Re: [RFC] Reproducible OOM with just a few sleeps

Sedat Dilek
2013-01-15T10:25:43Z

Hi Paul,

I followed a bit the thread you started in [1].

As you might know i386 got eliminated in Linux-3.8.

I had several discussions with the Debian kernel-team about the iN86
(N=4..6) and PAE kernel-flavours.
On the one hand I can understand the reduction of linux-images
especially for iN86.
Even i486 is a bit unfirm as there is no much hardware around, but
Debian will keep i486 for a while (release maintenance).

Topic PAE:
Unfortunately, I had a notebook with a Intel Centrino Banias CPU (no
PAE) which should use the -486 kernel-flavour due to the Debian
kernel-team.
I played with some different kernel-setup which did not give me more
benefit (openssl benchmarks etc.)
The -686-pae kernel did run on my hardware, but as known with all the
SMP-NO-OPs.

Depending on the hardware, it really makes sense to switch to x86_64
(amd64) architecture when you have a modern computer.
Switching makes even more sense when you have more than 4GiB RAM.
IMHO using a -686-amd64 Debian kernel makes ZERO sense, real 64-Bit or die!

I switched to 64-bit... and I switched from Debian/sid to
Ubuntu/precise as well :-).
( NOTE: I am working here since April 2012 in a WUBI environment (no
native Ubuntu Linux) :-). )

And I am building my kernels by myself.
So I know very well whom to blame :-).

Some last words: I had several fruitful or fruitless discussions with
the Debian kernel-team, but I can confirm (with all my heart) this
team makes a fantastic job.
I can recommend you Ben's blog (recently I read a series about news in
the Debian/wheezy kernel) if your world is Debian or Ubuntu (Debian !=
Ubuntu).

Just my 0.02EUR (no British pound, here as well: when you are a member
of the EU chose EUR not pound!).

Regards,
- Sedat -

[1] http://marc.info/?t=135796172200001&r=1&w=2