New Processor - New Kernel ??
 

Upgrading or downgrading a processor AMD 3800+ AMD 6000+ Dual Core, will that require a new installation of Fedora, or will kudzu handle the transition?

If you are going from 32 to 64 bits then you will need to install the 64-bit version of the distro to leverage that, otherwise your new 64-bit chip will run in 32-bit mode. I believe the basic kernels that come with both 32 and 64 versions are compiled to handle up to 2 CPUs, so you don't need to do anything to utilize the second core.

Thanks,
 

Thanks, I will give it a try and see what happens.

Let you know.

Both those cpus are 64bit compatible and dual cores.

Just swap them and reboot.

The 3800 + is a single core. Wish it had been the dual core version.

Thanks,

Sorry, i have a 3800 X2, didnt know they made them in single core as well, unless you were talking about an AMD 64 3800+, but your definition wasnt very specific.

The SMP kernel is built into the normal kernel so you should be able to just get going as soon as you upgrade.

Ignore the 64bit OS unless you have more than 2GB ram. I run two 6000 X2's, one on 64bit and one on 32bit. If you already have Fedora installed, just go with the flow.

Interesting, why >2GB RAM? Because I've seen people run Windows (64-bit) on machines with less than 2GB of RAM, without trouble? I don't recommend installing 64-bit operating systems in general (because the software side is still not up-to-date enough compared to 32-bit version), but still.

Most "modern" Linux distributions have the default kernel support several CPU models and are usually multi-cpu-enabled too. It makes the kernels unnecessary big, but hardly anyone cares about that - still, if you like, you could recompile your kernel and make it support only (or close to only) the specific hardware you have, thus making the kernel size smaller, and in some cases more optimized.

More than 2GB and you are heading towards the HIGHMEM kernel, which still causes problems on Fedora.

Also as mentioned, the software support is lacking at best and things still crash (firefox for one). Although if you mess around enough you can get it to work happily.
I use 64bit for servers, 32bit for regular use.

Beyond that can you list any specific products that require a 64bit OS, or benefit from a 64bit OS. I run Folding@Home SMP client, which requires a 64 bit client, but beyond that i dont see any specific programs coming out that wont run under i386 just as well.

You mean the PAE (Physical Address Extensions) kernel? The actual point where you need that kernel is if you are using over 4GB RAM.


I set up an AMD 64 X2 system for my little sister before she went off to college. Used 64 bit Fedora as the OS. Only 64 bit problem encountered is the fact that Adobe has been dragging their butts with 64 bit Flash plugins. Solution is easy, use the 32 bit Firefox package. She's been using the system for the past 2.5 months without a problem. I know people have had problems, but 64 bit has been on the desktop long enough for things to begin stabilizing. Applications will come when they come and you can still use 32 bit in the mean time. In any case, if I have a 64 bit chip I want to have the full capabilities available (even if I can't immediately use it :D). Of course I am one to jump in head-first when it comes to new technology (especially Linux). If you can spare a little time and endure a little potential trouble then I say go for 64. If you have serious trouble then fall back to 32 and try later.

Correction. :study: I recently read that the 32bit addressable RAM limit is actually 3GB and change (around 3.7GB or better if I remember correctly). This is because of some address space being reserved for I/O addressing. In the case I was reading about the BIOS still reported the full 4GB, but upon booting Linux only showed 3.xxGB available. Anything above the limit requires PAE or a 64bit upgrade.

On a side note, my sis came home for Christmas and reported that her roommate has had Firefox crashing. The roommate is still using Firefox 64bit because I left it installed along side the 32bit version, new users default to the 64bit version, and my sister never got around to setting her roommate's account to use the 32-bit version. However, the copy of Firefox 64bit is several months old as my sister has only tried updating once, so several problems could be fixed by now. The first and only time she tried updating she broke the system by upgrading the kernel without the matching nVidia kmod package (as it wasn't available from Livna yet). So out of nowhere I get a call asking why she has a text mode login staring at her. :D Once I realized the problem I got her booting the old kernel. I'll be showing her how to handle updates.