Upgrading from 32 bit to 64 bit

[Rick Stevens]

On Fri, 2006-09-08 at 20:44 -0700, Harold Hallikainen wrote:
> > On Thu, 2006-09-07 at 14:11 -0700, Harold Hallikainen wrote:
> >> > On Thu, 2006-09-07 at 10:32 -0700, Waldher, Travis R wrote:
> >> >> What is involved for Redhat AS 4.0?
> >> >>
> >> >> The system was initially built 32bit, but some users would like it
> >> >> running in 64.
> >> >>
> >> >> Is it as simple as loading a different kernel? :fingerscrossed:
> >> >
> >> > Well, yeah, but most of your applications won't be accelerated that
> >> > much.  A full 64-bit system will have most of the utilities (/bin,
> >> > /sbin, /usr/bin, /usr/sbin, etc.) built with 64-bit as well as having
> >> > full 64-bit libraries (/usr/lib64 as well as /usr/lib).
> >> >
> >> > Can you run a 64-bit kernel with 32-bit utilities?  Sure.  Will it buy
> >> > you much?  Not really.  For example, I run an Opteron at home with
> >> full
> >> > FC5 64-bit stuff.  Real grunt work (compilations, OpenOffice, etc.)
> >> are
> >> > MUCH faster under 64-bit.
> >> >
> >> > I do run some 32-bit apps on it, however.  Some examples are: 32-bit
> >> > firefox so I can have Flash (there's no Flash plugin for 64-bit),
> >> Skype
> >> > (no 64-bit version available), and Opera (same thing). They work fine
> >> > and do seem a bit faster, but that's a purely subjective opinion.
> >> I've
> >> > done no benchmarking on them.  Your mileage may vary.  It won't hurt
> >> to
> >> > try running a 64-bit kernel and see what you think.  You can always
> >> boot
> >> > the 32-bit one if you don't care for it.
> >> >
> >>
> >>
> >> I'm also running FC5-64 and have run into the lack of a Flash plug-in.
> >> What do I do to uninstall the 64 bit FireFox and put in 32 bit, the
> >> flash
> >> plug-in, etc? Can yum do it? When I try to install Flash, the script
> >> seems
> >> to do an OS check and then complain about it being 64 bit. How do you
> >> get
> >> around that? For VoIP, I just installed the latest Gizmo Project, and it
> >> seems to work fine.
> >
> > I kept the 64-bit FireFox.  I just downloaded the 32-bit RPM and did an
> > "rpm -ivh --force /path/to/32-bit/rpm/firefox.whatever.rpm".  Then I
> > grabbed the Flash player and buggered the OS detection bit of their
> > install script.  Look in the installer script for a call to "uname -m".
> > Then add a clause that duplicates the i686 stuff.  It'll be around line
> > 252.  Here's how I modified it:
> >
> > 	TEMPARCH=`uname -m`
> > 	case $TEMPARCH in
> > 		i[3456]86)
> > 			ARCH=i386
> > 			;;
> > NEW->		x86_64)
> > NEW->			ARCH=i386
> > NEW->			;;
> >
> > Then run the installer as normal.  When it asks you where to install
> > the FLASH player, specify "/usr/lib/firefox".
> >
> > Then I added a new icon to the desktop that specifically runs
> > /usr/lib/firefox/firefox-bin and labeled it "Firefox (32-bit)".  Voila!
> > Click on the original icon, you get 64-bit Firefox.  Click on the new
> > one and you get 32-bit Firefox with Flash.
> >
> > If you like, delete the old icon.  I like having both.  Actually, I have
> > four...mozilla (64-bit), firefox (64- and 32-bit), and Opera (32-bit).
> > Ah, decisions...decisions! :-)
> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> > - Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
> 
> 
> Works great! I can now see Flash! I put the 32 bit Firefox in
> /usr/bin32/firefox . The Mozilla site had a gz instead of an rpm, so
> untarred it in /usr/bin32/firefox. On the Flash installer script, I just
> commented out the exit in the architecture check, so the script continued
> on instead of exiting on finding the 64 bit architecture.

That works too.  Welcome to the wonderful world of "doing end runs!"

:-)

> 
> Thanks!

Yer welcome!

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- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
-                                                                    -
-  You know you've landed gear-up when it takes full power to taxi.  -
-                                                -- Chuck Yeager     -
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