bug#67535: Does anyone use i686-linux? [was Re: bug#67535: ci.guix.gnu.org 'Cannot allocate memory' while building for i686-linux]

[Efraim Flashner]

On Fri, Jul 26, 2024 at 02:51:49PM -0400, Leo Famulari wrote:
> For a long time we've not been able to build linux-libre on i686-linux
> because the source unpacking process runs out of memory.

I believe if we limit the unpacking process to not more than 8 cores we
can avoid that problem.

> I'm forwarding this bug to guix-devel to get more attention.
> 
> Is anybody actually using i686-linux anymore? Or should we begin to
> officially remove support for it?

Keeping this to i686-linux specifically, what generation of hardware
supports i686 but not x86_64? Some (very) quick checking on wikipedia
suggests that the x60 from 2006 was either 32-bit or 64-bit, and I
believe there was an atom chip from 2015 that was 32-bit. Specifically,
that makes the newest hardware (at least from the CPU perspective) 10
years old at least.

Perhaps a different question, what software _available in Guix_ is
supported by i686 that isn't supported by x86_64?

In terms of side-stepping the question, do we have enough x86_64
hardware to continue to support i686 without degrading support for
x86_64? (I ask this seriously, although I'm pretty certain the answer is
we're well covered on that front.)

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Efraim Flashner   <efraim@flashner.co.il>   רנשלפ םירפא
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