Re: Is AMD-64 mature enough to start using? (possibly on K8V-MX moptherboard)
On Wed, Dec 21, 2005 at 04:56:59PM +0100, Goswin von Brederlow wrote:
> Paolo Alexis Falcone <pfalcone@gmail.com> writes:
>
> > On 12/21/05, hendrik@topoi.pooq.com <hendrik@topoi.pooq.com> wrote:
> >> I have had it proposed to me that I might set up a server for
> >> my LAN (Not the internet gateway) as a Sempron system running
> >> Linux. Specifically, an Asus K8V-MX Athlon 64 motherboard,
> >> an AMD Sempron64 2600, 512 meg DDR PC-3200 w/o ECC.
> >> to quote from the quotation.
>
> >> My question is, is the Debian AMD64 platform ready for such use?
>
> It is quite widely used and apart from figuring out the initial
> install on some new hardware nobody seems to scream about problems.
My install experience went like this: I downloaded and burned a netinst
iso, and the install failed miserably. I fooled around gentoo for a week,
and then I stuck in the same iso again, and it succeeded amazingly well.
I installed with dual nics using the forcedeth driver, the nvidiaPro
chipset SATA, all worked seamlessly. This was the netinst iso for etch.
I installed with mirrored root filesystem and all the nutty stuff.
> >> I can see lots of complaints on the mailing lists, but that
> >> doesn't make it clear whether troubles are normal or unusual.
I see a lot of complaints on the list ... repeated with some regularity,
but few new complaints.
> Sarge is the reliable one. Unstable is unreliable and etch/testing is
> mostly useless on amd64. The script handling our testing migration is
> suboptimal and needs someone intrested in writing a full britney clone
> that keeps in sync with debian where possible.
Not sure where you get that idea about etch, but my experience is
completely counter to that. I'm using etch, with nothing from the
highly unstable sid, not even kernel packages. It seems like once every
week or so I read a complaint about some problem with sid, like such and
such library can't be installed because of broken dependencies and the
like. I don't want to waste my time with that.
> Imho at the moment etch is only good to downgrade package in case sid
> breaks. Not as standalone use.
I highly disagree. It's been working flawlessly for me and as stable
as sarge on my non-amd64 machines. Of course, YMMV.
> > For the purposes you mentioned the AMD64 machine would not only be
> > seamless. It's also a very good/overkill setup :D
I call that a "happy setup."
> And if you hit any problems you can always back down to Debian i386
> and go 32bit. The speed difference is not that relevant and certainly
> both are way fast enough to saturate the 100MBit ethernet.
I would be quite surprised if that became necessary. I have solved my
two problems (openoffice and a very specialized build environment
compantibility) with the 32bit chroot solution, which was easier than I
anticipated. It's my impression that with a little work tracking down
special packages and instructions, you can get openoffice to work w/o
the chroot nowadays.
Cheers,
a
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