n00b question [solved]

tony5429 · 2007-07-09 17:48:41

I am planning on putting the 64-bit arch linux on a system i am building which will have an AMD 64 X2 5400+ dual-core processor. I read somewhere that some linux distributions cannot take advantage of dual-core processors so there is actually no advantage of having the dual-core over a single core. Is arch one of these distros or can arch use dual-core to its full potential??

Last edited by tony5429 (2007-07-16 07:12:58)

Mikko777 · 2007-07-09 17:57:56

Well if linux can't, windows most definately won't either.

Software is a different story then...

"Linux has always been an SMP friendly OS. Multiple desktops, running games in a window and an abundance of multi-threaded apps make it a very useful product. However it's still a product that has been around for years in the form of a non-dual-core SMP system."

Last edited by Mikko777 (2007-07-09 18:02:54)

Blind · 2007-07-09 21:38:22

I think what the question comes down to is:

Is SMP turned on by default in the kernel26 package?
Yes, it is, so Arch takes advantage of Dual/Quad Core processors - you can see the number of detected cores by counting the 'arches' when booting up.

As Mikko pointed out, the OS is only one part (and btw, Windows _has_ Multicore/Multiprocessor support), the Software is another. Software mostly make use of the Multicores with threads; question is, if the programmer bothered with it as it costs some effort (again, same is true for Windows programs, and actually any other OS's programs).

Cheers,
Blind

tony5429 · 2007-07-12 12:42:39

Okay; I think I get you guys - thanks for the responses! One more question though...I am running a 32-bit arch system right now so I update everything with 'pacman -Syu' which finds the newest 32-bit software. I am just wondering...when I set up my 64-bit system and run 'pacman -Syu' will it look to update the newest 64-bit versions and if it can't find the 64-bit version for something, only then revert to the 32-bit version? or do i need to change some configuration somewhere to make that happen?

mcmillan · 2007-07-12 17:39:43

The 64bit and 32bit repositories are seperate, so if you're running the 64bit it will only look for things in that repository. I could imagine things getting broken if you were to just add 32bit repositories into pacman.conf. My understanding of setting up chroot to use 32bit programs is that it's setting up a parallel directory system that is running the 32bit stuff rather than just having everything mixed together. So basically yeah, you need to spend some time configuring things to run a mixed 64bit and 32bit. Which is why I only run 32bit even though my computer has 64bit processors, it didn't really seem to improve performance much for my use while giving up 32bit software and it didn't seem to worth the configuration to get a mixed system (though that was almost two years ago and I think the 64bit software availability has improved a bit)

tony5429 · 2007-07-13 14:48:42

Is there a way I can check to see if a package is available in a 64-bit edition on Arch? It seems when I search on the Arch page, nothing tells me if I am looking at 32-bit stuff or 64-bit stuff...

sykesm · 2007-07-13 15:03:29

my guess would be if you are setup on 64-bit and pacman is looking at 64 bit repositoires then

pacman -Ss package_name

will do it

Snowman · 2007-07-13 18:12:19

you can check the pkg diff list: http://www.archlinux.org/~andyrtr/pkg_diff.html
It shows the difference between the i686 and x86_64 repos (pkg out-of-date or not available).

tony5429 · 2007-07-16 07:08:33

thanks! that's what I was looking for

Arch Linux

#1 2007-07-09 17:48:41

n00b question [solved]

#2 2007-07-09 17:57:56

Re: n00b question [solved]

#3 2007-07-09 21:38:22

Re: n00b question [solved]

#4 2007-07-12 12:42:39

Re: n00b question [solved]

#5 2007-07-12 17:39:43

Re: n00b question [solved]

#6 2007-07-13 14:48:42

Re: n00b question [solved]

#7 2007-07-13 15:03:29

Re: n00b question [solved]

#8 2007-07-13 18:12:19

Re: n00b question [solved]

#9 2007-07-16 07:08:33

Re: n00b question [solved]

Board footer