When I recently ran dnf upgrade, received warnings that some of the packages could not be upgraded because of a version conflict (I believe this was the message, can't remember exactly). Upon closer look, I realized that I have a number of i686 packages that are installed, but these same packages are also installed as x64_86.

Can I remove all the i686s without worry if I have all the same i686 dependencies as installed x86_64, is it safe to remove the i686 package (and dependencies)?

I imagine probably depends on dependencies.

I've removed some, and I swear certain applications run faster - though that's probably my imagination.

Thanks!

Ex:

mariadb-connector-c-config-3.2.7-1.fc36.noarch
mariadb-common-10.5.16-1.fc36.i686
mariadb-common-10.5.16-1.fc36.x86_64
mariadb-connector-c-3.2.7-1.fc36.x86_64

If you want 32-bit programs to run, you need to keep the 32-bit dependencies around. 32-bit programs cannot use the 64-bit versions of those libraries so they are not a substitute, you need both if you want both kinds of programs to run. Just having the libraries on your disk doesn't affect how fast things run.

Generally, if the upgrade or install complains about conflicts then you would need to remove the offending packages. Usually if both are needed because some apps require the 32 bit libraries then there should be no conflicts and the packages should coexist nicely.

IME the conflicts occur when both the 32 bit and the 64 bit version own the same file and the file is different in each. Thus they do not play well in the same sandbox and conflicts occur.

This is the reason most systems have /lib and /lib64; so the same file names may exist, but are separated by location as 32 bit or 64 bit on the system.