Arch Linux

farkus888

Member

Registered: 2007-10-31

Posts: 31

arch64 vs i686

I am thinking about upgrading my arch linux desktop. if I do it I am looking at an athlon64 x2 6400+ with 4 gig of ram and an 8600gt video card. this will be going into the existing case with the existing HDs and CD/DVD drives. I use this machine for day to day desktop tasks but I also use it as a dedicated file server so it needs to be down for a minimal amount of time during the upgrade. my questions are about memory usage and hassles with the shortcomings of arch64. would a system like that use something like PAE to address the extra memory if I use the i686 install? how much hassle is it really going to be to get arch64 running for a fully functional system? what would I be missing? I can't really afford the time to try arch64 then decide its not for me so I was hoping to get some more insight before make the decision to do this upgrade. I am still likely to do this hardware upgrade even if arch64 is not for me. I just want to know what to do when this new hardware arrives.

X-Tream

Member

From: NRW // Germany

Registered: 2007-07-06

Posts: 21

Re: arch64 vs i686

Well i installed Arch64 shortly for myself, and i have to say that its running as good as the 32bit system. with a few exceptions (for example the wireless driver intel wireless driver isnt working right just by now)
You could look at this pages http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arch64_FAQ and http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arch64_ToDoS too see how far it is

Last edited by X-Tream (2007-12-27 04:14:50)

miggols99

Member

Registered: 2007-06-10

Posts: 424

Re: arch64 vs i686

Well I got a new laptop for Christmas and the only problem I got was with the sound, but it was fixed quite easily. It's working really fast, and as I was going to be building KDE4 on it, 64bit would be much faster. I recommend 64bit as I have very few problems.

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Aaron

Member

From: PA, USA

Registered: 2007-12-19

Posts: 108

Website

Re: arch64 vs i686

64bit is nowhere near as troublesome as some people make it seem to be.

If you can run Arch as your daily system already, 64bit will be cake for you.

There's minor issues with flash, java, and SPECIFIC wireless cards.  None of those issues should be a deal breaker, as they are all easily solved and well documented.

Please note that 4gigs of ram will not be usable under the 32bit system, if you decide to upgrade your hardware but not move to 64bit.  (There may be a way to make 4gigs usable by a 32bit distro, but I know it's not default.)

iBertus

Member

From: Greenville, NC

Registered: 2004-11-04

Posts: 2,228

Re: arch64 vs i686

I say go with Arch64. I'm typing this now from a laptop with Arch64/Compiz/GNOME running fine. The 2.6.24-rc6 kernel from tpowa's personal directory fixed some things with my wireless and nvidia not playing nice. It's now easy and fast.

jolinfire

Member

From: France

Registered: 2007-12-21

Posts: 176

Re: arch64 vs i686

I'm using arch64 on my computer since my day 1 with arch (2 weeks ago).

The only trouble ; no java plugin.

Flash ? Swfdec is great to replace it. I removed nspluginwrapper because I had sometimes crashes with X using last flash player.

steve-e

Member

Registered: 2007-10-03

Posts: 37

Re: arch64 vs i686

jolinfire, gcc-gcj comes with a browser plugin.