian systems are overwhelmingly more stable than all of the Linux distributions based on Debian. Because of this I prefer to use Debian as my OS, and will happily wait as long as it takes to for the next major release by the Debian developers.
While I do indeed tinker with Ubuntu, I primarily use Debian for my server environments, while I also sometimes use Ubuntu for my graphical Desktop environments. I usually use one operating system over the other in an effort to maintain uptime, and system stability. Nobody wants there system glitchy or having to be rebooted every now and then 
http://www.debian.org/releases/testing/
Share, Enjoy, and Support:
