From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Feb 13 11:42:27 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5529B1065677 for ; Fri, 13 Feb 2009 11:42:27 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from petefrench@ticketswitch.com) Received: from constantine.ticketswitch.com (constantine.ticketswitch.com [IPv6:2002:57e0:1d4e:1::3]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1A7B78FC1C for ; Fri, 13 Feb 2009 11:42:27 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from petefrench@ticketswitch.com) Received: from dilbert.rattatosk ([10.64.50.6] helo=dilbert.ticketswitch.com) by constantine.ticketswitch.com with esmtps (TLSv1:AES256-SHA:256) (Exim 4.69 (FreeBSD)) (envelope-from ) id 1LXwR4-000PxG-7Z; Fri, 13 Feb 2009 11:42:22 +0000 Received: from petefrench by dilbert.ticketswitch.com with local (Exim 4.69 (FreeBSD)) (envelope-from ) id 1LXwR4-000Fn6-5I; Fri, 13 Feb 2009 11:42:22 +0000 To: cswiger@mac.com, karl@denninger.net In-Reply-To: Message-Id: From: Pete French Date: Fri, 13 Feb 2009 11:42:22 +0000 Cc: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Upgrade from 32-bit to AMD-64? 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: Fri, 13 Feb 2009 11:42:27 -0000 > 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. Theres an intermediate method between upgrading in place and doing a full re-install which si what I used when I did this. 1) Install amd64 onto a completely separate bootable drive (USB will do). On that one do a 'make buildworld', 'make buildkernel'. 2) Take down the machine you mant to upgrade - boot it off the USB drive. When booted off the USb drive mount the orignal '/' somewhere. 3) Do a 'make installkernel' and 'make installworld' with DESTDIR=/oldslah to install the 64 bit OS onto the old drive. I also rewrote the boot sectors on the old slash drive too. 4) Reboot - it should come up amd64 with the old config fine. I have done this a couple of time to convert from 32 to 64 bit installs. The beauty is that it preserves the config. I would note, however, that in my case I did de-install all the packages and re-installed them afterwards, so I was then running full 64 bit. but it works, and the machine is only down for a few minutes. -pete.