Dual Celeron 400s and Linux

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Blank Lou
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Dual Celeron 400s and Linux

Post by Blank Lou »

I have been using my BP6 to learn Linux. I have two Celeron 400s and I am using Mandrake 9.1 I noticed that the bios reports two CPUs, but Linux reports only one. I assume that for some reason it didn't notice the presence of the other CPU when the kernal was installed.

Is the BIOS reporting that two processors are installed or that the MOBO has two processors and is capable of SMP?

If the BIOS shows 2 CPUs installed, why didn't Mandrake setup an SMP kernal during the install? Was there something I needed to do to select that option? I understood it was automatic.

I posted this in a Linux forum, but got no takers. I am afraid this is a BP6 issue so I was hoping someone here whould have been through this already.

Thanks,
hugoc
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Post by hugoc »

You should make sure your MPS is set to 1.4, not 1.1. This gives better SMP support.

The board and BIOS will both support SMP if two processors are installed. However, to actually have SMP your O/S needs to support it. That's why the BP6 manual says SMP is for "testing only". :)

The POST will tell you if both CPUs were detected. After that, it's all up to the O/S. It should work. Mandrake 9.1 worked just great on my system, fully SMP.
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hyperspace
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Post by hyperspace »

I 'm pretty sure I choose the SMP kernel during the installation process on 8.x , 9.x and 10.0. You can change which kernel you boot with, anytime.
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Blank Lou
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Post by Blank Lou »

I have RU bios and I have 1.4 selected. By BIOS does say I have 2 processors yet Mandrake 9.1 only shows one CPU.

How do I select which kernal I boot too? Are you talking about a command line entry or recompiling?

Thanks,
Holodeck2
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Post by Holodeck2 »

you can reinstall it or recompile the kernel... command line lovin time :-D
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24seven
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Post by 24seven »

You could try installing the SMP kernel using urpmi.
Then just edit the lilo or grub config file to include that kernel, although I think with the rpm kernels it might do that for you. But its still worth checking.

I would also advise getting hold of a distro that uses the 2.6 kernel and is much quicker. e.g. Mandrake 10

Or as holodeck says you could recompile the kernel to inculde SMP suport, although you may need to install the kernel source to do this.
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Post by hyperspace »

You can do it from the Mandrake Control Center. You'll have to use the root password to access this GUI interface. Once your in, select the Boot icon. Now, select the Boot loader icon. On this next section, you don't need to make any changes here (but you can if you want), select the Next button. You should see several different boot kernel entries. One of them will have the asterick (*) at the end of the boot entry. This is the default or current boot entry. If you see a linux-smp entry, highlight it and select Modify on the right side. Click on, Default, and select OK. Select Finish and restart your system. You are now entering the SMP world. :)
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24seven
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Post by 24seven »

GUI, whats that? :evil:
lol :)
purrkur
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Post by purrkur »

Blank Lou:
yet Mandrake 9.1 only shows one CPU
Where are you seeing this??

Could you provide me with the output from the following command:

Code: Select all

cat /proc/cpuinfo
You are right to post these type of questions here, although you should have gone to the Linux part of the forum :) I think that there are quite a few Linux BP6:ers found here...
Blank Lou
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Post by Blank Lou »

Thanks all. I posted in this forum because I was afraid it was a Celeron smp issue and not so much a Linux issue. Turns out it was a user issue. :oops:

I was able to select the smp option in

I got the cpu info at Configuration>>KDE>>Information>>Processor. It now lists both processors. Thanks a bunch.

I did try the cat /proc/cpuinfo command, but I am so new at Linux I couldn't get the text file I copied and pasted to to copy onto my floppy disk. It says it is in the mnt/floppy and I can access it there but nothing gets written to the floppy itself. :? I need to do some more reading.

I have a new video card for it and I am just waiting for the offical 10.0 disks to come out. I have the community disks, but I cannot boot with disk 1 and disk 2 gives me a kernal bug when I try to install so I was just trying to figure the smp thing out while I wait for the new disks. I didn't want to do a new install and get that wrong again.

Thanks a bunch. I'll post in the Linux section on how to make good use of the smp features. I'd like to dedicate one processor to run a game server and the other a print server and file server for my home. :D
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Post by purrkur »

Hi Blank Lou,

The "cpuinfo" isn't really a regular file system file. Do this command:

Code: Select all

ls -l /proc
And you will see that all files (except kcore) are set to zero. The /proc filesystem is kernel based so it isn't really a bunch of files that can be played with like other regular files.

If you want a copy of it then do this instead:

Code: Select all

cat /proc/cpuinfo > ~/cpuinfo.txt
And you will get a file called "cpuinfo.txt" in your home directory that is an exact copy of your /proc/cpuinfo file. That is a file you will be able to copy to a floppy if you want to.

Cheers,
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