Using dual Xeons with Linux, what version do i choose?

[coolred]

I am messing around wih many differant linux distros, and I recentlly built a dual Xeon rig. SHould I be using the P4 version of the distros, or something else?

 

[bersl2]

Are these processors Nocona, with the 64-bit extensions?

 

[coolred]

Nope, they are 400Mhz bus ones, I forget what core that is, not normally an intel man myself.

 

[bersl2]

Then go with a normal distro.

 

[halfadder]

WhiteBox Linux (Generic Free RedHat Enterprise)
SuSE would also be a good choice.

You will probably have to manually tell it to use the dual processor kernel.

 

[coolred]

I don't want to know what distro to use, I want to know which version of it to use. You know some have them built specificly for AMD XP or AMD64 or P4 or whatever. None I have seen have been built for the Xeon CPU, is it basiclly just like the P4 or is it differant enough that I should just choose the i686 generic version?

 

[halfadder]

The 400+mhz bus xeons are based on the P4. Go with a version that's P4 optimized.

But really, anything for i686 will run well. You don't need to go as far as compiling a custom build with gentoo.

 

[coolred]

I'm not compiling anything, many distros have precompiled versions for many CPU types. Thanks

 

[bersl2]

pentium4 or i686==pentiumpro (i686 tends to be the latest lowest common denominator)