Upgrading existing 32bit install to 64bit

skyPhyr · Last edited by skyPhyr on Mon Jun 19, 2006 4:43 pm; edited 1 time in total

Hi All,

Just wanted to get some ideas on whether the following process would work, or any required changes to make it work.

I've got a whole bunch of systems here which are imaged using a pxe boot server I've created. At the moment they're all running 32bit gentoo (it was to ensure good compatibility with some closed source software which I've now tested on another 64bit machine). However there's a heap of things installed so I'd rather not build the machine from scratch again, writing down a list of everything to install, config files etc. So I'm looking for a way to upgrade from ~x86 to ~amd64. Here's the idea so far.

Extract a stage3 amd64 to the root folder as per the handbook. Update my make.conf and make.profile with the relevant settings. Update my /etc/portage/* for any changes I can anticipate as well.

emerge gcc (I want to upgrade to 4.1.1 as well during this process)

emerge --oneshot libtool

emerge --ev system

emerge --ev world

Rebuild kernel, (install grub - not sure if this is required - I assume it needs updating with the transition to 64bit).

Reboot and hopefully have a ~amd64 system.

Any ideas, suggestions, general laughter at the notion of trying to do this rathen than building from scratch?

Cheers,

Alan.

Deathwing00 · Posted: Mon Jun 19, 2006 1:53 pm Post subject:

Moved from Installing Gentoo to Gentoo on AMD64.

skyPhyr · Posted: Tue Jun 20, 2006 9:28 am Post subject:

So I guess the answer is to try it and let people know what happens?

mudrii · l33t Joined: 26 Jun 2003 Posts: 789 Location: Singapore

It won't work you should reinstall the system with 64 bit LiveCD that use gcc 64bit
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skyPhyr · Posted: Wed Jun 21, 2006 8:09 am Post subject:

Alrighty - thanks for the info mudrii.

Damn was hoping for an easy way to upgrade and have all the config in place. Is it just the lack of a 64bit kernel? (i.e. will booting off the amd64 livecd and following these same steps work?)

Cheers,

Alan.

alistair · Retired Dev Joined: 15 Jul 2005 Posts: 869

how about the possibility of building the whole thing into a sandbox.

Is there a way to change the "root" install path for all emerges?

if you can then you could try build everthing into /home/crazyman/fakeroot

and then copy the contents of that directory over the top of your root.

sadly you would only know if it works by trying it.
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Toadicus · n00b Joined: 21 Apr 2006 Posts: 40

Seems to me that it could be possible, though I'm really not sure, to download a stage3 amd64 tarball to, say, /gentoo64, chrooting into the tarball environment, compiling your system there, then moving/copying the 64-bit chroot over your 32 boot root system, rebooting, and then re-emerging everything. If it worked, it would still be terribly hairy, and would definitely take longer (IMO) than just wiping your root partition (or backing up your /home directory if it's not on a separate partition) and just installing an amd64 version fresh. That would definitely give you a more stable setup, as well.

skyPhyr · Posted: Wed Jun 21, 2006 10:31 pm Post subject:

Thanks guys - home folders aren't a problem as they're all on another server anyway

Just all the ldap and kerberos config etc.

Building from scratch it is - when I grow up I won't be so lazy - I promise

Cheers,

Alan.

crackshot1980 · n00b Joined: 16 Jan 2005 Posts: 4

I'm thinking about upgrading myself.
On 32 bit gentoo at the moment, want to flex the 64 bit muscles

Did you try this, (successfully?) or is this still a testing phase?

Cheers.