SMP configuration on Mandrake 10.1?

[danzinho]

Hi all

I have a two processor machine and I'd like to use the two together. Previously with 9.1 I was using the enterprise kernel and this did the job. I've now been forced to upgrade to 10.1 and the boot list of kernels just contains Linux and Linux-nofb. I've checked and neither of these supports application of both processors to the same job.

Following some advice on the internet I did

urpmq kernel

which tells me that kernel-smp-2.6.11.6mdk is available. However, when I do

urpmi kernel-smp-2.6.11.6mdk

it tells me it's already installed. Indeed I can see files like

config-2.6.11-6mdksmp
kernel.h-2.6.11-6mdksmp
System.map-2.6.11-6mdksmp
vmlinuz-2.6.11-6mdksmp

in /boot. So why does SMP not appear as an option at boot time? Is it just a question of editing lilo.conf? How to do that?

many thanks

Daniel

[danzinho]

Hi again

I've now succeeded in getting the smp kernel into lilo.conf (by rpm -e followed by rpm-i). I've rebooted using that one (uname -r gives 2.6.11-6mdksmp) but programs that should use both processors still don't! How can this be? It's Mandrake 10.2 by the way, not 10.1 as I said before.

Thanks in advance for your help

Daniel

[bigtomrodney]

That enables your kernel to run with SMP, in order to get apps working with SMP you need to recompile them, possibly even with the specific arguments to use it. Even Windows NT / 200/XP etc will support SMP but most applications won't, with the notable exception of Photoshop and some Macromedia apps.

[danzinho]

Hi

I don't think that's the problem in this case. The exact same programs worked fine with Mandrake 9.1 where, for some reason, the kernel business was simpler and the smp kernel worked as advertised straight off.

Any more ideas?

Thanks

Daniel