Sun Fire X2100 M2 - which kernel?

[fabrik]

hi everybody!

i'm new here as a writer but i've learned a lot from this site. many thanks for all of the contributors of this site!

i'd like to ask you about which kernel is that i need for this machine:
http://www.sun.com/servers/entry/x2100/

the server now running with debian default kernel which isn't very good because the system see only the half of the ram and the half of the processor speed. :(
i'd like to use all of my modest 2Gb rams and use properly the dual core processor. but i don't want to use the 64bit kernel because i can't upgrade my rams now.

the next problem is this server is up and running at an ISP far away from me. is there out any precompiled kernel which is fit for my needs? if not, which kernel is that optimal for this server?

many thanks for your help:
fabrik

[falko]

How much memory does the system have? What processor type?

What are the outputs of uname -a, cat/proc/cpuinfo and cat /proc/meminfo?

[fabrik]

hi falko, thanks for your reply.

uname -a
Linux finger 2.6.18-5-486 #1 Mon Dec 24 16:04:42 UTC 2007 i686 GNU/Linux

cat/proc/cpuinfo
processor : 0
vendor_id : AuthenticAMD
cpu family : 15
model : 67
model name : Dual-Core AMD Opteron(tm) Processor 1214
stepping : 3
cpu MHz : 2211.436
cache size : 1024 KB
fdiv_bug : no
hlt_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
coma_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 1
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt lm 3dnowext 3dnow pni cx16 lahf_lm cmp_legacy svm cr8legacy ts fid vid ttp tm stc
bogomips : 4426.20

cat /proc/meminfo
MemTotal: 906792 kB
MemFree: 22816 kB
Buffers: 57512 kB
Cached: 661816 kB
SwapCached: 24 kB
Active: 575536 kB
Inactive: 253176 kB
HighTotal: 0 kB
HighFree: 0 kB
LowTotal: 906792 kB
LowFree: 22816 kB
SwapTotal: 3145720 kB
SwapFree: 3145696 kB
Dirty: 4 kB
Writeback: 0 kB
AnonPages: 109380 kB
Mapped: 19040 kB
Slab: 45544 kB
PageTables: 1308 kB
NFS_Unstable: 0 kB
Bounce: 0 kB
CommitLimit: 3599116 kB
Committed_AS: 381672 kB
VmallocTotal: 122576 kB
VmallocUsed: 6996 kB
VmallocChunk: 113192 kB

[falko]

You should install an SMP kernel. It should see both CPU cores.

[Hans]

Within this thread, there i've mentioned an example how you can install an smp-kernel:
http://www.howtoforge.com/forums/showthread.php?p=102942#post102942

[fabrik]

You should install an SMP kernel. It should see both CPU cores.

that's my biggest problem. which smp kernel is that i should install? i've read somewhere k8==opteron64 so maybe this is what i need. another writing suggest i should install simply the amd64 kernel.

another problem is the raid system which is based on this http://www.planamente.ch/emidio/pages/linux_howto_root_lvm_raid_etch.php

will the raid array work when i simply install a kernel (not compiling it)?

[Hans]

On Debian Etch, If you do an: apt-cache search kernel-image | grep smp
You will find the kernel image: kernel-image-2.6-amd64-k8-smp
This should be the right one for you, as you have AMD Opteron processors.
EMT64 kernels are for Intel processors.

And yes, you can make use of software RAID with a Debian kernel image, without compiling it. I use it myself. ;)
I did setup software RAID during the first setup, not afterwards.

[fabrik]

that was very hard. 2hours of jitter without any connection between me and the server. the isp was very kind and finally the original kernel was selected. now everything is fine except that the kernel is the original not the amd64.

why?
i'm ran into a bug: http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=411663

i don't know what to do. i don't think this bug was solved.