Subject: AMD64 stability (was: Quick build.sh type question)
To: Andy Ruhl <acruhl@gmail.com>
From: Richard Rauch <rkr@olib.org>
List: port-amd64
Date: 12/03/2004 22:39:27
Your question is a bit vague, I guess. (^&
Which version of NetBSD/amd64 are you looking at (well, you said the
"snapshot", but I haven't checked its version)?
And "stable and usable" for what?
I've been using NetBSD/amd64 for about a year. It's had more and less
good times.
* Lack of support for some of my hardware at first. E.g., no DMA
support for the hard drive. This wasn't fatal, but as I recall it
was a whole lot faster to do *everything* via NFS from an i386 than
to use the local hard drive.
* I have had to turn off IOAPIC in my kernel config and build a custom
kernel in order to keep my hardware all configuring and to keep it from
dying (losing interrupts) during normal use. I have never seen this
officially fixed; the GNU/LINUX kernel, at least around January 2004
or so, actually disabled IOAPIC if it detected this motherboard
chipset that I'm using. (nVidia nForce3.)
Avoid nVidia's motherboard chipset if you can. )^&
* I've had two memory modules go bad on me. I'm now on my third, and
keeping my fingers crossed. This is just flakey hardware and nothing
to do with NetBSD.
* X loses mouse button events if the mouse is moving while the button
is clicked/released. I believe that M. Bouyer(sp?) confirmed that
he also saw this on the Alpha, so it is believed to be a general
X problem, not a NetBSD or AMD64-specific issue. (But it certainly
does not manifest with my i386 boxes---same mice.)
* Similarly, I've noticed that occasionally CapsLock releases have been
lost, though I can't correlate them to mouse motion. I never had
this with the i386, and have an i386 laptop that is running a not-too-
distant -current. (I can't get the laptop fully up to date due to
another issue that I haven't the expertise to quickly solve and that I
have not yet been able to even *slowly* solve. (^&)
Presently, my system is pretty stable, though the particular revision
I am on (2.99.10 kernel or so) tends to sporadically seize up. I did
not experience that with older kernels. It has not got to the point that
I've bothered trying to build a new kernel in the hopes of fixing this
issue.
I use my AMD64 as my primary system. The biggest annoyance I've had is
having to adjust to using links-gui as my graphical browser. links has
its virtues, but I didn't like being forced to change. (^& (No other
graphical browser I've tried has worked for me under NetBSD/amd64.
See a recent thread on this list.)
I do not run any of the 2.0 release candidates on my AMD64 box,
however. I expect that I'll continue to track -current for a while,
so my experiences may not be directly relavent to your question.
Still, it's an answer of sorts. (^&
--
"I probably don't know what I'm talking about." http://www.olib.org/~rkr/