Please explain 32 bit chroot

Travers · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 09 Oct 2004 Posts: 142

Ok, the way I understand it, 32 bit binaries will work fine in a 64 bit environment provided IA32 emulation... all that jazz is working.

What I don't get is the 32 bit chroot environment. Do you hop in there to compile 32 bit applications and then copy the binaries over to the 64 bit environment?

And... is 64 bit worth all the headaches I'm bound to have? Thanks.

Travers

jdevers · n00b Joined: 05 Mar 2004 Posts: 26

The problem comes when you have programs that run within other programs (I run a pure 64 bit environment for now, but this should be pretty close to what others do). For instance, you need the 64 bit version of flash to watch flash anims in Firefox, well, there ISN'T a 64 bit version of flash so you have to have a 32 bit version of Firefox so you can use the 32 bit version of flash. The same thing applies to other programs like Mplayer, the dependancies can get tricky (or so I've heard) and so it is sometimes easier to just have a complete 32 bit environment (especially with a source based distro like Gentoo) you can chroot into.

I don't have any real problems at all in by 64 bit environment, but I also could care less about Flash animation or new .WMV videos. All of my hardware is completely supported and it seems to be rock solid and lightning fast...

Travers · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 09 Oct 2004 Posts: 142

So people run a 64 bit environment and when they want to do something that requires 32 bit, they hop in their 32 bit environment? That really sucks. For instance, I'm using ndiswrapper... I'd have to flip into 32 bit to use my integrated wireless on my laptop. Yikes! But I'm in the market for a PCMCIA wifi card, like a tried and true Prism 2. Darn, I'm a poet and didn't know it. Any suggestions for a PCMCIA 802.11 card? Take a guess what I'm going to do with that. =) BTW, ndiswrapper runs fantastic, hats off to the developers.

Travers

teilo · Posted: Sat Dec 04, 2004 8:02 pm Post subject:

UberLord · Posted: Sat Dec 04, 2004 11:35 pm Post subject:

I can vouch that madwifi-driver works under amd64 in a pure 64-bit environment - however, the current ebuild in portage won't install atm.

So if you're in the market right now, get an atheros based chipset in your wifi card

Travers · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 09 Oct 2004 Posts: 142

z3ro · Apprentice Joined: 16 Jun 2004 Posts: 261

LaNcom · Posted: Sun Dec 05, 2004 11:19 am Post subject:

Travers · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 09 Oct 2004 Posts: 142

I'm getting so much mixed information about 64 bit perhaps I'm just not getting it. Oh well, I've got a partition with x86_64's name on it.

get sirius · Guru Joined: 27 Apr 2002 Posts: 316 Location: Madison, WI

Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong, but I've been under the impression that 32-bit apps just had to be compiled in the 32-bit chroot, e.g. set up the 32-bit chroot, within that 32-bit chrooted environment emerge the 32-bit apps that you need, exit the 32-bit chroot, and run the new apps. Yes

or no

.

Travers · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 09 Oct 2004 Posts: 142

I think the problem was that 32 bit applications had dificulty compiling in 64 bit. So, you would have to use 32 bit binaries under your 64 bit. There don't seem to be any clear answers, so we're dealing with alot of uncharted territory.

I think the largest problem is dependencies. A 32 bit application looking to a 64 bit library is obviously going to cause some trouble.

Here's my 64 bits: Two partitions, one 32, one 64, full 32 install so you have something to fall back on, then play around with 64.