Automatically installing an SMP kernel on AMD64 SMP machines

[Aurelien Jarno <aurelien@aurel32.net>]

[Please Cc: me for answers as I am not subscribed to the list]

Hi all,

As told to some of us on IRC, I have installed a Debian on a dual
dual-core Opteron machine, using the graphical installer (but the
problem does not look specific to it).

The installed kernel was the k8 one, but a non-SMP kernel. Frans Pop
told me that's there is currently no known method to detect the number
of processors.

dmidecode seems to be able to give some hints. I have attached the
corresponding part in the output of dmidecode. The two processors 
explicitly appears there, the fact that they are dual-core processors
is probably detectable with the line:

		HTT (Hyper-threading technology)

Don't hesitate if you need some tests to be run. However, I am afraid I
won't be able to test a new install on this machine, as it will be used
soon. I could give a try with QEMU though.

Bye,
Aurelien

-- 
  .''`.  Aurelien Jarno	            | GPG: 1024D/F1BCDB73
 : :' :  Debian developer           | Electrical Engineer
 `. `'   aurel32@debian.org         | aurelien@aurel32.net
   `-    people.debian.org/~aurel32 | www.aurel32.net

[snip]

Handle 0x0004, DMI type 4, 35 bytes
Processor Information
	Socket Designation: CPU0-Socket 940
	Type: Central Processor
	Family: Opteron
	Manufacturer: AMD
	ID: 12 0F 02 00 FF FB 8B 17
	Signature: Extended Family 0, Model 1, Stepping 2
	Flags:
		FPU (Floating-point unit on-chip)
		VME (Virtual mode extension)
		DE (Debugging extension)
		PSE (Page size extension)
		TSC (Time stamp counter)
		MSR (Model specific registers)
		PAE (Physical address extension)
		MCE (Machine check exception)
		CX8 (CMPXCHG8 instruction supported)
		APIC (On-chip APIC hardware supported)
		SEP (Fast system call)
		MTRR (Memory type range registers)
		PGE (Page global enable)
		MCA (Machine check architecture)
		CMOV (Conditional move instruction supported)
		PAT (Page attribute table)
		PSE-36 (36-bit page size extension)
		CLFSH (CLFLUSH instruction supported)
		MMX (MMX technology supported)
		FXSR (Fast floating-point save and restore)
		SSE (Streaming SIMD extensions)
		SSE2 (Streaming SIMD extensions 2)
		HTT (Hyper-threading technology)
	Version: AMD               
	Voltage: 1.2 V
	External Clock: 200 MHz
	Max Speed: 3000 MHz
	Current Speed: 2000 MHz
	Status: Populated, Enabled
	Upgrade: None
	L1 Cache Handle: 0x0006
	L2 Cache Handle: 0x0007
	L3 Cache Handle: Not Provided
	Serial Number: Not Specified
	Asset Tag: Not Specified
	Part Number: Not Specified

Handle 0x0005, DMI type 4, 35 bytes
Processor Information
	Socket Designation: CPU1-Socket 940
	Type: Central Processor
	Family: Opteron
	Manufacturer: AMD
	ID: 12 0F 02 00 FF FB 8B 17
	Signature: Extended Family 0, Model 1, Stepping 2
	Flags:
		FPU (Floating-point unit on-chip)
		VME (Virtual mode extension)
		DE (Debugging extension)
		PSE (Page size extension)
		TSC (Time stamp counter)
		MSR (Model specific registers)
		PAE (Physical address extension)
		MCE (Machine check exception)
		CX8 (CMPXCHG8 instruction supported)
		APIC (On-chip APIC hardware supported)
		SEP (Fast system call)
		MTRR (Memory type range registers)
		PGE (Page global enable)
		MCA (Machine check architecture)
		CMOV (Conditional move instruction supported)
		PAT (Page attribute table)
		PSE-36 (36-bit page size extension)
		CLFSH (CLFLUSH instruction supported)
		MMX (MMX technology supported)
		FXSR (Fast floating-point save and restore)
		SSE (Streaming SIMD extensions)
		SSE2 (Streaming SIMD extensions 2)
		HTT (Hyper-threading technology)
	Version: AMD               
	Voltage: 1.2 V
	External Clock: 200 MHz
	Max Speed: 3000 MHz
	Current Speed: 2000 MHz
	Status: Populated, Enabled
	Upgrade: None
	L1 Cache Handle: 0x0008
	L2 Cache Handle: 0x0009
	L3 Cache Handle: Not Provided
	Serial Number: Not Specified
	Asset Tag: Not Specified
	Part Number: Not Specified

[snip]