On 11/21/2011 02:00 AM, Vladimir Mosgalin wrote:
> 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


One small caution about moving from an i686 (IA-32) to X86-64 
environment.  If you have any binary no-source applications that are not 
available in a X86-64 version, you must install sufficient compatibility 
libraries (and support software) so that the platform can execute the 
IA-32 applications under the X86-64 environment.  Note that in almost 
all cases, a .so for a X86-64 instruction set is not compatible with the 
"same" .so for an IA-32 application.

Yasha Karant