Hi guys,

I am about to buy a quad core system with 4 GB ram and wonder if MCNLive (which I suppose is a 32 bit system?) can actually address that much (Windows XP is limited to 3GB I have been told)?

Also, 64 bit capable processors like the Intel duo core's are becoming more common and there should be speed gains. So I wonder if MCNLive could be made available in a 64 bit version (since Free Mandriva has one). Forgive me if it's already 64 bit, I wasn't sure.

Adrian

32 bit processors can address 2^32 bytes of RAM (= exactly 4 GiB). I'm pretty sure linux (the kernel addresses the memory, so there's really no difference between distros) doesn't have the idiot limitations windows apparently has.

Also, I'm pretty sure Mandriva Live CD comes in 64 bit flavor.

All good news for you


Cheers

Thanks. Yep, Linux is better than Windows...



Yes, I am also sure, but how about MCNLive? How many bit does MCNLive run with?

MCNLive is 32Bit, I believe Chris does not own a 64Bit system, so she can't possibly make a 64Bit version

Off course you're free to donate Chris a 64Bit system haha
(or simply create a remaster with an enterprise-kernel in it, that supports up to 64GB of memory, see http://wiki.mandriva.com/en/Docs/Howto/Man...rprise-2.6..2A).

The MCNLive version Delft and Toronto has no problem with 4 GB RAM though it is 32bit.

If someone would be so nice to find a 64bit LiveCD, would boot it (on a 64b hardware) - and then compare it with the speed and functionality with the 32bit MCNLive (on the same 64b hardware), and would say: the 64bit is significant faster (or whatever), I'll try to find a sponsor who will send me a 64b system, and will consider building such a live system.

I have two indenticle LiveDVD 32 & 64 bits Gentoo 2007.0
From booting till the X-server crashed (Acer 5024WLMi with ATi Radeon Mobility X700 PCIe)
The difference is about 10 sec advantage fore the 64bits version.

MauRice
Sorry fore my English.

>MCNLive is 32Bit, I believe Chris does not own a 64Bit system, so she can't possibly make a >64Bit version

But if Free Mandriva comes in both 32 and 64 bit flavours, and MCNLive is based on Mandriva, so what hinders the creation of a MCNLive 64 bit version unless Mandriva expressly disagreed? I am sure it would find much interest amongst MCNLive fans ...

See http://www.mandriva.com/community/mandrivaone -> Mandriva Linux One 2007 Spring KDE 64-bit

The hinder is: someone needs a 'real' ( = hardware) 64b system to build the MCNLive version.
And that is me :-) MCNLive is not built by the official MDV folks but by us, here.

Send me a rocking Intel Core 2 Duo computer, and I will build a version.

It's in the mail...haha

Well, my new quad core system should arrive in mid-September, of course I am not exactly an expert in building systems... . How hard would it be if you sent me the files needed to build it? Maybe someone in the core team has upgrade plans... ?

Meanwhile you are experienced enough. We will make you an expert to build such a version.
This will be fun.

You will install a normal Mandriva 2008 system, install the mklivecd scripts (I am working on a new version for MDV 2008, right now), and create a livecd.

Sounds like fun indeed! Now how much of a time investment am I looking at in doing this? Could it be done in a day or two?

I am really looking forward to those new scripts...!

Well, I now got my new system and guess what, under MCNLive I only have 3.21GB physical memory instead of 4GB! Both the free command and KInfoCenter confirm this. So now what? 800 MB are not usable...

It's because it's not an software issue but a hardware issue. If you can read dutch, read this. If you can't read dutch, just look at the image and try to understand what they mean .
There are a limited memory addresses available. When using 32 bits, there would be exactly enough addresses for the memory, but it's not only the ram memory that needs memory addresses, other things like a graphics card need memory addresses too.

My advice: try to run a 64 bit os. If it's too hard to get everything working, just run 32 bits, you won't notice the speed difference i think. When it becomes easier to switch to 64 bit, you can try to switch again.

Thanks, yes, you need PAE enabled to make use of all that memory. But it seems that the MCNLive doesn't have PAE enabled which is no surprise because that wouldn't run on cpus that don't suport PAE.

When I type dmesg I get this:

"Warning only 4GB will be used.
Use a PAE enabled kernel.
3200MB HIGHMEM available.
895MB LOWMEM available."

So the answer is to recompile the kernel with PAE enabled but that won't be easy I am sure. Maybe future MCNLive versions could provide a PAE enabled version, but of course the best answer is to change to 64 bit unless there are compatibility issues.