amd64 webpage, 12GB memory? 64-bit or not? SMP or not?

[Norberto Meijome]

On Sat, 18 Mar 2006 08:34:54 -0800 (PST)
"Jeremy C. Reed" <reed at reedmedia.net> wrote:

[...]

> I don't know why it is funny. (Anyways with most cars, even without
> access to engine, you can look on dash board and on fuel cap and see.)

Sure... now, how do you check the dashboard or fuel cap "REMOTELY" ? :)
(checking the fuel cap is like checking the labels on the server, or
the model of the box ,etc).

> Rebooting with an SMP kernel seems like the slow way to find out. I
> am just curious if there is some way without rebooting, maybe the
> non-SMP kernel could detect and printf at boot time (for dmesg)
> something like: "It appears this system is multiprocessor; using
> 'options SMP' may be useful."

just in case it isn't obvious,i doubt this 'helpful' feature will be
added... You can get the information via other means.

> 
> Can you please point me to the webpage that says it is okay to boot
> an amd64 kernel using a i386 (6.0-RELEASE in this case) userland? (I
> will update userland after reboot.)
> 

hmm not sure you can actually do this. amd64 needs 64 bit userland
too... maybe i'm wrong, but everything i've read on this points

> Also can you point me to the documentation for cross-compiling amd64 
> kernel and userland (on i386 host).

this is slightly different - you would need to install onto another
disk and boot the other disk, then get rid of hte i386 disk (I think).

why not just pay 30 minutes of a technician on site and get them to
chuck in the amd64 bit setup disc and do the rest remotely? (or get
them to open the box and see how many cpus it has ;) )

Beto