Adventures in Clean Livin' -- Going from 32-bit 13.0 to 64-bit 13.0
 

I must have done something right sometime or other that I'm not aware of; I did a more-or-less clean install of Slackware 13.0 64-bit and pretty much everything worked.

I configure my machines with multiple partitions (just so I can do a "clean" install like this without wiping out a whole lot of other stuff. My partitions look like this:
That is, during installation I assign the partitions but I do not format /usr/local, /opt, /var/lib/mysql, /var/lib/virtual, /home and /spares. The root and swap partitions do get formatted. There are few packages that I install in /usr (instead of /usr/local) just to make this sort of an update easier.

The fun part was that (typically) the blasted sound didn't work the first time out (it did with Slackware 32-bit 13.0 and, strangely, worked in this installation for existing user accounts but not for root). That took a lot more screwing around than ought to be necessary (four or five alsaconf alsmixer alsactl store cycles but it finally does work -- except for 64-bit VirtualBox which can't open the sound; don't need to listen to XP play its little turn anyway.

The fist thing I discovered is that existing 32-bit programs and utilities didn't work so, OK, bite the bullet, rebuild, reinstall and test. So far, so good, everything is working (the one I was worried about is the Generic Mapping Tools, GMT, which is a geographic map drawing system. Recompile it with 64-bit selected, badda-boom, badda-bing, works like a charm. Some of my own stuff that's built from individual Makefiles required some tweaking of the CFLAGS and LDFLAGS variables, but those are now in every one and my libraries and application programs are buzzing right along.

Took a little while to figure out that SlackBuilds have to have ARCH=${ARCH:-x86_64} and all of them built just fine. And, thanks to Robby Workman, OpenOffice has a huge (dang that thing is big!) 64-bit version and zip, zoom installed and working.

Bottom line? The guys that did the work, hard work I am sure, on Slackware 13.0 64-bit deserve a vote of thanks, a pat on the back, and buy 'em a beer.

Happy New Year to all.

I also discovered that the programs compiled for 32-bit programs wouldn't work on my 64-bit 13.0. I noticed this when upgrading to the lastest Samba 3.2.15 after installing 64-13.0. I grabbed the 32-bit version by mistake, and it didn't work.

You used the term "SlackzBuild". What does the "z" in the middle signify?

Well, it signifies that I'm old and about half blind (gotta get new glasses!); it's SlackBuilds, thanks for letting me know.

A hint, seeing that you already discovered that Slackware64 will not run or compile 32-bit programs out of the box.
You can extend Slackware64 with multilib packages so that it will support 32-bit as well as 64-bit programs. For this, you replace the 64-bit gcc and glibc packages with multilib versions, and add a package "compat32-tools" which installs some scripts that help you further with setting up a working 32-bit environment in your 64-bit Slackware.
See http://alien.slackbook.org/dokuwiki/...kware:multilib

Eric

Thanks, Eric, for the information.

Initially, I decided to go 100% 64-bit and, because I try to avoid pre-compiled software, I had all the source for everything I use on a regular basis plus SlackBuilds I've added so it was pretty easy to just start at /usr/local/packages/src and one-by-one build and install. There are a couple of glitches; e.g., Adobe Reader (I do not like any of the other PDF viewers) and XP in 64-bit VirtualBox can't open the audio device (not that XP's little start-up, shut-down tune is all that interesting, it's just annoying that something doesn't work). So, it's looking like multilib might just be a good idea.

Dude, you do good work.

Any chance that this stuff could be added as an option in the installer for Slackware64 13.1? My guess is that the vast majority of users would want it.

FWIW, I'm not sure that's absolutely true. I'm running pure 64-bit and loving it. So far, I don't need the multi-lib setup. If/when I do, I'll load it following Eric's instructions. Until then, I'm happy to just do without 32-bit capabilities. :)

Regards,

I doubt that full multilib capability will be added to Slackware 13.1.
The glibc and gcc packages would have to be expanded with 32-bit support but as it stands, Pat wants to keep Slackware64 pure 64-bit.

Eric

I can respect that. The main things I could see myself needing multilib for would be things like Cedega, Crossover, and Dosemu, although I'm not sure if you can compile Dosemu as a 64bit binary. Sounds crazy, I know, but I've still got a couple of indispensable DOS programs I need to use regularly.

I'm running Dosbox in a pure 64-bit installation. Will your DOS programs run in Dosbox?

Regards,

Dunno! I guess I'll find out when I install Slack64. Is that a part of Slack64 13 or did you download it separately?

DOSbox is not part of Slackware, but it can be compiled cleanly and easily on a pure 64-bit Slackware64. The old 32-bit DOS programs will run problemfree.

A package for Slackware64 13.0: http://slackware.com/~alien/slackbui...ox/pkg64/13.0/

Eric

Yup! What Eric said. :)

I got my copy of Dosbox from Slackbuilds.org, compiled through the utility, Sbopkg. But, naturally, Eric's package is a perfectly good source -- just download it and installpkg it.

Regards,