i386 on AMD64 architecture

Micah micahjon at ywave.com
Sun Sep 25 14:37:56 PDT 2005



Graham North wrote:
> Thanks Micah!
> 
> Which version of FBSD are you using?   Your choice of MB looks pretty 
> solid.   Can you recommend a good, supported (and cheap) video card as 
> the A8V-E does not seem to have video.
> Thanks again, Graham/
> 

I'm using 5.4-RELEASE-p7 for the i386 install and 5.4-RELEASE for the 
AMD64 install.  As for video, no particular recommendation.  I have an 
ATI X300 SE by MSI.  It's a cheap ($60) PCI-EX card.  Unfortunately it 
has no graphics acceleration under FreeBSD/XORG so I might as well have 
bought a cheaper PCI card. :)  Other caveats: I've read that the onboard 
NIC isn't compatible yet and I haven't tried the onboard wifi or sata 
since I don't have any equipment to test them with.  I saw some messages 
in one of the freebsd lists that indicates /someone/ is working on the 
NIC though.

Later,
Micah


> Micah wrote:
> 
>>
>>
>> Graham North wrote:
>>
>>> It is my understanding that the AMD 64 family supports 32-bit i386 
>>> code completely...can someone confirm this.
>>>
>>> I would like to stay with 32 bit for the time being but run it on a 
>>> new MB using an AMD64 architecture.  Should I therefore be simply 
>>> installing an i386 iso as though it is on an Intel machine? Will the 
>>> i386 iso then have full support for AMD specific drivers such as the 
>>> k8t800?  I noticed from this link  
>>> http://www.freebsd.org/platforms/amd64/motherboards.html THAT the the 
>>> VIA K8T800 and K8T890 seem to be reasonably supported whereas not 
>>> many other current AMD Northbridges are (note however that  this 
>>> support is for AMD64 iso).
>>>
>>> Any pearls of wisdom much appreciated. No I do not wish to install as 
>>> 64 bit at this time...
>>> Thanks, Graham/
>>>
>>
>> You'll probably get a lot of responses on this one.  I'm currently 
>> running the i386 FreeBSD on an Ahtlon 64 as my desktop.  I also have 
>> the 64 bit installed on a seperate partition to experiment with.  I 
>> have an A8V-E mobo that has the K8T890.  Works just fine except an 
>> occasional glitch while booting freezes the system.  I've read it's an 
>> ACPI thing, but since I rarely reboot I've not bothered to disable ACPI.
>>
>> Later,
>> Micah
>>
>>


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