[sf-lug] is it possible to "upgrade" from a 32 bit linux to a 64 bit linux without re-installing?

[Samir Faci]

I think the only distro I'm aware of that supports this.. (and not
very well is gentoo) which basically involves doing some type of
bootstrapping, rebuilding the kernel, rebuilding gcc...and then
rebuilding every package installed on your machine with the new gcc
libraries...I believe inside of a chroot.. and then doing an rsync
from the chroot to the external file system, deleteing and removing
all files, replacing the content with what was in the chroot directory
(naturally excluding $HOME and things you want to keep ).  reboot off
a live CD and re-run your grub command to reset the bootloader....and
I *think* that would work.  (This was years ago...and my boss had the
bright idea to do this....and even then I thought it was a silly
exercise, since it essentially translates to re-installing the OS from
the ground up.

Now that I've given you all sorts of details about gentoo that you
don't really need and confused y ou properly.


If you really want to get that done.. for whatever sadistic reasons
you might have....  this might be helpful:

http://askubuntu.com/questions/81824/how-can-i-switch-a-32-bit-installation-to-a-64-bit-one

you probably will end up using:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebootstrapChroot  in some capacity as well.

I think you need to grab a debootstrap that is x86_64, chroot into it,
install all your packages in chroot and do some other type of magic
that'll make it all work.. eventually.



On Sun, Apr 28, 2013 at 11:48 AM, Michael Shiloh
<michaelshiloh1010 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Awhile back I discovered that I mis-read my laptop, thinking it's a 32 bit
> processor when it's in fact a 64 bit. I recently bought a new disk, and one
> of these days plan to install the new disk with the correct version.
>
> Then yesterday I updated Ubuntu from 12.10 to 13.04, and as I did so
> thought: "shouldn't it be possible to do a similar thing to switch from 32
> bit to 64 bit?"
>
> I know it's much more complicated, probably would involve a sandbox and some
> chroot magic, and it might be less hassle to just do a fresh install anyway
> (i'm pretty well backed up with all my files).
>
> But it did get me wondering if  there's a tool to do this.
>
> Anyone know?
>
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--
Samir Faci
*insert title*
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