Hello all.

I am thinking about purchasing a 64-bit workstation (Opteron to be exact) and was wondering about hardware and software support.

Hardware:

Are TV Tuner Cards supported on 64bit Linux? Specifically the bttv driver.

Is the support on par with 32bit Linux with regards to Plug and Play (for example, in CentOS4 x86 edition, I can plug in my HP Camera and it works without any configuration, or a thumb stick).

I have an ML-1710 Samsung Laser Printer and if I am not mistaken, the CUPS drivers for it are proprietary. Would this printer be available on 64-bit Linux?

Software:

How easy is it to install 32 bit software? (eg OpenOffice, 32 bit Firefox, Flash, Java, etc.)? For example, could I install a 32 bit RPM from CentOS 4.0 x86 on CentOS 4.0 x86_64? Do you need to have a chroot environment or something? Will it detect the proper libraries?

How easy is it to tell GCC to compile software as 32 bit. I would want my own compiled MPlayer to be 32 bit to gain access to the binary codecs available from their website.

Those are the only questions I can think of right now. Thx.

Edit: Would a mod please change my title as this is not only for hardware and I posted it in the software section.

As long as manufacturers supply 64bit linux drivers (or drivers that can be compiled from source) then, linux can support 64bit devices. 64bit processors and motherboards are supported.

Your printer should be supported by CUPS. All those months I haven't heard any complains about 64bit printer support under Linux.

I have a 64bit workstation, running Gentoo on it, and it's fantastic. Only had problem with a stupid HP printer which wont work, but i think the problem is some driver, because, on the same hardware with Suse, it works. I also have a bttv card, which works, but i cant set it up. But the problem is mine, because i never spent too much time in doing it!

Good Luck


BP

Well, this is off topic, but I started this thread so oh well.

Have you compiled the kernel module for bttv? Is it loaded? What's it doingwhen you start TVTime or anything like that?

I've been thinking of moving to 64, as well -- there are some great threads on gentoo+AMD64 at the gentoo forums:

http://forums.gentoo.org/viewforum-f...9fa4f80d1cf7f1

I am running 64 bit SUSE 9.2, and all of my USB devices have been recognized so far with no problem. My thumb sticks pops up under my computer, and I can see my camera by browsing to it under my hardware list.

The main thing I am worried about is the Samsung Printer Drivers. Here is Samsung's Driver Page.

On the page, they only list i386 and ppc drivers. I am not sure about this printer on x86_64. If anyone has any experience and/or a link for information about the ML-1710 on x86_64, please let me know.

Yeah, i compiled the module and it works great, but i tried it only with Kde-Tv. No luck with TvTime.
The most important thing is to pass the correct parameters to the driver when it loads (you should take a look at /your/kernel/source/Documentation/video4linux/CARDLIST.bttv)

Good Luck!