Athlon64 blues: [was] Re: Problem with Athlon64 machine

[Mauri Sahlberg]

Hi,

ma, 2005-05-02 kello 15:36 -0400, Doug Stewart kirjoitti:
> Timothy Murphy wrote:
> > I've been having problems with my Athlon64 machine
> > (Targa with Asus motherboard) with recent kernels.
> > I wonder if anyone else has found this?
> > 
> > Basically, the machine hangs if left for a few minutes.
> > I suspect it is something to do with ACPI.
> > I've tried both the "official" Fedora kernels,
> > and one (2.6.11.8) which I compiled with Athlon64 chosen
> > as the processor.
> > 

I have not been able to install FC 3 or FC 4 test 2 to Fujitsu-Siemens
Amilo A 1630 laptop. FC 3 dies on install with "out of space errors" on
root when there definitely is space. The synaptics touchpad is jittery
and mouse cursor bounces all over the screen on install. FC 4 test 2
dies in loading the installation kernel. (FC 3 mouse problem during
install is solved with acpi=off).

I have managed to install FC 3 64-bit version on Fujitsu-Siemens desktop
where it has and had several problems with usb devices. I simply could
not get usb-mouse to work on usb-port. I had to move the mouse into
ps2-port to get it to work. Again Ubuntu had no problems with mouse on
usb-port. Yesterday I bought buffalo 1GB usb flash stick and when I plug
it in on the desktop the mouse goes away and lsusb shows no stick.
Unplugging the usb stick and killing X brings the mouse back.

Both machines install ubuntu-hoary AMD64 version fine. Synaptics
touchpad works fine without any acpi=off parameters and on the laptop
the usb-stick works fine. I haven't yet tried it on the desktop with
ubuntu or Windows XP but if it works on ubuntu, I will seriously
consider switching to it.

Ubuntu has its problems, namely printing to printers does not work from
open office, xmms freezes on url-playback but at least the hardware
works as it is supposed. 

I am going to, as soon as time allows me to, check out several current
64-bit distributions with both machines and write a web article of my
experience. I have been Red Hat convert since 5.2 (when I switched from
completely hacked Slackware to Red Hat) and despite a short hop for Suse
professional (it had a better support out of the box for isdn then)  I
have used official and unofficial Red Hat related distributions ever
since. Now it might be a good time to switch for something new and more
easier to install and more reliable if such distribution yet exists for
64-bit athlon.

Regards,
Mauri Sahlberg