i386 -> x86_64 upgrade notes

[Roberto Ragusa]

Bernie Innocenti wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I've put together some notes on upgrading a Fedora system from i386 to
> x86_64:
> 
>   http://www.codewiz.org/wiki/Fedora64bitUpgrade

Really interesting.

In the middle of your process, you basically have two entire i386 and
x86_64 distributions installed together.

Does this really work? I mean, is the infrastructure able to have
coexistent x86_64 and i386 rpms for every package? (and with i386 rpms
coming from an i386 distribution, and not special i386 rpms
done for an x86_64 distribution).

When one removes the i386 packages at the end of the migration,
is the system really in good shape?
For example, what kind of issues does an "rpm -Va" find?
Are all data files arch independent? (for example binary databases,
such as the rpmdb itself).

In my opinion, an i386 -> x86_64 upgrade path (even if not
really officially supported) will be useful to many people.
I personally hate to reinstall everything.
(upgraded all the way from RedHat 5.1 up to Fedora 10 migrating
hardware a few times, with only one reinstallation from
scratch in the middle).

Best regards. Ciao :-)
-- 
   Roberto Ragusa    mail at robertoragusa.it