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64-Bit Mandriva 2008 [solved]


RevJack
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I have the 32-bit version of Mandriva 2008 installed, but since my system uses a duo core 64-bit processor, I was thinking of installing the 64-bit version of Mandriva 2008. Are there any issues I should be concerned about. Is flashplayer installed by default in the 64-bit edition?

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Hi RevJack. I'm not sure if there any any issues with a 64 version of 2008.0, but your main issue is that there is lots of software that is still unsupported. That's slowly changing, but unless you're interested in spending alot of time in front of your screen reconfiguring packages so they work with 64 bit, I don't recommend it.

 

I looked at installing 2007.1 64 bit before 2008.0 came out, and foundit worked pretty well on my box, but as I didn't know much about linux then I thought it would make my life difficult. Now that I know more about Linux, I KNOW it would have made my life more difficult. For the increased processing power of some applications (graphically, mostly, I believe), I doubt it's worth the extra hassle, and/or lack of available software for that platform. That said, have a look at the erratta notes for 2008.0. I'm sure any issues will be listed there. Cheers.

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I must agree with the above. I also have a 64 bit dual core system, but the rest of the software industry is not yet working toward that end. Many things will not work because the drivers have simply not been written. I say that meaning that you can still use 32bit stuff in some cases, but then that defeats the purpose of having a 64 bit system, yes? :P

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To cut a long story short, thou should forget about 64-bit OS... unless you want to experiment.

Your performance gain for regular usage will be from tiny (at the very best) to negative, and some things will be a pain to install and get running.

Check back in about one year, or so... ATM using 64-bit OS on a big production server is pretty normal (and indicated), but on desktop it is simply not-quite-ready-yet.

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  • 2 weeks later...

My two cents. Having tried Mandriva 2007 on my Core 2 Duo. The slight performance gain is not really worth the hassle. I know that was said up there, but I wanted to speak from experience.

If you want to use java in your browser, you have to install the 32-bit version, and therefore, the 32-bit version of your browser.

If there is a working 64-bit flash, I never got it to work.

The main reason I went back to the 32-bit version was that I needed to install Oracle and there is no 64-bit version of Oracle for Linux.

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  • 7 months later...
Guest Lincoln

I kind of agree - 64-bit is nice to have but it's not quite there yet.

 

I've just given up struggling to get Mandriva 2008.1 x64 working on a AMD 64x2 workstation built around a Gigabyte GA-MA770-DS3 and an Nvidia 8600 graphics card. :wall:

 

In this case most things work but a few critical ones only almost work Specifically, the Nvidia graphics driver locks up the system when I start a second X session, burning CDs or DVDs always produces coasters, USB hot-plugging is utterly broken and there's an overall feeling that the system is teetering on the edge of falling apart. By contrast, the the 32-bit version of Mandriva 2008.1 is rock-solid on the same kit.

 

Other 64-bit distros I tried fared similarly, or worse. As far as I've been able to discover the problems are primarily related to the chipsets on the Motherboards. Basically, the AMD chipsets that support the A2 and A2+ sockets (used by the AMD64, AMD64x2 and AMD64x3 and AMDx4) are not yet correctly supported under Linux64. although they seem to be OK with Linux32.

 

The good news is that Linux64 apparently works with the Nvidia chipsets used on A2/A2+ boards - although YMMV, as usual. The bad news, for me, is that I'm stuck with a Gigabyte board, which while it is pretty good in all other respects, uses an AMD chipset.

 

I'd agree that the x32 Linux distros are more mature and x64 distros aren't yet 'pure' 64-bit. however, there are two real benefits to using a 64-bit build if you can.

1) At least in my case the 64-bit build, while not begin enormously faster, did seem snappier and more responsive than is it's 32-bit sibling on the same machine.

 

2) The performance improvement is arguably small enough not to matter much but the big advantage of using an x64 build is the increased memory space. A x32 build can only access a maximum of 4GB of RAM. The system overhead and any RAM on the graphics board has to fit in that space so if the graphics card has 512MB on-board you may only see a maximum of around 3300MB of usable RAM. With a 64-bit build you can see all 4GB, or use 8GB or more. (I currently have 4GB in the machine and an additional 4GB sitting on a shelf waiting for my system to go back to 64-bit operation.)

