Yum downloads both 32 and 64-bit during update SOLVED!
 

Hey,

When I update my system, Yum downloads both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of a file. For instance, the 32 and 64-bit versions of the new Firefox update. In my most recent update, there was 88 MBs of files. Before that, it was 146 MBs, which was 2 days ago. This seems a little excessive and unnecessary... right? Please let me know if this is right.

Regards,

Brandon

edit: I'm running the 64-bit version of Fedora 8

Are you sure????

In many cases both are updated because they are installed. Many of these install 32-bit and 64-bit packages are needed, in other cases they are not depending on what they are. For example one does not really need both all of the kde 32-bit and 64-bit rpm packages installed. Cleaning out unwanted/unneeded 32-bit packages is a pain and takes some work, care planning and testing is needed, but that is the subject of an how-to and not covered in this reply.

Create a list of all installed rpm packages that you can then review later using any text editor;

rpm -qa --qf="%{n}-%{v}-%{r}.%{arch}.rpm\n" | sort > Installed.txt

If one wants to (attempt) updating the 64-bit packages then try something like;

yum update package1.x86_64 package2.x86_64

For course one can also update just the 32-bit packages the same way if possible by;

yum update package.i386

.

When I checked at about 1:00AM this morning, there were no updates available to try this, but could I use a command like:

yum update *x86_64 ?

Thanks,

Brandon

P.S. Were you really awake at 6:40AM? That's got to be some sort of a record on a Saturday morning

edit: I'm positive it's downloading both 32 and 64-bit versions. Unfortunately I didn't think to take a screen shot. Maybe there will be some updates soon that I could take a screen shot of and post them. I know that there are some packages that 64-bit isn't available yet and I have to use the 32-bit version... I'm fine with that (I have to be). Like I said in my original post, I had to download the 32-bit version of Firefox 2.0.0.10 and the 64-bit version. Really weird.

That may work, but why not try using something like; yum list updates *.x86_64

Yes force of habit I guess, I've been waking up a few minutes before 5:00AM for nearly 30 years now.

As well as it should. BTW nothing wrong with using just the 32-bit version of firefox or just the 64-bit version.

For example: rpm -e firefox-<version number>.x86_64

Then the next yum update for firefox will only update the 32-bit version.

With the 64-bit version one might want to use the nspluginwrapper tools;

http://gwenole.beauchesne.info/proje...pluginwrapper/

Not to poke fun at you, but I have to, 30 years is longer than I've been alive by almost 10 years.

I didn't know about nspluginwrapper. I noticed Flash was a little buggy, maybe this will help? Anyway to tell which versio of Firefox is running, the 32-bit or 64-bit version? The command firefox -v only yields that I am using 2.0.0.10.

Thanks,

Brandon

In Firefox; Help-> About Mozilla Firefox

Thanks Laz, I'm using the 64-bit version. Is it possible that it downloads both versions to obtain/utilize data from the 32-bit version in conjunction with the 64-bit version?

Thanks,

Brandon

I THINK that for some reason the initial install drags 32bit crude with it. I went through and deleted a ton of the 32bit stuff (be careful). Wine and the flash wrapper were the only things (that I know of) that are still 32 bit(no choice). Once all the 32bit stuff is removed then yum stops bringing in more 32bit stuff. In other words if you are seeing 32bit stuff coming in you must have 32bit stuff already there.

Lazlow

Yes, visit the web site, the latest versions of flash and Adobe reader work just fine using the wrapper.

nspluginwrapper is in the repositories; it requires that you use the "mozilla-plugin-config" command instead of the traditional "nspluginwrapper".

Laz/Lenard,

I wouldn't know where to look to delete 32-bit packages. I imagine it would be done through Yum, but I'm not sure how to bring up both 32-bit and 64-bit packages that are the same so I can determine which ones to delete.

Laz, you're right about Wine being 32-bit. Not sure about the other one as I've never used it yet. Any idea if they plan on developing Wine in a 64-bit version?

Thanks for your help,

Brandon

Smart (another PM manager) is pretty handy for this. It graphically shows you what is installed as well as the arch. I just went down the list and where I saw a 64bit and a 32bit installed I removed the 32bit. It is available via yum.

Laz,

Thanks for the suggestion, however it doesn't work. When I issue the command 'smart --gui' it generates an error "error: Interface 'gtk' not available. I believe gtk is for displaying stuff graphically, but I'm not sure why it would be unavailable. Any ideas?

Brandon

There are two packages for smart:

smart
smart-gui

I suspect you do not have the second installed. I think it is dumb too, but mplayer is the same way.

Lazlow

Not dumb, but retarded. I was just starting to get along with the shell version too, oh well. I'm a sucker for a GUI.

Thanks,

Brandon

This seems to solve my problem after I take the time to get rid of all of the i386 packages... whenever that is