From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Oct 1 03:50:38 2007 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E30F416A417 for ; Mon, 1 Oct 2007 03:50:38 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from aryeh.friedman@gmail.com) Received: from py-out-1112.google.com (py-out-1112.google.com [64.233.166.182]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9B6AF13C474 for ; Mon, 1 Oct 2007 03:50:38 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from aryeh.friedman@gmail.com) Received: by py-out-1112.google.com with SMTP id u77so6934940pyb for ; Sun, 30 Sep 2007 20:50:37 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=beta; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition; bh=B4t5ZU2Oad4gcUOHQfIIZOGT/S2KlTE6d5XPmGbRxm0=; b=g8GGtlyz+t+fM0QIXpMVaz9eO4oRpxGav+l93RQVC/TalxKpQJ2LXFigauOxYBLZDeofA9jLXjN30vrVBc0eZ9HSFvie8+2y03oElXT716O5CZI60nTTPKU0e7Z/TjwC2JLL4zMnHqVBPlW+5R7qXeESm6MSOyALc+okz5W/ZXc= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=beta; h=received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition; b=OgcSe+KI1eg5Qx7PR8uyhyD+h/oyyIVEQc5rWKSAZgg7sIzTY+/dN/oXpUCb2vAWiCxj1zKZV8+hBOODf9/Bs2xj/+JEzoMMyb+OgvBHedSSwhF7OUuWAv1PIGndRu3G37p0fGJI5IMQ98KmMvX4EE86TiHenDLhBomY5isvho4= Received: by 10.65.100.14 with SMTP id c14mr1479982qbm.1191208968535; Sun, 30 Sep 2007 20:22:48 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.65.105.2 with HTTP; Sun, 30 Sep 2007 20:22:48 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: Date: Mon, 1 Oct 2007 03:22:48 +0000 From: "Aryeh Friedman" To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Subject: various rants about 7-currnet on AMD64 X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 01 Oct 2007 03:50:39 -0000 Sorry for the negative tone of this message but a little background may help.... about 1.5 months ago I bought a new machine for personal use [my only machine actually]... hw (upgraded from a p4-2.8): intel e6850 intel p35 mobo (ihc9) 4 gb (ddr2-667 1GBx4) 500 gb sata 8600 GS nvidia (replaced for reasons below witha 5200 GT) 20" widescreen crt direct cable connection to the net hp deskjet 6980 Being a FreeBSD users since the mid 90's I obviously started with it... in the quest for a working well tuned config (still a few issues even with the current config): 6.2 (cvsup'ed to most recent PL) with i386 kernel 7-current (cvsup'ed upto last night) i386 7-current amd64 The last shows the most promise so far: Issues (all of which have been posted on -questions or -x11): 6.2 -- * Horrid non-SMP kernel performence (acceptable after SMP was added) * Xorg (7.2) not working at all (vesa 640x480 with no mouse was the best I managed) * Many TCP/IP stack issues * All native java builds fail with compile errors * hplip fails immediately after install * Doesn't recognize PATA drives if installed at the same time as SATA 7-CURRENT i386 -- * Horrid performence under default kernel needed to switch to ULE/IPI_PREMEPTION/DEVICE_POLLING * Kernel sees card after install of nvidia driver but Xorg (7.3) doesn't recognize it (vesa 1024x768 only)... many address conflicts reported... nv driver is no better * All native java builds fail with compile errors * hplip fails immediately after install * Diablo-jdk15 completely broken for any GUI oriented code 7-CURRENT amd64 * Diablo-jdk15 completely broken for any GUI oriented code (jdk16 works well though) * Many desktop ports fail with i386 vs. amd64 errors * Nvidia-driver does not support amd64 (but nv works now but only at 1024x768) Misc Rants: CPUTYPE naming -- For people who have been around for a while (read mid-90's) and have never used any AMD mobo's we are used to "historical" differences between early pentiums and amd equivs (for that reason I have never bought a AMD machine)... so calling the 64bit x86 architure amd64 is confusing and misleading. HARDWARE.TXT -- hardware.txt sheds absulutly no light on the above issue except to make it clear that ia64 is not the right choice. Suggestions: * Figure out why xorg should care if your on a 32 or 64 bit addressing bus (has to do with placing pci's buffers at the high end of RAM I think) * AMD64 should be recommended (or at least better documented) for all dual-core machines * Both nvidia.ko and the nv driver need to be improved (I know this is nvidia's problem)