i know this is a kinda stupid question...

canl slackware x86 version be installed on machines with 64-bit processor?

There are those more knowledgeable than I on these things, but yes, it can. Works well.

As long as the 64 bit processor is x86 compatible... ;-)

The AMD 64 Athlon works with the default kernel but you benefit from using a custom kernel compiled for the 64 bit processor. I think there are different versions from Intel and some are not x86 compatible.

You could also take a look at the unofficial slackware port www.slamd64.com

Could one also recompile the kernel source for the 64 bit processor? I've thought about doing this, but things work well as they are so I haven't bothered.

hi all,

kind of curious about this as well, since i'm installing slack 10.2 on a buddies athlon 64 laptop.
had a small look at slamd64 for a brief moment, but i'm not so sure if that will bring such a great increase in performance (anybody knows if its really worth the while????)

but once again, curious about the answer to DesertVikings question!

It's as easy to compile a 64 bit AMD compatible kernel as any other kernel compile. Have you made it once there's no bigg thing. Just use your old config and change the processor type etc.

The biggest increase in speed is when you have memory intensive work and a lot of RAM. I'm working with scientific calculations and structural analysis (Finite Element Modelling) etc, then the 64 bit system makes my day. A 32 bit sytem like w2k can only adress ~2GB RAM and WXP 3GB with a special tweak. Using a 64 bit system give you enough head room so you can fill your mobo with as much RAM as it can carry. No need to swap any more... :-)

For "regular" computer tasks I don't think the difference is that big but when you have a 64 bit processor why not use a 64 bit system?

I think theres a bit more too it than just the kernel, to gain performance you may also need all the 64bit libraries and applications.
I couldn't get slamd64 to work properly with my laptop hardware so i put on SuSE 64bit and it has a separate set of directories for the 32bit libraries to provide functionality with 32bit apps, but the standard libraries are 64bit i believe.

I successfully installed Slamd64 on a XP3200+ 64. And i was amazed. I did some long compile like xmame and i was suprised to see that the compile time was divided by two compared to a 3200+ 32. The desktop use was really punchy.

To save me hammering it all out again, here's a thread on the 64-bit slack issue, that might help your understanding of the situation =)

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ghlight=64+bit

Running a search for user "piete" and "x86_64" or "64 bit" is a sure fire way of finding too many essays by me - ditching the "piete" and using the rest will get you a lot of information, too!

Take it easy!
- Piete.

Thx for the link. The discussion was really interesting.

Kind regards,

desertViking

It's not Slackware in the exact sense, but try Slamd64.It's a Slackware port over to AMD64. I run it on my laptop and really have had excellent luck. It for all intents and purposes, appears just like a Slackware install...is Slack for all intents and purposes...just for AMD64. Check it out at:

http://www.slamd64.com/

Been running it for almost a year. Quite stable. It is unofficial though.

my sister is planning to buy a pc this coming december,

should we buy cpu w/ 64bit processor, regardless of the 64-bit issues in slackware?
you see we don't want to switch into other distro, except slackware. is slamd64 is ok though it is unofficial slackware 64-bit port?

Not to hijack, but I have a Dell with a Pentium 4 521 with "Intel® Extended Memory 64 Technology" (EM64T) and supporting chipset. I'm not sure what the benefit of this is really, except being able to address large amounts of RAM (I "only" have 1 GB) and doing 64 bit integer arithmetic which should be pretty rare in normal operation. Thinking that using it (whatever that means) would increase the size of "int" from 4 to 8 bytes, it sounds mostly like a waste of memory.

Is there any benefit in doing something about this?

It depends (in regards to your purchase) but I am extremely happy with my AMD 64 3200. When I compare it to my P4 3.02 ghz, I feel the AMD is much more responsive.

In regards to 64 bit distros and SLAMD, it works great. Enjoy Slack, but get use of that hardware also. It's a win win.

And it's possible to optimize more, with a custom kernel.
The world is yours.