Switching some components

tkhobbes · Guru Joined: 12 Nov 2004 Posts: 367 Location: Switzerland

Hi all

I am currently thinking in investing some money again in my workstation's infrastructure.

I will switch from a P4 to a dual core Pentium - which implies motherboard-switch as well as switch from DDR to DDR2 RAM. Also, I will install some nifty gforce PCI-E graphic card.

Initially coming from the Windows world, I am used to re-install windows after a motherboard switch. How's that with Linux? Is my gentoo (latest kernel) supposed to work flawlessly when I switch the motherboard (of course, I will have to recompile the kernel regarding some network and graphics adapters...)

thanks!
thomas
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My systems and some screenshots: http://www.hobbes.ch/techie/
My Gentoo client installation page: http://www.hobbes.ch/techie/gentoo-client/
My Gentoo Server installation: http://www.hobbes.ch/category/server

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Mon Jul 17, 2006 4:09 pm Post subject:

tkhobbes,

Prooviding your new CPU is instruction set compatible with your old one it should 'just work'.
As you say, you will need to rebuild your kernel to cover hardware differences.

Aren't the Dual Core Pentiums 64bit but P4s 32 bit ?
The 64bit CPUs can run 32 bit code but it seems a waste. If you are making the 32 to 64 bit switch, I would do a 64 bit install from the ground up.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

Keruskerfuerst · Posted: Mon Jul 17, 2006 4:11 pm Post subject:

That depends on, what is actually included in your kernel.

Just switch to your new hardware and change nothing at your Gentoo installation.

If booting does not work, use the Universal install CD, mount and chroot. Then reconfigure and recompile the kernel for your needs.

After that, you can adjust the CFLAGS and make emerge -e world.