topic Re: i686 against i386 in Operating System - Linux

i686 against i386

Tonatiuh — Fri, 15 Jul 2005 06:55:56 GMT

This is my Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.0 uname -a output:

Linux myhost.mydomain 2.4.21-32.0.1.EL #1 Tue May 17 18:01:37 EDT 2005 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

Can I install i386 packages on this machine?
Example:
compat-gcc-7.3-2.96.122.i386.rpm

Is this correct? no problem whit this combination of i686 and i386?

Re: i686 against i386

Gopi Sekar — Fri, 15 Jul 2005 07:00:50 GMT

There should not be any problems in installing this package.

i686 refers to P4 processors and i386 are 386 processor architecture. The packages compiled for i386 can work in i686 without any problems but not the other way around. Thats why RH packages all applications in i386 mode so that it can work on all intel platforms seemlessly.

Exception being that for kernel packages the i686 architecture packages are used to gain performance.

Hope this helps,
Gopi

Re: i686 against i386

Ross Minkov — Sat, 16 Jul 2005 07:38:25 GMT

> Can I install i386 packages on this machine?

Sure you can.

-Ross

Re: i686 against i386

Patrick Terlisten — Sun, 17 Jul 2005 08:42:09 GMT

Hello,

yes you can run i386 packages on a i686 machine. But you canÂ´t run i686 packages on a i486 oder i586 machine.

Regards
Patrick

Re: i686 against i386

Florian Heigl (new acc) — Sun, 17 Jul 2005 10:25:05 GMT

just to clarify - i686 is pentium pro and above, not PIV, and the uname output only refers to the kernel itself, (see the cpu-class option in the kernel sources), while the 'i386' in the package name refers to the i386 architecture (32bit/x86 compatible).

[while You're at it, You should check for the possibility of updating Your kernel and stuff, for 2.4.21 is horribly outdated, 2.4.31 is the current release]

Re: i686 against i386

Stuart Browne — Sun, 17 Jul 2005 16:27:29 GMT

Actually, his kernel is up to date.

RH back-port the changes into their release kernels, so '2.4.21-32.0.1.EL' is pretty recent.

Re: i686 against i386

Steven E. Protter — Mon, 18 Jul 2005 11:36:49 GMT

i386 packages should install no problem at all.

No harm in trying it. You may get a lot of dependency issues.

SEP

Re: i686 against i386

Florian Heigl (new acc) — Tue, 19 Jul 2005 00:47:20 GMT

Stuart - thank You for correcting me.
Interesting it is ;)