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Hi, |
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I lurk on the LKML, say hi once in awhile, ask a question once in |
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awhile, and try to read at least the interesting to a non-programmer |
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posts. I was curious about this one that came up today. Seems like |
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this is a natural for Gentoo. |
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|
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I have a Gentoo 64-bit setup but have had lots of troubles over the |
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years (far less now though) with web media and other things that need |
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to be more Windows compatible. (I do audio work with my Gentoo boxes - |
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interface to studios and a few bands, etc) I've found that my 32-bit |
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Gentoo installations have been more compatible than 64-bit. Outside |
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stuff like Java is better. In general when I have a problem I wonder |
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if it's because I'm running 64-bit. |
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|
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How would one go about building a 64-bit kernel on a 32-bit machine |
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with Gentoo? I presume that's mostly just how I configure the kernel, |
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along with maybe some cross-compile options? Are there any projects |
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going on in this area where I might become a test case? Wiki? Docs? |
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|
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Do others see value - getting 64-bit memory management, new CPU |
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flags, etc., but keeping the apps 32-bit for compatibility? |
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|
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Take care, |
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Mark |
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|
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<SNIP> |
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On Tue, 9 Jun 2009, H. Peter Anvin wrote: |
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> |
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> A major problem is that distros don't seem to be willing to push 64-bit |
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> kernels for 32-bit distros. There are a number of good (and |
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> not-so-good) reasons why users may want to run a 32-bit userspace, but |
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> not running a 64-bit kernel on capable hardware is just problematic. |
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|
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Yeah, that's just stupid. A 64-bit kernel should work well with 32-bit |
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tools, and while we've occasionally had compat issues (the intel gfx |
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people used to claim that they needed to work with a 32-bit kernel because |
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they cared about 32-bit tools), they aren't unfixable or even all _that_ |
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common. |
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|
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And they'd be even less common if the whole "64-bit kernel even if you do |
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a 32-bit distro" was more common. |
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|
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The nice thing about a 64-bit kernel is that you should be able to build |
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one even if you don't in general have all the 64-bit libraries. So you |
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don't need a full 64-bit development environment, you just need a compiler |
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that can generate code for both (and that should be the default on x86 |
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these days). |
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|
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Linus |
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<SNIP> |