I chose Redhat because

[Tone39]

HI everyone
I have tried Mandrake, Suse, & Redhat, and Redhat was the only one that would run my dual processor machine properly, the others worked but only on one processor,
unless I did something wrong which is more than possible.
tone39

[deathadder]

You probably choose the red hat smp kernel, you would be able to get the other distros to use your other cpu if you recompiled the kernel with smp support

[XiaoKJ]

Actually, there are many distros out there, having the newer kernels, that can make use of multi-processor machines. All the major distros have them, although they are not used in default.

If you have the time and the expertise, you can try gentoo, as it will tell you about all the components contributing to a working system. Its very nice to see which component controls what, and you will find very easily that the linux kernel controls it.

Therefore, it is possible to make all distros be able to use your dual-processors. Gentoo can customise for them, though. Read the Gentoo handbook, every page of it, to learn about it.

BTW, multi-processors are classified under smp, which stands for something like symmetric multi-processors I think. I am not very accurate on this though. the naming part is just my 2 cents

[ShieldWolf]

I'm currently sitting in front of a dual-processor machine running Mandrake 9.2(9.1 before that), and it most definitely makes use of both processors. Perhaps you didn't chose the smp kernel. I have the option at boot to use the smp kernel, or the single processor kernel.

Of course, if you're happy with Red Hat, that's great. That's the wonderful thing about linux, the freedom to chose. :)

[mdwatts]

SuSE 8.2 and 9.0 have both detected my dual AMD's during installation and use the SMP kernel by default.


# cat /proc/cpuinfo

processor : 0
vendor_id : AuthenticAMD
cpu family : 6
model : 6
model name : AMD Athlon(TM) MP 1800+
stepping : 2
cpu MHz : 1533.713
cache size : 256 KB
physical id : 0
siblings : 1
fdiv_bug : no
hlt_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
coma_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 1
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 mmx fxsr sse syscall mmxext 3dnowext 3dnow
bogomips : 3014.65

processor : 1
vendor_id : AuthenticAMD
cpu family : 6
model : 6
model name : AMD Athlon(TM) MP 1800+
stepping : 2
cpu MHz : 1533.713
cache size : 256 KB
physical id : 0
siblings : 1
fdiv_bug : no
hlt_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
coma_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 1
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 mmx fxsr sse syscall mmxext 3dnowext 3dnow
bogomips : 3063.80

[Tone39]

Thanks everyone
Its nice to know a bit more I didn't realise what SMP stood for but I'm learning, so now I might try loading up another distro and have two , this is what I like about LINUX lots to learn, and a nice OS at the same time,


tone39:)