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Lots of bugs in 32-bit x86 Linux entry code

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Re: Lots of bugs in 32-bit x86 Linux entry code

#101

Post by lsofzz »

kbenson wrote: post #47
cptskippy wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Completely off topic but... Althlon64 was a swift kick in the nuts for Intel, but AMD really didn't followup until Ryzen. I wonder if they're going to stick around and fight this time.

Sometimes when the swift kick in the nuts is delivered to an 800-pound gorilla, it doesn't matter if you stay around to fight, you're outclassed. This time, AMD may have stepped up with a steel pipe. We'll see how well they can use it...

> This time, AMD may have stepped up with a steel pipe. We'll see how well they can use it...

:-))))

Re: Lots of bugs in 32-bit x86 Linux entry code

#102

Post by Piskvorrr »

mavhc wrote: post #93
geofft wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they've stopped building them in 19.10. 18.04 is an LTS supported for 5 years, so users of i386-only CPUs are fine until 2023.

I have a load of 32bit laptops, "I'll put ChromiumOS on them", nope, that's not a thing any more. OK, err Linux? Apparently not. Could put Windows 10 on them I guess.

Ubuntu is a Linux, but Linux is not only Ubuntu. I have loads of x86 boxes - Debian, Puppy Linux, whatever. (Win10 has a 32-bit option? Whoa. #TIL)

Re: Lots of bugs in 32-bit x86 Linux entry code

#103

Post by Piskvorrr »

gizmo686 wrote: post #58
yingw787 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was able to upgrade from Lubuntu 16.04 to 18.04 for my 32bit IBM Thinkpad T42 using do_release_upgrade. It’s not downloadable on the website, but I think for 18.04 the build is still there.

You can download Ubuntu going back to 4.10 here: http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/releases/

Not sure how well that would work for installing things that aren't in the release ISOs...

Re: Lots of bugs in 32-bit x86 Linux entry code

#104

Post by Piskvorrr »

boring_twenties wrote: post #87
tedunangst wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That might describe every rpi running off SD.

I dunno, not sure about the latest Pi models but the network performance was horrid on the earlier ones, like 20Mbits/sec tops.

If you're talking RPi1, perhaps. That's 2012, however...and one of the first things to get better in every further model.

Re: Lots of bugs in 32-bit x86 Linux entry code

#105

Post by chithanh »

geofft wrote: post #60
yingw787 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was able to upgrade from Lubuntu 16.04 to 18.04 for my 32bit IBM Thinkpad T42 using do_release_upgrade. It’s not downloadable on the website, but I think for 18.04 the build is still there.

I think they've stopped building them in 19.10. 18.04 is an LTS supported for 5 years, so users of i386-only CPUs are fine until 2023.

Lubuntu 18.04 (and most other Ubuntu derivatives like Xubuntu etc.) is only supported for 3 years.

Re: Lots of bugs in 32-bit x86 Linux entry code

#106

Post by amluto »

jagger27 wrote: post #98
imron wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why would we want to switch to 128 bit addresses? How else are you going to have more than 16 exabytes of RAM?

Memory banking is the obvious and ancient solution. PAE is another.

PAE is a kludge because the architects needed to add another tiny page table level to keep 32 bits of virtual space, but didn’t really want to add another level.

The concept of having more physical address bits than virtual bits is reasonable, although it falls apart a bit with virtualization. The idea of having magic registers that fill themselves in for you and can’t be read at all (such as the PAE PDPTR registers) is a bad idea that unfortunately repeats itself in x86 design. Architects: don’t do this.

Re: Lots of bugs in 32-bit x86 Linux entry code

#107

Post by amluto »

TD-Linux wrote: post #24
skissane wrote: post #21

> We need real CI resources It would be easy to boot the 32-bit kernel in a VM as part of a CI pipeline and then run some automated tests to catch issues like this. (Unless by "real" he means non-virtualised? Is there anything about these bugs that would only reproduce on bare metal?)

I think the issue is not the hardware needed but simply the cost of the extra compute. Linux doesn't have an "official" CI server but relies on third parties running it, and none of them want to spend $ on compute for an architecture they will never use.

The hardware cost should be negligible. The relevant cost is labor.

Re: Lots of bugs in 32-bit x86 Linux entry code

#108

Post by BuildTheRobots »

nickysielicki wrote: post #48
jdsully wrote: post #5

I remember being an early adopter of 64-bit Linux with my Athlon64 back in the day. Lots of stuff was broken and I got a lot of debate on whether it was any faster or worthwhile at all. It's really cool to see the technology curve go full circle.

My dad bought me an Anthlon64 machine for Christmas and we put it together. Not know much about anything, I remember being pissed off/confused that I didn’t have Windows XP 64-bit in spite of having that Anthlon64 sticker on the front. A few years later my brother was starting a web server to host a forum for the Digital TV switch-over focused on the Madison, WI market, shout-out and RIP madcityhd.com Watching him se…

There was actually a 64bit version of Windows XP which I inflicted on my dad for a while - sounds like you did well to avoid it ;)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_XP_Professional_x64_Ed...

Re: Lots of bugs in 32-bit x86 Linux entry code

#109

Post by yencabulator »

bildung wrote: post #97
mavhc wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a load of 32bit laptops, "I'll put ChromiumOS on them", nope, that's not a thing any more. OK, err Linux? Apparently not. Could put Windows 10 on them I guess.

You could try Debian, which is essentially Ubuntu minus some themes. I doubt Debian will drop i386 support soon (I just searched and couldn't find hints of an end of support of i386)

But then you'll have all these kernel bugs.

Re: Lots of bugs in 32-bit x86 Linux entry code

#110

Post by bildung »

yencabulator wrote: post #109
bildung wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could try Debian, which is essentially Ubuntu minus some themes. I doubt Debian will drop i386 support soon (I just searched and couldn't find hints of an end of support of i386)

But then you'll have all these kernel bugs.

What do you mean?
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