[gentoo-user] AMD64 Stability?

On Tue, 05 Sep 2006 08:47:20 -0500 "Thomas T. Veldhouse" wrote:

> Can anybody on this list indicate what kind of stability they have
> seen with AMD64 systems using Gentoo (the AMD 64-bit binaries)? How
> about the majority of ports in the portage tree?

After 1.5 year of use the amd64 system as a desktop I would say that
it is very stable. There were/is few issues though. These affected me
most:

* Once after update world the 32bit applications stops
working. Luckilly, workaround was easy.

* There is old problem with samba. It simply segfaults. I think it
affect only users with non US locale. Still not fixed but workaround
is easy (http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=99184).

* Currently there is problem with Lifera feed reader. It segfaults
randomly.

I'm using stable packages (not ~amd64) and I can say, that if package
is marked stable for amd64, it is really stable. This is very good.

The one major problem I see is, that there is small number of packages
marked stable. Roughly 1/2 of them are testing or masked. So if you
want to use stable amd64 Gentoo you will be let's say a little
limited.

Robert



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On 9/5/06, Neil Bothwick wrote:
> On Tue, 05 Sep 2006 08:47:20 -0500, Thomas T. Veldhouse wrote:
>
> > Can anybody on this list indicate what kind of stability they have seen
> > with AMD64 systems using Gentoo (the AMD 64-bit binaries)? How about
> > the majority of ports in the portage tree?
>
> I've been running ~amf64 for over two years with no real problems. There
> was a shortage of packages at first, but that was mainly due to a lack
> of testing. Keywording packages and filing bug reports when they worked
> helped with this.
>
> This system is now as stable (as in reliable, I still run ~amd64 so it's
> far from unchanging) as my x86 boxen.
>
>
> --
> Neil Bothwick

I've been running Gentoo AMD64 for about 15 months I think. The
machine is mostly running stable packages + proaudio overlay and runs
very well. Note that while I have no 'problems' with the machine there
are 'limitations' with much of the web based multimedia out there,
flash, Java. Stuff like that either does not run or is not as good as
my wife and son's Gentoo 32-bit machines. I have a 32-bit chroot to
get around that but hardly ever use it.

HTH,
Mark
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On 9/5/06, Thomas T. Veldhouse wrote:
> Can anybody on this list indicate what kind of stability they have seen
> with AMD64 systems using Gentoo (the AMD 64-bit binaries)? How about
> the majority of ports in the portage tree?
>
> I realize this question will solicit relatively subjective responses,
> but I am interested in them all.
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Tom Veldhouse
>
Good topic!

My experience has not been that good. I am running Gentoo amd64 on a
dual core AMD 4200 with an Nvidia video card.
I run a stable system with just a few "keyword-ed" packages. My
display manager is KDE.
The system locks ramdomly and I cannot even ssh to it from another
box. It dies, and the logs do not show anything that can give me a
clue.
I found some posts in the nvidia forums about stability problems on
this platform and I have followed the suggested workarounds with no
success...

I guess that there are some unresolved issues with the amd64 + kernel
+ nvidia video card combination.

Right now, I am in the process of changing my profile to the new
2006.1/desktop and configuring the system to use GCC 4.1 and after
that I am going to go ~amd64.

Let's see how that works.

Regards,

- AR

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> and you have tried a different PSU? A quality one (ie not fortron, not antec,
> but enermax)?
> --

huh?
PSU? Does this stand for "Power Supply Unit"?

If it does, then the answer is no. Because my box is an HP media
center to which I only added the Nvidia graphics card. (PCIe)

But... this is something worth looking into...

Thanks,

- AR


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On Tuesday 05 September 2006 18:07, A. R. wrote:
> On 9/5/06, Thomas T. Veldhouse wrote:
> > Can anybody on this list indicate what kind of stability they have seen
> > with AMD64 systems using Gentoo (the AMD 64-bit binaries)? How about
> > the majority of ports in the portage tree?
> >
> > I realize this question will solicit relatively subjective responses,
> > but I am interested in them all.
> >
> > Thanks in advance,
> >
> > Tom Veldhouse
>
> Good topic!
>
> My experience has not been that good. I am running Gentoo amd64 on a
> dual core AMD 4200 with an Nvidia video card.
> I run a stable system with just a few "keyword-ed" packages. My
> display manager is KDE.
> The system locks ramdomly and I cannot even ssh to it from another
> box. It dies, and the logs do not show anything that can give me a
> clue.
> I found some posts in the nvidia forums about stability problems on
> this platform and I have followed the suggested workarounds with no
> success...
>

and you have tried a different PSU? A quality one (ie not fortron, not antec,
but enermax)?
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On 9/5/06, Sven Köhler wrote:
> > Can anybody on this list indicate what kind of stability they have seen
> > with AMD64 systems using Gentoo (the AMD 64-bit binaries)? How about
> > the majority of ports in the portage tree?
> >
> > I realize this question will solicit relatively subjective responses,
> > but I am interested in them all.
>
> Maybe you should ask on gentoo's amd64 mailinglist?

