Arch Linux

Fackamato

Member

Registered: 2006-03-31

Posts: 579

x86_64 kernel but 32-bit system?

Is it possible to use a 64-bit kernel on a 32-bit install? Reason: to be able to use 64-bit guests under VMs.

iphitus

Forum Fellow

From: Melbourne, Australia

Registered: 2004-10-09

Posts: 4,927

Re: x86_64 kernel but 32-bit system?

Yes you can use a 64bit kernel on a 32bit system (so long as that 64bit kernel has 32bit support, which Arch64 does).

Keep in mind, that you _may_ also need to run a 64bit version of whatever VM software you're using -- though I'm not sure on that.

Fackamato

Member

Registered: 2006-03-31

Posts: 579

Re: x86_64 kernel but 32-bit system?

Yes you can use a 64bit kernel on a 32bit system (so long as that 64bit kernel has 32bit support, which Arch64 does).

Keep in mind, that you _may_ also need to run a 64bit version of whatever VM software you're using -- though I'm not sure on that.

Yep a 64bit VM is probably needed as well. The reason behind all this is speed while keeping 64-bit compatibility (64-bit files are larger, so if I boot a 64-bit kernel on a 32-bit system things should be a little snappier). Not to mention the better compatibility (flash etc).

Is it as simple as installing a 32-bit system as usual, then just pacman -U 64-bit-kernel.pkg.tar.gz?

SiC

Member

From: Liverpool, England

Registered: 2008-01-10

Posts: 430

Re: x86_64 kernel but 32-bit system?

With a 32bit system and repositories, you will not be able to get a 64bit kernel directly, you can either download the package directly from the 64bit repositories and try getting it to install, or what would be better would be to use ABS to get the kernel26 PKGBUILD and do a custom kernel.  The latter would maintain dependencies better with pacman I would have thought.