Hello,

I have read several posts on apt-build and it seems many people feel it's not worth the effort for speed.

Is that still true for a smp machine?

I have dual 2.4 Ghz Xeons on a DH800 motherboard. 1 Gig now and it needs at least one more Gig.

Most programs seem to use one cpu, using top to view. Would apt-build optimize my programs for smp thus making them respond better to 2 cpus? Or once I load the smp kernel do they automatically use both cpus if they can?

I guess I'm asking if it's automatic or if I have to have apt-build compile the programs from source to get smp benefits?

My system sees and uses 4 processors. 2 Xeons with HT. I plan to run a simple test to see if HT will stay on or not after I get my extra RAM. I have read it actually slows some things down to have HT activated.

Thanks in advance for the information.

Steve

You would do well to read up on the debian smp kernels. Or look up your pc model with sarge/etch or whatever installed. Some installers post on web how they set up their pc like on linux on laptop site.
My 2nd pc has HT P4 cpu and smpkernel has made no noticieable difference for simple things I use my pc for--compared to 2nd partion using regular 686 kernel. I am sure 2 cpus will offer more power. Have fun with your powerhouse pc

Hi lestoil,

I will do some reading.

I am very surprised at just how fast 2 cpus can work. I ran a couple of simple tests and posted the results on this board. They were with a dual 750 MHz Dell. I haven't ran the tests on my 2.4Ghz machine yet, but I probably will. I will wait until I get an extra Gig of RAM.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=361486

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=377255

I found an article where someone benchmarked Debian vrs Gentoo Vrs Mandrake to see if compiling made any difference. The difference was very small and not always the same distro. You can still view it through archive.org. Just paste the line below in the search box. It's slow but interesting reading.

http://articles.linmagau.org/modules...tid=227&page=1

Guess I probably won't bother trying apt-build. I just wondered if it'd make more of my programs smp aware.

Thanks again for the help.

Steve