On 19/09/2015 7:48 AM, <zlinw@mcmedia.com.au> wrote:
>
> I currently I have 3 systems, two of these have Debian 1386 installed (7.x)
> the third has AMD64. I have not gone AMD64 with any enthusiasim because of some problems.
> The first problem is the AMD64 machine locks up regularly generally when playing videos, Note, xine will not work on this machine so I use vlc. The lock up usually involves the whole machine EXCEPT for the audio, one can only get out of it with a power off, a hard rest will NOT generally work, ie it sometimes does and sometimes does not.
> The second point is not really a decent problem, its that googleearth is not __easy__ to install as its a 32 bit program. The package system just winghes that it needs some i386 libraries, but will not do anything about it. IMPORTANT NOTE, THIS MEANS YOU, I do not regard this as a show stopper as all it needs is to install the apropriate items manually and I am quite capable of doing that. Its just that along with the lockups and xine not working, its another reason not to bother with AMD64.
> The machine itself is new (at the time, its nearly 18 months old now, ie the problem is that old) using a Gigabyte Sabertooth X79 motherboard and an AMD 7870 GPU running the Radeon OS driver. Debian has been updated a number of times without any improvement. Note WindowsXP runs completely OK on the machine so the hardware is OK.
> I am on the verge of dumping AMD64 all together, anyone have any ideas?
> Maybe Debian AMD64 does not like the Sabertooth X79, I have had a similiar situation on the system this post is being writen on.

Some initial thoughts, not very considered yet, and I seem to recall Lindsay that you're the guy that lives remotely i.e.on a slow internet link so apologies for suggestions that involve downloading etc.

Windowx XP is 32-bit (unless you tried 64bit) so not a valid test/comparison.

Googele Earth is available in a 64 bit .deb pacakge. See http://www.google.com/earth/download/ge/agree.html

Have you checked your hardware against those 'will it work with linux' lists or sites? I.e. your mobo, cpu, gpu, ram etc.

AMD have a 64-bit driver available for Ubuntu, that may well work on debian too.

Have you tried a 64bit live CD/USB from some other linux version on the machine?

And of course all the other usual stuff, checked logs, patched, updared.

Anyway, my quick $0.0423 worth, on a qiuet Sat morn.