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Re: 32bit vs 64bit



Dne 21.7.2011 22:57, piše Brad Alexander:
This is sort of an odd question, but my desktop is a core2duo machine, which means it is capable of 32 or 64 bit operation. The last time I rebuilt the machine in 2007, there were still a number of deficiencies in 64bit Linux. However, some time in the intervening time, my clock started running fast, gaining, say, 15 minutes per hour, even though ntp was running. I was advised to install the amd64 kernel. Thus I wound up with a franken-machine with a 64bit kernel and 32bit userland. One of the problems with this configuration is that apps which use the kernel and userland versions get confused. For instance, I can install the amd64 version of VirtualBox, but it will not start because it gives me "wrong architecture"...

Well, now 64bit is as stable as 32bit, and I want to upgrade my machine to 64bit userland. Is there a reliable way to upgrade existing packages? Or is a complete rebuild ("nuke and pave") the best way? I know I could probably wget every package on my system with a wget script and do a "dpkg -i *" but that seems frought with danger. On the other hand, doing a "nuke and pave" means I would be without the machine for the duration of the build, plus the post-install configuration means I have to labor to get things back to the way I like them.

Is there some middle ground?

thanks,
--b
Hi,

 I would recommend on backing up your $HOME folder(~) and any .conf files you modified and then do a clean install, also you can save package selections so that you can just install them on a new 64-bit OS like this:
1. On the old system you do:
dpkg --get-selections > ~/my-packages

(my-packages being the file that you save selection to)
2. On the new system you do:
sudo dpkg --set-selections < my-packages && sudo apt-get dselect-upgrade
(don't forget to copy my-packages file :) )
That's what I did on my Ubuntu laptop and worked perfectly, but since Ubuntu is a derivative of Debian it shouldn't be a problem.

Cheers,

Dejan

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