On Wed, Aug 31, 2005 at 09:57:09PM -0700, Mark Knecht wrote
> Hi Walter,
> I'm setting up the same thing, although I used the 64-bit Gentoo
> install CD. Why are you using 32-bit?
I did some RTFM, and it appears that emerging 32-bit apps requires a
bit of a hassle. You basically have to install a 32-bit chroot
environment, which you drop into to do the 32-bit emerges. What apps
would you want to emerge 32-bit, you ask? Here's a partial list, off
the top of my head, of what you lose if you go 64-bit-only...
- OpenOffice does not build in 64-bit mode.
- 32-bit plugins for your web-browser of choice
- kiss "internet TV" goodbye, because...
- RealPlayer is distributed as a 32-bit app
- mplayer, itself, will compile in 64-bit mode. However, the
"win32codecs" don't exist in a 64-bit equivalent.
The "final straw" for me was that LILO is masked out for 64 bits, and
GRUB is the only available bootloader. GRUB seems to have been
afflicted by Microsoft-featureitis disease. It's got a whole lot of
additional complexity, which allows it to display an image of Clippy (or
Tux) at bootup. Come-on guys; people need a *BOOTLOADER*, not a
singing/dancing penguin or paperclip, at bootup.
What advantages does 64-bit mode offer? I don't have terabytes of RAM
so that ability isn't required. 64-bit mode is allegedly faster by
default on other distros. This is probably true. The underlying reason
for that is that in 64-bit mode, the gcc compiler defaults to include
the flags "-mmmx -msse -msse2 -msse3 -m3dnow -mfpmath=sse" for the AMD64
cpu, which it doesn't do for 32-bit mode on the same chip. On a binary
distro, you're stuck with what you're given. With Gentoo, we "Gentoo
ricers" can set those flags in /etc/make.conf and get their benefit. So
that advantage for 64-bit mode disappears in Gentoo.
> As for the ATI driver I set it up quickly today using the radeon
> driver from xorg-x11.
After reading your message, I tried Radeon, and it seems to work. I
manually entered the frequencies for my monitor, and 1600 X 1200 works
fine. Now I just need to get the sound chip working.
--
Walter Dnes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
My musings on technology and security at http://tech_sec.blog.ca
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