Yeah, I recommend that too. Duncan is the resident amd64 expert
there, and will probably give you the most thorough answer you have
ever read!

-Richard

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On Tuesday 05 September 2006 19:22, A. R. wrote:
> > and you have tried a different PSU? A quality one (ie not fortron, not
> > antec, but enermax)?
> > --
>
> huh?
> PSU? Does this stand for "Power Supply Unit"?

yes it does.

>
> If it does, then the answer is no. Because my box is an HP media
> center to which I only added the Nvidia graphics card. (PCIe)
>

well, this 'vendor boxes' have usually very tightly calculated PSUs - just
bearly enough to power it. If you change something they might or might not
fall to pieces....
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Hemmann, Volker Armin wrote:
> well, this 'vendor boxes' have usually very tightly calculated PSUs - just
> bearly enough to power it. If you change something they might or might not
> fall to pieces....
>

Especially the likes of HP, Compaq, E-Machine, etc.

Tom Veldhouse


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On Tue, 2006-09-05 at 08:44 -0700, Mark Knecht wrote:
> On 9/5/06, Neil Bothwick wrote:
> > On Tue, 05 Sep 2006 08:47:20 -0500, Thomas T. Veldhouse wrote:
> >
> > > Can anybody on this list indicate what kind of stability they have seen
> > > with AMD64 systems using Gentoo (the AMD 64-bit binaries)? How about
> > > the majority of ports in the portage tree?
>
> I've been running Gentoo AMD64 for about 15 months I think...

sorry to hijack the thread, but how about AMD64 chips running the x86
sources? Is that any more stable? (I have a good deal on a 3200, and
am wondering whether I should buy it...)

thanks,
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Iain Buchanan wrote:
> On Tue, 2006-09-05 at 08:44 -0700, Mark Knecht wrote:
>> On 9/5/06, Neil Bothwick wrote:
>>> On Tue, 05 Sep 2006 08:47:20 -0500, Thomas T. Veldhouse wrote:
>>>
>>>> Can anybody on this list indicate what kind of stability they have seen
>>>> with AMD64 systems using Gentoo (the AMD 64-bit binaries)? How about
>>>> the majority of ports in the portage tree?
>> I've been running Gentoo AMD64 for about 15 months I think...
>
> sorry to hijack the thread, but how about AMD64 chips running the x86
> sources? Is that any more stable? (I have a good deal on a 3200, and
> am wondering whether I should buy it...)
>
> thanks,

I've been running x86 sources on an AMD 4200+ for several months and it
is very stable.

Tony

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> I've been running x86 sources on an AMD 4200+ for several months and it
> is very stable.
>
> Tony
>
Hi,
I am wondering if I should run x86 an an athlon 64. I am upgrading my win box
to athlon x2 4600 and I'll use the old athlon 64 for gentoo.
Does using x86 make the 64 athlon act as 2 processors (what config is needed)
If it will act like 2 processors is that faster or slower than using the 64
setup?

Thank for any input
Paul
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On 9/6/06, Paul Stear wrote:
> Hi,
> I am wondering if I should run x86 an an athlon 64. I am upgrading my win box
> to athlon x2 4600 and I'll use the old athlon 64 for gentoo.
> Does using x86 make the 64 athlon act as 2 processors (what config is needed)
> If it will act like 2 processors is that faster or slower than using the 64
> setup?

Running 64 or 32 bit kernel and/or userland has absolutely nothing to
do with enabling smp support in the kernel, which seems to be what you
meant.


Cheers,

Friedrich Göpel

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On Wednesday 06 September 2006 14:39, Friedrich Göpel wrote:
> On 9/6/06, Paul Stear wrote:
> > Hi,
> > I am wondering if I should run x86 an an athlon 64. I am upgrading my
> > win box to athlon x2 4600 and I'll use the old athlon 64 for gentoo.
> > Does using x86 make the 64 athlon act as 2 processors (what config is
> > needed) If it will act like 2 processors is that faster or slower than
> > using the 64 setup?
>
> Running 64 or 32 bit kernel and/or userland has absolutely nothing to
> do with enabling smp support in the kernel, which seems to be what you
> meant.
>
Perhaps I didn't express myself correctly.
I thought that you could rum an athlon 64 as 2 32's enabling smp and
installing all programs under x86.
If this is correct I would like to know the correct steps to take. i.e. would
I need to start from scratch or use my current setup and compile the kernel
(as what?)

Paul

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