AMD64: What does this gain us? Other than suffering?

[clytle374]

Been on AMD64 for 2 years, fought through the Firefox/Mplayer/Flash/Java all before. Last time I finally resorted to the chroot method. About a month ago a major user error killed the system, and I had to start over.

So I tried Firefox-bin only to find out that things are being removed from Mplayer-bin and no longer play a bunch of my moves. But Mplayer now seems to not need codecs and works really good, even Firefox plugin. I finally get icedtea and the plugin running, install flash and nspluginwrapper. Java works good. But Flash sucks, working just good enough to taunt me. And Firefox is horribly slow compared to Firefox-bin.

Now I'm trying to get a some ymessenger clone that works with a webcam so my roommate can video chat with her Grandma who bought her a web cam. Of course Yahoo's Linux version doesn't work, and I can't find a web cam enabled clone, and Flash through nspluginwrapper won't work the web cam reliably either.

So, it is build everything in a chroot again, or x86 the whole machine.

What does 64bit gain us???
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NooB since RedHat 6.1

[loftwyr]

An enjoyable challenge for the geekily inclined.
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My emerge --info
Have you run revdep-rebuild lately? It's in gentoolkit and it's worth a shot if things don't work well.
Celebrating 5 years of Gentoo-ing.

[clytle374]

Why are they removing things from mplayer-bin? I think it is at least faad that is missing.
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NooB since RedHat 6.1

[gerard27]

Last april I got me a new shiny box.
Core2duo and all that.
At last I thought,I can install 64 bit!
A month later I wiped it and did an x86 install.
The things that worked under 64 were not slower under 32.
So I'm not going back to 64 unless all these things have been solved.
Gerard.
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To install Gentoo I use sysrescuecd.Based on Gentoo,has firefox to browse Gentoo docs and mc to browse (and edit) files.
The same disk can be used for 32 and 64 bit installs.
You can follow the Handbook verbatim.
http://www.sysresccd.org/Download

[loftwyr]

If you're using the box for desktop and you don't use any math or memory intensive apps, x86-64 isn't likely going to help you any.

It's faster for a few things but in reality, the average user doesn't need 64 bits. As with 32 bits, eventually that will change but not for a while.
_________________
My emerge --info
Have you run revdep-rebuild lately? It's in gentoolkit and it's worth a shot if things don't work well.
Celebrating 5 years of Gentoo-ing.

[clytle374]

I was told(incorrectly) before that you can't mismatch player and plugins, you can run 64b mplayer with the 32b plugins. And vise versa.

FireFox-32b [OK]
Java-32b [OK]
FlashPlayer-32b [OK]
Mplayer-64b [OK]
Mpalyer-plugin-32b (Stolen for Fedora) [OK]

Developers, ridding our systems of 32-bit binaries is a great idea, but a usable system is more important. IMHO
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NooB since RedHat 6.1

[theethicalatheist]

Eh, I've been using 64-bit Linux since November 2007, and I haven't had any issues unique to AMD64. Flash works fine in 64-bit Konqueror and Firefox, Skype works, Google Earth works, NVIDIA provides 64-bit drivers. I really see no reason to stick with i386 at this point.
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"Be excellent to each other" - Bill & Ted

[clytle374]

[theethicalatheist]

[clytle374]

[theethicalatheist]

[clytle374]

So your running 32-bit Firefox.
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NooB since RedHat 6.1

[OldTango]

[MM23]

I've been running unstable ~amd64 Gentoo for like, 8 months now. It's, ironically, stable as hell. Almost more so than x86 was for me on my old P4. Can't really complain...

AMD Athlon X2 6400+, SMP compiled 2.6.24-r2. I listen to music with Amarok, browse the web with Firefox, watch movies with mplayer and vlc (I can watch h264 1280x720 HD episodes of TV shows + DVDs fine...), and use a Graphire4 tablet with Photoshop CS2 in Wine almost daily... pressure sensitivity and all that works fine. I also play EVE Online, UT2004, and Garry's Mod/Team Fortress 2 in Steam without any problems with latest unstable Nvidia drivers. I also screw with compiz-fusion/emerald every once in a while.

How the fuck are people still bitching about 64-bit Linux still not being ready? Maybe I'm just lucky? The only major problem I've been having is insane amounts of lag and unresponsiveness during heavy disk activity -- admittedly, a pretty terrible problem and one I did not have running on 32-bit Gentoo. updatedb + trying to switch tabs takes like 30 seconds.

Also, I keep flash masked at >9.0.48.0-r1 and it runs perfectly in 64-bit Firefox for me with nspluginwrapper. The latest version is a different story, however. Java too, admittedly, is completely fucked, but I hate Java anyway.

I haven't used a chroot yet, and I don't forsee having to in the near future.

[theethicalatheist]

[clytle374]

[theethicalatheist]

[DaggyStyle]

I use 64bit java plugin (icedtea) and 64bit flash (swfdec) and I have no problems.
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Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the former - Albert Einstein

[clytle374]

[96140]

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[clytle374]

[MM23]

[Clad in Sky]

So you're saying I should give 64bit a shot when my new stuff arrives on monday or tuesday?
I don't have more than 4GB of RAM, yet. Is there still any advantage in 64bit for me?

[Cyker]

If you have time, trying 64bit x86 is worth a go, otherwise I'd stick with 32bit.
There isn't any advantage going 64bit over 32bit unless you're going over 4GB RAM or are dealing with large number crunching. However you pay a price in terms of 32bit compatibility (It works pretty well for the most part, but expect compromises).

That said, if you ONLY use source-compiled packages from Portage, the difference between 32&64 installs is very small.

[droidix]

Even without 4GB+ memory, isn't an AMD64 machine faster since GCC can optimize method calls more often to use registers instead of the stack when passing arguments? Can GCC apply this to local variables of a method as well, forgoing use of the stack completely in some instances?