[Techtalk] 32 bit RedHat on EM64T architecture?

[Nicole -]

Hi Caitlyn,

You most certainly can run a 32-bit OS on the EM64T platform. I have
many Dell 2850s and 1850s in my office, and I've ran both pure 32-bit
OS and pure 64-bit OS on them so far. In my case, I'm using debian,
but RedHat should be the same. Dell in fact supports AS 3.0 on their
servers, so I would imagine they should fully support that platform.

You will need the megaraid2 driver in whatever kernel you are using to
have the RAID array be recognized. I used a 2.4.27 kernel to boot and
partition from, then upped to a 2.6.9 kernel (with the new megaraid
driver, which is not exactly called megaraid2 anymore) with no issues.

If you need a sample kernel config or have any other questions, let me
know. I fought quite a bit with them when I first got them to make
them work correctly without just using the default kernel ;o)

-nicole
(hope this goes to the list, I'm temporarily forwarding mail through
gmail instead of using my regular subscribed colby at wsu.edu account!)

On Tue, 21 Dec 2004 08:10:15 -0800 (PST), Caitlyn Martin
<caitlynmaire at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Hi, everyone,
> 
> We're in the process of setting up a new backup server
> on a Dell PowerEdge 2850 server with Intel's EM64T
> architecture.  We originally, deliberately, tried to
> install an ordinary x86 version of RedHat Enterprise
> Linux 3.0.  The install failed on finding the driver
> for the Megaraid2 RAID controller.
> 
> One of the other admins here quite cleverly went in to
> the command line during install and manually loaded
> the Dell driver written for this controller and got
> Anaconda to recognize it.  In theory I could have then
> partitioned the array space and gone ahead with the
> install.  I didn't because I felt that running what is
> essentially a 32 bit version of Red Hat on this server
> with EM64T architecture and a driver built for an
> different version of the kernel would have
> unpredictable results.  I certainly wouldn't want this
> sort of kluge in production.
> 
> That raises a question:  Does it matter?  Why can't 32
> bit software be run on an EM64T system.  This is NOT
> an Itanium chipset and it isn't true 64 bit.  Does
> anyone know if this will work?
> 
> Regards,
> Cait