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I recently needed it (or part way into the steps, enough to compile and link 32 bit programs) to run xv6, the learning operating system used in one of MIT's opencourseware courses. It's a 32 bit x86 O/S. I haven't tried it yet, but I think I'll need it to compile Minix too. And GNU Hurd I suppose. Don't think they're 64 bit yet either.
Then when I had started looking at looking at Smalltalk VMs and compilers a couple years ago, I got the impression 32 bit was the more viable architecture. May need that whenever I get around to learning Smalltalk unless things have changed there.
scsh (scheme shell) for a long time only was 32 bit (built on a 32 bit only scheme48). Seems to me someone worked on porting it to a more recent scheme48 that could target x86-64, but I never tried his work.
In the beginning I went with multilib primarily for a Windows email client I liked a lot. So obviously WINE was also installed. That worked fairly well, but not that well, mostly cosmetic issues. I decided to go with VirtualBox and run that program in Windows. This email client is no longer around now. (Claws Mail has replaced it.)
I toyed with the idea of removing multilib, but I also use Skype (not that much now though), so it stayed. Now I need it for Google Earth and Steam. I no longer use Skype on the PC, it is installed on my "smarter than me phone".
I used to keep it updated the manual way, then graduated to using Compat32pkg and Multilibpkg by phenixia2003. Awesome work! It has basically been superseded the by Slackpkg+ by zerouno. More Awesome work. Based on this interesting and educational thread (slackpkg vs. third-party package repository) I'd say phenixia2003 is part of the supporting cast. I maintain my own mirror of Alien Bob's multilib (which is updated manually using a script as needed) and point slackpkg+ to that.
Last edited by chrisretusn; 04-21-2016 at 06:49 AM.
I do all my updates 'by hand' because I am old and stuck in my old ways <G>
As for multilib updates, I have a script that I run to look for multilib updates, after I've downloaded Pat's Slackware Current updates but before I apply any Slackware64 Current Updates:
Code:
cat /home/dld/multilib/.get-Changelog
Code:
#!/bin/sh
MLDir="/home/dld/multilib"
cd "$MLDir"
RetCode=$?
[ "$RetCode" != "0" ] && echo "cannot cd into $MLDir" >&2 && exit 1
. ./.get-Changelog.inc
[ "$FileList" = "" ] && echo "something is wrong with .get-Changelog.inc ... FileList is empty" >&2 && exit 2
rsync -av $FileList rsync://bear.alienbase.nl/mirrors/people/alien/multilib/ ./
exit $?
The include file ( /home/dld/multilib/.get-Changelog.inc ) is simply this:
Whenever there's an update to the *multilib*alien.txz files, I update them according to Eric's Instructions in the README which is refreshed when I run `.get-Changelog`
Since I handle ALL my Slackware updates 'by hand', I'll sometimes be ready to apply Pat's Current Updates before Eric's had a chance to rebuild the *compat32 packages so I always build my own using Eric's massconvert32.sh script.
I wrote a wrapper around massconvert32.sh called `do-massconvert32.sh` which rebuilds the compat32 packages from a local copy of Pat's 32bit Packages and logs the output:
#!/bin/sh
RetCode=0
Rebuild=0
PrgNam="`basename $0`"
TopDir="/home/dld/multilib" ### EDIT ME ###
TarDir="$TopDir/kjh-build" ### EDIT ME ###
LogDir="$TopDir/log" ### EDIT ME ###
SrcDir="/home/dld/slackware/slackware-current-32/slackware" ### EDIT ME ###
if [ $# -gt 0 ]
then
[ "$1" = "r" -o "$1" = "R" ] && Rebuild=1 && shift
fi
KJHDate ()
{
#
# Returns XYMMDD [ -HHMMSS ] for `now` where X is the decade after 1900
#
# example: 1900-01-01 -> 010101 ; 2000-01-01 -> A00101 ; 2010-01-01 -> B00101
#
DoSec=0
if [ $# -gt 0 ]
then
if [ "$1" = "-s" ]
then
DoSec=1
shift
fi
fi
gawk '
BEGIN {
DoSec = "'"$DoSec"'" +0
for ( i = 0 ; i <= 9 ; i ++ )
{
DecAry [i] = sprintf( "%01d", i )
}
DecAry [10] = "A"
DecAry [11] = "B"
DecAry [12] = "C"
DecAry [13] = "D"
DecAry [14] = "E"
DecAry [15] = "F"
Date = strftime( "%Y%m%d%H%M%S" )
print FixDate( Date )
exit 0
}
function FixDate( InDate, D, Y, MD, HMS )
{
D = substr( InDate, 1, 3 ) - 190 # Decade
Y = substr( InDate, 4, 1 ) # Year
MD = substr( InDate, 5, 4 ) # Month & Day
if ( DoSec != 1 )
{
return( sprintf( "%1.1s%1.1s%4.4s", DecAry [D],Y,MD ))
}
HMS = substr( InDate, 9 ) # HourMinSec
return( sprintf( "%1.1s%1.1s%4.4s-%s", DecAry [D],Y,MD,HMS ))
}'
return $?
