I'm trying out a new disro and I need to choose a subarchitecture for the chost setting. I've searched all over google and can't seem to find anyway to figure it out. I'm installing it on my laptop(IBM T42, Pentium M processor) but not sure which one to choose. I've read that the i386 will work for all but the others are best if it fits your system. Is there any command to print system information about this?

Thanks for your time.

For the most part it doesn't matter, the speed difference is negligable.

Assuming you're talking about a kernel compile, if you click help (or hit ? in menuconfig) it'll tell you what each architecture covers.

If you're talking about compiling some generic userland app, you most likely want to use pentium4 for the -mcpu/-march setting. If you look in the gcc man page it documents all of the settings that it'll take.

I believe the Pentium M is a variant of the Pentium 4, so compile for a Pentium 4. Are i386, i486, and i586 the only options? If so, compile as i586 for optimal performance.

You can type:

uname -a

to show what your system is compiled for now.

I'm runninng off the gentoo livecd right now trying to configure the compile options. uname -a says its a i686. So I guess I should go with that. I think the pentium M processor was a high mod of the petium III though.. When I was researching this that is what it said. Thanks for the help. I'm guessing i686 is correct.

I don't know if there is a command to display this information but this is a pretty good guide that I found, it appears that the "i" represents Intel. The 386 486 etc represents the processor speed so a i686 build would be "optimized" for a Pentium 4 processor, and i586 should be for a P3. the link below is if you are running AMD processors.
http://lists.suse.com/archive/suse-l...-Apr/0513.html
I would also recommend looking around this site, I would think this site would have a link or two that would take you to the Linux hardware compatibility lists. I also believe there is a site for laptops and Linux although I don't know the URL.
Hope this helps you.

It looks like cat /proc/cpuinfo might get you what you want. When I do that I get this response for my machine:

processor : 0
vendor_id : AuthenticAMD
cpu family : 6
model : 10
model name : AMD Athlon(TM) XP 2500+
stepping : 0
cpu MHz : 1466.847
cache size : 512 KB
fdiv_bug : no
hlt_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
coma_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 1
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 mmx fxsr sse syscall mmxext 3dnowext 3dnow up ts
bogomips : 2936.70
clflush size : 32

I suspect that the cpu family is indicating an i686 processor.

Leslie

x86info -a
will give a LOT of info