[LBo] To debug or to debug, that is the question...

[Jisao]

I am facing a dilemma here.  My all-in-one Gigabyte K8 board is giving 
me troubles with most Linux distros. They have problems detecting the 
ethernet card properly, and the video keep crashing or behaving 
strangely (I lose the mouse pointer at random).  Mepis, Ubuntu, Mint are 
in this category.

So I installed Debian Etch, to see how it would do.   It  catches right 
away that it's eth1 it has to load, and not eth0 (I don't know why, but 
it works), and the driver installed is stable. No video crash (the 
screen turning to diagonal tight jagged lines) or mouse aberrations.  
However, my user has to fight to do anything more than the basics.  My 
camera doesn't get detected automagically when I load it, no sound in 
Skype, no mp3 playing, no flash, no video codec installed.

So, am I better to debug Ubuntu or Mint with the Xdriver and avoid 
having to fight to do have the permissions to do what I want on my 
computer, or should I have an epic fight with Etch to convince it that : 
"I want what I want when I want it".

Which, in both case, I don't really know how to do successfully. 
Suggestions appreciated.

Jisao