i386 with PAE or AMD64 on PowerEdge with 4G RAM

[Mike Meyer]

In <200706221237.l5MCbGKb097211 at fire.js.berklix.net>, Julian H. Stacey <jhs at berklix.org> typed:
> > > A while back I reverted my AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3000+
> > > (2010.06-MHz 686-class CPU) from 64 to 32 bit, 'cos of bad ports.
> > > ls /var/db/pkg | wc -l # 536 Not that I use them all, they just
> > > accumulate.  FreeBSD is as solid as damp cement on many old laptops
> > > ( http://berklix.org/~jhs/hardware/laptops/ ) ie doesn't install  
> > > beyond
> > > 4.11.  No time for ports pain as well as base install failures.
> > 
> > Eh? I would like to contest this statement. I own several old  
> > Thinkpads, an Toshiba Portege and NONE of them have had any problems  
> > what so ever. My Toshiba is running -CURRENT without any issues what  
> > so ever. Damp cement? WTH?
> 
> 5 out of 6 of mine have not wanted to go beyond 4.11 : PCMCIA, PLIP
> etc  Just one ruuns 6.2. FreeBSD 5 & 6 have been a nightmare of
> more functionality at expense of breaking machines. 4.11 actually
> installs & runs
>         see http://berklix.org/~jhs/hardware/laptops/

I don't use FreeBSD on laptops, but I've had much the same experience
with some older desktop hadware - newer FreeBSD's don't boot, with the
disk subsystem failing somewhere along the way.  The depressing part
was searching the bugs database and finding people reporting the exact
same problem on the same hardware when those systems had first been
released as -STABLE, and they still remained unfixed.

But this wasn't 64 vs 32 bit issue - this boxes were to old to run 64
bit code.

	<mike
-- 
Mike Meyer <mwm at mired.org>		http://www.mired.org/consulting.html
Independent Network/Unix/Perforce consultant, email for more information.