Is chroot still needed ?

["Hans-J. Ullrich" <hans.ullrich@loop.de>]

Dear maintainers, 
time is changing things. So my question: Is a 32-bit-chroot still necessary, 
to run 32-bit-applications ? Just to specify: I have a 64-bit system and a 
chroot below /var/chroot/sid-ia32/. My ldconf is got two additional entrys:

/var/chroot/sid-ia32/lib
/var/chroot/sid-ia32/usr/lib

to let the system find 32-bit libraries. Now I got errors (segfault) with some 
applications. One is a printer driver, the other is npviewer, which is needed 
for 32-bit flash-driver. 
If I remove the entries in ldconf, so that the chroot is not in the path, the 
32-bit-drivers are working well and no segfault appears.

Because of this, I wondered, if chroot 32-bit-libs are still needed and used 
by 32-bit-applications. I saw, there were ia32-libs (an orphaned package) and 
libc-i386. 

I am using still some external 32-bit-applications.

Please let me know, if the chroot can safely be deleted nowadays.

Best regards

Hans