Gentoo Archives: gentoo-amd64

From: Duncan <1i5t5.duncan@×××.net>
To: gentoo-amd64@l.g.o
Subject: [gentoo-amd64] Re: Moving to no-multilib profile
Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2006 13:32:23
Message-Id: pan.2006.04.20.13.30.08.516953@cox.net
In Reply to: Re: [gentoo-amd64] Moving to no-multilib profile by Mike Arthur
1 Mike Arthur posted <200604201251.53260.mike@×××××××××××××.uk>, excerpted
2 below, on Thu, 20 Apr 2006 12:51:53 +0100:
3
4 > On Thursday 20 April 2006 12:29, Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. wrote:
5 >> On Thursday 20 April 2006 06:18, Mike Arthur <mike@×××××××××××××.uk>
6 >> wrote
7 >>
8 >> about 'Re: [gentoo-amd64] Moving to no-multilib profile':
9 >> > Can grub not be compiled in 64-bit mode?
10 >>
11 >> No.
12 > Oh cool, so basically, I can just move to the new profile and remove
13 > /lib32, as grub doesn't depend on other libraries, and install grub-bin.
14 > Do I need to recompile anything, i.e. gcc or glibc?
15
16 It's grub-static, IIRC.
17
18 There should be no issue going multilib -> nomultilib, as gcc and glibc
19 from multilib will handle nomultilib (aka 64-bit only) just fine, since
20 they have that as one of their libraries already. The issue would be if
21 you ever decide to /reverse/ the process, from nomultilib 64-bit only ->
22 multilib 64- and 32-bit both. /That/ is the challenge, the easiest way to
23 overcome it being to simply install a stage-3 tarball again and go from
24 there.
25
26 With no-multilib, your updates will eventually kill off your existing
27 32-bit stuff. You'll find that gcc and glibc (and sandbox, but it's small
28 enough not to be a big deal anyway) will merge in about half the time as
29 they won't be dealing with the 32-bit stuff on top of the 64-bit stuff.
30
31 I don't know if it's necessary, but I'd do it in this order and soon after
32 switching, just to be sure, and know I had finished the switch without
33 issue instead of having an unexpected issue later.
34
35 1 merge grub-static (or install a binary lilo or whatever), unmerging grub
36 (or lilo) in the process.
37
38 2 remerge gcc, so it's 64-bit only.
39
40 3 remerge sandbox
41
42 4 remerge glibc.
43
44 The vitally important things are that grub-static is first, and then boot
45 from it to ensure it's working, and that glibc is last, as any remaining
46 32-bit stuff on your system (possibly including sandbox and gcc) will quit
47 working when the 32-bit glibc is removed. (grub-static is just that,
48 linked entirely static, so it doesn't depend on 32-bit glibc or anything
49 else.)
50
51 Remember, to be able to still run grub from the regular system (if you
52 change /boot filesystems or something and need to reinstall grub with the
53 correct stage-1.5/2, you'll need to keep the kernel options for 32-bit x86
54 enabled. If you don't want to do that, you can simply keep a liveCD or
55 the like around, with grub on it, to reinstall to the hard drive and boot
56 sector, if necessary. In that case, you really don't need the grub-static
57 package at all, since you don't need to run grub to change its config
58 (unlike lilo), and since if you /do/ need to run it to reinstall to the
59 boot sector and /boot/grub/*, you'll do it off external media.
60
61 --
62 Duncan - List replies preferred. No HTML msgs.
63 "Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
64 and if you use the program, he is your master." Richard Stallman in
65 http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2004/12/22/rms_interview.html
66
67
68 --
69 gentoo-amd64@g.o mailing list

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Re: [gentoo-amd64] Re: Moving to no-multilib profile Mike Arthur <mike@×××××××××××××.uk>