Subject: Re: NetBSD /AMD64
To: Quentin Garnier <cube@cubidou.net>
From: Andy Ruhl <acruhl@gmail.com>
List: netbsd-users
Date: 07/18/2005 21:08:33
On 7/18/05, Quentin Garnier <cube@cubidou.net> wrote:
> > There is no 32 and 64 bit modes as far as I know.
>=20
> Well, there is, and the 32-bits mode is simple the good old IA-32, which
> is i386 in NetBSD-speech.  There is also a legacy mode (if my
> recollection of the naming is correct), which allows running 32-bits
> binaries with a 64-bits kernel, along with 64-bits binaries.  That's
> what option COMPAT_NETBSD32 is used for.

I know.

I think what he was asking was similar to what some commercial
customers ask because some of those operating systems can be booted in
32 bit or 64 bit operating systems at your own whim. And if you're not
the admin sometimes you don't know. This actually happens, I've seen
it first hand.

Not in NetBSD. You can't boot amd64 into 32 bit mode or something. If
you installed amd64, you have a 64 bit OS, period. Emulation and
compat games aside.

Andy