Re: Compiling for i686
>> As far as I can tell, compiling just KDE for i686 will provide a barely
>> noticeable speed increase. This is because KDE spends a large amount of
>
>A bit off topic but changing from 2.95 to gcc 3.2 has reduced cpu usage in
>many applications on my system by as much as 30%. Particular noticable is
the
>change in mplayer which is now much less cpu hungry.
>
This is because gcc 3.2 has made major improvements it optimizing code for
i686 type cpu's, including the Athelon, AMD ond other clones.
Also, mplayer is extremely good at picking up what processor is available
and setting optimizations well.
I forgot to copy my last message to this list, so I'll add my warnings
here.
It was suggested to re-compile glibc and others before expecting any type
of improvements.
For glibc, this is dangerous advice for many reasons:
1) glibc makes extensive use of the kernel headers in /usr/src/linux. It is
vitally important that the headers here are the same ones that glibc are
compiled against, otherwise you will have serious problems.
2) glibc will autodetect your system and set it's optimizations
accordingly. Any attempt to increase these optimization setting, like
export CFLAGS and such is likely to result in an unstable glibc. Not good!
3) If you are using a Debian system, you are better off leaving well enough
alone. If you wish to improve your system with compiler optimizations, you
should start reading up on Linux From Scratch.
Other suggestions included XFree86. Building XFree86 is not difficult, but
a home-built XFree86 does not comply with the Debian version. So be
careful. However, there are quite a few optimizations that can be set when
compiling XFree86 that can make major differences in speed. Again, if you
really like Debian, I'd keep clear, unless you are good at creating your
own .deb's.
Cheers,
John Gay
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