How to change Linux Mint 20 from 1386 back to 64 bit
 

How do I change Linux Mint Cinnamon ver. 20 from 1386 back to 64 bit. It was originally installed as 64 bit, but changed to I386 as instructed in order to work with Wine. Now Win 10 64 bit programs will not work. Is this a catch 22 issue or must I reinstall a new 64 bit Linux OS and if so, where do I get a 64 bit Wine program? Is there a terminal command to reverse the process and go back to a 64 bit OS with a 64 bit Wine?

This is quite a learning process for an old "T" Rex. Have to get off Windows as it is driving me crazy with all the updates that cause older programs to stop working.

Thanks for any help.

Hardtimes

As far as I know, you do not need an i386 installation to run wine; you just need some of the i386 libraries. 64-bit Linux is backwards compatible with 32-bit programs and all modern 64-bit kernels are configured to work with both. A 64-bit Linux with additional 32-bit libraries is called multilib and that's what you need. My advice is to reinstall the 64-bit system and check up on how to make it multilib.

64-bit Debian-based distros used to have a transitional package with a name something like ia32 for installing the basic 32-bit libraries but it's probably changed its name since I used Debian. And don't worry about being old. There are quite a few of us mature citizens around in this forum.

would be nice to know how did you switch to i386. I guess you need to install wine64 [only], but without details hard to say more.

So if I understand you correctly, you have Linux Mint 20 64bit installed.
How did you change the OS to i386?

Anyhow wine64 for Linux is available for Windows 64bit games.
Here is the link:https://pkgs.org/download/wine64

I find the site rather confusing as there is nothing to download.
However on this page if you scroll all the way to the bottom it simply says do this from terminal:

Hopefully you won't have to do any of that after installing wine64 from your Mint repo.

That's the first thing that came to mind when read the post by the OP. He said he changed from 64 to 32 bit 'as instructed' so, where are the instructions? Reverse the process,

Agreed. You don't need to be running an i386 kernel for Wine32 (even if most applications you're likely to run require 32-bit support) - just multilib on the OS and create a 32-bit prefix for your application (technically you can throw 32-bit applications into 64-bit prefixes, and yes I've gotten it to work even with games, but I remember it having the potential to be gnarly for some reason or other, and prefer to just use a 32-bit prefix for x86/i386 apps).

I would probably go for a re-install at this point and then configure for multilib as needed - I'm not familiar with Mint but I know Ubuntu ships multilib out of the box, and other operating systems (like Slackware, PC Linux, etc) make it very easy to add via their repos. I would assume Mint fits into one of those two categories.

Mint is based on Ubuntu, so should behave the same way. But I think, after reading the first post again, that you'll need to be a bit more explanatory about "prefixes". I didn't get that bit myself so I doubt the OP will.

You don't need to do any "reconfiguration for multilib", or anything else for that matter. I've used Wine on PCLinuxOS and Xubuntu. It simply copes (when it does, of course) with the software it's managing and uses 32-bit or 64-bit libraries as appropriate.

If you replaced your 64-bit Mint with a 32-bit one, you need to go back to the 64-bit version. As for Wine, just install the version in the Mint repository.

I think you mean you configured Wine to be 32-bit, is that correct?
If so, you should look into trying Winetricks or PlayonLinux apps to help configure Wine for apps.

You are correct about configuring Wine to be 32-bit and I have tried the two other suggested programs, but still can't get WMC 8.8.4 to install. I use that program on win 10 plus epg 123 and a hauppauge tuner to be able to watch and record over the air TV programs. Any other thoughts?

Thanks,

I only configured Wine as i386 architecture, but can't get WMC 8.8.4 to install.

I told you. That won't work: https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...-a-4175688279/
Opening a new thread won't solve it. WMC is a windows only software.

There are plenty of better (usually) alternatives for what you are looking for than WMC.

Isn't there any support in the kernel for that tv tuner? What device is it?

Sorry about that - it was late. :redface: Guide: https://www.techilife.com/how-to-mak...ixes-on-linux/

The prefix has to be created with
Is basically the point. It is possible (and in some cases even encouraged) to have multiple prefixes on the same system, depending on what you are installing. If you're dealing with games it may be worth looking into Lutris or PlayOnLinux which automate some of this with pre-built scripts (which are also FOSS and can be reviewed before you run them, and sometimes just seeing what other folks got working is enough to help you figure out how to get unstuck without running the entire thing).