-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: i586 kernels [Was: very common kernel modules slow down
the boot process]
From: Ralf Corsepius <rc040203@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: Development discussions related to Fedora <fedora-devel-list@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: 04/08/2008 03:47 AM
On Tue, 2008-04-08 at 09:30 +0200, Gianluca Sforna wrote:
On Thu, Apr 3, 2008 at 4:18 PM, Ralf Corsepius <rc040203@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Actually, my old i586 system works quite smoothly with FC8 and better it
did with some older Fedoras.
Last time I tried (around FC6) I was not able to use Fedora for one
little i586 class box¹ I have around due to the absence of a
corresponding kernel.
I've been hit by this bug myself ca. during the FC6/FC7 time-frame.
AFAICT, the cause had been a bug somewhere in installer , which had
caused installing on i586 to install the wrong (i686) kernel.
[User visible symptoms had been the installer installing i686 packages,
and using some i686 tls glibc stuff - There is a BZ somewhere.
AFAICT, this is fixed in FC8.]
Did something change
Yes, plenty has changed between FC6 and FC8.
Noteworthy:
* FC8 yum uses much less memory than its predecessors.
* This silly installer-bug finally has been fixed.
* Packaging is more granular.
* rpm has been improved (FC6's rpm/yum occasionally killed the rpmdb)
Other tricks I am applying:
* selinux=0 - The amount of memory SELinux uses, causes kernel-OOMs
early while booting.
* sufficient swap - My i586 uses 128MB (2xRAM, inherited from this
machine's past). More swap probably is advisable.
* boot into runlevel 3 (way less memory consuming than runlevel 5).
Switch off everything you don't really need (e.g. rhgb, usb,
NetworkManager, PulseAudio, avahi, etc.).
* Disable yum-updatesd - I update this machine by manually running yum,
occasionally running selective updates (Occasionally, update-floods tend
to cause OOMs).
* Slim down the static installation (number of packages) and dynamic
installation (daemons/services) to your personal "required" minimum.
Fedora's default configuration is pretty generous.
(e.g. the i586 variant is built again)
AFAICT, it has always been built.
or am I missing something else?
Bring along a lot of time ... installation/updates are really slow ;)
Not to sound *too* negative, but is there a donation fund where I can
put $5 so you guys with i586s can upgrade? Good lord.
I'm sure if you melted down the gold, copper, and steel in the i586
computers you guys have you could *easily* afford a Core 2 Quad with 4
gigs of DDR2.
Ralf
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