[SOLVED] Changing from 32 to 64bit software

Nareto · 2009-12-25 10:26:21

For 2 years I thought I had a 32-bit processor, and yesterday I found out that instead it's 64bit (Core 2 Duo). So all along I've been using 32bit kernels and software. I'm quite ignorant on this topic; I'd like to know:

1) What would I benefit from installing 64-bit linux and what could be the possible problems? (for example, are there any packages in the repos or in the AUR which won't install/build if I make the jump to 64?)

2) Practically what should I do, reinstall only a new kernel or the whole system?

thanks for any help, I'm quite confused

Last edited by Nareto (2009-12-25 21:18:40)

kaizoku · 2009-12-25 11:03:24

1) I believe wine and skype don't have good 64-bit support.

2) You will need 64bit binaries, so yes you need install whole system.

There's not much of a performance gain (depends on applications and how it was compiled), not much to benefit unless you have more than 4GB memory. Also 64-bit binaries are larger in size, which needs more I/O, and memory usage etc.

Last edited by kaizoku (2009-12-25 11:07:57)

graysky · 2009-12-25 11:54:48

64-bit is really only 'better' if you have >4 gigs of physical RAM on the machine since 32-bit stuff can't see all of it (3.3 gig is max I think). How much do you have?

Last edited by graysky (2009-12-25 11:55:27)

sand_man · 2009-12-25 12:01:58

Oh god not again

jac · 2009-12-25 12:02:29

!) There are a thousand threads with information pertaining to this, just do a quick search.
2) You don't necessarily have to reinstall completely. Allan, one of the Arch devs uses a 64bit kernel on an 32bit userland, see his blog post for information http://allanmcrae.com/2009/06/using-an- … -userland/

azleifel · 2009-12-25 14:07:20

Myths revisited
* "You don't need 64-bit software with less than 3 GB RAM"
o Performance improvement even on systems with less than 3 GB RAM
* "There are less drivers for 64-bit OS"
o Irrelevant to Linux, hail open source
* "You will need all new software, all 64 bit"
o 32-bit compat layer performs very well and is transparent
* "64-bit software is twice as fast"
o Rarely the fact, software is usually optimized for 32-bit
http://forums.amd.com/devblog/blogpost. … &catid=317

When I switched to 64 bit back at the beginning of 2007 the first thing I noticed after the speed increase was that the Pentium D I had at the time idled 2-3C cooler and didn't heat up so fast under load. That sold 64 bit to me and I've never looked back...and I'm not going back since I upgraded to 8Gb ram earlier this year. Oh, and 64 bit is perfectly usable with just 1Gb ram ;-)

Last edited by azleifel (2009-12-25 14:10:12)

MP2E · 2009-12-25 16:22:22

Also, remember to install bin32-wine from the AUR if you want wine support in x64. Works perfect. I use Arch Linux x64 myself and I love it. You couldn't make me go back

Nareto · 2009-12-25 21:17:59

thanks to all for your replies.

I'm not enthusiast of having to reinstall everything from scratch, otoh I'd like to see what I could gain from 64bit software

I'll take some time to decide better. marking as solved

Arch Linux

#1 2009-12-25 10:26:21

[SOLVED] Changing from 32 to 64bit software

#2 2009-12-25 11:03:24

Re: [SOLVED] Changing from 32 to 64bit software

#3 2009-12-25 11:54:48

Re: [SOLVED] Changing from 32 to 64bit software

#4 2009-12-25 12:01:58

Re: [SOLVED] Changing from 32 to 64bit software

#5 2009-12-25 12:02:29

Re: [SOLVED] Changing from 32 to 64bit software

#6 2009-12-25 14:07:20

Re: [SOLVED] Changing from 32 to 64bit software

#7 2009-12-25 16:22:22

Re: [SOLVED] Changing from 32 to 64bit software

#8 2009-12-25 21:17:59

Re: [SOLVED] Changing from 32 to 64bit software

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