 

I"m going to run my 64-bit system in 32-bit mode until the end of the year and then try moving it to 64-bits again. Or maybe save up for a motherboard with an Nvidia chipset... :P

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  • 9 months later...

But to use all of your RAM you are best off with 64bit.

 

i have been using 64bit versions of distro's for about 3yrs now and I have hardly any problem, after initial setup.

 

Only software that causes concern is flash and win32 codecs but these have since been made even easier with the use of wrappers etc.

 

You can always just install the 32bit version of something as AMD64 can run 32bit and 64bit concurrently.

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I've been using x86_64 all the time. I only have one problem and that is with a specialist SSLVPN access that doesn't work because it's only 32 bit java app and so will only work with 32 bit java. If I had 32 bit browser and java running under Linux, then it would also not be a problem.

 

Mostly now, there's no problems with running 64 bit. Mostly 32 bit apps can be run under 32 bit without problems. 32 bit systems only see 3GB of ram, and need a bigmem kernel installed or pae enabled kernel installed. Performance is negligible but there is a difference. Systems with 4GB of ram should be using 64 bit to take full advantage of the resources available and I've found to be quicker than using a 32 bit version on the same hardware. In my experience anyway :)

 

64 bit systems are better environments for databases since when databases get large, a 32 bit system can have a problem. Postgresql database of 5GB or higher should be on a 64 bit system.

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I've been using x86_64 all the time. I only have one problem and that is with a specialist SSLVPN access that doesn't work because it's only 32 bit java app and so will only work with 32 bit java. If I had 32 bit browser and java running under Linux, then it would also not be a problem.

 

Mostly now, there's no problems with running 64 bit. Mostly 32 bit apps can be run under 32 bit without problems. 32 bit systems only see 3GB of ram, and need a bigmem kernel installed or pae enabled kernel installed. Performance is negligible but there is a difference. Systems with 4GB of ram should be using 64 bit to take full advantage of the resources available and I've found to be quicker than using a 32 bit version on the same hardware. In my experience anyway :)

 

64 bit systems are better environments for databases since when databases get large, a 32 bit system can have a problem. Postgresql database of 5GB or higher should be on a 64 bit system.

 

 

I recently tried to go from x32 2009 to x64 2009 on a quad core AMD, immediately my video wasnt what it should be, nor was it as good as the x32.

 

I was using the proprietary NVidea driver in x32 and when i tried to update to the x64 it just never worked the same.

 

that right there sent me back to 32 bit

 

I did use x64 2008 on my AMD X2 and had zero issues, however I was using a much lesser performing vid card

 

j

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Did you clean install or upgrade? Afaik, you cannot upgrade a system from 32 bit to 64 bit from what I remember. At least this is true about Gentoo, I've always clean installed. You were using the x64 driver for Nvidia too?

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Hey, my previous post was some one and a half year ago- saying "check back in some one year or so".

Actually, 64-bit is STILL not to the point I was expecting, but it can be used as a regular desktop environment. There is java 64-bit with browser extensions and javaws, flash 64-bit (although it does not work that smoothly, yet), wine 64-bit (badly performing), and almost anything has its 64-bit equivalent.

So, if you don't mind the performance handicup (because currently, and under a fairly normal computer a 32-bit system is clearly faster than a 64-bit one!), you can use 64-bit OS on your desktop. Personally, I will wait for quite a few months yet...

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I recently tried to go from x32 2009 to x64 2009 on a quad core AMD, immediately my video wasnt what it should be, nor was it as good as the x32.

 

I was using the proprietary NVidea driver in x32 and when i tried to update to the x64 it just never worked the same.

 

that right there sent me back to 32 bit

 

I did use x64 2008 on my AMD X2 and had zero issues, however I was using a much lesser performing vid card

 

j

i did do a clean install and even then used the nvidia from their site and MDV's. still no go.

 

got a REALLY bad "ghosting"

 

shame too because what i saw i liked.

 

j

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