[arch-ports] Phasing out i686 support

[Tyzoid D]

Hi Dave/Elrich,

Allow me to jump in here as well, as some of the resources may be difficult
to find.

> > Since this news item was not posted on the 1st of april I guess this is
> > not a joke - just to make sure: Is this really true, there won't be a
> > 32-bit Arch Linux from November 2017? I ask this because we recently
> > (okay, about 2-3 years ago) switched to Arch Linux for our devices,
> > those devices run on 32-bit only and they will exist for at least the
> > next seven years. We are in the railway industry, things don't change
> > monthly.

It's less severe than you might think. The process of moving arch off of
32bit is only for the officially managed/mainline reposatory, and will
eventually be managed much in a similar way other community based arch
projects/ports are, much like the archlinux-arm project. The community is
currently in the process of building up a separate 32bit reposatory, and
preliminary packages are available.

See https://github.com/archlinux32/packages/tree/master/core for details,
and an initial mirrorlist. I would recommend holding off on migrating here
until further testing can be performed, but is available for preliminary
testing. If you would like to help us test and report bugs you find, that
would be much appreciated, and would aid the transition process greatly.

> > Am I the only one who thinks that way?
>
> nope, you're not the only one.

Ditto here. I support old 32bit kiosk machines that we don't forsee
upgrading for the time being. I also personally run one of the 32bit
mirrors out of chicago: http://32.arlm.tyzoid.com/


> > Thanks for your clarification, arguments, thoughts, ideas!

No problem. Just know that this is an organization change, and that as
Elrich said:

> If all goes smooth, the transition for you should be as easy as changing
> your mirrorlist and updating your pacman-keyring.

Cheers,
Tyler