HW upgrade and processor instabilities

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This is more of a set of hardware questions, but one is Kernel related, so this seems like as good a spot to post it as any.

I’ve been thinking about upgrading my rig for a while now, and with the new AMD line of processors, now/soon seems like the perfect timing.

I do have some worries though. When I build my current rig(Ryzen 5, 3600) I had some stability issues. I remember having to mess with… was it L2 or throttling or something. That was also when I jumped to Linux, so a lot of general confusion on my part. Were my stability issues because it was a new product line, or is that the standard for new tech on Linux? In other words, should I wait till after the new year before upgrading?

Furthermore, I think I remember hearing about Apple’s new M4 processor with AI stuff jammed into. There were some tin foil hat talk about hardware level back and forth communications to Apple. If that’s real, is that the new norm? Do we have any info on whether it can be disabled, if AMD is also on that path?

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You might be in luck with the upcoming linux612 kernel, although I don’t know exactly how “new” the hardware you are planning on getting is.

If it’s not nvidia, I guess you should be OK though.

As for Apple stuff, I think the M4 is ARM? I doubt AMD would want to go down this path.

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I also thinking that the new 9800X3D looks really interesting.

Coming from Intel, im still in fear about the massive AGESA Updates and to brick sooner or later my Mainboard because of the infinity Bios flashes that is required :cold_face: at least if i believe the rumors or looking at this big Agesa update list from the last ryzen gen. Anyone has first hands experience how the situation around AMD PC Mainboards really looks right now?

I heared that the brand new AMD Mainboards are only based on simple refreshs.

Hopefully the last Mainboard Gen 600 (which released together with the 7X00 gen) instead the new 800 series (for 9X00 gen), should probably already good supported.

I personally would wait at least for a new Manjaro ISO file which supports the newest Kernel (not 6.10 which is already EOL).

Edit:

AMD Ryzen AI 300 has just a focus on Laptops :nauseated_face:

No clue if that can be disabled… i would evade AI features also.

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That’s the best idea, IMHO.

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In the sense that Apples and Pears are both fruit, I’d agree. :wink:

While there is no blanket answer to that, I’d suggest waiting for any particular chipset to be well saturated in the marketplace before considering it for Linux; but this has always been a fair rule-of-thumb.

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I have done practically no useful research on Apple stuff. What I posted came from one of the top results of a DDG search; I do appreciate hearing from people who have more insight. :wink: (I do have mates who use Apple stuff, so probably should have gleaned a bit more knowledge by now!).

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Well, now you have five useful links to kickstart your research. :wink:

I’ve never used Apple Silicon. Intel is still more useful and compatible for my needs; though, from the ongoing Press the platform seems to be well received.

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That was a lot of replies. Thanks guys!

@BG405 Oh! I will go read up on the 612 kernel. There must be some kind of ‘patch notes’, I guess.

@Kobold It does seem interesting, doesn’t it? The reviewers appear happy about most of the package. And the 3D V-Cache looks like fun, but the main for me is the temp. I can’t wait for my rig to be silent again.

The general consensus seems to be wait a beat, so I’ll do that.

And if AMD is only dumping AI on their laptops, I’m indifferent. I have no interests in laptops. It makes sense, though. I haven’t seen/read a review that talked about any AI component, and I found that odd. Thanks for clarifying.

@soundofthunder Yea, I probably phrased myself poorly. Sorry about that.
I’ve been messing around with computers since late 80’s. My first win rig had win95. Sure, I usually didn’t have access to top of the line stuff back then, but it did happen, from time to time. And I have never had to setup a batch file to mess with the processor, just to get it not to crash.

Does this mean, new tech = more stuff to break? Or was it because it was the first 5nm, 1gen brand spanking new block of voodoo?
Since this is my first time doing hardware upgrades in this environment, I guess my real question is more about the corporate structure; Does Microsoft have an inside track to the new stuff, and implements that faster then Linux Foundation? People always talk about open source and compares it to a billion hobby guys working on stuff. But I kinda thought Red Hat and all the ‘officials’ were working ‘real’ jobs trying to get this stuff out. Am I wrong?

Does any of that make sense?

Edit: I see my post got moved. Sorry about that, and thanks to the mod

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Nowhere near as complicated: :wink:

Most computers (Laptops, off-the-shelf Desktops) are built and configured for the Windows market (Apple have their own hardware). If you like to call that an inside track, then sure, why not.

GNU/Linux is open-source. Most development is voluntary.

That’s another way of viewing it; though it’s frequently a mix of hobbyists and professionals alike.

