Hi Andrew Z!

 On 2011.11.21 at 01:07:44 -0500, Andrew Z wrote next:

> all this brings me to a simple question - how do i move from i686 SL 6.1
> that was running on Sempron to Phenom ( which is 64 and 4 cores ) system?

There isn't a good way to move from i686 system to x86-64 with upgrade.
Sure, it can be performed as a big hack, but really it's not something
one should do, and it's not supported in any way.

If you are fine with using i686 system, then you usually don't need to
do anything on such hardware upgrade - the only typical minor problem
can be with ide controller detection (driver for new controller is not
present in old initrd). It can be fixed in various ways - for example, I
prefer booting rescue mode, going to console, mounting old system,
chrooting into it and running mkinitrd or reinstalling kernel.

If you want to move to x86-64, then you have to reinstall system, as in
real reinstall, not upgrade; depending on your partition scheme /home
might be preserved, or you might need full backup, clean reinstall and
then restore of parts you need. Or, if your VG has enough free space,
you can just create new LVs during installation, install there then copy
data you need from old LVs.

Installing from usb should be no problem, be that usb flash drive or usb
cdrom.

-- 

Vladimir