64-bit Kernel Question

[Matthew Saltzman]

On Sun, 2009-03-08 at 19:36 -0600, Petrus de Calguarium wrote:
> Kevin Kofler wrote:
> 
> > You should really be running 64-bit Fedora on that Core 2 Duo.
> > 
> I bought it because I wanted one that would support kvm (now qemu), even 
> though I rarely use qemu, but because I thought it would be interesting to 
> see.
> 
> So, I've had a 64-bit processor for somewhere between 12-18 months 
> without even knowing it!!!
> 
> I thought I had to get a special motherboard and an entire system that is 
> set up for 64-bit. I guess I have, without knowing it.
> 
> Hmmm... So how would I get started changing my installation of Fedora 11 
> alpha/rawhide to the 64-bit version? 

Re-install?

> Are all the same programs available? 

Pretty much all the Fedora source that I know of is available both ways.
For other software, you can run 32-bit versions on the 64-bit OS--you'll
just need to install 32-bit versions of some libs alongside the 64-bit
versions.  For things you install with yum, the architecture
dependencies will be resolved automatically.  For other software, you
may have to install some 32-bit libs by hand (with yum, but with no way
to automatically resolve dependencies).

> Do I need to learn special configurations? I have read horrifying accounts of 
> getting Adobe flash-player to work, but I think that is supposed to be 
> resolved with nspluginwrapper, non?

There's a beta version of 64-bit flash--it's been working pretty well
for me.

-- 
                Matthew Saltzman

Clemson University Math Sciences
mjs AT clemson DOT edu
http://www.math.clemson.edu/~mjs