Re: 32bit vs 64bit
Brad Alexander <storm16@gmail.com> wrote:
>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.
I actually did the upgrade from 32bit to 64bit in 11/2010, roughly
following http://teddyb.org/~rlpowell/hobbies/debian_arch_up/ .
However, I had to rely on a grml boot image twice to fix libraries,
after I failed to find the appropriate files using ar and mc[0] when
even "cp" didn’t work anymore :)
It all worked out fine, but if you are not extremely careful and know
what you’re doing (or have a lot of free time and know how to, for
example, use grml to then chroot into your Debian system), I wouldn’t
recommend doing it.
Unfortunately, I failed to document what I did :)
Best regards,
Claudius
[0] Somehow these were statically linked for unknown reasons and thus
continued working even without any sensible library installed.
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