Switch to EMT64

Crispy Beef · Apprentice Joined: 29 Apr 2003 Posts: 194 Location: UK

Quick question; I've just had a new server set-up at a remote location, the system has a Pentium D processor which means it should support EMT64. Unfortunately the people that rigged the box did it with a 32bit environment so at the moment the entire system is running under x86.

The question is can I switch to the AMD64 stuff easily? I have a couple of other machines one with an Athlon64, another with an Opteron and another with a couple of Xeons (EMT64). Will it be as simple as getting hold of an AMD64 stage, installing that, updating portage and my make.conf, then sorting the kernel out?

Any suggestions are welcomed.

Thanks.
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Crispy

FcukThisGame · l33t Joined: 20 Apr 2005 Posts: 776 Location: /lost+found

No. It's not easy to switch architectures without re-installing from scratch. You'd have to change your CHOST, your kernel info, your profile, your ACCEPT_KEYWORDS, and you'll have to have different libs and such. I hate to say it, but you'd be best off to re-install.

Personally I don't think the gain from amd64 on a desktop system is necessarily worth re-installing in a business situation, but if since it's a Pentium D server, you'd be better off to re-install

Good luck! :-)

Crispy Beef · Apprentice Joined: 29 Apr 2003 Posts: 194 Location: UK

Yeah, have pretty much resigned myself to a fresh install, it's not for a desktop but a web and email server with 4GB of memory, would really prefer the 64-bit environment.

It's a catch 22 situation really; can't put the 64-bit binaries on their as it's running a 32-bit environment... I suppose it might be possible to do a chroot and go about it that way but seeing as this is a fresh install anyhow the fresh install seems the best way.

Thanks.

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FcukThisGame · l33t Joined: 20 Apr 2005 Posts: 776 Location: /lost+found

strugarevic · n00b Joined: 21 Feb 2006 Posts: 18 Location: Serbia

I had a similar situation. It's impossible to upgrade from 32bit to 64bit without fresh install

Crispy Beef · Apprentice Joined: 29 Apr 2003 Posts: 194 Location: UK

Due to the location of the servers I can't really mess about too much. The support staff at the ISP tried an AMD64 install from the latest LiveCD but on boot the machine wouldn't have any of it. On boot the machine beeped and reported that it 'could not load selected item into memory'. Maybe a bug or something? Dunno until I get the details.

I've had to opt to stay with 32-bit for now and if I ever feel I can be bothered to switch will have to do it via a chroot or something, although once the servers running smoothly I probably will stick with it.

Cheers for the answers guys.
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Crispy