Re: [gentoo-user] Advice for 64-bit n00b?

[Mick]

On Wednesday 03 March 2010 20:04:17 Alan McKinnon wrote:
> On Wednesday 03 March 2010 19:04:45 Stroller wrote:
> > On 3 Mar 2010, at 15:29, Stroller wrote:
> > > ...
> > > I have started following the Gentoo Linux AMD64 Handbook, because
> > > the Quick Install Guide is described as "x86". Having untarred the
> > > stage I am surprised to find a lib32 directory. I thought
> > > compatibility with 32-bit binaries was optional. Or am I
> > > misunderstanding? This is going to be a headless server & I can't
> > > think that it'll need any binary packages - possibly the management
> > > utility for the RAID controller will be distributed as a binary, I'm
> > > not sure yet (the hardware RAID key was missing when I got this
> > > machine ☹)
> >
> > Further to Alan's reply, I've proceeded a little further.
> >
> > I'm onto section 2.3: Changing profiles, where it says:
> >    "If you want to have a pure 64-bit environment, with no 32-bit
> > applications or libraries, you should use a non-multilib profile."
> >
> > See my comments in the quoted above. It shouldn't be too expensive to
> > enable the RAID in this machine (which is on the mainboard, but
> > requires a little hardware PCB "key" to be fitted). That's a Dell
> > PERC4, which AFAICT is a rebadged LSI megaraid.
> >
> > This post [1] http://tinyurl.com/3dzcl9 referrs to the management
> > utility thus: "MegaCLI comes as a RPM containing only a single
> > statically linked 32-bit Linux binary", however `eix mega` suggests
> > there may be alternatives, such as `megactl` [2]
> >
> > My immediate thought when reading the handbook was that it's "best"
> > and "cleanest" and "more right" to only have 64-bit libraries on a 64-
> > bit system, but this need for the RAID management utility is making me
> > wonder if that would be cutting off my nose to spite my face.
>
> It has a single statically linked binary. Which probably means it already
> contains everything you will need and will run just fine. No need to build
> everything multilib; if you do need a 32bit lib, just install the
>  appropriate emul-x86-linux package.

So how 'safe' is it these days to build a 64bit only system?  Would you end up 
having to rebuild with multilibs because many apps which won't work on a pure 
64bit build?
-- 
Regards,
Mick