Running 32bit applications on a 64bit system

[Michael R. Head]

On Mon, 2007-11-26 at 15:18 -0500, Sarunas Burdulis wrote:
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> Chris Jones wrote:
> > On our 64 bit machines at work, it is trivial to install side by side 
> > the 32 bit RPMS as well. Then any application built on a 32 bit system 
> > runs just fine on the 64 bit machines as well (+ we can experiment with 
> > 64bit builds at the same time).
> > 
> > I think this is exactly what the OP needs to run whatever 32 bit 
> > applications he needs (lahtough it would help if he stated what these 
> > apps are, and what errors he gets when trying to run ?)
> > 
> > I'm getting the impression ubuntu/debian doesn't support this sort of 
> > thing anywhere as near as well ?
> > 
> > Chris
> 
> 32-bit libraries on debian/ubuntu amd64 systems can be easily installed
> as ia32-libs and related packages. Libraries end up in /lib32 and most
> 32-bit dynamically linked apps work fine.

Correction: "the most common 32-bit libraries"

And yeah, 32bit executables generally work just fine. Skype is 32-bit
only, and it works in amd64. The major problems occur when you want to
use a 64-bit app with 32-bit binary plugins. nspluginwrapper solves this
for flash, but in my experience, using java applets under firefox64 has
some issues yet to be ironed out.

Also, the package manager doesn't have a mechanism that would allow you
to install regular i386 debs, so if you need some particular wacky lib
that's not in ia32-*, you pretty much have to cross compile it yourself.

> Sarunas
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-- 
Michael R. Head <burner at suppressingfire.org>
http://www.suppressingfire.org/~burner/
http://suppressingfire.livejournal.com
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