Slackware 11 on Core2Duo - is x86_64 worth it?
 

Hello there

i've just gotten 2.6.18.3 running on my brand-spanking-new Core2Duo with inter 965 chipset. It was a hard slug, but i got it booting and recognizing my DVD drive (don't laught ... it was not straight forward).

Anyways, i've come to the realisation that the system is not running an x86_64 kernel. I believe the test26.s kernel that came on the install disk was not, and since this was what i booted from, it would appear that the makefile would not of itself have built a x86_64 kernel.

So although everything is working at this point in as much as it boots, X runs, composite and such work (surprisingly) well, i am faced with the following issue:

Do i want to make it an x86_64 kernel?

From what i gather, it is a matter of installing the cross compilation tools, telling it to use them and build a kernel for arch=x86_64 and i'm on my way. But what about the slackware supplied software?

I've done a quick search on here (slackware forum) and found a few links, but although the deal with building the kernel, i'm not sure about building the toolchain, and although googling tells me x86 compiled code should run fine, i'm curious if it is worth it all, or if it will just cause hassles down the line?

Any thoughts?

Cheers

If you have a x86-64 processor and you want to fully take advantage of all its features you need a fully 64bit userspace, not just a kernel -- i.e. the whole thing compiled as 64bits. However a x86-64 processor will run a 32bit kernel and userspace just fine. I would try Slamd64 if you want to try a 64bit version of slackware.

yes, precisely. To me Slamd64 looks ... well not quite mature enough, whilst word around the camp fire is that the architecture optimizations for the most part are a waste of time.

I'm inclined to say that running a stock standard x86 (i486 in the case of Slackware) will probably only be of detriment at a level of performance that significantly exceeds my needs (I plan to code java, play some games, email and web). And for the most part the CPU will be significantly faster than my old AMD Athlon XP 2800+ (running at 2.0GHz)... it is an Intel Core2Duo @ 2.4GHz afterall.

Maybe down the line, but for now (after taking about 5 hours total to get slackware on ... damn that chipset support) i'm not inclined to blow it away OR do a long complicated thing with litte gain which may result in a need to blow it away... :)

Thanks though. I'll still appreaciate any other thoughts though :).

To put in blandly, if you're unhappy with the idea of installing slamd64, then I wouldn't bother trying to, effectively, roll your own x86_64 distro. Building the toolchain (stage 1 cross, i think it's called) is hard first time round, but nothing compared to the headache of trying to bootstrap glibc =) At least, that was my experience! It probably gets easier with practice, but your box will likely be out of action while you learn.

For reference, you might be interested in ...

http://kegel.com/crosstool/
http://www.diy-linux.org/
http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/
http://www.bluewhite64.com/news.php (note that this is not biarch, so you'll have difficulty with some binary-only programs)

Fwiw I have found slamd64 11.0 a major improvement over it's 10.x predecessors. I run 11 at work and some odd version of 10.0 (after i manually fixed/hacked a bunch of problems) at home.

That said, with chipset "issues", I'd be inclined to wait a little while while things settle down. When you need to start running things like Labview, Modelsim & ISE, you really notice that 64-bit bit ... which is nice =)

Might want to consider installing the slamd64 kernel so you can skip the whole toolchain lark, then investigate Qemu to experiment with 64-bit stuff. There will be chroots involved (to get a 64-bit userspace on there without corrupting your existing install) ...

... or possibly just qparted your drive and whack it in there =D

Good luck!
- Piete.

to me slamd64 11.0 was a true savior. it works better, faster and easier then any distro ive been trying now ( that includes windows -windows x64 was especially a pain in the ass- )

Agreed - i was considering Gentoo but it's response was "Hard drives? what hard drives" which is similar to what some other distro's said. At which point i have to say ... if the installer can't see my HDD there is not much chance of getting there without loads of jumping through hoops.

I'm not ruling out going to Slamd64 given the evolution of the distro - mainstream support like slackware through linux packages seems lacking (for now). granted i have no issue compiling from source so that options exists, and once i've got the system working ... i don't need that much updating (I code in netbeans, need java and jai; i update OpenOffice if i need it, and thankfully i'm done with studying (for now) and txt serves me well for documentation.


As to Youri ... sadly i agree. I get better support for drivers out of Linux software than i get from the MicroSoft i've got on the other drive. At least the GFX driver works :). Sadly i don't think i can get Civ 4 (or Warlords expansion) to run in Linux as yet...