Re: Urgent! Questions/Confirmations concerning *Debian 7.7.0 amd64* before I install it.

On 12/08/2014 12:23 PM, Darac Marjal wrote:
> On Mon, Dec 08, 2014 at 07:26:41AM +0000, Shio Gai Quek wrote:
>> Dear All
>> 
>> My name is Quek from Malaysia. I am now downloading Debian 7.7.0
>> amd64.
>> 
>> Right now my workstation uses w****** 7 ultimate 64bit, with
>> one(1) CPU (Core i7-4770K), and 32GB of RAM.
>> 
>> I need your help! Before I decide to install it for my upcoming
>> "compute-server" and possibly even my current workstation, I need
>> to confirm with ALL the following: 
>> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> 
1. According to: https://www.debian.org/ports/amd64/
>> It appears to me that Debian 7.7.0 amd64 supports up to 64TB of
>> RAM, which is much more than even the 192GB limit for w******.
>> -------- Kindly confirm.
> 
> This appears to be the case. At the moment, amd64 processors only
> have 48-bit address busses. 2^46 is ~256TiB. However, due to the
> memory architecture, 64TiB is the limit of physical RAM supported
> by linux (you can add to that a further ~64TiB of swap, as the
> kernel can address 128TiB of virtual memory).
> 
>> 
>> 2. According to:
>> https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/ubuntu-spyware.html It appears to
>> me that some GNU OS has this annoying problem, how about Debian
>> 7.7.0 amd64?
> 
> Ubuntu (or rather, Canonical) are a commercial entity. It is in
> their interests to make money from their users. Debian is a loose
> organisation committed to the "Social Contract" and the DFSG
> (https://www.debian.org/social_contract) which, among other things,
> states "Our priorities are our users and free software".
> 
>> 
>> 3. According to: https://www.gnu.org/distros/common-distros.html
>> 
>> It appears to me than some of the features in the
>> firmware/repository are not free. Therefore, during installation
>> of Debian 7.7.0 amd64, a. "the installer in some cases recommends
>> these nonfree firmware files for the peripherals on the
>> machine." Will I be given the choice not to install those
>> nonfree features?
> 
> That's true. There is a screen in the installer where you are asked
> if you'd like to include non-free software. Note, however, that
> Debian is sometimes viewed as "not free enough" in some quarters;
> you can install free software which requires non-free services to
> operate, you can install free software which depends on non-free
> software (for example, there are "downloader" packages whose sole
> purpose is to install non-free software such as Adobe Flash). You
> are, of course, free to *not* install these and, in many cases,
> functional alternatives are available.
> 
>> b.  If I do so,   i.  Will it affect the performance of the OS?
> 
> It depends on the hardware. Some graphics cards will not fully 
> accelerate without proprietary firmware. Some network cards, too,
> have issues when running without firmware.
> 
>> 
>> ii. Will the maximum supporting RAM remains 64TB?
> 
> Yes.
> 
>> 
>> iii.  Will I still benefit from ALL advantages amd64 offers, as
>> stated in "A complete 64bit userland" of site
>> https://www.debian.org/ports/amd64/?
> 
> Yes. All these points are features of the CPU which won't need
> non-free firmware to work.
> 
>> 
>> 4. According to
>> http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/7.7.0/amd64/iso-dvd/ , There
>> are 5 isos (which I am downloading) "Debian-7.7.0-amd64-DVD-1.iso
>> 2014-10-18 15:39  3.7G  " "Debian-7.7.0-amd64-DVD-2.iso
>> 2014-10-18 15:39  4.4G  " "Debian-7.7.0-amd64-DVD-3.iso
>> 2014-10-18 15:39  4.4G  " "Debian-update-7.7.0-amd64-DVD-1.iso
>> 2014-10-19 02:16  4.2G  " "Debian-update-7.7.0-amd64-DVD-2.iso
>> 2014-10-19 02:19  1.6G  " Which of them is/are mandatory for
>> installation of Debian 7.7.0 amd64? (Note: Please do NOT direct
>> me to the net-installer! I need a robust DVD file than enables me
>> to install it offline! Moreover, this compute-server may not be
>> connected to the internet)
> 
> DVD-1 will be enough to install a desktop system. The packages on
> the DVDs are sorted by popularity, so DVD-1 should give you all you
> need in most cases, DVD-2 may well be more useful to you for
> installing your compute-server tasks. If in doubt, though, take a
> look at the list files 
> (http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/7.7.0/amd64/list-dvd/) for
> contents of each disc. The update DVDs should not be needed, as
> they are for updating from Debian 7.6 to Debian 7.7.
> 
>> 
>> 5. Some Server OS (such as w****** server standard), supports
>> only few (e.g. less than 4) CPUs. Some others (such as w******
>> server datacenter), supports "infinite" CPUs. So how about Debian
>> 7.7.0 amd64?
> 
> I believe Debian limits this to 8 with a default kernel. However,
> you can recompile the kernel to raise the limit to 4096 (or 8192
> with a newer kernel).
> 

Is not the Debian 7 kernel (3.2.x) CPU limit up to 512 CPUs/cores ?

Kind regards
Georgi


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