Upgrade from 32-bit to AMD-64?

[Chuck Swiger]

On Feb 12, 2009, at 5:31 PM, Karl Denninger wrote:
> I have a machine that can run either (proved, I can boot the AMD-64  
> release disk)
>
> Can I SOURCE UPGRADE from one to the other?  That is, is it possible  
> to do a "make buildworld", "make buildkernel" and then "make  
> installkernel" and wind up with AMD64 instead of the 32-bit code?
>
> Or must I reinstall?

Sure, it's possible, given sufficient toolchain knowledge, time, and  
skills, but it's not a sensible thing to do aside from experimentation  
and learning purposes.

The recommended course is to determine the platform which best suits  
your requirements and the available hardware: ie, are you doing  
database stuff, SSL, or arbitrary-precision math which would really  
benefit from the 64-bit architecture; does the machine have more than  
3 GB of RAM; does the machine have hardware (like a graphics card)  
which has better 32-bit drivers, etc.

> It APPEARS I can run most 32-bit code on a 64-bit system.  Not all  
> works, but most does.

Right, the vast majority of 32-bit binaries should work just fine on a  
64-bit platform....

Regards,
-- 
-Chuck