[GRLUG] 64bit Linux

[Greg Folkert]

On Mon, 2007-10-22 at 09:42 -0400, Benjamin Flanders wrote:
> Anyone have any experiences with 64bit linux lately?  I've been
> running i386 because I didn't want to mess with the the headaches that
> seemed to dog the 64bit releases a few years ago.

Yep, very good. I am running Debian SID for AMD64 (x86_64, EMT64...etc)
on my Lenovo T61 Core2Duo 2.2GHz with 4GB of memory. I have Java,
(32-bit)Flash, other stuff working just fine in the 64-bit browsers.
Pretty much I have zero complaints, barring "HD Audio" problems.


Here is a recent post (snippet) I made recently on the thinkpad forums:

I use Debian SID on my T61 (all Intel Chipsets). The only thing I have
issue with right now is the Audio the "HDA" sound mutes itself every 5
seconds. Its being worked on. There is improvement. 

The only thing outside the Kernel from Debian I had to add was the IWL
driver for the Wireless. This is a pain as they don't use the standard
out of kernel tree, module compilation methods. Which forces you to play
games to get it working. But, once you do its a dream. 

I have everything following working (once I added my user to the apropos
groups that is). 

Intel 3D is great, it works very well, though its NOT nVidia's binary
blob performance, it close enough for all games I play. 

Suspend/Resume works fantasmally well (remember group membership). 

Hibernate ROCKS. Just make sure you make your swap partition as large
(or a bit larger) as your memory, as suspend writes memory state to the
swap partition. Also remember group membership for suspend/hibernate
while being logged in. 

Fingerprint reader... sorry don't have it, I excluded it. I've been
forced to use Fingerprint stuff to get into work for years... it fails
about 10% of the time. But reports are it works... thinkwiki is great
for this stuff. 

IWL wireless, already explained. As long as you know how to build stuff
without the automagic parts... it works great. The project is working on
its problems with this. Once it works, NetworkManager does its
awesomeness thing... leave your WiFi in roaming mode and be able to join
nearly any network. I've been able to do any public network and ones
with ESSID keys (as long as you know one of the keys) 

Volume does work... except the sound chipset, sets itself to mute every
5 seconds. Its part of the "if it not positively set, shut it down"
Vista-ization of hardware, you know the "authorized media stream" kind
of thing (or so I've talked to the Intel hardware programming guys) 

Brightness works just FINE. I can scale it to max or min, or anywhere in
between. 

Infra-red, it receives just fine, but I haven't had occasion to use it
to send... since it works on receiving, it is probably only a matter of
config and it sends. 

Dual Display, well my Intel Chipset supports Dual Display so well that I
have to forcibly turn off the TV resolution. The External 15-pin works
just fine. Even different resolutions... though its not xinerama. 

The media readers work fine, as expected. 

Firewire works awesome. 

ALL USB ports report as USB2.0 and perform that way. 

Bluetooth, works well. Except using bluetooth audio, the HDA audio thing
gets in the way right at the minute. Blueztools pairs up and
auto-connects and all that, easily. 

Trackpad does scrolling along the right side, trackpoint works perfectly
with no drift. The third (middle) button works as I'd expect it to. 

Hard Drive Active Protection works and is active, plus you can run a GLX
program showing you the sensor output and hard-drive "parking". 

DL DVD-RAM does wonders for everything in sight. Dual Layer DVD-+R,
CD-+R(W). It does take the juice so, you'll notice severely reduce
battery time when burning on battery. 

Illumination light can be controlled in numerous ways. 

No I haven't a Dock. Don't need it, in my opinion. 

So, I guess, except for the HD Audio thing, its a go. 

I used info from here, and many other places. 

I started here: http://tuxmobil.org/ibm.html (scroll down to the T60/T61
stuff). There is usually anything you are having problems with in those
links. 

Now, understand, I used tips from other distributions, for my Debian
install, but changed for Debian's way and its hierarchy. This means,
many things don't apply exactly, but the general info and places to look
have Debian counter parts. 

None of those (at the time I last looked late last month, September),
had everything working. But betwixt them all, I got all but the HD Audio
working.


-- 
Greg Folkert <greg at gregfolkert.net>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: This is a digitally signed message part
Url : http://shinobu.grlug.org/pipermail/grlug/attachments/20071022/c6d83909/attachment-0001.pgp