Questions on Intel Core 2 Duo

[rasty]

Hi I have just bought a new pc with Intel core 2 duo and installed the Kubuntu 7.04 (64-bit version). Everything works fine! I just read somewhere that I need to recompile the kernel enabling SMP support to use both processors otherwise kernel uses only the first. Is this true? Isn't there any pre-compiled kernel in official repos? I've tried to compile kernels before (mostly 6.10) but usually I got stuck with a non booting system, etc. Thanks for any reply in advance! Ubuntu rocks and Linux RULES 8)

[dibl]

Re: Questions on Intel Core 2 Duo

I'm running Ubuntu 7.04 64-bit low-latency kernel on my Core 2 Extreme, and there's nothing special except if you gotta have flash in Firefox then you need to run a script installer to install 32-bit flash because there isn't a 64-bit version.

SMP support is in the Linux kernels already -- you don't need to compile it. Do a

cat /proc/cpuinfo

and you should see both CPU cores and their attributes.

[SheeEttin]

Re: Questions on Intel Core 2 Duo

What exactly is a low-latency kernel?

[dibl]

Re: Questions on Intel Core 2 Duo

I'm pretty far from a Linux kernel engineer, but here's how I understand it. Folks who are trying to do processing on audio and video files have some difficulty with the "latency" in the standard "fits 'em all" Linux kernels, due to the normal delay between a particular CPU I/O request and the kernel's servicing of that request. Although it's only a few milliseconds, it can cause quality problems in a sound or video stream, with respect to the hitting point in the stream at which a process was intended to be performed. So, the developers first cooked up a "low-latency" kernel to reduce that I/O service time, and now they have a somewhat experimental "near real time" kernel, that is supposed to be even faster responding than the low-latency one. But that one's not in the repos yet -- not sure where it stands in development.

So, I wanted to set up a record capturing and digitizing system, for some old 78 rpm and 33.3 rpm albums, and so I did that with a Ubuntu 64-bit low-latency kernel on a fast SATA drive, and it seems to be working pretty well, as far as my old ears can tell.

I hope that answers the question.

[SheeEttin]

Re: Questions on Intel Core 2 Duo

Yeah, I get it now. Thanks.

[rasty]

Re: Questions on Intel Core 2 Duo

Thanks that was quick! Yeah really when I cat... I do see the two cores and they are also visible by kde infocenter etc. just wanted to be sure that both cores are being used by the kernel. I've installed the irqbalance package not actually knowing what it does. I am kind of new in this technology(dual core, 64-bit etc.). Until now I had a p4 256mb ram, 2.4 ghz cpu geforce4 mx440. Pretty old machine! 8)

Does anyone know any good tips about when compiling a kernel from scratch(vanilla)? Not about drivers of course...Only tips on all those weird things during menuconfig...and possibly architecture decision(core2duo mostly)? Thanks

[SheeEttin]

Re: Questions on Intel Core 2 Duo

That's not old. A 500 MHz Pentium 3(?), 256 MB RAM, 10 GB hard drive is old. It's the family computer here.