Messages in this thread | | | From | (Linus Torvalds) | Subject | Re: [PATCH] Futexes IV (Fast Lightweight Userspace Semaphores) | Date | Sun, 10 Mar 2002 19:41:36 +0000 (UTC) |
| |
In article <E16jVSZ-0008FH-00@the-village.bc.nu>, Alan Cox <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk> wrote: > >So if anything its just not worth the effort of breaking the 386 setup >either 8). 386 SMP is a different issue but I don't see any lunatics doing >a 386 based sequent port thankfully.
Since the only person that comes to mind that would be crazy enough to even _try_ to use Linux on 386-SMP is you, Alan, I'm really relieved to hear you say that ;)
And no, it's not worth discontinuing i386 support. It just isn't painful enough to maintain.
Note that the i386 has _long_ been a "stepchild", though: because of the lack of WP, the kernel simply doesn't do threaded MM correctly on a 386. Never has, and never will.
However, the known "incorrect" case is so obscure that it's not even an issue - although I suspect that it means that you should not let untrusted users run on a i386 server machine that contains any sensitive data. I could cerrtainly come up with exploits that would work at least in theory (whether they are workable in practice I don't know).
Using i386's for network servers is fine, of course. Just don't use them for cpu farms (not that I think anybody is - it takes quite a big farm of i386 machines to equal even _one_ PII ;)
Linus
- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
| |