[GLLUG] Help converting from 32 bit to 64 bit OpenSUSE

[Charles Ulrich]

Hi Dan,

Which distribution are you using? I'm not aware of any distro that
offers an upgrade path from their 32-bit to 64-bit editions. It could
very well be possible to do by hand, but I'm positive that it would be
a huge hassle. Wiping the system and doing a reinstall is actually
going to be less work and aggravation than trying to convert it
in-place.

Here's how I would do it (YMMV):

1) If there's just one disk, swap it for a new one and put the old one
in a USB enclosure. (This is so you have the option to back out of the
upgrade if necessary.) If it's some kind of RAID setup, boot from a
live CD and use 'dd' to image the logical device to an external USB or
firewire drive. Then if anything happens, you can restore the system
by doing the reverse.

2) Install the 64-bit version of the OS on the new disk (or wiped disks).

3) Restore /home and any other directories containing data that you
need from the old disk. Be choosy about restoring files in /etc since
some of them (particularly the package management stuff) may contain
architecture-specific configuration.

4) Install all the packages you need.

Charles

On Fri, Jun 1, 2012 at 11:02 AM,  <dburk at ws6transam.org> wrote:
> Hi there,
> I've been lurking for the last six months or so. Part of my research
> system here at MSU's seismic department is a Linux computer I use for
> archiving seismic data. I am attempting to create a seismic database and
> have been bringing waveforms online for the past six months or so. The
> software for the database file serving system requires a 64-bit
> installation but the computer was configured as a 32-bit OS.
>
> Time's getting short, and I'm a basic user. What I don't want to do is
> hose the computer whilst trying to upgrade. I tried that on my home linux
> system, and it's now dead- I'll probably have to do a reinstall to revive
> it. Is there anyone near campus who would be willing to assist me in
> converting this system so that I can get my Antelope 5.1-64 package going?
>
> The hardware appears to be there: It's an AMD Athalon X2-250 dual-core,
> and there looks to be about 1.8GB of RAM loaded on-board. I'm just not
> confident that I can get it right the first time by myself. The IT guys
> here in Natural sciences are disavowing any LINUX knowledge, saying that
> they don't know how to deal with non-mainstream operating systems. (???)
>
> -Dan Burk
> MSU phone 355-8397
> cell: 388-2875
>
> mailto:burkdani at msu.edu
>
>
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