First public beta of Mandrake Linux 10.2 Beta 1 (x86-64). KDE 3.3.2 packages are built with -fvisibility=hidden -fvisibility-inlines-hidden. This reduces code size and also improves performance of the runtime. A major new feature of Mandrakelinux 10.2 for x86-64 is that you can install a great amount of 32-bit development packages alongside with 64-bit equivalents, without any conflict. NDISwrapper 1.0 now includes support for x86-64.
Mandrake Linux 10.2 Beta 1 (x86-64) Released
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
Here’s a question for the audiance. Has anyone noticed if there’s a significant difference between a x86 and x86-64 distro? Limitations?
Yes, there are still some problems. Some (not-so-well-written) software does not compile on x86-64, while others do compile but don’t run, or don’t run well (in 64-bit mode that is). Up until a few months ago, many X drivers wouldn’t run properly, for example.
However, the scene is becoming bigger and so more patches are sent to authors to fix their software. The situation is still not ideal, but it’s getting better quickly.
It is faster in quite a few programs. In comparison, the 32 bit version of the MDK 10.1 does feel slower.
Damon
sounds like a nice step forward in x86 arch development, but i think i will wait another year for the software side to catch up with the hardware before building a x86-64 AMD box…
let somebody else be the guina pig AKA beta tester…
I have an AMD64 Athlon 3400+. I tried Mandrake 10.1. It was clearly snappier than the 32 bit version. the only problem was the availabilty of software for the platform. Has that changed much between the two versions, both in what comes on the cd’s and what can be downloaded for it. I would love to go 64 bit with my system but i am am holding off until software is readily available in pacakge form. I can compile i’m just lazy.
Glad it reached this stage.Looking forward to when its done to replace 10 on my server.
Peace.
Yes, 10.2 is much better on this front. It’s been developed much harder than 10.1 was – it’s now officially equally as important as 32-bit – and as a previous person mentioned, upstream support for 64-bit is getting better rapidly.
Here’s a question for the audiance. Has anyone noticed if there’s a significant difference between a x86 and x86-64 distro? Limitations?
x86-64 has less packages (for the time being).There isn’t a significant performance gain,as expected.The major increase in performance came from the change of processor itself.Going from a average P4 3GHz or AMD XP3000 + to AMD64 was significant.
Too late. When my old Athlon MB went south. Going with the AMD 64 (socket 754) seemed best.
I though that that feature requires GCC 4.0? Does it work with 3.4 as well?
Linuxhardware.com has done a nice comparison between 32bit vs. 64bit. Athlon 64 and Pentium 4 CPUs have been reviewed at both 32 and 64 bit using Gentoo Linux:
“[…] I’ve received both the new Intel Pentium 4 Extreme Edition at 3.73GHz and the Intel Pentium 4 660 (3.6GHz) and I plan to show you the most comprehensive 64-bit benchmarks of these chips that are available on the Internet.[…]”
http://www.linuxhardware.org/article.pl?sid=05/02/24/1747228&mode=t…
Read once in a forum that when getting Mandrake wait and always go for the .2 version that its usually the best.
Peace
“it’s now officially equally as important as 32-bit”
That’s just not true in my experiance. Until recently cooker for 64 bit had a kernel from October. They say they merged with i586 in Feb, but there are things from the 32 bit that are missing in the 64, specifically the ability to store installation media on HD at installation time.
Touchpad is broke on this release
acpi is half implemented
fglrx is very slow
and because it is 64 bit, the dev will move slowly, not even close to the pace of 32 bit.
If it is as important as 32 bit, why have we had the 32 bit beta2 for quite some time now, and only now are releasing beta 1 for 64 bit? Just doesn’t make sense to me.
Garret
“Just doesn’t make sense to me”
Beta1 x86-64 was generated the 25th of february, so in fact, x86-64 inheritates from the previous beta of the 32 bit platform.
—
arno
gcc 3.4.x man page
Code Generation Options
-fcall-saved-reg -fcall-used-reg -ffixed-reg -fexceptions
-fnon-call-exceptions -funwind-tables -fasyn-
chronous-unwind-tables -finhibit-size-directive -finstru-
ment-functions -fno-common -fno-ident -fpcc-struct-return -fpic
-fPIC -fpie -fPIE -freg-struct-return -fshared-data
-fshort-enums -fshort-double -fshort-wchar -fverbose-asm
-fpack-struct -fstack-check -fstack-limit-register=reg
-fstack-limit-symbol=sym -fargument-alias -fargument-noalias
-fargument-noalias-global -fleading-underscore -ftls-model=model
-ftrapv -fwrapv -fbounds-check -fvisibility
But we are missing things from the beta that it is supposedly inheritated from. Specifically the ability store tha install media to HD and then install from there.
x86-64 still has to catch up to 32-bit, this is the cycle where it’s happening, which is why it’s behind. It will get an equal amount of beta and RC releases as 32-bit, AFAIK (very different from 10.1 cycle), and release a little later. As arno said, this beta was actually generated a week ago, but there’ve been some serious server / mirror problems that delayed the release. The installer feature should definitely appear in beta 2 or so (it wasn’t in 32-bit beta 1, IIRC). Your other problems look upstream to me, though I don’t have direct x86-64 experience, so sorry if that’s wrong.
Thank you, well put and much appreciated.