RetroDebian Live — first public ISO release + v2-tmu-memtester

Hi friends,

I’m releasing the first public ISO of RetroDebian Live, a small live Linux distro built on Debian Etch for classic x86 retro gaming and hardware experiments.

The goal is simple: not a modern desktop forced onto old hardware, but a fast, light, period-appropriate system for Pentium II / Pentium III machines, old GPUs, Glide, UT99, and 3dfx testing.

This first release includes :

• Debian Etch base
• custom 2.6.24 custom kernel build
• 3dfx / Voodoo2-focused setup, custom drivers including mismatched Voodoo2 SLI support
• Pentium III optimizations, while still Pentium II compatible
• tuned Fluxbox desktop
• basic tools included: editor, terminal, htop, smbfs, fake neofetch, etc.

The ISO is still an early public release, but it already boots and works as a real live system.
The build pipeline and future editions are still planned for cleanup later, but I think it is useful enough to release now.

Current focus is clearly 3dfx Voodoo2, but more ISO variants may come later, including other drivers, tools, games/demos, and possibly NVIDIA-focused versions.

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This is also a double release with v2-tmu-memtester, a small tool I did for testing Voodoo2 TMU memory issues.

v2-tmu-memtester is a heuristic diagnostic tool for Voodoo2 TMU memory issues. It exercises many data patterns and rendering paths, then looks for statistically suspicious behaviour, because TMU faults are not always detectable with a simple one-test / one-failure method. Still very beta tho, feedback appreciated !.

Our friend Bits und Bolts has already been using the ISO and the tool while troubleshooting a Voodoo2 card, and he just released a video showing it in action. This tool is still in beta stage and requires tuning / fixes. During my own tests it did find the exact issue on 1 card, for Alex it only spotted the faulty TMU, but it already helps.

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Downloads :
https://gitea.chacha.ddns.net/chacha/RetroDeb … eases/tag/beta1
https://gitea.chacha.ddns.net/chacha/RetroDeb … odoo2-beta1.iso
=> individual packages are also available if one want to bake its own Debian.

Bits und Bolts channel & video :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVhEIGM3n0o

RetroDebian Project :
https://gitea.chacha.ddns.net/chacha/RetroDebian

V2TMUMemTester Project :
https://gitea.chacha.ddns.net/chacha/V2TMUMemTester

Feedback, bug reports, hardware compatibility results, and patches are very welcome .

Licence is GPL-3.0-or-later