Re: I mistakenly installed 32 bit Debian. How can I ensure that I'm installing 64 bit?

[Patrick Chkoreff <patrick@rayservers.net>]

Steve Litt of Troubleshooters.Com wrote, On 03/07/2014 09:06 AM:

> So Patrick, Jonathan's right: Don't be afraid to ask any questions.
> Ignore any useless answers.

Yes, the pithy answer to my original question is:

  When you boot from the Debian CD, chose the 64-bit option.
  Don't just press Enter on the top "Install" option.  That will
  give you a 32 bit install.

And the lesson learned is:

  Pay attention to the menus, even if you are in a hurry because
  you have serious work to do, and TWO of your machines are going
  pear-shaped on you, losing functionality in Gnome, and losing
  fonts in Terminal.  STILL look at the menus.

I've been using some flavor of Unix since 1981, though I haven't
practiced installation nearly enough.  I'm doing a lot of that these
days, and I'm documenting all the things I need to do to re-create my
entire environment, including all sorts of personal notes such as:

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install gecko-mediaplayer
$ sudo apt-get install openssh-server
$ cd .ssh
$ scp laptop:.ssh/id_rsa .
$ scp laptop:.ssh/id_rsa.pub .
$ cat id_rsa.pub >>authorized_keys
$ cd
$ sudo apt-get install keychain
$ scp laptop:.bash_aliases .
$ scp laptop:.exrc .
$ sudo apt-get install vim  # the version with syntax highlighting
$ sudo apt-get install rsync
$ rsync -avz laptop:.gnupg .
$ sudo apt-get install icedove
$ rsync -avz laptop:.icedove .
$ rsync -avz --delete laptop:.mozilla .
$ rsync -avz laptop:.purple .
# ... install gcc, extra perl modules, etc. etc.

Also little details like on the laptop having to add "non-free" to
/etc/apt/sources.lst and then:

$ sudo apt-get install firmware-iwlwifi

Once I get all this down to a science I may post my exact steps on my
web site.


-- Patrick

P.S. One of these days I need to try building the entire kernel, OS, and
all packages from source code.  :)