Arch Linux

ethernode

Member

Registered: 2006-11-09

Posts: 24

64 processors support 32 bits instructions: why no retrocomp

Hi

As i bought a new computer recently, which has an Athlon X2 64, i installed archlinux64. Still, i just understood recently that the pacman repositories are 64 bit only... Is it impossible to run 32 bits (i686) packages? That's really sad because lots of packages are 32 bits only (nvidia drivers, beryl...).

My second question: i understand there aren't precompiled packages for x64, but why not for abs??? I didn't find the abs PKGBUILDs either.

Or am i mistaken somewhere?

I'd like to quicky add that i'm an arch user since around a year, and it's my distro of choice. Tried debian, gentoo, (k)ubuntu, suse, vectorlinux (slackware based), freespire, ... Well ARCHLINUX ROCKS, and is the best out there Thanks again to all contributors.

AndyRTR

Developer

From: Magdeburg/Germany

Registered: 2005-10-07

Posts: 1,641

Re: 64 processors support 32 bits instructions: why no retrocomp

You can compare the i686 and x86_64 packages with our difflist: http://www.archlinux.org/~andyrtr/pkg_diff.html

We have most packages ported including latest stable nvidia packages. But right now we don't have a testing/unstable repo. If you need something go on and compile/port it yourself!

ethernode

Member

Registered: 2006-11-09

Posts: 24

Re: 64 processors support 32 bits instructions: why no retrocomp

-> Wow, that's some fast answear
-> Thanks a lot for the link, i hadn't found it

So, if packages like beryl aren't present in the ABS tree, does it necessarily mean that nobody made a x64-customized PKGBUILD file?

"If you need something go on and compile/port it yourself!"

So i have to stick to the traditional way? Which means going to the original website, fetching sources, untar, ./autogen make etc ?

How can i share the "results" to the community (precompiled packages or abs entries)? I'd be interested in maintaining an x64 e17 repository.

ethernode

Member

Registered: 2006-11-09

Posts: 24

Re: 64 processors support 32 bits instructions: why no retrocomp

Plus, there's a point i don't get.

X64 processors do support 32 bits instruction. So, why is that that one cannot run a i686-compiled package on arch64? What prevents it?

I know it's a bad example, but Windows XP 64 provides 32bits apps execution, as well as MacOSx Rosetta's layer allows to run PPC apps on an i686 processor. Is it the emulation layer that is missing in linux? Are there plans for one? I ask the question partly because of non-free packages that come precompiled, and not always (if never) for 64 bits architectures.

AndyRTR

Developer

From: Magdeburg/Germany

Registered: 2005-10-07

Posts: 1,641

Re: 64 processors support 32 bits instructions: why no retrocomp

it's possible to use "ABS" even for fetching i686 cvs. it needs a small change in its config. Or you can simply grab what you want by ckecking out the arch(32)cvs tree via anonymous checkout.

CU on IRC frenode.net #archlinux64

AndyRTR