On Mon, 27 Sep 2010 10:57:46 -1000 Joel Roth <joelz@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > On Mon, Sep 27, 2010 at 10:30:12PM +0200, Fritz Meissner wrote: > > On 27 September 2010 22:26, Josh Lawrence <hardbop200@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > > Hi everyone, > > > > > > I'm late to the party when it comes to 64-bit machines, so apologies > > > in advance if I am asking something that should be obvious... > > > > > > I recently purchased a 64 bit machine and like it a lot, but I've > > > noticed that some software that is usually available on a 32 bit > > > machine isn't available in the 64 bit repos that I am using. Can I > > > install the 32 bit version of my distro (Debian) on my 64 bit machine? > > > I'm assuming that would give me access to all 32 bit software. It > > > would also be a performance hit, correct? > > > > > Yes, you can install the 32 bit version. From what I have heard, the > > performance difference is not significant, but the major benefit of 64 > > bit is being able to address more than 4 GB of memory, which is the > > limit of what a 32 bit OS can use. > > One advantage to 64-bit machines is that there are more > CPU registers available in 64-bit mode, so some processing > goes faster, and more addressable memory. > > That may be reason enough to run a 64-bit kernel while > keeping a 32-bit userland (libraries, applications, etc.) > Which some (including myself) do. > > The advantage of 32-bit software is a smaller > memory footprint (e.g. 32 bits to represent an > integer instead of 64). There is a much wider software > availability, and fewer compatibility issues. > > Although many say "64-bit is well established, no need > to worry about compatibility", I've had a few run ins. > At one point, I was maintaining two parallel Debian systems, > one 32-bit and one 64-bit, to track down such issues. > > Some disadvantages to mixed systems, from the amd64 faq > at http://alioth.debian.org/docman/view.php/30192/21/debian-amd64-howto.html > > Q: I want to run i386 userland with a 64bit Linux kernel > > A: Running 32bit userland with a 64bit kernel is recommended > only for servers needing the absolute stability of 10 years > of 32bit debian, but without the memory limitations the IA32 > architecture bears, for example a 64bit mysql server on a > system with 8GB or 16GB memory. > > Running the mixed setup on a workstation is not recommended, > because iptables, the XFS filesystem, non-free NVidia and > ATI binary drivers do currently not support it. > > Iptables *does* appear to work for me in mixed environment, > at least the user interface part. > > Cheers, > > Joel > > > Fritz > 64 bit x86 architecture DOESN'T use 64 bit integers. For those of you that undestand the following code, try to compile a program that has int x = new int; That will warn you about asigning 64bit pointer to a 32bit integer (if it doesn't warn you about asigning pointer to non-pointer variable). Another thing, I use 64bit Gentoo, and do my share of audio production (recording demos of my band, nothing fancy). I haven't found any 32bit app that I miss so far (now that flash is working again). Can you tell us which 32bit programs you need? _______________________________________________ Linux-audio-user mailing list Linux-audio-user@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx http://lists.linuxaudio.org/listinfo/linux-audio-user
