Bill Wohler wrote:
Wackojacko <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
Bill Wohler wrote:
I installed the i386 etch distribution on my 64-bit system since the
ia64 distribution had been burned on suspect media and wouldn't boot.
Are you sure you want ia64. Most 64-bit systems these days use the
amd64 port (i.e AMD64 and intel emt64 processors). what have you got.
Intel. Some Xeon dual processor thing.
No expert on these, but it looks like amd64 would be the right OS. ia64
is for itanium processors afaik.
Questions:
What am I missing out on?
Depends on what you are using it for?
Compiling and running CPU-intensive programs. Lots of I/O too.
The main advantage of running 64 bit, afaict, is the ability to address
more RAM, so if this is an issue then 64 bit would help. Otherwise, I
am not sure what other benefits there are. I'm only running it cos I can :)
What components are actually different between these two systems? The
stock kernels, for example, don't seem to be different.
Most binaries are recompiled specifically for 64 bit user space. You
can run a 64bit enhanced kernel on i386, look for the -k8
linux-images.
I see this:
Package: linux-image-2.6-amd64-k8 (2.6.17+2)
Linux 2.6 image on AMD64 K8 machines - transition package
This package is for transition only.
Why is it in transition? Does it really work on Intel?
Actually, I think now that etch is to be the new stable and etch has
official support for amd64 there are no longer -k8 kernels in i386.
Sorry for the misonformation. But yes they did work on intel processors
with the emt64 instruction set.
What tells your system which binaries to grab? The sources.list file
doesn't indicate hardware type.
The OS knows what its running:)
Can I transition my system from i386 binaries to ia64 binaries without
starting from scratch?
If you mean amd64, no its a completely different OS but you can
install in to a separate partition using debootstrap, or an install CD
and then dual boot.
No, it's an Intel, and dual-booting is not useful. Are you saying I'd
have to reinstall the OS to make use of the 64-bit stuff?
Sorry I was referring to the OS name not the processor. Regardless, a
reinstall will still be necessary if you don't wont a dual boot, and
there are still a few apps that aren't available in 64 bit so you will
need a 32 bit chroot to run these.
HTH
Wackojacko
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