Most PC users should use the stage3-i686-2007.0.tar.bz2 stage3 archive. All modern PCs are considered i686. If you use an old machine, you can check the list of i686-compatible processors on Wikipedia. Old processors such as the Pentium, K5, K6, or Via C3 and similar require the i586 stage3. Only very old processors such as the 80386 and 80486 require the generic x86 stage3 (and a huge amount of patience.) There is no i586 stages3 now. I couldn't find i586 stages3 on the download site. Reproducible: Always
Hmm, looks like there are only i586 stages for 2006.1 and older. I'll see about fixing this.
Thanks for reporting, fixed in CVS.
The description was 99.99% correct, it should not let users believe "the i586 stage3" is available for the latest release, though. IMO, you'd want the _latest_ i586 stage3 on Pentiums and K* and then upgrade packages rather than the x86 followed by a profile & CHOST change. C3 is a bit more peculiar because it is i686, but you can't use our stage3 if you want an i686 CHOST, you have to start with a stage1 which is clearly not supported. The next best thing is an i586 stage3. Or maybe we'll be lucky and get a 2007.0 i586 stage3 (the 2006.1 one was released a few months after the official release). CC'ed releng just in case.
We have no intentions on building i586 media anymore. The amount of extra work required (mostly in testing) makes it prohibitively expensive, as finding people with old enough hardware and the reliability and availability to assist us in testing during the very tight release schedules is nearly impossible. It would be great if someone would just fix GCC so it worked on the i686 machines without CMOV, but I don't see that happening any time soon. The real truth is that there's not really a compelling reason for creating new stages. There wasn't a new major (or even minor) version of GCC, we were already on NPTL, and the upgrade from 2006.1 to 2007.0 is completely smooth. We'll likely revisit this decision next release cycle to determine if a new set of stages is necessary for i586 at that time. Also, 80386 is not supported, at all. The x86 stages are compiled for an i486 CHOST due to incompatibilities with the new glibc 2.5 versions. If time/space weren't an issue, I'd love to have stages for all of the supported subarches for x86, but that's just not feasible with our limited resources.
(In reply to comment #3) As Chris said, there are no i586 stages available, which is why I removed them entirely from the handbook. This is what the revised section says: "Most PC users should use the stage3-i686-2007.0.tar.bz2 stage3 archive. All modern PCs are considered i686. If you use an old machine, you can check the list of i686-compatible processors on Wikipedia. Old processors such as the Pentium, K5, K6, or Via C3 and similar require the more generic x86 stage3." I'll mention that processors older than i486 are not supported, but otherwise I've no idea why you reopened this; it was fixed as I said. (In reply to comment #4) K, will add a bit mentioning only 486 and higher are supported. * * * Fixed.
(In reply to comment #5) > (In reply to comment #3) > > As Chris said, there are no i586 stages available, which is why I removed them > entirely from the handbook. This is what the revised section says: I can read, no need to copy&paste in here. I also mentioned <i686 users should use an i586 stage3, just like the description used to say, i.e. the 2006.1 rather than a 2007.0 x86
(In reply to comment #6) > > As Chris said, there are no i586 stages available, which is why I removed them > > entirely from the handbook. This is what the revised section says: > > I can read, no need to copy&paste in here. I also mentioned <i686 users should > use an i586 stage3, just like the description used to say, i.e. the 2006.1 > rather than a 2007.0 x86 Why should we tell users to use older stages? This handbook is for 2007.0, not 2006.1 and not a mix of 2007.0 directions and no-longer-available 2006.1 directions. Mixing in suggestions to go get older stuff will just serve to confuse users. And releng has already said we shouldn't count on i586 stages ever being released again.
I'm also not fond of keeping such information in the handbook. I wouldn't disagree on it for the first release that doesn't ship an i586 stage but subsequent releases shouldn't mention it anymore.
Seems like I got stuck in the past when an x86 stage meant i386 and no upgrade path to latest glibcs. Thanks for the fix & sorry about the noise.
