[64studio-devel] Should I try SMP (AMD)?

[Daniel James]

Hi Larry,

> When running the installer in expert mode, I saw that there is an option 
> to install the SMP kernel, but by default it is not installed.

That's right, in 1.0 the 2.6.17 SMP kernel is packaged separately. 
However in the 1.1.0 development (or later) versions this is no longer 
the case. A single 2.6.19 package detects SMP systems automatically.

> Since I have only just installed using the defaults, I was going to 
> re-install using the SMP kernel.

No need, you can install the 2.6.17 SMP kernel from the comfort of your 
desktop, using Synaptic. On the Gnome menu, it's under Desktop -> 
Administration.

> Is there an overview of the state of SMP on linux audio somewhere? Is it 
> in general stable enough to use a production music synthesizer

Yes, people have been using SMP for Linux audio for years, even before 
AMD64 was launched. There used to be 32-bit dual processor Athlon 
motherboards available, which were quite popular back then - Ron Parker 
used to run one at Mirror Image Studios, a real pioneer for Ardour.

> Also, is it possible do install both the SMP and single-processor 
> kernels in a dual boot arrangement?

Absolutely, this is what Grub will be set up for automatically if you 
install any alternative kernel the Debian way, with dpkg -i or Synaptic.

Cheers!

Daniel