Joined: Aug 13, 2004 Posts: 335 Location: Maysville, KY
Posted: Thu Mar 09, 2006 12:29 pm Post subject: AMD 3400+ 64 Bit - Abit NV8, Nvidia 7300 GS, 1GB
I dont have a lot to post just yet, but I just ordered these parts to replace my failed desktop system (AMD 1700, nvidia, ti4400, 512MB, 80 GB, SB 4 Channel Surround) that had the motherboard go out.
This will be my first 64 Bit Linux System and I ordered the parts 2 day freight so I would get it on friday and have the entire weekend to build a new 2006.0 Gentoo 64 Desktop.
I have to recycle some parts from my old system, mainly the case, hard drive (dual 80GB 133's only about 1 year old), dual DVD-R/RW drives (only about a year old), and my add-on dual-port usb2 and firewire cards (only cause I use them a lot).
Joined: Aug 13, 2004 Posts: 335 Location: Maysville, KY
Posted: Sat May 20, 2006 7:26 pm Post subject:
As with everyone else running an AMD 64 Linux system, there are some downfalls. First, let me explain in a little more details:
Originally the hard drive had Gentoo Linux 2005.1 installed. It was 32 bit, but it worked when turned on using the nv module for video because this video card on Linux is so cutting edge that even nvidia didn't have a linux driver yet. However, about a month later and they finally released one.
I simply made a backup of the gentoo system before there was a nvidia module available, then installed Ubuntu Brezzy 32 bit. I used this for a few days, and then did the Breezy 32 to Dapper Beta 64 migration. A couple weeks later, there was finally a nvidia driver available for the video card. However, I couldn't get the dapper apt-get version to work until just recently.
Some downfalls of running a true 64 bit linux system are:
No Macromedia flash player available from Adobe for 64 bit systems. However, there is a gpl flash player that works with 64 bit linux systems. The pitfall to it is that it only supports flash version 4 (current release from Adobe is 7.x)
No wine for running windows programs without a whole lot of fussing around and custom compiling. On a side note, qemu plus the kqemu module runs absolutely great.
Java - doesn't work and causes stability issues with firefox on amd 64 distro.
My vmware version, doesn't support a Windows 64 install.......however, there is a selection to install windows xp 64 and server 2003 64. Selecting them for installation says "This CPU is not supported" even though this is a 64 bit cpu, go figure.
Programs that you must use 32 bit emulation under on a true 64 bit linux operating system are not stable at all. This could be due to the fact I am using Ubuntu Dapper which is in beta, but running firefox, macromedia/adobe flash, and java in 32 bit mode crashes a lot - whenever any web page loads that uses those technologies.
I will update this list as it changes or things improve.
Those few pitfalls above wouldn't matter for a server environment where a 64 bit system would shine, however, I use this particular system for development, file server, and general desktop use. Its really used for about everything under the moon.....and well, no having a recent flash player for linux simply sucks when browsing the web. (By the way, I hate people who create flash only web pages.....a lot of bands are doing those these days using templated web sites where you update a text file and it displays. Those pages suck -- saying that as a web designer and also graphics editor.)
A 64 bit linux system used as a general desktop doesn't seem any faster than a 32 bit system assuming processor speeds and installed memory are relatively equal. My current system doesn't boot any faster, programs don't launch any faster, and the overall system feels about as fast as my Gentoo stage 1 installation that ran on a AMD 2000+ 32 bit system. This could be due to the fact that again, I am using a beta linux distro, or it it could due to the fact that ubuntu dapper is not as optimized as much as my gentoo system was, or it could be simply due to the fact that everything a 64 bit system would show increased performance for would only be noticeable on a server environment where a lot of mathamatical calculations are being done.
If I had to do it all over again, I would probably stick to a 32 bit linux system for desktop and general use, and use 64 bit for server environments when the floating point stuff would really shine.
Joined: Aug 13, 2004 Posts: 335 Location: Maysville, KY
Posted: Sat Sep 30, 2006 7:21 am Post subject:
The java problems continue......
Sun does have a 64 bit jre and jdk in 1.5.x versions, although neither of these include the firefox/mozilla/netscape plugins for a 64 bit system.
Blackdown jdk and jre both have 64 bit versions in 1.4.2x versions and include the firefox/mozilla/netscape plugins but it crashes constantly on some web pages....like myspace and speed.fastaccess.com
There is still no flash player for 64 bit yet, but there will be one sometime in 2007....of course if adobe is anything like microsoft, that really correlates to about 2009
You can run a 32 bit firefox in a chrooted environment on 64 bit distros, but I had stability problems here too.
You can run the windows versions of both firefox and internet explorer in wine, but for some reason even though I have repeatedly attempted to install the java jre for them in wine, neither browser detects that it is installed.
Best advice, since running linux in pure 64bit mode has a lot of compatibility problems for home users, it is best to stick to running a 32bit linux distro in your 64 bit system until this issues are resolved. I would recommend (currently) *Buntu, Xandros, or Freespire for new users, Gentoo for advanced users (I have yet to try Mepis, however, I am currently testing Freespire which looks very nice and is very easy to install plus has legal licenses to most things like mp3 support....woo hoo)
Now, if you are primarily using your 64 bit system for a server, and don't require flash or java compatibility in a web browser (most likely) then definately run a pure 64 bit system....you will see very noticable speed improvements in things like databases, web servers, etc.
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