[arch-general] Change installation from 64-bit to 32-bit
Hi all, I installed 64-bit arch on a low memory laptop (1G) not thinking about the higher memory requirement. Now I wonder, whether I can approach to change it by changing the pacman.conf entry Architecture = auto to Architecture = i686 and reinstall all explicitly installed packages. I feel like it should work. Any "don't do that"s, "go for it"s, "I did it"s out there :o)). -- Friedrich
Hey, Never tried that particular piece of reckless foolery :). However, I'd guess that once the libraries were replaced with incompatible versions, the installation scripts would start to fail, and then you'd be pretty badly stuck. Instead (but this requires a lot of disk space), perhaps install the 64-bit versions of all current packages to a chroot, and then do a massive copy? You'd have to be sure to get the important parts in one command on the copy, otherwise your binaries might start being unusuable. (Or, install busybox and use that to do things more carefully.) The wiki has a couple other methods, if you don't have 15G to spare: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Migrating_Between_Architectures_Without.... On Fri, 11 Jul 2014, Friedrich Strohmaier wrote:
Hi all,
I installed 64-bit arch on a low memory laptop (1G) not thinking about the higher memory requirement.
Now I wonder, whether I can approach to change it by changing the pacman.conf entry
Architecture = auto to Architecture = i686
and reinstall all explicitly installed packages.
I feel like it should work.
Any "don't do that"s, "go for it"s, "I did it"s out there :o)). -- Friedrich
-- Scott Lawrence Linux baidar 3.15.3-1-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Tue Jul 1 07:32:45 CEST 2014 x86_64 GNU/Linux
On Thursday 10 Jul 2014 19:42:39 Scott Lawrence wrote:
Hey,
Never tried that particular piece of reckless foolery :). However, I'd guess that once the libraries were replaced with incompatible versions, the installation scripts would start to fail, and then you'd be pretty badly stuck.
I also think this would happen.
Instead (but this requires a lot of disk space), perhaps install the 64-bit versions of all current packages to a chroot, and then do a massive copy? You'd have to be sure to get the important parts in one command on the copy, otherwise your binaries might start being unusuable. (Or, install busybox and use that to do things more carefully.)
Yes, I don't think you'll be able to do this in-place. A chroot is a possibility, possibly onto a separate logical volume (if you used LVM?). There's not much difference between doing that and reinstalling from scratch, though. Paul
Hi Scott, *, thanks for Your very quick answer, and all the others for their answers as well. Am 11.07.2014 01:42 schrieb Scott Lawrence:
Hey,
Never tried that particular piece of reckless foolery :).
[..]
The wiki has a couple other methods, if you don't have 15G to spare: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Migrating_Between_Architectures_Without....
I definetly was astonished to get a wiki link for that task, otherwise I'd have looked myself ;o)). So thanks to all Your answers I'm prepaired to go ahead. Friedrich
On Fri, 11 Jul 2014, Friedrich Strohmaier wrote:
Hi all,
I installed 64-bit arch on a low memory laptop (1G) not thinking about the higher memory requirement.
[..] -- Friedrich
On 07/11, Friedrich Strohmaier wrote:
Hi all,
I installed 64-bit arch on a low memory laptop (1G) not thinking about the higher memory requirement.
Now I wonder, whether I can approach to change it by changing the pacman.conf entry
Architecture = auto to Architecture = i686
and reinstall all explicitly installed packages.
I feel like it should work.
Any "don't do that"s, "go for it"s, "I did it"s out there :o)). -- Friedrich
I'm certainly no expert on how GNU/Linux systems are put together, but it seems to me that in the process of replacing all 64-bit libraries with their 32-bit equivalents, the currently running 64-bit system will try to use llibraries that you've just deleted, and so will crash during the process. If that happens, you'll be reinstalling anyway. There is a way to get a 32-bit clone of your current system up and running very quickly: 1. Back up any sensitive data, including configuration files. 2. Follow the instructions on the wiki for creating a list of packages installed from the official repositories. [1] Make sure to keep that list with your backups. 3. Format the disks and install a 32-bit build of Arch following the restoration instructions from that same wiki page. 4. Restore your backups. [1]: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pacman_tips#Backing_up_and_retrieving_a... -- "A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools." - Douglas Adams
Not even that. You can have functioning 32bit programs running on a 64bit
system. The only reason I can see to change is if you somehow installed a
64bit system on a 32 bit architecture system.
On Jul 10, 2014 10:07 PM, "Bigby James"
Hi all,
I installed 64-bit arch on a low memory laptop (1G) not thinking about
higher memory requirement.
Now I wonder, whether I can approach to change it by changing the
On 07/11, Friedrich Strohmaier wrote: the pacman.conf
entry
Architecture = auto to Architecture = i686
and reinstall all explicitly installed packages.
I feel like it should work.
Any "don't do that"s, "go for it"s, "I did it"s out there :o)). -- Friedrich
I'm certainly no expert on how GNU/Linux systems are put together, but it seems to me that in the process of replacing all 64-bit libraries with their 32-bit equivalents, the currently running 64-bit system will try to use llibraries that you've just deleted, and so will crash during the process. If that happens, you'll be reinstalling anyway. There is a way to get a 32-bit clone of your current system up and running very quickly:
1. Back up any sensitive data, including configuration files. 2. Follow the instructions on the wiki for creating a list of packages installed from the official repositories. [1] Make sure to keep that list with your backups. 3. Format the disks and install a 32-bit build of Arch following the restoration instructions from that same wiki page. 4. Restore your backups.
[1]: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pacman_tips#Backing_up_and_retrieving_a...
-- "A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools." - Douglas Adams
On Thursday 10 Jul 2014 22:10:28 droe6 wrote:
Not even that. You can have functioning 32bit programs running on a 64bit system. The only reason I can see to change is if you somehow installed a 64bit system on a 32 bit architecture system.
The OP already explained that he wants to make this change because of the increased RAM requirements of 64-bit binaries on a system that has limited resources. Paul
On Fri, Jul 11, 2014 at 1:31 AM, Friedrich Strohmaier
Hi all,
I installed 64-bit arch on a low memory laptop (1G) not thinking about the higher memory requirement.
Now I wonder, whether I can approach to change it by changing the pacman.conf entry
Architecture = auto to Architecture = i686
and reinstall all explicitly installed packages.
I feel like it should work.
Any "don't do that"s, "go for it"s, "I did it"s out there :o)). -- Friedrich
This is doable, and described in the wiki: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Migrating_Between_Architectures_Without... I performed that move in the past, though in the reverse direction (i686 → x86_64). I didn’t have a problem with it. -- Chris “Kwpolska” Warrick http://chriswarrick.com/ PGP: 5EAAEA16 stop html mail | always bottom-post | only UTF-8 makes sense
participants (6)
-
Bigby James
-
Chris “Kwpolska” Warrick
-
droe6
-
Friedrich Strohmaier
-
Paul Gideon Dann
-
Scott Lawrence