-386 or -686 kernel?

[Teunis]

I've had Kubuntu on my dual boot (XP) laptop since kernel 2.6.10.5 and it's always been a -686 version.

After the upgrade to Dapper I had some issues that made me do a new install from the live DVD.

Now after some ten days I realised the new install is with a -386 kernel plus it (the kernel) did not end up on the reserved 100 MB hda2 partition but under /boot on the main 20GB Linux partition hda5

Would there be an advantage to do a new install, mainly because of the 686 optimalisations or possibly to get the kernel on it's own partition?

Hardware: Toshiba SA40-211 (P4-2.8mHz-512MB)

[sky]

Re: -386 or -686 kernel?

Hi,

For me you can just install the latest 686 kernel without reinstalling, and as it's loaded in memory, why do you want to install it on its own partition ?

Cheers

[JavaByte]

Re: -386 or -686 kernel?

if you install 686 kernel, do you still get the option to boot 386 kernel?

if so i'll give it a go

[OuchOfDeath]

Re: -386 or -686 kernel?

Yes you do, and after you can just remove the 386 kernel if you don't need it anymore. It can easily be removed with adept by just removing the 386 kernel packages.

[OuchOfDeath]

Re: -386 or -686 kernel?

Yes you do, and after you can just remove the 386 kernel if you don't need it anymore. It can easily be removed with adept by just removing the 386 kernel packages. (there's 2)

[Teunis]

Re: -386 or -686 kernel?

Hi,

For me you can just install the latest 686 kernel without reinstalling, and as it's loaded in memory, why do you want to install it on its own partition ?

Cheers

Why on it's own partition?
The traditional reasons I guess.

I'll see how to install 'the latest' 686 kernel as optional.

20 mins. later and the 686 version is running.
.dep is even better than I thought!

The question wether there are (noticeable) advantages to this Kernel remains.

Now I'll look into modifying grub and moving the Kernel(s) to my designated partition.

Thanks!

[The Liquidator]

Re: -386 or -686 kernel?

Here's my recent experience (Dell Inspiron 630m Centrino laptop).

Was using kernel 2.6.15-23 (686) without issue. Adept updated to -25 (386) at the weekend. I installed -25 (686) and found a very marked deterioration in boot time with the 686 kernel (although not the 386).

It would dwell for about 15 seconds at the point "starting basic networking" with the 686 kernel but not with the others. From there it went into text mode booting taking a further very long pause at the point "loading manual drivers". All in all it added at least another 50% onto my overall boot time, so I am now using the 386 version. I don't detect any meaningful reduction in performance.

Whilst on this, my experiments with this have shown that I was able to install/uninstall the 686 kernel at will without any need to re-download, even after reboots. This means of course that the package must have been saved on my hard drive somewhere. Presumably this applies to all downloaded packages and, if so, is there an easy way of deleting them once they have been installed?

Thanks

Ian

[sky]

Re: -386 or -686 kernel?

Hi,

You're right, they are in /var/cache/apt/archives.
You can clean it by the command : sudo apt-get clean

Cheers

[The Liquidator]

Re: -386 or -686 kernel?

Wow!

That has just cleared a lot of space. By my crude reckoning about 5-7 Gb if not more. Given the partition is only 20Gb, that's a massive difference.

Thanks

[Nirvana]

Re: -386 or -686 kernel?

Wow!

That has just cleared a lot of space..<snip>..about 5-7 Gb if not more

What have you apt-getted? That's a lot of packages!

[The Liquidator]

Re: -386 or -686 kernel?

My original CD is Dapper flight 7 and since then all I have done is run adept to check for updates every couple of days and then download them. I have also downloaded quite a few packages that were not on the CD. One thing that might be significant is that there was a period of a few days where almost nightly there was a new version of Openoffice.org. The 5-7 gb is a rough guess, based upon my recollection of the free space I had before. I guess I should have done a before and after but neglected to do so.

[Nirvana]

Re: -386 or -686 kernel?

ahh... I see, seems about right then.

[Paul_Vandenberg]

Re: -386 or -686 kernel?

Interestingly, I noticed that if you install from the Live CD, you get the 386 kernel by default. When I reinstalled from the DVD, using the text mode installer, I got the 686 kernel by default.

Paul