On Thursday, 13.07.2006 at 22:40 -0400, hendrik@topoi.pooq.com wrote:
Would the above advice still apply if I wanted to use my 32 bit
software and data with a Socket 754 Sempron CPU i.e. I would use a
Sempron which has AMD64 support built in, but I would not use the 64
bit capability ?
It's always worth remembering that amd64 CPUs can run x86 code
completely natively and so one can always "ignore" the fact that they
are amd64 CPUs and just run a normal x86 distribution: that will work
fine.
You'd be correct in saying that you "won't be using the 64-bit
capabilities" of the CPU, but those capabilities are only useful in
certain contexts and you simply may not need them!
If you have a 64-bit Debian in one partition, and then you install
a 32-but Debian in another, and it sets up grub, will the
32-bit installation recognise the already present 64-bit installation,
and will the presumably 32-bit grup properly boot it?
Maybe :-)
The long version: I tried doing something like the above a while ago and
it's a rather tricky setup to *maintain*, although it may work at first.
i.e. What happens when you start updating kernels?
Can't help you any more with this one, anyway, sorry Hendrik...
Dave.