[mythtv-users] Switch from 32 to 64 bit

[Rod Smith]

On Saturday 13 December 2008 09:15:55 am Jos Hoekstra wrote:
> Hey,
>
> I'm on Ubuntu 8.10 and planning to install a new motherboard, CPU and
> graphics. I'd like to keep my current installation on disk because I'm
> pretty much done the way it is.
> In the past I've done this several times staying within on architecture,
> so within x86. Only thing I needed to do is to keep an eye on it's first
> boot and if that checked out I was off. I never needed to change things
> or whatever.
>
> Is the same going to happen with this upgrade? Or will linux just drive
> the processor via 32-bit?

There are x86 (32-bit) and x86-64 (64-bit) versions of most modern Linux 
distributions, including Ubuntu. Thus, to run the system in 64-bit mode, you 
need to swap out your current 32-bit version of Ubuntu in favor of a 64-bit 
version. Unfortunately, there's no installation option for a direct 
32-to-64-bit upgrade, so this can be a bit involved. I've never done it 
myself, but my understanding is that you'd need to back up your databse and 
video files (this will be easier if the video files are on a separate 
partition from everything else), do a fresh install, and then restore your 
backed-up database and video files. Unless you're planning a major software 
upgrade, this may be more hassle than it's worth. The speed gain is likely to 
be modest, and therefore not critical unless your system is on the edge 
speed-wise.

-- 
Rod Smith