What’s Next

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OK, AMD has announced it’s new line of server and desktop processors. What level of CentOS has been tested on them? OK then, when will CentOS
be tested on them? Or do we wait for Red Hat?

9 thoughts on - What’s Next

  • CentOS is a binary compatible clone of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, so CentOS rebuilds what Red Hat releases. As such, compatibility will depend on what Red Hat does upstream.

    cheers


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  • If AMD’s new CPUs aren’t 100% compatible with existing software w/o needing special versions, AMD is shooting themselves in the foot.

  • There’s a difference between compatible and optimal.

    I can use my nVidia card with CentOS without needing to install any special drivers. It will work. However it works better with drivers specifically designed for it.

    The same *may* be true of chipsets for AMD. I do not know, but would like to know. It’s possible that it will install and boot but work better with drivers that Red Hat does not (yet) include in their kernel.

    Time will tell. I suspect if that is the case and if AMD is open with their chipset that RHEL engineers will backport the drivers. But that may not be an issue so I guess it is wait and see, unless someone knows.

  • If the Linux kernel adds hardware specific support/optimizations, and HP/Dell/Lenovo/SuperMicro/etc build servers with these chips, then I’d fully expect Red Hat to backport the key support.

  • That is not a concern. Ryzen is already taking the desktop market by storm. Ryzen is not an Intel design. Intel excels in single threaded performance and does very well in multi-thread workloads. Ryzen so far is at least 20 percent faster in multi-thread loads at the same price level. Naples/Ryzen is a serious competitor to Intel.

  • off the wire, I’ve had lots of positive reports from the new AMD chips running CentOS Linux 7. So my question to you would be, were you able to track down a specific problem ? or are you looking for more general feedback.

    If its the later, then yes, CentOS Linux 7/x86_64 works fine out of the box with these new chips. You might want to do your own benchmarks for interfaces and components eg. pci bus etc.

  • I read somewhere that the PCIe issue is indicative of some other hardware (PCIe SSD; etc) not working correctly. Also, the 4.10 kernel is not the kernel out of the box. In a environment with 10 or more servers do you really want a custom kernel?
    How do you maintain all of these custom kernels (i.e. is a different kernel required for a HP Gen 8 server different than a HP Gen 9
    server?)? I’ve learned my lesson from using the FOSS HPLIP HP printer driver – every time the kernel is updated you have to re-install the driver… TIA

  • Hi,

    At the time of testing support for the Ryzen CPU was added in February of this year. This kernel was used for testing.and we usually build them as rpm’s.

    Regards Phil