Kernel Images

Bob Nielsen nielsen at oz.net
Tue May 31 00:52:43 UTC 2005


On Mon, 2005-05-30 at 20:29 -0400, Paul M. Bucalo wrote:
> On Mon, 2005-05-30 at 16:21 -0700, Randy Forston wrote:
> > > From: Michael Beattie
> > > > Subject: Re: Kernel Images
> > > > If you want to know which kernel image will best take advantage of any
> > > > built-in cpu features, from a terminal window, run:
> > > >                uname -m
> > > >
> > > > This command will tell you which kernel version will give you best the
> > > > performance for YOUR motherboard/cpu combo
> 
> <...>
> 
> > > I may be mistaken, but that command will tell you which arch the
> > > kernel you are running was compiled for, not which arch the processor
> > > is.
> > 
> > 
> > When I was running the default install kernel (i386), I ran uname -m and it
> > responded with the result  i686 .
> 
> Randy, this is what the help switch says:
> 
> $ uname --help
> Usage: uname [OPTION]...
> Print certain system information.  With no OPTION, same as -s.
> 
>   -a, --all                print all information, in the following order:
>   -s, --kernel-name        print the kernel name
>   -n, --nodename           print the network node hostname
>   -r, --kernel-release     print the kernel release
>   -v, --kernel-version     print the kernel version
> * -m, --machine            print the machine hardware name
>    < * Wouldn't this imply what the CPU is?>
>   -o, --operating-system   print the operating system
>       --help     display this help and exit
>       --version  output version information and exit
> 
> My system has an AMD K6-2 processor, which is considered i586:
> 
> $ uname -a
> Linux pmbent1 2.6.10-5-386 #1 Fri May 20 13:52:48 UTC 2005 i586 GNU/Linux
> 
> It would appear that I am using the generic i386 kernel. No mention of
> an i586 kernel when I look in Synaptic with all the possible source
> mirrors activated. This box is important enough to me that if anyone
> knows how to get a current Ubuntu i586 kernel for Hoary (without
> recompiling), I would greatly appreciate knowing where. Whenever I have
> been able to acquire one in a Linux distro for this box, I've noticed a
> difference in performance.

Don't be too wary of recompiling.  It should work fine and make-kpkg
makes things easy.  There is a K6 option, which is probably a bit
different than 586.









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