Compile/Setup for Dual-Proc. System...

[Breetie]

I'll be getting a new system, here in the next few days (for my schooling), and here are the *PRELIMINARY* specs of the system; if something/combination of hardware will cause trouble, let me know. Thus the reason for this thread:

PIII 933MHz Proc. (x2)
GigaByte Dual-Proc. M/B (Not sure which, yet...suggestions?)
512MB RAM (Basic PC-133)
GeForce3 AGP video w/64MB RAM (Not sure which vendor...suggestions?)
WD 40GB Ultra-DMA 66 HDD
SoundBlaster Live! S/C
NIC--Intel chipset (Again, not sure of the vendor)

I tried finding info--especially on compiling my kernel for this system--and I have found very little that is any help to someone who has never compiled a kernel before. I want RedHat 7.1x w/latest kernel...maybe even the Raiser FS? Not sure yet, on the FS type--wether or not to stick with ext2, etc.--and since finding the info has proven to be at least partially-difficult to find, I'd sure appreciate any advice/help/here's-how-you-do-it advice anyone could give. I'm actually surprised that info on compiling is so sketchy...seems odd, don't you think? Anyway...if the specs for the new machine could create problems (e.g., the GeForce3 has trouble with <insert conflicting library/device/item here>, that I may be unaware of) let me know. I've tried to devise a system that should work well-enough, considering the nature of the hardware involved.
Especially if you have a precious link, to some pages that outline compiling for dual-processor systems, that would be awesome. Thanks!

[ 16 September 2001: Message edited by: Breetie ]

[Craig McPherson]

Well, you'll need to pick a distro that has UDMA support on its installer kernel, and if you want to make all your filesystems ReiserFS, the installer kernel will need to have ReiserFS support built in as well.

Once the system is up, you'll need to recompile the kernel with SMP support to get the second CPU working, unless the distro comes with an SMP kernel. The system will work fine until then. The kernel compile should be pretty uneventful: SMP, UDMA, SBLive, your NIC's chipset, ReiserFS, plus all the normal stuff. Do you have any specific questions or concerns?

As for the NIC, there's only one thing that really matters: what chipset it uses, and hence, what Linux driver it uses. I personally will vouce for any card that uses the tulip driver, but any others should be pretty much equivalent.

[Breetie]

Originally posted by Craig McPherson:
<STRONG>Do you have any specific questions or concerns?
</STRONG>

Well, here's a list, Craig:

1). Are there advantages to using Reiser over ext2?

2). Does RedHat 7.1x come with/made to support SMP, UDMA? Or should I choose a different distro? (Stampede, Debian, Slackware...)

3). Do know of/point to where I can find all the specifics of compiling a kernel (Imagine you know nothing about compiling, and that's me.)

Before I buy, I want to be sure what I'm looking to do is feasable. If the SMP support, for example, is just in experimental stages and unstable, or UDMA support is only partially-complete, I doubt I should bother, since my only other O/S choice would be NT, and I couldn't be happy running NT.
I suppose 'experimental' and 'unstable' are loose terms for 'will work with some configurations with limited completion'. I guess ALL the GNU/Linux stuff is experimental, they're just in different stages of devel.
Thanks, BTW, Craig. Appreciate the time.

[Unruly]

Originally posted by Breetie:
<STRONG>Well, here's a list, Craig:

1). Are there advantages to using Reiser over ext2?

2). Does RedHat 7.1x come with/made to support SMP, UDMA? Or should I choose a different distro? (Stampede, Debian, Slackware...)

3). Do know of/point to where I can find all the specifics of compiling a kernel (Imagine you know nothing about compiling, and that's me.)

Before I buy, I want to be sure what I'm looking to do is feasable. If the SMP support, for example, is just in experimental stages and unstable, or UDMA support is only partially-complete, I doubt I should bother, since my only other O/S choice would be NT, and I couldn't be happy running NT.
I suppose 'experimental' and 'unstable' are loose terms for 'will work with some configurations with limited completion'. I guess ALL the GNU/Linux stuff is experimental, they're just in different stages of devel.
Thanks, BTW, Craig. Appreciate the time.</STRONG>

Riser FS has more of a "cold" reboot survival rate than ext2... it's similar to a windows fat32 system, but with MUCH better file handling...

Installer kernels are pretty much the same all around, you want to make sure that it's using a UDMA kernel module of some sort, so it can see your drives.
http://www.linuxnewbie.org/nhf/intel/compiling/kernelcomp.html -- the basics on kernel compiling

[Craig McPherson]

Originally posted by Breetie:
<STRONG>Well, here's a list, Craig:

1). Are there advantages to using Reiser over ext2?</STRONG>

1. It's moderately faster. I can't tell you how much faster, exactly. Most people see a noticable difference.

2. It's journaling. That's the most important thing. That means it's impossible for filesystem corruption or data loss to occur if the system is powered-off suddently or the filesystem isn't otherwise unmounted.

2). Does RedHat 7.1x come with/made to support SMP, UDMA?

Every distribution uses the same Linux kernel. The installation kernel will almost certainly support UDMA. There may be a pre-compiled kernel you can choose from that supports SMP. If not, you'll need to recompile the kernel. You should always recompile your kernel anyway, so it's not a big deal.

3). Do know of/point to where I can find all the specifics of compiling a kernel (Imagine you know nothing about compiling, and that's me.)

Well, as I recall I first took the Kernel HOWTO (which you can find on linuxdoc.org, or anywhere else that mirrors the HOWTOs) and gave it a try, but my first 5 kernels didn't boot, so you might want to try something a little friendlier. There are NHFs on kernel compiling. I haven't read them, but I'm sure they're decent. Your distro's documentation should also contain instructions.

Before I buy, I want to be sure what I'm looking to do is feasable. If the SMP support, for example, is just in experimental stages and unstable

Linux SMP support has been solid for years now. Much better than FreeBSD's, a bit better than WinNT's (unless you go beyond 4 CPUs, where IIRC Linux can lag a bit behind), not quite as good as some commercial UNIXen's, and a ton better than Win9x seeing as Win9x has no SMP support at all.

or UDMA support is only partially-complete

Every non-obscure chipset on the market should be complete. It'd help if you know what UDMA chipset you have, although I imagine Redhat's installer kernel has support for all of them built in, just to make sure everybody can install their distro.

[Breetie]

Originally posted by Craig McPherson:
<STRONG>Every non-obscure chipset on the market should be complete. It'd help if you know what UDMA chipset you have, although I imagine Redhat's installer kernel has support for all of them built in, just to make sure everybody can install their distro.</STRONG>

Yeah, all I know at this point is that it would be a Gigabyte M/B; chipset specifics aren't known, but I would imagine it will be an Intel-based Onboard. That's cool, too, about LNO NHF's, I'll take a look.

As for Reiser, sounds like something I'd want to go for. Is that a selectable FS under the RedHat 7.1x install, or what do I need to know in order to set it up?

Thanks, Craig, BTW, for your time.