From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Oct 31 20:52:31 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5696216A403 for ; Tue, 31 Oct 2006 20:52:31 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd@mail.gbch.net) Received: from gw.gbch.net (gw.gbch.net [203.143.238.93]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 5E20343D49 for ; Tue, 31 Oct 2006 20:52:30 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from freebsd@mail.gbch.net) Received: (qmail 51573 invoked from network); 1 Nov 2006 06:52:28 +1000 Received: from iliad.gbch.net (172.16.1.9) by gw.gbch.net with SMTP; 1 Nov 2006 06:52:28 +1000 Received: (qmail 70924 invoked by uid 1001); 1 Nov 2006 06:52:27 +1000 Message-ID: Date: Wed, 1 Nov 2006 06:52:27 +1000 From: Greg Black To: Bill Moran References: <45475298.5090709@inoc.net> <20061031153134.0f587f84.wmoran@collaborativefusion.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20061031153134.0f587f84.wmoran@collaborativefusion.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.2i; gjb-muttsend.sh 1.7 2004-10-05 X-Uptime: 28 days X-Operating-System: FreeBSD 6.0-RELEASE i386 X-Location: Brisbane, Australia; 27.49841S 152.98439E X-URL: http://www.gbch.net/gjb.html X-Blog: http://www.gbch.net/gjb/blog/ X-Image-URL: http://www.gbch.net/gjb/gjb-auug048.gif X-PGP-Key-Fingerprint: EBB2 2A92 A79D 1533 AC00 3C46 5D83 B6FB 4B04 B7D6 X-Request-PGP: http://www.gbch.net/keys/4B04B7D6.asc Cc: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Subject: Re: 6.x from i386 to amd64 X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2006 20:52:31 -0000 On 2006-10-31, Bill Moran wrote: > In response to Greg Black : > > On 2006-10-31, Robert Blayzor wrote: > > > > > Is there a way to upgrade/move an already installed i386 installed 6.1 > > > machine to amd64 without completely reinstalling? Is there a procedure > > > to do so? > > > > Having just gone through the migration in the opposite > > direction, I would ask why you want to do this? > > > > The state of the software out there is disgracefully far from > > being ready for 64-bit platforms -- after wasting weeks in a > > vain attempt to get a workable development environment on my > > amd64 setup, I've just completed a move to i386 (by a fresh > > install). > > > > I now have a machine that has almost every port I want working > > and that still gives me considerable performance improvements > > over the genuine Intel 32-bit boxes I have. > > > > I won't be trying another amd64 setup for at least a couple more > > years. > > Are there open PRs on this? We've not had any problems. Although > our amd64 deployment is still young, we have several machines humming > away happily. Where did you have problems, specifically? I didn't look for PRs and didn't submit any. I found that a very large number of ports that mattered to me were marked i386 only. You could get a count by searching the Makefiles in ports for: ONLY_FOR_ARCHS= i386 There are several hundred of them. Since the non-functionality of these ports on amd64 was already known, there seemed little point in adding to the noise by sending a PR. I did write a bit about this as part of a general rant on the woeful state of current software here: http://www.gbch.net/gjb/blog/software/discuss/software-quality.html Greg