On Tue, 6 Dec 2005, Troy Dawson wrote:

> Kuo Kan Liang wrote:
> > Hi, all,
> > 
> > The problem is kind of long and complicated.
> > 
> > I installed SL4.1 i386 on my cluster. All of the computers come with 2 
> > xeon.
> > The server is also connected to a SATA-SCSI raid through an LSI scsi card.
> > At that time I could not connect to the raid successfully and I thought 
> > it was the
> > problem of the OS, so, according to some suggestions, I changed the OS to
> > SL 4.1 x86_64 version. But it turns out that the disk problem was mainly 
> > due to
> > old SCSI card firmware. After updating the firmware, the raid problem was
> > solved.
> > 
> > However, when I tried to install Intel Compilers and MPICH2, I ran into 
> > big trouble.
> > If I use icc and ifort, when I configured MPICH2, it will complain that 
> > icc cannot
> > create C programs that run. If I use gcc instead of icc, I can make MPICH2,
> > but the Fortran 90 example programs cannot be made.
> > I looked into the error, it seems that icc and ifort created obj files 
> > with different
> > object type than the library files made from compiling MPICH2.
> > Due to my limited knowledge in these aspects, I finally gave up using 
> > Intel compilers.
> > I turned into using gcc, g77 and g95 as my compilers, which generate 
> > much slower
> > executables than using icc and ifort.
> > 
> > To have a working MPICH2 with Intel compilers, do I have to reinstall my system
> > with SL i386 version? 
> 
> I don't know enough about the compilers, so I can't really answer this 
> question.
> 
> > Will >2TB disk partition be accepted by the i386 Linux?
> 
> Yes.  I believe it will work in S.L. 4.x, but it isn't in the release 
> notes until S.L. 4.2.  So S.L. 4.2 i386 will do up to 8 TB.
> 
> > If both answers were 'yes', then what is the fastest way to reinstall SL 
> > 4.[12] i386
> > over SL 4.1 x86_64? Do I always have to totally remove the x86_64 Linux
> > and install everything again?
> > 

Yes.

> 
> Personally, I would.  I believe the time it takes to try to convert is 
> longer than the time to backup, re-install, and restore.  Plus I'd be 
> concerned about something just not being right.
> 
> BUT ... that being said.  I have to say this is a tick I've never tried, 
> but if I were to try it, I would first point yum to an i386 yum 
> repository, and then install the i386 kernel, along with whatever else 
> comes along.  I'd double check to make sure I had the i386 glibc stuff, 
> then reboot into the i386 kernel.
> Once in the i386 kernel, I'd remove the x86_64 kernel, which should 
> strip alot of the x86_64 out.  I'd then use yum to remove the rest of 
> the x86_64 stuff.
> THEN ... I'd get the /root/install.log, reformat it a bit, and then do a 
>   'cat install.log ; while read line ; do ; yum -y install $line ; done'

I think it is more complicated than this.

> 
> Anyway ... as I said, I really wouldn't do that except just to say it 
> could be done.  If you're serious at all about stability and wanting the 
> machine to run correctly, I'd reinstall.
> 
> By the way, a co-worker say's he'd install all the 32 bit stuff first 
> (probrubly doing the 'cat install.log ....' thing) and THEN boot into 
> the i386 kernel.
> 
> Both agree that we wouldn't really want to do this though.
> 
> Troy
> 
> 

-Connie Sieh