nomultilib Desktop - any brave folks out there?

cz0

Hi, folks.
Recently I managed to get 64-bit version of legacy PCB CAD software to run on my computer giving me a chance to make an attempt to get rid of multilib.
I checked my /opt directory and it seems that there are no ELF32 binaries left on my system except libraries.
But I was slightly frighten by various discussions mentioning that it will be not easy to get multilib back if I ever need it.
My decade old Lenovo X230 seems to be to weak for any of this modern Steam or whatever games and, what is worth - I never seem to have time for this. Instead, I may occasionally run 64-bit WinXP VM in Virtual Box.
On the other hand, my system will benefit from 64-bit only set by reducing compilation time on aging hardware.
I wonder if there are any brave enough folks running pure 64-bit desktop and if there are any disadvantages for every-day use scenario in case system is used primitively for Internet surfing, programming and engineering using in-place compiled software.
Thank you.

pietinger · Posted: Fri Nov 08, 2024 11:44 am Post subject:

cz0,

yes I am using since many years the profile: PLASMA+NO-MULTILIB ... you will get with these steps from our developer @grknight:
https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-8694188.html#8694188
(of course you must use 23.0 instead 17.1 ;-)

)

After this just do an "emerge -uUDvp @world".

Yes, the way back is very hard ... So you should be sure that you really don't need multilib.
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logrusx · Advocate Joined: 22 Feb 2018 Posts: 2414

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Banana · Posted: Fri Nov 08, 2024 2:53 pm Post subject:

I do run a no-multilib install for years as a daily workstation. But I did not switch, I used the no-multilib profile from the start.
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Zucca · Posted: Fri Nov 08, 2024 4:24 pm Post subject:

I use no-multilib everywhere except on boxes where I might install some binary distributed games (gog.com). On those same machines I make sure I use glibc as the system libc.
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logrusx · Advocate Joined: 22 Feb 2018 Posts: 2414

I think having -abi_x86_32 in make.conf will bring the 32bit enabled packages to minimum. For me it's 3 packages.

However I'm not sure how good of a practice that is. Before that it was 9 packages. Without it, portage wants to enable 32 bit abi on those six again. What I was able to find out it the profile enabled 32 bit abi on libomp and it brought it in for clang-runtime, compiler-rt and compiler-rt-sanitizers. The other two are virtual/libcrypt and libxcrypt.

I let it install the binary packages and everything seems to be fine.

However I don't think those will significantly decrease compilation time. Also there's the binhost.

Best Regards,
Georgi

pietinger · Posted: Fri Nov 08, 2024 6:49 pm Post subject:

logrusx,

the main reason for a no-multilib system is: You can now disable 32bit in the kernel ... and this is increasing kernel security!

See also KSPP: https://kspp.github.io/Recommended_Settings ->

logrusx · Advocate Joined: 22 Feb 2018 Posts: 2414

dmpogo · Advocate Joined: 02 Sep 2004 Posts: 3425 Location: Canada

And I use some legacy code for which I need to have gcc-3.3.6 tar ball (well libstdc++-v3 )

bstaletic · Guru Joined: 05 Apr 2014 Posts: 367

Last time I tried the no-multilib profile, I was fine for a while.
Then I realized that cross-arm-linux-gnueabihf toolchain couldn't be bootstrapped, because no-multilib lacks gnu/stubs-32.h
So, even though I only needed that toolchain for building some RPi projects, I had to go back to the multilib profile.

I don't know what that means for the kernel config. I'm playing safe and keeping 32bit support enabled.

cz0 · Posted: Sat Nov 09, 2024 8:52 am Post subject:

mega_flow · Posted: Sat Nov 09, 2024 9:25 am Post subject:

running nomultilib for 2 year now
my parent file
gentoo:default/linux/amd64/23.0/no-multilib/systemd
gentoo:targets/desktop/gnome/systemd
LarryTheCow:extra

my build server is 64-bit only . and with flatpak i no longer need to build 32 bit

ps it is not hard to switch back u need 3 progs for this glibc gcc and sys-apps/sandbox and you can fetch this from the binhost
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logrusx · Advocate Joined: 22 Feb 2018 Posts: 2414

cz0 · Posted: Sat Nov 09, 2024 12:35 pm Post subject:

cz0 · Posted: Sat Nov 09, 2024 4:21 pm Post subject:

I also had ABI_X86="64 32" in my make.conf forcing 32-bit binaries for 242 libs in my system. Just commented this out and rebuilding all this stuff.

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logrusx · Advocate Joined: 22 Feb 2018 Posts: 2414

cz0 · Posted: Sat Nov 09, 2024 8:02 pm Post subject:

That's true. This is 2013 i5-3230M with 12" screen. I never played any game on this laptop (as well as on any of my other systems) since purchase and not going. Therefore Steam or GoG are not in scope. Wine is, probably, either - I have WM for Windows software that I don't run that often (and probably can refuse). The only thing that I still use occasionally is Cadsoft Eagle PCB design tool. But since version 7.3 they released native 64-bit executable freeing me from keeping 32-bit libraries. Moreover, since acquisition by Autodesk years ago, they changes licensing model to subscription - this is strongly "no-way" for me and I keep this CAD only for my old projects with new designs started only in KiCAD.

cz0 · Posted: Sun Nov 10, 2024 11:16 am Post subject:

I started my fight against multilib by commenting out ABI_X86="64 32" in my make.conf (have no clue how it sneaked there) resulting in many 32-bit libraries drainage: