About 64-bit And It's Problems

Hi!

I have 64-bit laptop and have installed 64-bit openSuSE 10.1 on it. It's not working as I think it's supposed. Can't get flash or java working, can't compile anything and it's so sloooow that I just get bored waiting for an application to open.

What if I install 32 bit on my machine? I had 32-bit mandriva on it for a while, but it was too fast. Time was running very fast - a minute lasted about 30 seconds, games were so fast that they were impossible to play and the machine was running very hot - temperature was so high that after about 15 minutes I had to shut off so that machine would cool down. Is it really possible to have a 32-bit distro on 64-bit machine and make it work so it's supposed? What should I do?

I like suse very much - easy installation, good documentation even in my homelanguage and one thing that I haven't got working in any other distro that I have tried - ati driver, it's working and it was easy to get it working 'cause there is good manual for that.

I really hope that there is someone who has good tips and can give me some hope to make suse work for me.

Thanks,

-anneli

I currently have 32bit Suse 10.1 on a x64 while i wait for my x64 version to arrive, i have no problems at all, maybe try a reinstall? or just boot into failsafe and see if it makes a difference.

Same here. If you are not comfortable with getting 64-bit to work correctly, 32-bit will definately work on that machine. You will have to reload from scratch though. Backup your home directory.

Hi!

I have 64-bit laptop and have installed 64-bit openSuSE 10.1 on it. It's not working as I think it's supposed. Can't get flash or java working, can't compile anything and it's so sloooow that I just get bored waiting for an application to open.

What if I install 32 bit on my machine? I had 32-bit mandriva on it for a while, but it was too fast. Time was running very fast - a minute lasted about 30 seconds, games were so fast that they were impossible to play and the machine was running very hot - temperature was so high that after about 15 minutes I had to shut off so that machine would cool down. Is it really possible to have a 32-bit distro on 64-bit machine and make it work so it's supposed? What should I do?

I like suse very much - easy installation, good documentation even in my homelanguage and one thing that I haven't got working in any other distro that I have tried - ati driver, it's working and it was easy to get it working 'cause there is good manual for that.

I really hope that there is someone who has good tips and can give me some hope to make suse work for me.

Thanks,

-anneli
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Anneli,

You will get a better response if you give us some specs to work with -- like what model of laptop do you have? Why? -- because we have to go searching.

Without much to go on, It sounds like a BIOS problem. Get and install the latest BIOS for your laptop.
Then if you still have a problem look here: http://www.suseforums.net/index.php?showtopic=13893. Fixing the DSDT is initially going to look very hard, but, if you do it step-by-step is not hard at all.

Look at "dmesg" in a terminal and post the errors & warnings here.
Look on "linux on laptops" for your model.

Suse expects the bios to meet spec; laptop OEMs are the worst for not meeting spec with the bios.

The fastest & best tool is to use a copy of "Knoppix live CD" as it is the best for hardware detection & it won't mess up your system to run the live cd. See what hardware Knoppix detects; compare the "dmesg" looking for errors and warnings.

It should make no difference if it is 64-bit or 32-bit, except where there exists no released 64-bit propriatary code as in the case of flash. We get around that by running a 32bit browser in the 64-bit install. Except that 64-bit will be 20% faster overall (& I'm not talking about the bios clock).

Give all of this a shot. I have to go on a trip. When you have it all done, post back & give Harryc a PM & ask him to respond to this thread.

Good luck...

Hi!

Thanks Tehhaxorr and harryc, now I know it is possible to make 32bit suse to work on a x64 machine. 32 bit Mandriva didn't work, but when I get home I'll give a try for 32bit suse. And yes, I tried the 64bit mandriva too (it worked allmost like a dream), but there are reasons why I'm not gonna use mandriva ever again... Thats an other story and doesn't belong here...

Snakedriver: If you need to know I have a HP NX6125 with an AMD turion64. And cause I'm not on my own machine now and can't remember anything (allmost) can't give more information just now. Anyway, I got answer to that if it is possible to install working 32bit distro on a 64bit machine. That was the main question that I was wondering after my tryout with mandrivas 32 bit version.


I think that I'll be back here asking stupid questions again someday.

Thanks for all of you!

-anneli

Tbh I would just stick with 32-bit. I have an AMD64/512Mb and I am finding that 10.1 32-bit runs faster on this spec than the 64-bit. Much more responsive.

Snakedriver: If you need to know I have a HP NX6125 with an AMD turion64.
-anneli
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That's all I need. Darn that hacker! Mid spring, Adler was here with the same issue & it got solved. Alas the thread is gone now. You might PM him & ask for his boot codes. Better, ask him to post a howto for his Turion 64 laptop.

The solution was using some boot codes. Start reading here: http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Kernel_Pa..._for_ACPI/APIC As I remember, the solution was a set of two boot codes. I'll have to search to be exact, otherwise I'd just be guessing.

I still recommend looking for a BIOS upgrade.

Also look here: http://www.linux-laptop.net/
and here: http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=suse-amd64...NX6125+&q=b
and here for 32-bit: http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=suse-linux...=NX6125&q=b

BTW, early on, that laptop was known to have a heating problem with linux; run with the AC connected & you will be assured of having at least one fan operating.

So, until we can come up with the boot codes, here is what I recommend:
run with the AC connected
At the boot splash, hit F3 (I think) and type "noapic" with out the quotes, boot

let us know how it goes.

There's another code to go with that if I can ever find it. It may have to be put off until I get back from my trip.

Have fun...

Good morning!

Thank you, people. After some of you told me that you have working 32 bit suse installed on 64bit machine, I finally dared to try it. Now I have working suse installation which is faster and more stable that the 64 bit version was. This makes me wonder why to make a 64 bit version of a distro if a 32 bit version works and is actually better than a 64 bit version... And other thing what I started to wonder is that why 32 bit mandriva was such a mess in my laptop, but that is a guestion that doesn't belong here and I'm going to MUB to ask that. Someday...

-anneli

Part of the reason why 32-bit might be faster on some machines is that if you install 64-bit, unavoidably some applications that have not beenported over will require 32-bit shared libraries, which SUSE provides. However it means duplication of libraries in memory. If you don't have a lot of memory, it will start going into swap, slowing things down.

Things that are not 64-bit ready are stuff like flash plugins, proprietary device drivers, and hairy stuff like OpenOffice that still have 32-bit assumption bugs in the code.

Personally I can't stand wasting my 64-bit CPU on 32-bits so I compromise and run 32-bit Firefox because of flash issues, otherwise nearly everything else is 64-bit. Fortunately this is a desktop so I don't have proprietary drivers, except for the nvidia video driver.

Part of the reason why 32-bit might be faster on some machines is that if you install 64-bit, unavoidably some applications that have not beenported over will require 32-bit shared libraries, which SUSE provides. However it means duplication of libraries in memory. If you don't have a lot of memory, it will start going into swap, slowing things down.

Things that are not 64-bit ready are stuff like flash plugins, proprietary device drivers, and hairy stuff like OpenOffice that still have 32-bit assumption bugs in the code.

Personally I can't stand wasting my 64-bit CPU on 32-bits so I compromise and run 32-bit Firefox because of flash issues, otherwise nearly everything else is 64-bit. Fortunately this is a desktop so I don't have proprietary drivers, except for the nvidia video driver.
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Interesting theory, and probably you are correct. Would that account for a default vanilla install though, without any extra apps added? Because thats what mine was.. 'out of the box' it was dog slow. If this is true, I have to wonder why those particular (DLLs ? hehe j/k) shared libraries are still in 32 bit?