I’d like to invite @Aragorn to the conversation as he really shines in answer to questions such as this.

I’ll simply say it’s possible you have a fundamental misunderstanding of perceived heirarchies that form GNU/Linux. The ecosystem is perhaps a little more diverse than imagined; with Red Hat only one player among many.

Cheers.

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You mean like the Internet? That is hardware level. Wont work without cables, routers etc. The physical stuff.
Haven’t you read about what Apple can do to their iPhone users? Apple can look at everything you have on there and delete whatever they want. Without asking you anything or even telling you. They have had that ability for years. AI or no AI.
There is no privacy with Apple products.

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@zhongsiu Ehh, what? I’m sure you mean well, but that sounds like a wild claim. Off the top of my head, lawmakers and regulatory bodies across the entire globe, would have a field day, if that were true.
Granted, I haven’t touched an Apple product since MacOS 7.5, so there has been little reason to keep up with them. But still, that kinda stuff would probably have made headlines, not only in the tech world, but for every news outlet.

The reason I questioned the APU stuff were because Apple seems to be doing a lot of work trying to secure privacy. End-to-end encryption, 2-factor authentications ect. So the ‘snooping’ seemed to contradict their philosophy.

But then again, I might be living under a rock.

@soundofthunder

Oh yes! I absolutely do not get it!

“It’s odd, weird and funky! I don’t have a Cook/Krishna/Nadella/Su/… to focus my ire at. I do have 5000 smurfs all running around, singing in rounds:‘I did a thing!’
STOP THAT NONSENSE! You are confusing an old idiot!”

But in all seriousness, I’m sure the morals alone, are trough the roof, just because of one tiny word; Freedom!

Devils advocate, though. From a practical(ignorant and outside) perspective, it does seem messy, noisy and most importantly inefficient. I don’t know what you are doing in India, or Indiana. Are we working on the same thing? Are we competing or cooperating? And who makes the call, when we are all equal?
I am trying, but I wasn’t raised in that environment.

The kernel link didn’t make any sense to me, about supported CPU’s, but I found this review that makes it sound like everything is working fine on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, which is on kernel 6.8.
All that’s is obviously hinging on the kernel being a universal part of any distro.

Everything else made perfect sense. Appreciate the handholding.

EDIT: Spelling

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I’m afraid I can’t offer too shiny an explanation there, amigo. :wink:

Free & Open Source Software is generally developed as source code only, and this source code is then made available to everyone by way of the internet. Some of the developers of these projects are being paid by commercial companies such as RedHat, Oracle, et al.

For instance, gtk and GNOME are currently developed by people working at RedHat, and these people are being paid for developing those projects. Plasma is developed at KDE, which is a not-for-profit organization relying on sponsorship and donations. Yet other developers may be working freelance.

What’s important to note is that every project has an “upstream”, commonly referring to where they get their source code from. So for GNOME for instance, RedHat is the upstream, as that is where GNOME is developed in its purest form. Likewise, KDE is the upstream for Plasma and most of the Plasma-specific add-ons.

Then there are the distributions. They gather the source code, and they may or may not apply patches to it in order to add functionality. Then they compile it into binary code and offer this binary code as installable images — in RedHat’s case, you have to pay for that, but then you also get an official short-term support contract with it, or a longer-term contract for corporate customers.

In Manjaro’s case, most (but not all) of our packages are directly taken over in binary form from Arch. So Manjaro’s upstream is Arch, and Arch builds the binary packages from the source code they get from their respective developers.

Manjaro also does have a number of packages that are developed and maintained in-house, e.g. pamac, manjaro-hello, et al. And Manjaro itself is a community-developed distribution, but with a commercial arm, i.e. the Manjaro GmbH, registered as a commercial business in Germany.

The GmbH is what negotiates and maintains partnerships with hardware vendors for selling devices that come preinstalled with the Manjaro distribution, and with commercial software vendors, so that Manjaro users can make use of special discounts when purchasing a license to the commercial software in question.

Not a glorious reply, but it’s the best I can do for now. :wink:

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@Aragorn Forgive the late reply. It’s been a hectic weekend.

That makes perfect sense. It still feels upside-down. It’s like all the different up- and down-streams are building prefabs. The distro maintainers are trying to cobble together a working building from those, but there’s no project owner, to coordinate the entire thing. Nobody tells the factory to make more corners, or pamac’s as it were.

Then again, this workflow has existed since the 70’s, and it’s obviously not only working, but thriving.

I appreciate for the insight.

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