conversion of an installed base i386 -> amd64

Oliver Fromme olli at lurza.secnetix.de
Wed Nov 14 10:22:19 PST 2007


Hi,

Sorry for the late reply, but the following caught my
attention, because others might read it and do it in
the wrong way, rendering their machines unusable.

Aryeh M. Friedman wrote:
 > Chuck Robey wrote:
 > > I have finally decided that I really should have installed my
 > > quad-core-2 equipped box as a amd64, instead of the i386 (32 bit
 > > should have been 64 bit).  I just finished a buildworld, and I
 > > checked, the binaries (which I haven't yet done an installworld on)
 > > are actually amd64/64 bit binaries.  I'm running -current, which is
 > > mostly why I;m on this list, but my question is one of installation
 > > order: in doing the conversion, I don't really like the idea of
 > > accidentally hanging the box.  I would like someone to please let me
 > > know, what's next? Understand, I am still running the i386 compiler
 > > (but the buildworld builds it's own private compiler, thank you very
 > > much).  I need to know, should I install the world next?  Or, is there
 > > some more correct strategy to get the kernel built?
 > 
 > The procedure I used was:
 > 
 > 1. FTP the distfiles for the base system
 > (ftp://.../release/distfiles/base) [you may need to do a down grade to
 > RELENG temporarily until you get to step 6]
 > 2. Do the same for the kernel files
 > 3. Install the kernel files (cd ...../distfiles/kernel;install.sh GENERIC)
 > 4. Install the base files (cd ...../distfiles/kernel;install.sh;install.sh)
 > 5. Reboot (your now running an 100% amd64 in the base system)
 > 6. Do the normal procedure for recompiling the system and ports

Are you sure you did _not_ reboot between steps 3 and 4?
Because, at this point, you have a 64 bit userland, but
you're still running from a 32 bit kernel.  That's not
going to work.  Your kernel wouldn't even be able to
execute /sbin/reboot.

The easiest way, of course, is to install on a different
disk and then swap disks.

Best regards
   Oliver

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