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EcclesiasticOffline
Post subject: (SOLVED) install new 64bit over existing 32bit  PostPosted: 23.01.2012, 01:24



Joined: 2012-01-23
Posts: 3

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Hey guys,

I have a 32bit installation running for quite a while on my Thinkpad T61 and it works fine.

However, I've upgraded memory to 4GB.
64bit is required to use the "missing" gig since the 32 bit kernel can't use more than 3 Gigs of memory.
Infobash confirms that only 3 out of 4Gigs are in use:

      Code:
infobash
CPU[-Dual Intel Core2 Duo T8300 @ clocked at
Min:2400.000Mhz Max:2401.000Mhz-] 
Kernel[-Linux 3.1-0.slh.2-aptosid-686 i686-] 
Up[-3:36-]
Mem[-1289.9/3033.1MB-]


This is especially important to me because I want to install at least three virtual machines using Xen
and therefore each bit of memory counts.

What I really need is some advice for:

1) How to keep my home partition during installation
I do have a backup but keeping and mounting an existing /home
is my preferred way over waiting for ages to restore 100Gigs of backup.

2) How to create a list of installed .deb packages
and how do I restore all installed packages on a new 64bit system.

3) Can I simply backup and restore the /etc folder to keep
configs or is this a bad idea at all?

anything else I should consider in advance?

thanks for your help


Last edited by Ecclesiastic on 24.02.2012, 19:49; edited 1 time in total
 
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michaaa62Offline
Post subject: RE: install new 64bit over existing 32bit to get 4Gig memor  PostPosted: 23.01.2012, 07:14



Joined: 2010-09-11
Posts: 55
Location: Berlin, Germany
Status: Offline
If your system is up-to-date, points 1 and 3 should be fine. Nevertheless do backups of the default directories of the fresh install.
I even would consider /root to be transferred as well.

For point 2:
      Code:
dpkg -l|awk '/^ii/{ print $2 }'|grep -v -e ^lib -e -dev -e linux-image -e linux-headers >apps_installed.txt
apt-get update && apt-get install $(<apps_installed.txt)
Note: The first step creates a list of packages without kernel and libs, which however also skips libreoffice. You will have to install that manually if you need it.

There is a chance that the list contains packages, that are not available in 64-bit Debian, so may be you have to edit the list later during the reinstall.
 
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finottiOffline
Post subject: RE: install new 64bit over existing 32bit to get 4Gig memor  PostPosted: 23.01.2012, 10:57



Joined: 2010-09-12
Posts: 493

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Just a note: make sure that your computer is capable of seeing the 4GB. I think my T60 could not see 4GB, even with a 64bit OS. It was a hardware limitation (or BIOS, I don't remember).
 
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slhOffline
Post subject: RE: install new 64bit over existing 32bit to get 4Gig memor  PostPosted: 23.01.2012, 16:07



Joined: 2010-08-25
Posts: 962

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Re-using an old /etc/ is not safe, I would recommend avoiding that and only taking selected configs as needed. $HOME is less sensitive, but I would usually suggest to follow a similar procedure.
 
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DeepDayzeOffline
Post subject: Re: RE: install new 64bit over existing 32bit to get 4Gig m  PostPosted: 24.01.2012, 00:19



Joined: 2010-09-11
Posts: 616
Location: USA
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      slh wrote:
Re-using an old /etc/ is not safe, I would recommend avoiding that and only taking selected configs as needed. $HOME is less sensitive, but I would usually suggest to follow a similar procedure.


Would there be differences in the configs in /etc between 32 bit and 64 bit even if installing the 64 bit OS on the SAME machine?
 
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DonKultOffline
Post subject: Re: RE: install new 64bit over existing 32bit to get 4Gig m  PostPosted: 24.01.2012, 11:45
Team Member


Joined: 2010-09-02
Posts: 485

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      DeepDayze wrote:
      slh wrote:
Re-using an old /etc/ is not safe, I would recommend avoiding that and only taking selected configs as needed. $HOME is less sensitive, but I would usually suggest to follow a similar procedure.


Would there be differences in the configs in /etc between 32 bit and 64 bit even if installing the 64 bit OS on the SAME machine?

The question is more: Why should not be a difference in the configs in /etc between 32 bit and 64 bit even if installing the 64 bit OS on the SAME machine?

/etc is not said to be shareable and its easy for an application to have configurations specific to an architecture. e.g. with MultiArch hopefully officially coming around the block soon you might have architecture dependent configs in /etc to let it work in your context.

_________________
MfG. DonKult
"I never make stupid mistakes. Only very, very clever ones." ~ The Doctor
 
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EcclesiasticOffline
Post subject: Solved!!  PostPosted: 28.01.2012, 04:18



Joined: 2012-01-23
Posts: 3

Status: Offline
Thanks you all guys,

using an usb pen drive, the actual installation was quick and
straight forward. mounting home afterwards worked instantly
and I've just re-used a few configs for instance /etc/apt.

Since the initial installation was already in 2007, I've
removed a bunch of obsolete packages from the
apps_installed.txt text file before I was able to
restore everything.

I've got now (almost) 4gig of memory Smile

      Code:
infobash
CPU[-Dual Intel Core2 Duo T8300 @ clocked at
Min:800.000Mhz Max:2400.000Mhz-] 
Kernel[-Linux 3.2-2.slh.1-aptosid-amd64 x86_64-]  Up[-1min-] 
Mem[-450.4/3887.1MB-] 
HDD[-300GB(25%used)-] 
Procs[-163-]  Client[Shell]



thanks for your help.[/code]
 
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WillamKOffline
Post subject: RE: Solved!!  PostPosted: 24.02.2012, 06:08



Joined: 2012-02-17
Posts: 12
Location: Miami
Status: Offline
I already used 64 bit window 7 operating system and its works very fine.
 
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