I have a machine that can run either (proved, I can boot the AMD-64 release disk) Can I SOURCE UPGRADE from one to the other? That is, is it possible to do a "make buildworld", "make buildkernel" and then "make installkernel" and wind up with AMD64 instead of the 32-bit code? Or must I reinstall? It APPEARS I can run most 32-bit code on a 64-bit system. Not all works, but most does. -- -- Karl Denninger karl@denninger.net
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hi, Karl, Karl Denninger wrote:> I have a machine that can run either (proved, I can boot the AMD-64 > release disk) > > Can I SOURCE UPGRADE from one to the other? That is, is it possible to > do a "make buildworld", "make buildkernel" and then "make installkernel" > and wind up with AMD64 instead of the 32-bit code? > > Or must I reinstall? > > It APPEARS I can run most 32-bit code on a 64-bit system. Not all > works, but most does.This is sort of "doable" but "highly recommend you not to do that" thing. The simplest way to do 32-bit to 64-bit upgrade would be to backup your data, install from scratch, then restore data; mixing 32-bit and 64-bit stuff together, especially without 32-bit stuff moved to the right place, is among the most terrible mess you wanted to avoid. Online "upgrade" can be done if you have your 64-bit world/kernel built and installed into a separate directory (i.e. make world kernel DESTDIR=/path/to/a/temp/place), then drop into single user mode, then tar then pipe to another tar to extract the whole thing to /, but this is really a "foot, gun, shoot" thing. Cheers, - -- Xin LI <delphij@delphij.net> http://www.delphij.net/ FreeBSD - The Power to Serve! -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.10 (FreeBSD) iEYEARECAAYFAkmU1gMACgkQi+vbBBjt66CLMQCfU77Cxz1YshGJb5C455GIGbXt vvMAn25KgUnJqEmQRbrxnxucD+CTdFyf =DiuA -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
On Feb 12, 2009, at 5:31 PM, Karl Denninger wrote:> I have a machine that can run either (proved, I can boot the AMD-64 > release disk) > > Can I SOURCE UPGRADE from one to the other? That is, is it possible > to do a "make buildworld", "make buildkernel" and then "make > installkernel" and wind up with AMD64 instead of the 32-bit code? > > Or must I reinstall?Sure, it's possible, given sufficient toolchain knowledge, time, and skills, but it's not a sensible thing to do aside from experimentation and learning purposes. The recommended course is to determine the platform which best suits your requirements and the available hardware: ie, are you doing database stuff, SSL, or arbitrary-precision math which would really benefit from the 64-bit architecture; does the machine have more than 3 GB of RAM; does the machine have hardware (like a graphics card) which has better 32-bit drivers, etc.> It APPEARS I can run most 32-bit code on a 64-bit system. Not all > works, but most does.Right, the vast majority of 32-bit binaries should work just fine on a 64-bit platform.... Regards, -- -Chuck