Three Questions from an old newbie

[hrobinson57]

Does Knoppix support 64bit dual core proccessors such as AMD 64 X2? Also is there any temp monitoring software available? My fans are noisy, and I want to turn them down as much as possible without frying things. Finally is there any advantage really in Dual Channel memory. I have 2 1GB sticks in now but monitoring with sys info I never even use 1. I could use that other stick elsewhere. Thank you in advance.

Hal

[jjmac]

Howdy,


# 1

Not sure if knoppix comes in 64 bit, but as far as any 32 bit OS running on a 64 bit cpu go, not a problem.

The processor will come up initially in 16 bit mode (bios), then, on detecting the kernel thats being used, will either switch to 32 bit or 64 bit mode.

So it doesn't matter really. A 32 bit or 64 bit OS will run fine on a 64 bit cpu.

# 2

Look into a package called "lm-sensors". If your board has sensor capabilities then its' configuration system will detect the correct configuration. The docs need to be read though as some tweaking of the settings may be needed to get the correct output. As it only reads the sensor data it can't harm your board if mis-configured.

It should be available on debs ftp site ...

http://ftp.debian.org/

The project site is at http://www.lm-sensors.nu

X also has a reasonable gui display available too, in the "xsensors" package.

"lm-sensors" only provides a temp/fan speed read out though. Not an adjustment.

If you have a hdd install then you can effect some control over your cpu frequency via the "cpufreq" config option in the kernel.

Using a "make gconfig" in /usr/src/linux for a gtk gui config facility it will be under the ...

"CPU Frequency scaling" sub-branch of the ...

"Power Management options" main branch in the gui's config display. Concerns later 2.6.x kernels of course.

Some control should be available via the bios as well.

As for the availability with the LiveCD ... possibly. I can't confirm that directly though.


# 3

... you can bet on that.
You are advised to use "matched pair" ram to get the best out of it.

Of course, there's ram and there's ram. If you have good matched pair 2-2-2-2 ram you will get better performance.

Depends what your doing of course. But it basically just means that when your processor accesses your ram, it will do so through two channels simultaneously. So, if you are accessing that ram often, such as in intensive cpu dependant tasks like compilations or gaming, or using large sorting or scientific type applications then you will get better performance. As for as disk read/writes go , then other things will of course come into the picture. Such as the drives them selves.

aside from that ... very desirable all round. It does need the matched pair ram modules though

>>
but monitoring with sys info I never even use 1
>>

(grin) ... as far as you know that is

You can never have enough ram. Never again having to suffer the latencies of swap/paging operations ... etc

I'm old enough myself to remember the pure irritation of trying to run "lots" of applications at once on a ram/cpu starved box during the 90's.

Modern boxes have come so far ... folks forget


jm
Humpty Dumpty Was Pushed !

[Maud_Dib]

Hello hrobinson57
I run Knoppix 4.0.2 Live CD on both an AMD 64 X2 and an Opteron 165 X2 both with one Gig of Dual channel ram.
on the boot splash screen , you will see Two penguins on a dual core and one penguin on a single core , it is SMP aware !
One gig of ram is plenty for what I do ( 2 - 512 MB sticks ) , but you definitely want to run Dual channel , it loads twice as fast from ram that way !

[Harry Kuhman]

See answer #7.