AMD64 - How do you run yours? 32, 64 or both?

scoobydu · Last edited by scoobydu on Sun Jan 18, 2004 1:19 pm; edited 2 times in total

Receiving my dual opterons today, and wondered how everyone uses their 64bit cpu's.

I'll install kernel 2.6, but;

1) Have you installed only 64bit and are happy not to be able to run some things? like mplayer ...

2) Only 32bit, and you're waiting for better 64bit support?

3) 64bit, with a separate 32bit install within the 64bit?

4 None of the above, so how do you do it!?

Can't find how to make this a 'poll'

Anyway, your feedback would really help!

TIA

scooby
_________________
Tyan Tiger K8W, 2xOpteron 240,Powerbook5,6 15" 1.5g, Macbook Black 2g, Mac Mini 1g, Ipod P60g.
| Linux - From a windows user perspective|

roger_rabbit · n00b Joined: 29 Dec 2003 Posts: 37 Location: georgia

wish i was fortunate enough to have a 64bit machine...

LaNcom · Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2004 3:46 pm Post subject:

(x) 1) Have you installed only 64bit and are happy not to be able to run some things? like mplayer ...

I use my Opteron 64bit only. For MPlayer (with Quicktime/ Win32 codecs), I installed a RedHat/ Fedora RPM and renamed it to mplayer32 - the 64bit MPlayer works fine, but it doesn't support 32bit binary codecs. Same goes for Netscape plugins (Flash), so I installed Opera/ static with Flash.
32bit 3D apps can't use 64bit OpenGL, so they render software-only...
The Opteron on 64bit Linux runs 32bit software fine (at native speeds), so there should be no issues except for those mentioned...

scoobydu · Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2004 5:24 pm Post subject:

LaNcom · Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2004 6:08 pm Post subject:

scoobydu · Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2004 6:23 pm Post subject:

LaNcom · Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2004 1:07 am Post subject:

Yes, portage takes care of this.
BTW, some info before you get started (if you use a Nvidia card):
In the kernel config, don't activate K8 NUMA, and add '-nptl' to your USE flags. Otherwise, Nvidia binary drivers will not work!

scoobydu · Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2004 9:31 am Post subject:

LaNcom · Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2004 3:21 pm Post subject:

uname -a:
Linux zauberwald 2.6.1-gentoo #2 Fri Jan 9 20:46:10 CET 2004 x86_64 5 GNU/Linux

The SB Audigy is supported by ALSA, don't know about the Audigy2... But, IIRC, Creative supports the Linux driver development, so it should only be a matter of time if it isn't supported by the current drivers.

scoobydu · Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2004 2:24 pm Post subject:

LaNcom · Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2004 2:56 pm Post subject:

Well, all drivers should work. A lot of ebuilds with no amd64 keyword work, too (if the progs don't need x86 assembler).

scoobydu · Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2004 3:29 pm Post subject:

LaNcom · Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2004 6:02 pm Post subject:

Don't know if this is a good solution, but:
'emerge /complete/path/to/the/ebuild' works, even if the ebuild is not marked suitable/ stable for amd64.
I didn't try gaim, xcdroast or pan (I use KDE, so it's Kopete, K3B and Knode for me). But K3B is the best CD/ DVD recording tool for Linux, anyway... ;-)

And you got this right, '-amd64' will _never_ work, usually due to x86 assembler.

scoobydu · Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2004 6:32 pm Post subject:

Moos3man · n00b Joined: 17 Jan 2004 Posts: 10

(For the AMD64 architecture:)
# emerge --usepkg grub-static
# cp -Rpv /usr/share/grub/i386-pc/* /boot/grub

guess that will help

scoobydu · Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2004 7:53 pm Post subject: Re: from the gentoo handbook:

Moos3man · n00b Joined: 17 Jan 2004 Posts: 10

well you can find out easy enough cant you
mount your boot somewhere else and look :lol:

Also do you know why there is no AMD64 specific forum i think we should have one

scoobydu

muthax · n00b Joined: 28 Aug 2003 Posts: 33

I have compiled gaim, 0.72 i believe, giving it the full path. Most stuff I emerged worked fine in 64 bits by doing the same. Here and there a package wouldn't install due to masked dependency so you jsut install the dependency first even if it sometimes turns into a chinese box

I installed the compatibility binaries and managed to compile mplayer in 32 bit by compiling it from untarred ebuild. Anyone managed emerging in 32 bit? How?

cheers

ps i agree on the amd64 forum, i am sure we are more than the users on sparc or MIPS ...

scoobydu · Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2004 10:45 pm Post subject:

muthax · n00b Joined: 28 Aug 2003 Posts: 33

Ah just off topic:
what voltage PSUs u running guys?
I got a 300W and with more than one hard drive i experienced freezes and hard hangs when copying files from a disk to the other or just any disk activity, so was wondering if I am a little underpowerd

ta

scoobydu · Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2004 11:07 pm Post subject:

muthax · n00b Joined: 28 Aug 2003 Posts: 33

No I am running on ext3. Even in win2k does the same, anything that either copies or scans a lot of files on my disks and the system hanged. Even installing from Live Cd, when doing emerge sync after a while system hanged. Turned it off, opened and unplugged the power from the 3 UATA drives and left only the SATA on which i was installing and everything fine. But I cannot turn on the other drives and there's where all my stuff is. Annoying. i have an Asus k8V deluxe, a VIA chipset. I thought it didn't like the idea of SATA and UATA at same time but it must be hardware if it is persistent between platforms, or simply the drivers are still buggered.

anyone experienced something similar?

scoobydu · Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2004 11:06 am Post subject:

muthax · n00b Joined: 28 Aug 2003 Posts: 33

Well dunno you got a 500W PSU that probaly explains while i am getting lock ups and you not. Could be conflicts too, hard to say. When you got a chance, and maybe have even your ide drives in it, can you try copying big chunks of data from a disk to another?

cheers