Overwriting the Ubuntu 64 bit partition with installation of 32 bit version
 

Hello. I just installed Ubuntu 64 bit 11.04 on my new PC and I'm not very happy with it.

Found out that installing video drivers is a drag everytime a new kernel version comes around, and with the 32 bit version everything seems just easier. And I need Ubuntu to work with the development of intense graphic applications, which should be better to work on a 32 bit environment.

So here is my question: is it possible to overwrite the existing Ubuntu installed with another installation of it, now with 32-bit instead of 64? I don't want to keep using the 64 bit one, so I am just fine with deleting it.

Thanks for the attention, sorry for my horrible english.

Just tell the installer to use that partition (or better, partitions) and it will do the thing just fine.

If you use the drivers from the manufacturer's website instead of the ones in the repositories you will have this problem, regardless if you use 32 or 64 bit.

Depends on what you are using for applications. 3D rendering, encoding videos and other "numbercrunching" work will run faster on a 64 bit system, you also should have benefits from the increased RAM limits when working with very large pictures.
If it comes to the performance of the graphics card it shouldn't matter if you use 32 or 64 bit.

Yes.

There aren't no 64-bit drivers in the repository, so there's the whole problem. And the most recent driver for my card still thinks the kernel is on it's 2.4s. So I figured out just to use 32-bit and that's it.

Thanks for the reply, folks!

Just out of curiosity, may I ask which graphics card you are using?

Yep it is Nvidia GeForce GT 540M. Guess it should be easier to install its driver, but as a newbie I am struggling.

I forgot to ask something. I have a dualboot (with Windows). Is it possible that the overwrite of the partition mess up with Grub (because it is gonna be overwritten by another Grub) and make any OS inaccessible? Should I take any precautions or something?

Thanks again.

I think it should work just fine, install Ubuntu alongside Windows and overwrite the older version of Ubuntu. The version of Grub is anyway the same, you are just changing the architecture.
But of course, make a backup of all your data and files!

The GT 540M uses the same driver as most other modern NVidia cards, so the drivers from the repositories (regardless of 32 or 64 bit) should work fine with it. If you use that drivers there is no need to re-install the driver when the kernel is changed.