drago01 wrote:
On Thu, Feb 26, 2009 at 11:54 AM, Roberto Ragusa mail@robertoragusa.it wrote:
Bill Nottingham wrote:
- install x86_64 kernel on 32-bit OS where appropriate
This is really exciting, but I remember to have read somewhere of some compatibility issues.
Should work (solaris had a similar setup and they supported it)
Agreed, I know it should work by default. Just wondering about corner cases (the nvidia rumor, basically).
In particular, could someone report success/failure for the nvidia binary module? Is it true that the x86_64 kernel part depends on x86_64 GL/X11 part which depends on x86_64 X11, which depends on x86_64 glibc... and so the system is basically being entirely switched to x86_64?
No, but imho if you have a x86_64 capable machine you should be using x86_64
Well, yes, x86_64 is an option, but there could be reasons to live with 32bit userspace; for example if I have a proprietary 32bit app which would require many i386 libs on x86_64, or just to have a development environment where one can compile for i386 without worrying about compiler flags and linking the right stuff, or just to avoid an installation from scratch (upgrade i386->x86_64 is still unsupported, right?).
The nvidia problem was, IIRC, that something (arch dependent) is shared by the kernel part and userspace part (sizes of passed data structures, maybe). I was not able to find a reference to this discussion on the net, so I'm asking here if anyone knows about that. It would be bad design by nvidia, sure.
I think free stuff is compatible or fixable (kvm? fuse? openjdk? ...),
kvm should work fine, same for fuse. dunno why you ask about openjdk its just a regular userspace app.
You are right. Openjdk is JIT compiled, but there is no particular kernel interaction.
but there is also widely used proprietary software (ATI closed source driver? vmware? ...).
No idea, but they should be fine too. (besides nobody is stopping you from using a i586 if you really need/want that or just move to x86_64 ;) )
Obviously yes. :-)
In fact, when I upgraded my laptop to 4GiB months ago, I wondered about the alternatives: a) switch to 32bit PAE b) switch to x86_64 kernel c) switch to x86_64 kernel and apps
I discarded c) for upgrade simplicity and avoided trying b) for the nvidia issue we are talking about (so, I'm currently running a) ).
Best regards.