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Debian Votes on AMD64 in Sarge

Posted by michael on from the vote-the-party-line dept.

JayBonci writes "According to a message sent to debian-vote, there is now a GR on the table as to whether or not to include AMD64 into the upcoming sarge release, even though it violates part of the LSB (Linux Standards Base). The debian-vote list has more discussion on it. Does this best meet the needs of the users?"

2 of 55 comments (clear)

  1. Re:If LSB can't support AMD64... by Cecil · · Score: 5, Informative

    No, IA32 machines will give way to AMD64 machines. IA64 died with Itanium.

    Additionally, LSB 2.0 sets out specifications for AMD64 ports. However, it is still in public review, and is not the current standard. This is a problem for Debian, which has (up until now) always gone out of their way to do things "by the book".

    --
    Random and weird software I've written.
  2. Re:What's wrong with the LSB? by Jahf · · Score: 4, Informative

    Yes and no.

    Yes, the AMD64 chips can run 32bit code even when the kernel is 64bit. But to run an app in 64bit mode you must have 64bit compiled libraries.

    Example ... 64bit kernel wants to run 32bit XFree86 binaries ... it must use 32bit versions of all the Xfree libraries. On the other hand, 64bit kernel wants to run 64bit Xfree86 binaries ... the XFree libraries must be compiled for 64bit usage.

    Therefore you have to have 64bit libraries and 32bit libraries. You can't run a 32bit application with the 64bit libraries and you most definitely can't run 64bit applications with 32bit libraries.

    The 64bit kernel in all the above cases would still be a 64bit kernel, but there are app dependencies.

    --
    It is more productive to voice thoughtful opinions (reply) than to judge (moderate) others.