AMD-64 chip

corblimey

Has anyone got this chipset and managed to install the x86 version of Ubuntu without any trouble? I had major trouble installing Ubuntu on my machine, but I think it was more due to h/d issues than the chipset. I tried several different versions and eventually got the 64-bit version working on an external h/d. But now I'm having trouble installing some apps (Skype, for example) as they're built for the x86 build.

Now if I can use the x86 version even with this chip in place, I'll happily wipe off and start again, but I'd like to know ahead of time if it's even possible. Basically, I had trouble installing the x86 version on this machine, but like I said, that may have been because of my h/d issues.

stereo_steve

I'm running 32bit x86 on my AMD3200+ machine at home. It has the nforce 4 chipset and works perfectly. Dunno if yours is the same.

Its strange your having trouble. Perhaps go with Intrepid? Its got the latest kernel. Its still in Alpha though, so for the next 6 weeks or so it'll be unstable.

/Steve

corblimey

That's what I hoped. I'd had trouble installing the x86 version, but my h/d was causing a lot of trouble, so the problems may have been less to do with the version of Ubuntu and more to do with the bad sectors.

I assume I'll have to re-partition (ie wipe) my external h/d to move from 64-bit to 32-bit?

An Fear Aniar

You can force install the i386 package. All 32-bit programs are able to be run in 64-bit architecture (someone in the Ubuntu forums say this).

If you download a package do this to install it:

sudo dpkg -i --force-architecture nameofpackage.deb

See here:

http://learninginlinux.wordpress.com/2008/05/29/skype-on-ubuntu-804-amd64/

There's also a command

sudo dpkg -i --force-all

that will sort out any other objections - dpendencies I think.


I got Skype working on my 64 bit Ubuntu using the force-architecture command.


.

stereo_steve

corblimey wrote: »

I assume I'll have to re-partition (ie wipe) my external h/d to move from 64-bit to 32-bit?

Nope, your file system is fine.

corkie

have a look here
http://www.linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2008-09-12-002-35-OS-SW

I have amd64 mini-desktop successfully running intrepid 64-bit.

Other links provide on linuxtoday site.

Regards,
John

Hotblack Desiato

I'm running 64-bit openSUSE 11.0 on a Macbook (64-bit Core2Duo) but was previously running a 32-bit 10.3 on this machine. Yes, a different distro but that doesn't really matter, distros differ only in details really.

Intel x86-64 vs. AMD x86-64 makes no difference, AMD extended Intel's 32-bit standards to 64-bit and Intel were forced to adopt it
Just don't try to install any packages for IA-64 (Intel Itanium) should you come across any, they won't work.

64-bit should be trouble free. I upgraded from 32-bit openSUSE 10.3 to 64-bit 11.0 without having to reformat /home , all 32-bit packages' settings etc. worked perfectly on the 64-bit packages. Browser bookmarks, mail, news, etc. even desktop icons all appeared just as before.

I did force the install of the 32-bit Firefox though, as my internet banking requires Java applets that don't work on 64-bit yet. Apart from Java applets, there should be no problems with 64-bit packages. 32-bit packages run perfectly on 64-bit distros, and indeed 32-bit distros run perfectly on a 64-bit machine.

64-bit offers better performance in theory, but most people wouldn't notice. The real advantage is removing the 4GB RAM limitation, although there were ways around that on 32-bit, and a lot of 64-bit machines (especially laptops) don't support more than 4GB RAM anyway. I made the switch basically because I was curious, and if I ever get around to building that quad-core 8GB RAM box it'll be useful experience

NB a chipset isn't really the CPU, but the support chips around it. Unless you are using a very very new motherboard, there shouldn't be problems relating to support for the chipset.