mdk 9.1 p4 hyperthread/smp
 

I'm fairly new to linux, and have been tinkering w/mdk for a while. I recently built a new system (msi 865g neo2, p4 2.6ghz) and enabled hyperthreading in the system bios. Windows XP sees/enables support for hyperthreading just fine. However, when installing mdk 9.1, only the non-smp kernel is installed. Shouldn't it automatically configure the smp kernel? If you look on cd1, both the smp and non smp kernels are there. Looking at /proc/cpuinfo the hyperthreading flag "ht" does show up in the list of cpu flags.

Looking at the system logs through MCC, the kernel identifies itself with the following entry "kernel: Linux version 2.4.21-0.13mdk (flepied@bi.mandrakesoft.com) (gcc version 3.2.2 (Mandrake Linux 9.1 3.2.2-3mdk)) #1 Fri Mar 14 15:08:06 EST 2003"

How do I switch to the smp kernel?

Thanks,
Gary...

Try simply going into MCC and using RPMDrake to install it. Should be all you need. The package is called kernel-smp-2.4.21.0.25mdk or similar.

Thanks. I gave that a try. Although I can now boot to either kernel, the smp kernel (2.4.21.0.25) reports only one cpu.

Is anyone running mdk 9.1 w/a p4 with hyperthreading enabled? How did you get the smp kernel to detect both logical CPUs?
:confused:

hi
I am running a P4 3.06 hyperthread with the smp kernel tried all of the kernels that came with the mdk power pack and smp was the only one that would run things correctly.(gigabit 8inxp mainboard)
I dont know if my system is seeing 1 or 2 processors how did you check this?

From everything I've seen, you should be able to enter "cat /proc/cupinfo" to see what the kernel detected.

I posted essentially the same question over on the mdk unofficial users board (http://www.mandrakeusers.org/viewtop...?p=64944#64944), but haven't had a chance to try it.

i am only showing 1 processor in mandrake control center but i am not sure if two will show up there when hyperthread is enable.
I f you find the answer somewhere else please post it here

Hi all
I use an HT CPU with Mandrake 9.2b2...when I look into the Kernel Boot Log I find that 2 Processors are found: 0 and 1.
But I really don't know if the system manages correctly both or still uses the first only...
Hope this helps
Ciao

i have processor 0 and 1 also. I guess if it is seeing two then it is working correctly.But i do not know how to confirm this>

Over on the mandrakeusers.org forum (the link provided in a previous post in this thread), the suggestion of adding "acpismp=force" on the kernel command parameters did the trick. In my case, MDK had placed "acpi=off" in the parameter list, which also had to be removed before the smp kernel recognized both of the virtual processors.

One easy way to determine how the smp kernel will utilize both of the logical cpus is to install/run the "gkrellm" system monitor, which will graph the usage of each cpu. If you are using a recent version of mdk, it's bundled on the CDs, but not necessarily installed by default. You can use rpmdrake to install it.

thanks garyrny
i'll try gkrellm and see what is going on with the cpu