}
LogTmp="do-massconvert-$(KJHDate -s).log"
cd "$TarDir" ; RetCode=$?
[ "$RetCode" != "0" ] && echo "cannot cd into $TarDir ( make it yourself )" >&2 && exit 1
[ ! -d "$SrcDir" ] && echo "cannot find the slackware32 mirror: $SrcDir" >&2 && exit 2
if [ ! -d "$LogDir" ]
then
mkdir "$LogDir"
RetCode=$?
[ "$RetCode" != "0" ] && echo "cannot mkdir $LogDir" >&2 && exit 3
fi
LogNam="$LogDir/$LogTmp"
echo "$PrgNam startup at `date`" > $LogNam
if [ "$Rebuild" = "1" ]
then
echo "clearing all old packages" >> $LogNam
for Dir in `find . -maxdepth 1 -type d -name "*-compat32"`
do
[ "$Dir" = "." -o "$Dir" = ".." ] && continue # should not happen !
if [ -d "$Dir" ]
then
echo "clean $Dir" >> $LogNam
rm -rf "$Dir"
fi
done
fi
massconvert32.sh -i $SrcDir 2>&1 |tee -a $LogNam
grep 'Package created:' $LogNam 2>/dev/null
RetCode=$?
[ "$RetCode" != "0" ] && echo "nothing new was generated"
echo "$PrgNam complete at `date`" >> $LogNam
One more thing ... I ALWAYS check the md5sums according to the handy `tail +13 CHECKSUMS.md5` commands in Pat's and Eric's CHECKSUMS.md5 files before I EVER update or install anything.
I HAVE saved myself a little grief from time-to-time where what I got via rsync did not match the md5sum !
Distribution: Slackware64 15.0 (started with 13.37). Testing -current in a spare partition.
Posts: 932
Rep:
What I can remember, Skype (I'm using it again since I've changed to amd64 hardware),
Wine for a dictionary, GoogleEarth, Steam and QuakeIII
(I'm aware about ioquake3 but it doesn't work well here).
Quote:
Originally Posted by archfan
How do you guys track multilib updates?
I'm using Seb's compat32pkg and multilibpkg packages.
Apparently I am older, lazier and/or more fastidious than most since I do NOT use 64bit anything and rely on enough 32 bit apps that I just install 32bit Slackware for my main. I do have a trial 64bit multilib for comparison but rarely use it because there is added complexity and no real advantage on a machine with 8GB RAM. PAE plays nicely at that level and I don't have to deal with any extra libs and their issues.
One example might be that, unlike Paulo2, ioquake3 screams like a Lamborghini Muira on this system. With FPS locked at 120fps and a 120Hz monitor the smoothness of physics affecting bunnyhopping, rocket jumps, and arc jumping are now better than they were on an older system with a 120Hz refresh CRT. Unfortunately for me there is little community left as most have moved to QuakeLive which does not allow button assignment that is essential to my play style.
The apps I use are the same as mentioned by others here but Google Earth and game-related apps are the most important to me. I stopped using Skype when that bogus PulseAudio requirement reared it's ugly head. My system is also a DAW with Ardor so I require Jack and PulseAudio just gets in the way.
To my way of thinking 64bit exists primarily for >16GB RAM direct addressing and very little else. Other than that I see no substantial advantage.
To my way of thinking 64bit exists primarily for >16GB RAM direct addressing and very little else. Other than that I see no substantial advantage.
There should be computational power gain, since the registers are twice as big as on 32 bitters.
I'm not sure if that matters that much to an average user, though.
I am using pure 64 bit Slacwkare even in my 2gb ram netbook. About one year ago, i installed multilibs just for wine32.
That's because i needed to edit a large msword document, over 150 pages, with hundreds and hundreds of comments and suggested changes in review mode. After i finished with that task, i removed multilibs and switched back to "pure 64".
Why bothering with something i do not really need?
For Skype, VirtualBox, Wine and some windows 32 bit apps (LTSpice, SketchUp) and pipelight-plugin Silverlight ( for an investment web site that wrongly locked in to Silverlight rather than HTML5) to my PaleMoon browser and lastly for FitBit sync prgrams. My PC is only 4 GB of RAM, but I still use a 64 bit Slackware because the processor is native 64 bit with duo core processing and it's ready for RAM upgrades that would effectively use the 64 bit processing power.
If I remember correctly, multilib is only needed if you compile it from source. If you use the installer or someone else's pre-compiled package, you can remain 64bit only. It will work for both 32bit and 64bit hosts while keeping the host as 64bit only.
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