Fedora Linux Is Looking For Those Still Using 32-bit AMD CPUs
Fedora's latest AMD issues aren't about some Catalyst graphics driver problem, but rather for the few still left using a 32-bit USB installation on an AMD processor.
Fedora has moved to effectively demote the i686 architecture images for Fedora 24, but even for now with Fedora 22/23 the x86 32-bit packages are basically being maintained as a best effort. The Linux x86 support is slowly running into some issues and it's hitting the point of diminishing returns for devoting engineering efforts to improve the support given that most x86 in the past number of years has been 64-bit capable. While Fedora's x86 plans have been talked about a lot recently, it's just not them but there's been broad interest by many Linux stake holders in moving towards deprecating the support and continuing to spin x86 ISOs, sans the niche distributions.
For solving the latest Fedora 32-bit issue, the QA team is hoping for help from the community. There's a new bug report about a kernel panic when booting the 32-bit images from USB on AMD processors. Of course, AMD hasn't been spinning 32-bit-only processors since the Athlon XP days...
The Fedora testers have uncovered that booting the 32-bit images on 64-bit AMD CPUs will run into issues with the current Fedora 23 Beta images, but it's not known how it handles a 32-bit AMD CPU, given that the QA team doesn't have such hardware anymore. Thus they're looking for help to try booting a 32-bit Fedora 23 Beta image on such an old system, and probably test patches down the road.
If you have an old Athlon XP era system still in use, visit this mailing list thread if you want to help out.
Fedora has moved to effectively demote the i686 architecture images for Fedora 24, but even for now with Fedora 22/23 the x86 32-bit packages are basically being maintained as a best effort. The Linux x86 support is slowly running into some issues and it's hitting the point of diminishing returns for devoting engineering efforts to improve the support given that most x86 in the past number of years has been 64-bit capable. While Fedora's x86 plans have been talked about a lot recently, it's just not them but there's been broad interest by many Linux stake holders in moving towards deprecating the support and continuing to spin x86 ISOs, sans the niche distributions.
For solving the latest Fedora 32-bit issue, the QA team is hoping for help from the community. There's a new bug report about a kernel panic when booting the 32-bit images from USB on AMD processors. Of course, AMD hasn't been spinning 32-bit-only processors since the Athlon XP days...
The Fedora testers have uncovered that booting the 32-bit images on 64-bit AMD CPUs will run into issues with the current Fedora 23 Beta images, but it's not known how it handles a 32-bit AMD CPU, given that the QA team doesn't have such hardware anymore. Thus they're looking for help to try booting a 32-bit Fedora 23 Beta image on such an old system, and probably test patches down the road.
If you have an old Athlon XP era system still in use, visit this mailing list thread if you want to help out.
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