Re: i386 vs SRPMS iso image difference? - newbie question

David Hunt wrote:

I have downloaded and installed Fedora using the i386 iso images. That worked very nicely.
I also downloaded the SRPMS images, but didn't appear to need them. What are the SRPMS images for?
Can anyone really quickly tell me the difference between the i386 and SRPMS iso images?

The SRPMS images contain the source packages . You only need them if you need/want to recompile a given program. However , you can always download the source rpm for that single program on the net..

Also, how do I know what kind of processor I've got?
I am running an Intel Pentium 4 2.66GHz processor. Is that i386, i486, i586, or i686?
Would it make any difference to try recompiling the kernel for the correct processor type?
If so, dare I ask how that is done?

Pentium 4 is a 686 processor. Probably the kernel you are already running is i686 optimized... If not , install the kernel-2.4.22-1.2166.nptl.i686.rpm (available on all mirrors in the update section). This helps increase performance , but I dont know how much would be the performance gains (I always run optimized kernels , so I dont have any base to compare to generic i386 kernels).

Pedro Macedo