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

[Michael Shiloh]

yeah, i used to run gentoo back before ubuntu became popular. after i 
had my fun with gentoo i decided to use my computer for other tasks than 
recompiling itself. i had a very old computer and the kernel took about 
3 days to compile.

On 04/28/2013 12:32 PM, Samir Faci wrote:
> 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*
> fortune | cowsay -f /usr/share/cows/tux.cow
>
> Sent from my non-iphone laptop.
>