[RndTbl] 32->64

[Gilbert E. Detillieux]

On 25/08/2014 11:05 PM, Trevor Cordes wrote:
> OK, screw 32-bit PAE, I'm going to switch to 64-bit Linux.  (For
> reasons left as a teaser to read the upcoming newsletter...)
>
> I'm going to attempt an in-place upgrade F19 to F20, similar to what is
> outlined here:
> http://archive09.linux.com/feature/123800

Good luck with that...  :)

> It sounds do-able.  I'm more than used to doing wacky pseudo-supported
> upgrade procedures; I'm running many boxes that have been upgraded
> from Fedora 3 all the way through to F19 via yum (headless, via network)
> only; and those boxes have also been hw upgraded a few times each!  Try
> that with Windows (and the end result is clean and trim, not bloated)!
>
> I do have a couple of questions I can't seem to find answers to:
>
> 1. Will /usr/local/bin stuff I've compiled myself (not too much), which
> are obviously 32-bit binaries, run on my new 64 system?

Yes, provided they are either statically linked or you have the required 
32-bit libraries (of compatible versions)...

> 2. If #1 requires 32-bit libraries, can Fedora 64-bit have both 32 and
> 64 libraries installed?

Absolutely.  That's been the case pretty much since x86_64 support was 
added to Fedora and RHEL, I believe.  (With early 64-bit distros, you 
had the reverse problem that it seemed to load most of the 32-bit 
libraries as well, whether you needed them or not, which made for a lot 
of bloat.)

> 3. Will I lose flash?

Adobe Flash should continue to work, provided you have all the 32-bit 
libraries it needs.  If you've installed it via the Adobe RPM 
repository, the dependencies should (in theory) keep the needed 
libraries around (hopefully without creating an upgrade dependency 
conflict).  You'll also want to keep a 32-bit version of Firefox around, 
as the Flash plugin won't work in the 64-bit version.

(I've given up on trying to support Flash on any of my 64-bit 
installations.)

> 4. How many programs am I running that (as per link above) use
> binary arch-dependent data files?  The article mentions db files (I use
> only MySQL/Maria), but I don't mind doing a full text dump/restore.
> But what else might use them?  I'm a bit scared that systemd's new
> journal logs might also cause problems.  What else?  (Good thing UNIX
> is so text-based.)

Not sure how many other arch-dependent data files you're likely to 
encounter, in practice.  Your guess is as good as mine...

> Why do I not want to do a wipe/reinstall?
> a) I'm good at getting the wacky option to work, generally.

My success has been more mixed.  I don't think I've ever attempted an 
in-place upgrade from 32 to 64-bit distro, though.

> b) I've configured the !*%@@ out of my box and to resetup everything to
> the way I have it would take way more than the 1 day I am guessing the
> upgrade method will take.

I'm with you on that one!  I've always found that to be the biggest pain 
about complete reinstalls.  (You think you've got a complete set of 
config files for all your customisations, only to find that you've 
either missed a few, or something has been completely redesigned and 
your old config is only useful as a rough guide for hand-editing the new 
one.)

> c) #b includes the bazillion daemons I run (and would require
> reconfig / data file migration)

Not sure how (b) and (c) are different...

> Thanks guys.

You're welcome, and good luck!

-- 
Gilbert E. Detillieux		E-mail: <gedetil at muug.mb.ca>
Manitoba UNIX User Group	Web:	http://www.muug.mb.ca/
PO Box 130 St-Boniface		Phone:  (204)474-8161
Winnipeg MB CANADA  R2H 3B4	Fax:    (204)474-7609