Install on amd64 from a 32bit live cd

[phoenixfire]

Does anyone know if it is possable and safe to do this?

Trying to boot the cd now i get a bunch of errors and it hangs there. I cant post them now because i'm not at home. but i've almost found enough ways to get around them.

Is it possable these are because of my pc or is it the fact i'm using the wrong cd.

Sorry for sloppy post, i'm tired.

[phoenixfire]

Its backwards compatable... i'm an idiot.

Looks like i'll play around with it some more.

Unless any of you have a good reason why 64 is better than 32? I'd love to hear it.

[i92guboj]

Does anyone know if it is possable and safe to do this?

Trying to boot the cd now i get a bunch of errors and it hangs there. I cant post them now because i'm not at home. but i've almost found enough ways to get around them.

Is it possable these are because of my pc or is it the fact i'm using the wrong cd.

Sorry for sloppy post, i'm tired.

I haven't a clear idea about what are you actually trying to do.

Just to clear the picture, this is what I understood: you downloaded an x86 (32 bits) livecd, and you own an amd64 cpu, that can handle 64 bits.

Correct me if something is wrong.

If that picture is correct, then you can install Gentoo using that cd on that machine. Of course, your installation will not use the 64 bits extensions, and you will be limited in the ram you can access because of this, unless you enable hight mem on your kernel.

You can also use an amd64 livecd. There's no downside in using one or another. Amd64 cpu's can work in x86 or amd64 (x86_64) modes without any problem.

Its backwards compatable... i'm an idiot.

Looks like i'll play around with it some more.

Unless any of you have a good reason why 64 is better than 32? I'd love to hear it.

Well, my argument is a bit silly. I like it though: if you purchased a 64 bit cpu, then use it.

Being that said, you can perfectly use it as a 32 bit one, you will just be losing some registers and the ability to reference more than 4gb of ram (you can overcome that correctly configuring your kernel, though that comes at a cost of a slight performance penalty on 32 bits).

The real question is not "why run 64 bits?", the real question is "why pay for a 64 bits cpu and use it in 32 bits mode?". If you have an answer for that, then run 32 bits, if not, you should probably try running a 64 bits distro.

Gentoo makes 64 bit painless, and most incompatibilities are a non-issue nowadays, because in Gentoo we have multilib and can run 32 bits programs without any problem under a 64 bits os.

If you are worried about any 64 bits thing, just ask about it or search the gentoo forums. I particularly don't have any 64 bit related issue. Everything just works.

[phoenixfire]

Very very good point.
As i said sorry for the sloppy posts i was tired as hell.

So gentoo works flawlessly on amd64 running 32bit apps?
Are other distros running them as well as gentoo or is gentoo bringing in the gold?

[devils casper]

You can run any 32bit distro on 64bit machine and its not possible to run 64bit distro on 32bit machine

Check this thread too.

[i92guboj]

Very very good point.
As i said sorry for the sloppy posts i was tired as hell.

So gentoo works flawlessly on amd64 running 32bit apps?
Are other distros running them as well as gentoo or is gentoo bringing in the gold?

As the poster above says, it is possible to run a 32 bits distro on an amd64 cpu.

In addition, is it also perfectly possible to run 32 bits applications under a 64 bit cpu using a 64 bits kernel and a 64 bits installation, to make it more clear.

So, you can use, let's say, a 32 bits firefox with a 32 bits flash plugin if firefox64+nspluginswrapper is ginving you some headache. The good points in gentoo are those:

1.- in gentoo, the default profiles are multilib enabled. This means that, when using these profiles, when installing glibc and gcc, two instances of each one will be merged: one for 32 and another for 64 bits. This is transparent to the user, and you don't need to setup anything for this, since it is the default behaviour.

2.- all the related libraries (besides glibc) are available in portage as dependencies, and they will be merged automatically (again, you don't need to do anything special) if you install a 32 bits package into an amd64 installation.

So, the support is virtually painless. You can even have firefox for 64 bits and firefox for 32 bits installed along if you wish. The same for mplayer and probably some more.

Wine compiles perfectly (it is a 32 bits app) under amd64, and installs just fine as well.

There's no longer any points at all in using a 32 bits installation if your cpu can run 64 bits code. At least, in Gentoo. But you don't have to believe me. Just go to forums.gentoo.org, look around and ask if you wish (beware that the post might be soon move to dupes, because a lot of people ask this without searching for similar threads before).

[phoenixfire]

Well ok the cd still wont boot. I've tried almost everything to get it to work.

nosmp gets me past the kernel panic but then i get stuck on

ide:failed opcode was: unknown
hdb:DMA disabled.

plus some more errors very similar to the above that just keep repeating. i've looked around on google everywhere and it seems alot of people are getting the same error and no one has found a solution yet.

So i'm wondering if it is passable to install amd64 version of gentoo off a non amd64 live cd eg. ubuntu.

Can anyone shed some light on this?

[gruven]

I usually use an ubuntu livecd to install gentoo, because of the wireless drivers. I just follow the handbook as if I was using a gentoo livecd.

Although, I have also used a Sabayon livecd, and it isn't bad either.

To answer your question though, you won't have any problems using another distros livecd to install gentoo. Just follow the handbook.

[i92guboj]

Well ok the cd still wont boot. I've tried almost everything to get it to work.

nosmp gets me past the kernel panic but then i get stuck on

ide:failed opcode was: unknown
hdbMA disabled.

plus some more errors very similar to the above that just keep repeating. i've looked around on google everywhere and it seems alot of people are getting the same error and no one has found a solution yet.

So i'm wondering if it is passable to install amd64 version of gentoo off a non amd64 live cd eg. ubuntu.

Can anyone shed some light on this?

It might be that your chipset is not supported, I can't tell you anything more without actually looking at the complete picture. You might have more luck with another livecd.

However, you NEED a 64 bits livecd if you want to install a 64 bits OS. There's no way you can chroot into a 64 bits workspace and run a 64 bits shell under a 32 bits kernel (well, unless you use a virtual machine, which is entirely offtopic). So, don't worry about that: it's impossible.

If the gentoo amd64 live doesn't work, you can use any other livecd, as long as it is a 64 bits version.

[phoenixfire]

Thnks for the advice guys. i tryed before i read the post to do it but as you said i92guboj you cant chroot. Currnetly downloading the amd64 ubuntu livecd and going to try again tonight.

Another note, the debian minimal cd wont work. Too many commands are missing. eg fdisk, mount.