i686 against i386

[Tonatiuh]

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?

[Gopi Sekar]

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

[Ross Minkov]

> Can I install i386 packages on this machine?

Sure you can.


-Ross

[Patrick Terlisten]

Hello,

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

Regards
Patrick

[Florian Heigl (new acc)]

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[while You're at it, You should check for the possibility of updating Your kernel and stuff, for 2.4.21 is horribly outdated, 2.4.31 is the current release]

[Stuart Browne]

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.

[Steven E. Protter]

i386 packages should install no problem at all.

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

SEP

[Florian Heigl (new acc)]

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