Swapping my computer hardware (mobo, CPU, etc.) with Debian...
in [Linux Hardware]
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From: ANTant on 13 Dec 2006 20:02 Hello, I am planning to uprgade my old Debian/Linux box (Kernel 2.6.17-2-K7; Athlon XP)'s hardware since I am getting a newer and faster system. I would like to toss my gaming box's hardware (Athlon 64) in that mid-tower ATX case) as an upgrade (faster Linux box). The other stuff like HDTV tuner, TV card, sound card, etc. will not be moved into the Linux box. Will I just be able to swap the motherboards, CPUs, RAMs, and video cards) and retain my old two HDDs (no reordering or anything; still IDE), a DVD-ROM drive, and my Linux (no reinstall) and boot it up with no problems? Or do I have to do something fancy? I use the Kernel package from apt-get. I never compiled anything. I think I only have modules for the latest NVIDIA driver and VMware v5.5.2. I think everything else is just default. You can view my current desktop configurations at: http://alpha.zimage.com/~ant/antfarm/about/computers.txt Thank you in advance. :) -- "Thanks for giving me the courage to eat all those ants." --unknown /\___/\ / /\ /\ \ Phillip (Ant) @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site) | |o o| | Ant's Quality Foraged Links (AQFL): http://aqfl.net \ _ / Please remove ANT if replying by e-mail. ( )
From: Michael Panev on 14 Dec 2006 13:34 ANTant(a)zimage.com wrote: > Hello, > > I am planning to uprgade my old Debian/Linux box (Kernel 2.6.17-2-K7; > Athlon XP)'s hardware since I am getting a newer and faster system. I > would like to toss my gaming box's hardware (Athlon 64) in that > mid-tower ATX case) as an upgrade (faster Linux box). The other stuff > [...] > Will I just be able to swap the motherboards, CPUs, RAMs, and video > cards) and retain my old two HDDs (no reordering or anything; still > IDE), a DVD-ROM drive, and my Linux (no reinstall) and boot it up with > no problems? You should be able to do that, but just because Athlon64 has a 32-bit compatible mode. You would basically be running just a faster 32-bit system. If you want to get everything that 64 bit offers, you basically need to reinstall most of the software, replacing it with x86_64 versions. The least you can do is install a 64 bit kernel and basic libraries (libc, GLib, etc...), but you may experience random problems when mixing 32 bit and 64 bit code. So best, either reinstall everything or nothing. What you need to do is basically change your /etc/apt/sources.list to fetch from the x86_64 repository of Debian and then make a full upgrade, incl. kernel. Mike
From: ANTant on 14 Dec 2006 15:26 In comp.os.linux.hardware Michael Panev <mike(a)panev.eu> wrote: > ANTant(a)zimage.com wrote: > > Hello, > > > > I am planning to uprgade my old Debian/Linux box (Kernel 2.6.17-2-K7; > > Athlon XP)'s hardware since I am getting a newer and faster system. I > > would like to toss my gaming box's hardware (Athlon 64) in that > > mid-tower ATX case) as an upgrade (faster Linux box). The other stuff > > [...] > > Will I just be able to swap the motherboards, CPUs, RAMs, and video > > cards) and retain my old two HDDs (no reordering or anything; still > > IDE), a DVD-ROM drive, and my Linux (no reinstall) and boot it up with > > no problems? > You should be able to do that, but just because Athlon64 has a 32-bit > compatible mode. You would basically be running just a faster 32-bit system. > If you want to get everything that 64 bit offers, you basically need > to reinstall most of the software, replacing it with x86_64 versions. > The least you can do is install a 64 bit kernel and basic libraries > (libc, GLib, etc...), but you may experience random problems when mixing > 32 bit and 64 bit code. So best, either reinstall everything or nothing. > What you need to do is basically change your /etc/apt/sources.list to > fetch from the x86_64 repository of Debian and then make a full upgrade, > incl. kernel. Nah, this will be to complicated. I heard there's not a lot of 64-bit programs and it is complex to have both 32-bit and 64-bit ports of the programs, so it is not worth it. I will leave it as 32-bit. I only use this box as a workstation and a private server. Nothing fancy. Maybe I will try it when I need to reinstall from scratch. So, I guess I should get the latest Kernel (e.g., linux-image-2.6.18-3-k7 or later when the time comes; using .17 right now), reboot, recompile some modules (e.g., NVIDIA driver and VMware drivers) test Debian out, shutdown, change hardware, boot it up, and hope things work mostly (e.g., onboard sound). This should be fine, right? It seems way easier than doing Windows. -- "Thanks for giving me the courage to eat all those ants." --unknown /\___/\ / /\ /\ \ Phillip (Ant) @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site) | |o o| | Ant's Quality Foraged Links (AQFL): http://aqfl.net \ _ / Please remove ANT if replying by e-mail. ( )
From: ANTant on 14 Dec 2006 19:47 > > Nah, this will be to complicated. I heard there's not a lot of 64-bit > > programs and it is complex to have both 32-bit and 64-bit ports of the > > programs, > This is total complete BS. Hmm, maybe things have changed since summer of 2004 when people were talking about this. I will check out the 64-bit Debian if I ever have to reinstall from scratch. -- "Thanks for giving me the courage to eat all those ants." --unknown /\___/\ / /\ /\ \ Phillip (Ant) @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site) | |o o| | Ant's Quality Foraged Links (AQFL): http://aqfl.net \ _ / Please remove ANT if replying by e-mail. ( )
From: ray on 14 Dec 2006 20:47
On Wed, 13 Dec 2006 19:02:39 -0600, ANTant wrote: > Hello, > > I am planning to uprgade my old Debian/Linux box (Kernel 2.6.17-2-K7; > Athlon XP)'s hardware since I am getting a newer and faster system. I > would like to toss my gaming box's hardware (Athlon 64) in that > mid-tower ATX case) as an upgrade (faster Linux box). The other stuff > like HDTV tuner, TV card, sound card, etc. will not be moved into the > Linux box. > > Will I just be able to swap the motherboards, CPUs, RAMs, and video > cards) and retain my old two HDDs (no reordering or anything; still > IDE), a DVD-ROM drive, and my Linux (no reinstall) and boot it up with > no problems? Or do I have to do something fancy? I use the Kernel > package from apt-get. I never compiled anything. I think I only have > modules for the latest NVIDIA driver and VMware v5.5.2. I think > everything else is just default. > > You can view my current desktop configurations at: > http://alpha.zimage.com/~ant/antfarm/about/computers.txt > > Thank you in advance. :) Won't that require you to 'reactivate' ? ;) |