Re: [hendrik@topoi.pooq.com: Is the AMD-64 ready for reliable use? (possibly on K8V-MX moptherboard)]
On Thu, Dec 22, 2005 at 02:20:56PM -0500, Lennart Sorensen wrote:
> On Thu, Dec 22, 2005 at 09:34:29AM -0500, hendrik@topoi.pooq.com wrote:
> > I'm considering buying a box and putting the AMD64 port of sarge
> > on it.
> >
> > I can see lots of problems with the AMD64 port on the mailing
> > list, but that doesn't make it clear whether troubles are normal
> > or unusual. Very few happy users ever write in to say how happy
> > they are,
> >
> > 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?
> > Presumably I'd be using the unofficial sarge release ... or has it
> > become official in the meantime? Or is etch actually more reliable right now?
>
> The amd64 distribution for the most part works perfectly. The reason
> you see many problems is that amd64 systems are constantly coming out in
> new versions, while i386 systems are pretty much history as far as new
> systems are concerned. The people with these new amd64 systems have the
> same install problems on i386 as they do with amd64 since it is just a
> matter of new hardware not being supported fully by the kernel on the
> installer.
>
> There are also a few issues with some programs that are sloppily written
> or tried to use "clever" optimizations which are not 64bit clean.
> Things such as openoffice.org, and a few other programs fall into this
> category.
>
> Of course things that require binary only code (win32 codecs for example
> for playing back some videos) don't work in 64bit. Those have to run in
> a 32bit chroot instead. Not usually a big deal, and if you don't intend
> to watch videos without open codecs, then no problem.
I've heard that with the 64-bit kernel you can run 32- and 64-bit code
mixed -- although presumably not within a single executable image. How
are the shared libraries organised so that each executable gets its own
kind of libraries? Wouldn't there be trouble with mname collisions and
the like?
-- hendrik
>
> Of course you do have the option of just running i386 debian on the
> system and it will still be very fast. The majority of programs don't
> gain that much performance going 64bit. It is a trade off.
I'm writing software which will have to go 64-bit on 64-bit platforms.
If for no other reason, I'll have to run it in 64-bit mode to
test their 64-bit cleanness.
-- hendrik
>
> > The server will initially be running an NFS server that serves from a
> > software RAID (hard disks presumably partitioned using LVM). I'm
> > considering putting everybody's home directory on it so that they will
> > have their bookmarks, configurations, etc. available whatever machine
> > in the house they are actually sitting at. But if the are running on
> > one of the substantially less powerful machines, they will use the
> > Sempron remotely using XDMCP or VNC. Oh, yes. One or two of my users
> > are collecting video files (mostly .mpg). Would accessing them from
> > another machine using NFS (100 MHz ethernet) be fast enough for them to
> > view them? Even if two users did it at the same time? (not from the
> > legacy 100MHz pentium, though, of course).
>
> 100Mbit ethernet should be fine for that, although if you have multiple
> users using xdmcp or vnc, then you might want to consider using a switch
> with a gigabit port for the server, at least if they do graphics
> intensive things. If they don't, well then 100Mbit should be plenty. A
> lot of boards come with gigabit ethernet onboard, so the only issue is
> whether a switch would have it. Also for multiple xdmcp/vnc users you
> really want to have more than 512M ram. 1GB would me a lot better and
> cost very little extra.
>
> > Any comments on whether this plan is feasible? Do others have good
> > experiences with that motherboard? Or should I backtrack and specify an
> > old reliable 32-bit Pentium instead?
>
> Well I use the Asus A8V Deluxe which is essentially the socket 939
> version of the board, with some extra features thrown in, and of course
> more PCI slots. Works great.
>
> Len Sorensen
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