is linux built only aroun amd processors
 

hello, Im trying to find a distro that works with my toshiba satellite a505, intel i7 720qm processor quadcore. im looking at diff distros and some of them give me system requirements and some don't like debian. I ordered some dvd and they wouldn't work it said kernel failure but they worked great with my friends toshiba which was amd 64. even some linux programs like cedega wouldn't work because it was made for amd. So my question is do they make a distro for newer computers? I was interested in slackware but the site only talked about amd 32 and 64 bit versions. i would greatly appreciate it thank you

http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/linux-...l-core-i7.html

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag..._core_i7&num=1

thank you ive seen those websites before. I'm using ubuntu 10.4 lts on my netbook and im right now installing 10.10. The weird thing is, is that i was able to watch and still am what its installing and one of the things i noticed is it said something about amd 64 arch on there and it kinda freaked me out. What im saying is, is that i dont want this one to be another kernel failure again. i couldnt write it down fast enough so this message probably wont help any but would there be a reason why they would build some of the distros around curtain processors

It is probably caused by another issue. If it says AMD64, it will work on Intel64 as well, same for 32 bit. (From my understanding. I only use AMD so I don't have any experience with Intel Chips.)

If you start another thread explaining the problem you might be able to figure out why it is doing this.

An Intel i7 *is* an "amd64"
 

AMD was the *first* vendor to produce a 64-bit, Intel x86-compatible CPU. Intel's first 64-bit CPU was the Itanium, which *isn't".

So "amd64" refers to the former architecture - regardless if the chip was manufactured by Intel or by AMD. "ia64" refers to the latter:

Here's another link:
http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/har...a64-em64t.html

Bottom line:
"Yes: an 'amd64' distro will work fine with your Intel i7 chip."

'Hope that helps

paulsm4, I am so glad you jumped in. You explained that much better then I did, lol.

well the newest debian os i used, and in the bottom right corner a pop up of kernel failure but when i started to use the applications it worked but still had a kernel failure do you get what im saying.

it even said on the discs amd 64

thank you that was all helpful so what i will do is get my cds back from my friend and partion my harddrive then install debian on it again and look more into it.

For such a new system you should try an up to date distro. Ubuntu 10.10 or the new Fedora 14 will likely work with your system.

aptosid would be another to try, I use it on my 64 bit laptops, basiscally debian unstable with some extras added

what about slackware i heard its great to and easier to use for a beginner

If you are completely new to Linux or pretty new then I recommend Ubuntu or Linux Mint. Both being the easiest for beginners.

ok i got ubuntu 10.10 but i was also wanting to know the diff from slackware

cause i noticed when i went to slackwares site this forum was on there for helping them do slackware 13.1

With Ubuntu it is centered around newbies. With Slackware having a little more knowledge is helpful.

Slackware is great but think of it as the next step up for you. No need to rush, Slackware is not going anywhere. It is immortal :)

i just installed those debian 5.0.3 dvds and it said it had a kernel error and to sent the report to kerneloops.org

I just use ubuntu 1010, but I didn't know there was a slackware 13.9? What are the noticeable updates?

Debian 5.0.3 is old, probably why it is not working for you on new hardware. Debian Squeeze is (S)till (I)n (D)evelopment (SID) for a little while longer but it is very stable, stable enough to use.

I believe Ubuntu *.01 is based on Debian SID and *.10 is based on Debian Testing.

Therefore it may be a better idea to stick with Ubuntu that has a lot of documentation and centered around new users. Once you get the basics installed you can then play around with the command line. Apt-Get, Aptitude, installing rkhunter and chkrootkit, understanding how to update grub 2 menu, pretty much getting use to the command line and commands if you want to get more into Linux. A couple of links in my signature might be of use to you.

Once you are more familiar with this then you could jump into Slackware.

Slackware requires significant knowledge of linux terminal commands in order to setup and maintain the system. I would not recommend Slackware to a complete beginner. If you are still interested in Slackware, read the SlackBook to get started: http://slackbook.org/

There are some distros based on Slackware that are excellent and are much more beginner friendly. Two that I would recommend would be Zenwalk http://zenwalk.org/ and Salix http://www.salixos.org. Zenwalk and Salix are both fast and easy on computer resources; and (because of their Slackware base) they are rock solid stable.

I thank you all for the info. I still ordered the slackware 13.1. I like the challenge no matter how hard it is. Im not saying i didnt listen to you i did and the extra links you had i wrote down so i can take the time to read all of it. so again i thank you all

First, Debian Squeeze is not Sid, only Sid is Sid and will ever be.
All Ubuntu versions except the LTS-versions are based on Sid, LTS-versions are based on Testing.

Slackware will definitely teach you more about linux than just about any other distro. Although I have been using Ubuntu much longer than Slackware, most of what I know about linux comes from learning how to use Slackware.

After you read the SlackBook, be sure to read the Changes and Hints.txt, which contains a lot of helpful info about using this version of Slackware. This will be on the first Slackware CD or the DVD, or any Slackware mirror:
http://slackware.oregonstate.edu/sla..._AND_HINTS.TXT
Note: Since you will be doing a fresh install of Slackware, you can skip all the stuff about upgrading from a previous version, since it will not apply to you.
Alien Bob's wiki is also a good source of information:
http://alien.slackbook.org/dokuwiki/doku.php
And of course, the Slackware forum here at LQ is a great resource.

Second person to point out my error. Thanks. I corrected it once today, don't feel like it again.