Re: In-place upgrade from i386

["Douglas A. Tutty" <dtutty@porchlight.ca>]

On Fri, Feb 15, 2008 at 10:17:32AM +0100, Joerg Dorchain wrote:
> I have a system with an intel core 2 dou CPU, which currently runs fine
> Debian-i386.
> 
> I want to change it to amd64 with certain conditions:
> 
> - Same package selection
> - Same debconf
> - Same config files
> - Same disk afterwards
> 
> as on current i386 when it runs amd64.
> 
> So far I managed to run an amd64 kernel.

See the thread from last month.

Here are some ideas:

You can't just change sources list and go.  The libs are in the wrong
place.

Assuming that you want to avoid downtime, I see a couple of
possibilities.

1.	Add a drive to the box, use debootstrap to install amd64 to that
while you still run i386.  Then install a kernel, change grub, and
reboot.

2.	If you have free space on the drive, install to that.

3.	With either a free drive or a free partition, if you can
tolerate a bit of downtime, use the instaler, set up LVM on the spare
partitions and do a minimal install (no tasks selected), and ensure that
it boots.

	Then reboot back to your i386 to carry on with life while you
	finish installing and configuring the amd64 install.

	Once this is done, chang grub so that amd64 is the default boot.
	You can then either leave the i386 install as is to use as a
	chroot or just remove it, make the partition a PV for your amd64
	LVM system and use the space as you want.


Doug.