Arch Linux

slawson

Member

From: Chester, UK

Registered: 2003-08-22

Posts: 20

x86_64 version of Arch??

How difficult would it be to build an AMD 64 Arch distribution?
Would it just be a case of rebuilding all the existing packages using different flags, or are there other things to consider?

Who else would be interested in an AMD 64 version?

Steve

MNKyDeth

Member

From: MI

Registered: 2003-09-13

Posts: 89

Re: x86_64 version of Arch??

I am on the amd64 bit bandwagon already and lovin every minute of it. x86-64 Arch would be way better than a i586 Arch, just my opinion of course.

sarah31

Member

From: Middle of Canada

Registered: 2002-08-20

Posts: 2,975

Website

Re: x86_64 version of Arch??

you'd either have to do it yourself or ask to join the deve crew then do it. i don't think any of the devs have 64 bit chips or if they do the time to switch arch over to 64 bit.

as for 64 bit over i586.....its a matter of opion but a moot one at that as the i586 is no longer being developed. likely never will be either.

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I am not your friend

andy

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2002-10-11

Posts: 374

Re: x86_64 version of Arch??

I have slowly started running AL on an Athlon64 - very slowly.

Currently it is running the standard AL, i.e. in 32bit mode. I have compiled a 64 bit kernel and it booted - sort of. Problem is devfs : devfs is marked broken on amd64, and I had to use a relatively old kernel to get devfs in. (there seem to be memory corruption issues on amd64 and devfs in 64bit mode). Alternatively, I tried to use a plain old static /dev - but then other things kept me from further working on this machine. I shall resume very soon ! :-)

Issues in general : You certainly need to cross compile a kernel first. Then you probably also need cross building gcc and glibc. Then you can start rebuilding using ABS ( hmmm, there ABS will shine ;-) ).
However, you will also need to set up 32bit compatibility libraries, so that binary-only programs will work, too.

jlvsimoes

Member

From: portugal

Registered: 2002-12-23

Posts: 392

Website

Re: x86_64 version of Arch??

sarah is there i586 iso im planing to use a old machine and i dont realy want to compile the all base stuff for i586

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RdsArts

Member

Registered: 2003-10-17

Posts: 32

Re: x86_64 version of Arch??

Alternatively, I tried to use a plain old static /dev - but then other things kept me from further working on this machine. I shall resume very soon ! :-)

Have you considered possibly moving to UDev?

andy

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2002-10-11

Posts: 374

Re: x86_64 version of Arch??

Have you considered possibly moving to UDev?

Yes, I have. But I first need to understand it ;-) ... also, I'm not sure how to enable it upon boot.

nifan

Member

Registered: 2003-04-10

Posts: 102

Re: x86_64 version of Arch??

jlvsimoes: there is no iso, and i dont think there will be one since sarah stoped working on the i586 port. altough its still available with some floppys images to boot the install procedure.

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______
"Ignorance, the root and the stem of every evil." - Plato

longhornxtreme

Member

Registered: 2004-07-10

Posts: 131

Re: x86_64 version of Arch??

enabling Udev is as simple as

pacman -Sy udev

and then in Grub's menu.lst  append to your bootline                         devfs=nomount