Install amd64 over existing i386

[Dale Scott]

it probably won't be a big deal running i386 instead of amd64. Of course, you loose the larger address space, potential optimizations may not be taken advantage of, and there may be amd64-specific ports you will want, but on the whole, if you don't think it's a big deal it's probably not.  

The "correct" software is the one that does what *you* need it to. ;-)

You can certainly save the file system and upgrade, but exactly how will depend on your drive partitioning/configuration. I'd practice on a vm first. 

Dale


  Original Message  
From: Chris Hill
Sent: Sunday, March 15, 2015 10:09 AM
To: FreeBSD Questions List
Reply To: Chris Hill
Subject: Install amd64 over existing i386

Hi list,

I bought a new machine the other day, and accidentally installed the 
i386 version of FreeBSD on it even though it has a 64-bit processor. It 
works fine, but I think I'd rather have the "right" version. So, two 
questions:

1. Is it even worth worrying about at this point?

2. Can I just install amd64 without destroying existing filesystems and 
files? I realize I'll have to reinstall my ports, but that's OK.

Thanks.

More info below. Yes, the CMOS clock was set incorrectly when I did the 
install.
$ uname -a
FreeBSD tripel.monochrome.org 10.1-RELEASE FreeBSD 10.1-RELEASE #0 
r274401: Tue Nov 11 22:51:51 UTC 2014 
root at releng1.nyi.freebsd.org:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC i386

Relevant part of dmesg:
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E8500 @ 3.16GHz (3158.81-MHz 686-class CPU)
Origin = "GenuineIntel" Id = 0x1067a Family = 0x6 Model = 0x17 Stepping = 10
Features=0xbfebfbff<FPU,VME,DE,PSE,TSC,MSR,PAE,MCE,CX8,APIC,SEP,MTRR,PGE,MCA,CMOV,PAT,PSE36,CLFLUSH,DTS,ACPI,MMX,FXSR,SSE,SSE2,SS,HTT,TM,PBE>
Features2=0x408e3fd<SSE3,DTES64,MON,DS_CPL,VMX,SMX,EST,TM2,SSSE3,CX16,xTPR,PDCM,SSE4.1,XSAVE>
AMD Features=0x20100000<NX,LM>
AMD Features2=0x1<LAHF>
TSC: P-state invariant, performance statistics

-- 
Chris Hill chris at monochrome.org
** [ Busy Expunging </> ]
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