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Old 12-02-2010, 02:08 PM   #1
newbeeman
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Quad processors?


Does anyone have experience running Ubuntu 10.10 or similar on a Quad?
 
Old 12-02-2010, 02:27 PM   #2
frieza
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no but i've used dual processors as well as quad core processors and it works fine, so I wouldn't imagine that quad processors would be a problem

could you be a bit more specific about the specs on your rig, the question you posed is a bit.. vague.. to say the least, but in fact the number of processors/cores has nothing whatsoever to do with what distribution you are using and everything to do with what KERNEL you are running, a stock kernel should be able to handle multiprocessor but then again there are also SMP (symetric multiprocessor) kernels available as well.
 
Old 12-02-2010, 02:35 PM   #3
newbeeman
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Quote:
Originally Posted by frieza View Post
could you be a bit more specific about the specs on your rig, the question you posed is a bit.. vague.. to say the least, but in fact the number of processors/cores has nothing whatsoever to do with what distribution you are using and everything to do with what KERNEL you are running, a stock kernel should be able to handle multiprocessor but then again there are also SMP (symetric multiprocessor) kernels available as well.
I don't have a rig.... Am thinking of a machine upgrade. Am using Ubuntu 10.10, so whatever Kernel that uses, I assumed, in my ignorance, it only had one kernel!!
Perhaps you could be a bit more specific?
 
Old 12-02-2010, 03:17 PM   #4
MrCode
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AFAIK most kernels that ship with typical distros are SMP-enabled (well, they have "SMP" in the uname -a output ).
 
Old 12-02-2010, 03:20 PM   #5
TobiSGD
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Quote:
Originally Posted by newbeeman View Post
I don't have a rig.... Am thinking of a machine upgrade. Am using Ubuntu 10.10, so whatever Kernel that uses, I assumed, in my ignorance, it only had one kernel!!
Perhaps you could be a bit more specific?
You are right, it has only one kernel (it needs simply not more then one kernel). Ubuntu 10.10's kernel is fitted to use more than one core, so you will have no problem to run it (or any other recent Linux distro) on a CPU with more than one core. I use Debian, from which Ubuntu is derived, and it runs perfectly on my six-core machine, my dual-core server with hyperthreading and my dualcore laptop. So absolutely no problem, just upgrade your machine, it will run fine from the first day and you will have absolutely to do nothing to your OS. It will autodetect the cores and use them.

Last edited by TobiSGD; 12-02-2010 at 03:21 PM.
 
Old 12-02-2010, 03:24 PM   #6
smoker
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I use a dual quad core xeon, but not with ubuntu. You need to clarify whether you mean quad cpus (four of them) or _a_ quad core cpu. Either way, it shouldn't matter. I know that fedora no longer has separate SMP kernels, as the SMP capability is there as standard. But I would advise using a 64 bit version of the OS if you want to use a large amount of memory.

If you have quad channel RAM, then you will of course need 4 sticks to take advantage of the quad channel facility, otherwise it will probably drop to dual channel mode.
 
Old 12-02-2010, 03:30 PM   #7
newbeeman
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Sounds good, Thanks guys. I guess I will be upgrading any day.
 
Old 12-02-2010, 04:24 PM   #8
frieza
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Quote:
Originally Posted by newbeeman View Post
I don't have a rig.... Am thinking of a machine upgrade. Am using Ubuntu 10.10, so whatever Kernel that uses, I assumed, in my ignorance, it only had one kernel!!
Perhaps you could be a bit more specific?
what i ment was, there are stock kernels, smp specific kernels, non smp kernels, kernels optimized for virtualization, kernels built from source, kernels for different architectures etc... though they are all simply variations on the same kernel simply differing in how they are configured prior to being compiled, but yes distributions only have one kernel, it's just a matter of deciding wether the stock kernel is right for you or if you have to go with a differently configured kernel to achieve your goals, for most uses a stock kernel is adaquate, that was simply my point
 
  


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