SlackwareThis Forum is for the discussion of Slackware Linux.
Notices
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
Distribution: Xubuntu, Mythbuntu, Lubuntu, Picuntu, Mint 18.1, Debian Jessie
Posts: 1,207
Rep:
K6 kernel or 486 kernel??
I have a K6 laptop. I realized last week when I upgraded to kernel 2.4.29 that my 2.4.26 kernel that Slack 10 installed was for a 486 cpu. That worked ok (I did have problems with my PMCIA nic card getting assigned an IP addy), but I'm wondering if I'd get better performance from this old 350 MHz AMD K6 if I redid the kernel again and compiled it as a K6...or would this cause problems for apps that I built with my 486 kernel??
It'll run smoother if the kernel is optimized for the CPU it's running on. That's why you have the option.
Theoretically, at least, having the wrong kernel won't prevent the *system* from running, but any applications that use CPU-specific function calls such as MMX or 3D Now! functions, will *not* work at all if they're being told they have a CPU that supports the functions when it doesn't. That's the other reason you set the CPU in the kernel: to enable/disable support for these extended instruction sets.
The reason the install kernel is optimized for a '486 is because '386/'486 CPUs didn't support MMX or any CPU extensions, just the basic x86 instruction set. Any program written specifically for it (bad karma to write your program specific to a single CPU and not to the POSIX standard) will work fine on a later CPU, because the later CPUs had support for all of the instructions they did.
So short answer: go ahead and compile for the K6 CPU, because it won't adversely affect you.
keep in mind that the slackware i486 kernel is already built with support for i686... also, it's very unlikely you'll experience any performance boost by re-compiling, AFAIK...
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.