Redhat Linux and K8N Neo2 Platinum

[Goatie]

Hi,

Complete Linux noob here. I've recently decided to download linux to use on a dual boot K8N/FX-55 based system (I chose redhat because apparently they have good hardware support). I've searched the web, but really can't find an answer to my questions, so here I am, heh.

Basically, I'd like to know if anyone knows how compatible the components of the MSI board are with redhat linux(namely the onboard ethernet and sound). Also, I have a couple of questions pertaining as to how Linux will actually run.

First off, I know there is a 64-bit Linux kernal and a 32bit one. I've also heard(although not 100% sure about this) that if I use 64-bit Linux with 32-bit applications, the OS uses an emulator to do this and has a slight impact on performance. For this reason (if its true) I intend to use 32-bt seeing as the 64-bit support isn't around yet.

I guess thats it for now, hope someone can clear this up. Thanks in advance.

Edit: Just like to mention that my choosing of redhat was almost completley arbitrary, so if someone wants to recommend another distribution to me, I'd be more than willing to listen(Just remember, user friendly is nice for a noob, heh)

 

[MNKyDeth]

You may want to use Fedora Core instead of Red Hat. Red changed to Fedora Core sometime last year and is much much more updated. I also run an A64 machine and I used to use RH9. RH9 won't detect anything on your current setup, well, maybe somethings but not enough to get it to install.

As for the 32-bit 64bit thing. Most all programs will compile into 64bits. Some have bugs yet but most you need are there and working. Web browsers, ftp, music players can all use 64bit without problems in a 64bit enviroment. The problem is some things like flash and java do not have a 64bit port yet so it may lack some nifty things like that.

If you really want to see how 64bit Linux is progressing hit the gentoo.org A64 forums and see what people are having problems with and such.

32bit distro's do feel slower than 64bit distro's but you do retain compat easier of course. I am a pure Linux gamer and x86-64 isn't ready for games yet although there are games available.

Well, hope I was clear enough

 

[Goatie]

Heh, thanks for the quick reply.

So you have similar components and use Fedora? Are all the motherboards components compatible with that(Its still in beta isn't it?). I'll probably use that if you say its compatible, and Fedora is 32-bit right? Fine with me, cheers for the advice. So....many...questions.....still...argh.

 

[drag]

That's a Nforce3 motherboard, correct?

I personally prefer Via-based (good quality ones, not the cheapest ones possible, those invarably suck) motherboards to Nforce3 for Linux system.

The hot ticket for gaming in linux is:
AMD cpu, Via-based motherboard, Audigy sound card, Nvidia video card.

Don't worry about RAID, it's not that good (see Stop the RAID0 Insanity! section from july-02). Anyways Linux's software raid is the fastest thing you can get and it doesn't require any special drives or controllers (although for all disks in the array you want them to be all master drives if your using PATA, so a IDE to PCI adapter is in order if you want RAID 5).

Personally I have a KT400-based motherboard + "2400+" AMD CPU + Audigy 1 + GeforceFX 5900 XT.

Aviod ATI video cards, they have poor driver performance and are hard to get going.

The thing about the nforce-based boards is that in Linux you want to aviod propriatory drivers, Video can't be helped there are only Nvidia and ATI to choose from for gaming. But there are plenty of good motherboards that have proper linux support. (Intel and Via based are mostly compatable out of the box, unless they are brand brand new).

For instance to get network going you need to have the propriatory drivers downloaded. But to download the drivers you need to connect to the internet. (see the conflict?!)

Also SMP setup will give you very good performance with Linux. see here for a inexpensive (not "cheap", very high quality) Unix workstation buying advice.

As far as 32bit vs 64bit goes. You will get a slight performance boost by having 64bit OS. It's not just the kernel, but also the programs and supporting libraries (libraries of compiled code used by application makers, similar to .dll files).

You can run 32bit binaries in a 64bit Linux OS. It's not thru emulation, it's thru the compatability mode built into the hardware. So it's fast. The problem is that you must have copies of 32bit library files to run 32bit programs.

For instance if your running KDE enviroment, it uses a QT library toolkit for all the widgets and stuff like that. In a AMD64 OS you have everything compiled specificly for that platform. Those libraries get loaded into RAM and take up space. It's not that much in itself. But if you want to run a 32bit KDE-style binaries you ALSO must load the same QT library, but this time 32bit. So you'd end up with 2 copies of the QT library in RAM. After a while it takes up RAM space and disk space.

If you want to run AMD64 now, you can. But it may be simplier to just run 32bit until you get used to everything. Depends. If you decide to run a nforce3 based board, don't worry. Nvidia has AMD64 drivers, becareful which one you download.

(i386, x86 = 32bit,
AMD64, x86-64 = 64bit)