Programs for 64bit??

[mejason69]

I have a dual core Turion, and I was thinking about switching from the SMP 686 kernel to the AMD64 Kernel. I heard in some places that the programs that are available for amd64 are way less in number than for 686! Is this so?? Is there any major benefits to running 64bit, other than the ability to access more than 4gigs of ram?? I only have 1gig, and doing just fine with it right now.


thanks

[askrieger]

Re: Programs for 64bit??

First, the number of packages available in (K)Ubuntu for AMD64 processors is 18,490. The number of packages available for i386 is 18,944, which means that less than 2.5% of the packages available for the i386 architecture are not available for AMD64. So what are those 454 packages? Most of them are non-free software (in the multiverse repository) that have not been compiled for AMD64 by their manufacturers (most notably Adobe, which has chosen not to make Flash available for AMD64 since they purchased Macromedia). You can't see Flash on AMD64 even if you run windoze. Since most Flash displays are ads, I haven't missed it.

However, the primary advantage of AMD64 is not the fact that it can address trillions of bytes of RAM, but rather that it can execute some particular types of code 15 to 20% faster than a 32 bit processor. This is particularly advantageous if you are generating 3D images, processing audio, or if you run numerical models of physical processes. For normal computer users, the advantages of 64 bit code have not yet arrived. As time goes by, more and more applications will take advantage of the AMD64 architecture, but at this time, there really isn't any reason to usie an AMD64 processor. But, if you have already coughed up the extra cash, you might as well use it.

[ehurst]

Re: Programs for 64bit??

Agreed. There are some advantages, indeed, but it's not likely to be a huge difference just yet. For me, it's more about future-proofing. I have indeed run into an unfair neglect of AMD64 among packages. For the most part, smaller packages can be quickly built. For example, I wanted Vim 7.0, which were offered for everything except AMD64. Here's a quick tutorial which explains how I got around that.
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Let's call our package, "package." Download all the various parts, files from a source repository of the package and version you want:

 package.orig.tar.gz
  package.dsc
  package.changes
  package.diff.gz

That last may not exist if the package is already a native Debian source. If this is a Debian sourced package, and you are simply building for an architecture not covered, for example, run:

 apt-get build-dep package

If that doesn't work, or this is some unusual package source, check the '.dsc' file to see if you have all the various dependencies and other requirements. Usually that means running 'apt-get install' for each item listed.

Put it all in a directory by itself. In the directory where all is sitting, run

dpkg-source -x package

Be sure package name includes the version numbers, etc. based on the '.dsc' file. Usually, just name the package whatever comes before .dsc.

Then, cd down into the top directory of the source

cd ./package

Build it

dpkg-buildpackage -uc -b

When finished, cd up one level ("cd ../") and you can install it:

dpkg -i package.deb