64 bit kernel in 32 bit system

Konstantin Svist fry.kun at gmail.com
Mon Mar 30 20:18:40 UTC 2009


Bill Davidsen wrote:
> I have read that there will be a feature to run a 64 bit kernel in a
> 32 bit install of FC11. I'm curious about the number of things it
> would take to build such a kernel for FC10 (other than building the
> kernel, obviously).
>
> Any input from whoever is does that part for fc11?
>

>From https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FeatureList
Feature 'Supported Architectures
<https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/ArchitectureSupport>' summary:
"Change supported architectures and default installed kernels. The
x86_64 kernel will be installed and used on compatible hardware, even
when installing a 32-bit operating system. The PAE kernel will be used
on 32-bit hardware, where appropriate"

Note that
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/ArchitectureSupport#Contingency_Plan
says
"For x86_64-on-32: do not ship x86_64 on 32-bit x86, only ship 32-bit
kernels. This contingency plan has been enacted."

I think the idea here was to use the 64-bit kernel if installing the OS
on 64-bit hardware, even if the OS software would be 32-bit. While
32-bit programs wouldn't be able to address large chunks of RAM, at
least the kernel would - so running multiple instances of 32-bit
programs could make use of the whole RAM.





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