LinuxMCE Forums

General => Developers => Topic started by: Zaerc on July 23, 2007, 08:44:59 PM

Title: What about processor optimization, i586 and below supported?
Post by: Zaerc on July 23, 2007, 08:44:59 PM
I'm having some trouble running an old pentium-1 machine (586) as a media director, could it be that the LMCE (1.1 Beta2) binaries are optimized for 686 and higher?

There could be other reasons as well so I'm hoping that someone who tried running on anything less then an 686 can either confirm or deny this.
Title: Re: What about processor optimization, i586 and below supported?
Post by: 1audio on July 24, 2007, 06:47:34 AM
I can say from running it on a VIA 1500 platform that its really sloooow on slow processors. And some things may not run without enough memory. At one point I had 256 of the 512 on an AMD devoted to video and it was crashing constantly. Backing off to 128M of ram helped a lot.
Title: Re: What about processor optimization, i586 and below supported?
Post by: Zaerc on July 24, 2007, 11:55:13 PM
Thanks for the reply, I think you are right this machine has way to little memory and I can't get at the (SCSI) disk to get some swapspace either for some reason. 

I left the machine on overnight and it got all the way to the AV-setup wizzard (but does not seem to get past the resolution/refreshrate selection).  So I guess that answers my original question.

I tried removing all it's devices except for the ones I want/need, but I cannot seem to get rid of the mythtv-backend, it keeps getting started anyway.  All I really wanted from it is to be able to use it's (SCSI) cdrom drive, it was a nice experiment anyway.  And I might make a wiki page on how to pxe-boot machines with grub instead of the usual nic-bios.
Title: Re: What about processor optimization, i586 and below supported?
Post by: PeteK on July 25, 2007, 05:11:05 PM
Zaerc--

If you could post that wiki page, it would be great.  I've got an older Shuttle that will PXE boot off of the (100baseT) internal adapter, but for the life of me, I cannot find a PXE-BIOS equipped 1000BaseT PCI adapter).
Title: Re: What about processor optimization, i586 and below supported?
Post by: 1audio on July 25, 2007, 05:56:55 PM
Its hard to justify gigEthernet for an MD. None of the traffic comes close to the limits for 100MbE let alone  GigE. Even 1080p BluRay is only 45 Mbps, well within the ability of 100baseT (not that we will get access to that content anytime soon). It is a difference for a core but won't prevent it from working.
Title: Re: What about processor optimization, i586 and below supported?
Post by: PeteK on July 25, 2007, 06:15:52 PM
Sure.  LOGICALLY, you make a a good point that 100baseT will suffice for media directors.  But 1000 > 100!
Title: Re: What about processor optimization, i586 and below supported?
Post by: 1audio on July 25, 2007, 06:24:58 PM
I would do the same up to but not including a HDD just to get gigE. However this is $13.  http://cgi.ebay.com/IBM-NetXtreme-1000SX-Low-Profile-Gigabit-Card-22P7809_W0QQitemZ300133572158QQihZ020QQcategoryZ51196QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem (http://cgi.ebay.com/IBM-NetXtreme-1000SX-Low-Profile-Gigabit-Card-22P7809_W0QQitemZ300133572158QQihZ020QQcategoryZ51196QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem)

ebay item 300133572158 if the link gets mangled.
Title: Re: What about processor optimization, i586 and below supported?
Post by: Zaerc on July 26, 2007, 03:35:00 AM
As requested, a wiki page on PXE booting with GRUB (http://wiki.linuxmce.com/index.php/GRUB_PXE), I'm sorry I can't make it any easier but I tried to describe it the best I could. 
Title: Re: What about processor optimization, i586 and below supported?
Post by: sandos on July 26, 2007, 06:12:58 AM
I am fairly certain that Intels Pro/1000 cards have PXE? Im sure they have some sort of boot support because I see the question for network boot when I start a machine here that has one in it. Theyr'e expensive but supposedly good.

http://www.intel.com/network/connectivity/products/pro1000gt_desktop_adapter.htm (http://www.intel.com/network/connectivity/products/pro1000gt_desktop_adapter.htm)
Title: Re: What about processor optimization, i586 and below supported?
Post by: PeteK on July 27, 2007, 12:04:22 AM
Quote from: Zaerc on July 26, 2007, 03:35:00 AM
As requested, a wiki page on PXE booting with GRUB (http://wiki.linuxmce.com/index.php/GRUB_PXE), I'm sorry I can't make it any easier but I tried to describe it the best I could. 

Thanks!
Title: Re: What about processor optimization, i586 and below supported?
Post by: Zaerc on July 27, 2007, 04:35:25 AM
Quote from: PeteK on July 27, 2007, 12:04:22 AM
Quote from: Zaerc on July 26, 2007, 03:35:00 AM
As requested, a wiki page on PXE booting with GRUB (http://wiki.linuxmce.com/index.php/GRUB_PXE), I'm sorry I can't make it any easier but I tried to describe it the best I could. 

Thanks!
You're welcome, I hope you can get it to work.