Penguinating The Beast: Linux and the AMD 64

Playing around this weekend, I was poking and prodding around for an AMD64 version of Linux for the beast built this week. While I'm downloading Ubuntu (Breezy Badger), I'm poking around. I've seen AMD64's running Linux, but never had my own. There's some interesting resources out there, and this is a way for me to document things for myself and others who might be interested. After all, I'm only about 2 years behind the AMD64 curve (and still not running a top of the line chip because I can't get it locally off the shelf), which means I've passed through 1.333 evolutions of Moore's Law. I missed out on the bleeding edge, finally, but nowadays I just want something that works for work.

PCBurn has a page on AMD 64 Linux Support Guide, which did not lead me to Ubuntu. It's got the usual suspects there, from Slamd64 (Slackware) to Mandriva's 64 bit release and plenty more. I used to use Mandrake (now Mandriva), but have become more interested in Ubuntu - and since Ubuntu wasn't represented on the list, I went and checked. Ubuntu didn't disappoint; the download continues.

A basic guide to AMD64 Linux, biased to Gentoo, is available here. I don't know how good it is yet, but it looks like a decent reference that's balanced and relatively fresh (January 27th of this year).

The Gentoo Linux AMD64 Handbook looks pretty well written.

There's a kernel simulator for AMD64... not that I think I'll use it, but it's interesting for people who want to fiddle with the kernel. A simulated environment takes some of the screaming away, so it's probably for the more sedate kernel hackers. I haven't looked at Linux kernel code since back in the late 90s (1999?), and it doesn't look like I'll have any time soon to look again. Still, it might be useful. And it certainly was fun reading through the Gentle Introduction to x86-64 Assembly. I miss Assembly language, but it would take me too long to write something in Assembly when we have higher level languages. I'd love it if someone said, 'Write me something in Assembler for an AMD64, we'll foot the bill and all you have to do is code. Get started!' Like that would ever happen...

Leafing through 10,400,000 entries on AMD64 Linux strikes me as a bit silly, though, so I'll just do what I usually do. Better living through reckless experimentation. The problem, of course, is time. I'm betting on Ubuntu this first time, BUT... it's a whole new processor playing field, so if Ubuntu doesn't make me happy, I'll look around some more. That's the beauty of Free Software/Open Source: options. The problem is that it scares the hell out of people who aren't used to options.