On Sun, 6 Oct 2002, Randy Clarksean wrote:

> I do realize that there are operating system issues, etc. ... but with all of that I had anticipated a larger reduction in computational time.  The code I am running is a commercial code that is developed to run on both operating systems, so I am fairly sure they work to get the best CPU time on both platforms.  I was hoping for something on the order of 1/2 the CPU time - on large computational runs like this every little reduction in time helps.
> 
> Not being a "kernel" expert by any means ... would it make any sense to 
> recompile the kernel on my new platform, rather than relying on the 
> kernel as loaded from the RH7.2 distribution CDs?  Any suggestions would 
> be greatly appreciated!

first of all, you should not be using the stock kernels that came on CD, 
there were at least 3 upgrades to that kernel,

that said here are some reasons:
1. there were some vulnerabilities in the older kernels
2. the kernels that come off of the CD by default are compiled for i386, 
if you upgrade to something more suitable, like the athlon specific kernel 
you will see a very noticable improvement

so go to ftp://updates.redhat.com/7.2/en/os/athlon/ and get the athlon 
kernel

and while you are at it, get all the updates from the i686 area (glibc, 
openssl) and install those too,

once that is done you can install the updates from the i386 area.

Munir Nassar
RedConcepts.NET