Star Linux on the Opteron, Part II
Linked by Robert Minvielle on Tue 16th Dec 2003 20:00 UTC
Linux This is the second installment of the "Linux on the Opteron, are we ready?" article. Basically, it is a "where are we now?" article, noting that what once did work now does not, and others that did not work now do. The first article was published on OSNews almost three months ago. Since that time not too much has happened publicly in regards to the amd64 Linux situation, but a lot of people mailed to tell me that I should have checked out SuSE or the new Mandrake which was "about to be released" at that time. Also since that time I have upgraded the RAM and acquired a larger hard disk for the machine. I will give a brief rundown of the system as it stands now, what I tried to install on it, and what works.
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32-bit Suse worked perfectly on the Opteron/SK8N. I was able to find drivers for everything and they worked (I didn't bother with the Promise card). I ran FFTW benchmarks. I then installed the 64-bit Suse 9.0. There is no comprehensive driver package. Following instructions at Suse's website I was able to patch, compile, and install Nvidia's 3d drivers. I think they are working but the performance is about halfway between the 32-bit 2D only drivers doing 3D emulation, and Nvidia's 32-bit 3D drivers. The sound system worked without any extra help. However I cannot get the integrated network controller to work. I ended up throwing an old 3Com NIC in and that worked. I haven't tried to configure the Promise card yet.

My SK8N is bios 1003. I cannot flash it to 1004 for some reason....

I compiled and ran the FFTW benchmarks under the 64-bit Suse and the results showed a solid 20% increase in speed. FFTW is Fast Fourier Transform code....

Both installations of Suse were done from retail DVD's.