Bug#823544: dpkg: Won't run at all on i586 Pentium MMX due to illegal instruction

[Niels Thykier]

Hi,

I have committed an initial draft in [r11219]. Review welcome.

Do we have any trivial way of detecting whether a given i586 CPU will be
supported? I am thinking a small shell snippet that an end-user can run
that will give an "Yes" or "No" answer.

Thanks,
~Niels

[r11219]: https://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/ddp?view=revision&revision=11219

[Justin B Rye]

Post by Niels Thykier
I have committed an initial draft in [r11219]. Review welcome.
<variablelist>
<varlistentry arch="i386">
<term>The 32-bit PC support no longer supports a vanilla i586</term>
<!-- new in Stretch -->

"Support no longer supports" - make that
<term>The 32-bit PC support no longer includes vanilla i586</term>
or
<term>Support for 32-bit PCs no longer covers vanilla i586</term>

I'm going with the latter because it makes the expanded version below
work better.

Post by Niels Thykier
<listitem>
<para>
The 32-bit PC support (known as the Debian architecture
"i386") now no longer supports a plain i586 processor. The
new baseline is the i686, although some i586 processors
(e.g. the "AMD Geode") will remain supported.
</para>

Again avoid "support no longer supports".

The support for 32-bit PCs (known as the Debian architecture
<literal>i386</literal>) now no longer covers a plain i586 processor.

Elsewhere on the same page we seem sometimes to be using singlequotes
around Debian architecture names and sometimes to be actually marking
them up as literal strings; I've standardised on the latter (at least
for this page).

Post by Niels Thykier
<para>
The supported i586 processors have all the features of an i686
processor <emphasis>except</emphasis> the "long NOP" (NOPL)
instruction.
</para>
<para>
If your machine is not compatible with this requirement, it is
recommend that you stay with Jessie for the reminder of its

^ed

Post by Niels Thykier
support cycle. For more information, please refer to the mail
thread <ulink
url="https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2015/09/msg00589.html">Defaulting
to i686 for the Debian i386 architecture</ulink>.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>

[Niels Thykier]

[...]

Thanks for the review. :)

I have applied the changes (albeit manually as I managed to shuffle some
of the text around in later commits).

Thanks,
~Niels

[Ben Hutchings]

Hi,
I have committed an initial draft in [r11219].  Review welcome.
Do we have any trivial way of detecting whether a given i586 CPU will be
supported?  I am thinking a small shell snippet that an end-user can run
that will give an "Yes" or "No" answer.

if grep -q '^flags.*\bfpu\b.*\btsc\b.*\bcx8\b.*\bcmov\b' /proc/cpuinfo; then
echo Yes
else
echo No
fi

Ben.

[Niels Thykier]

Post by Ben Hutchings

Post by Niels Thykier
Hi,
I have committed an initial draft in [r11219]. Review welcome.
Do we have any trivial way of detecting whether a given i586 CPU will be
supported? I am thinking a small shell snippet that an end-user can run
that will give an "Yes" or "No" answer.

if grep -q '^flags.*\bfpu\b.*\btsc\b.*\bcx8\b.*\bcmov\b' /proc/cpuinfo; then
echo Yes
else
echo No
fi
Ben.

Thanks :) I have added it to the release notes.

~Niels