Re: "Migrating" 32bit to 64bit netbsd

[Andy Ruhl <acruhl%gmail.com@localhost>]

On Thu, Aug 19, 2010 at 5:33 AM, Niels Dettenbach <nd%syndicat.com@localhost> 
wrote:
> this might sounds a little curious (so don't hit me...) but my target is to
> migrate several NetBSD xen guests (i386 - 32bit PAE) to 64bit in the next.

I'm not going to be much help, but I can make a response anyway.

I attempted this once long ago, and I decided it was too much work so
I just stayed with i386. And I'm still on i386 today on that server,
although I have used amd64 quite a bit on the desktop.

At the time, 32 bit compatibility was not super duper great, so you
pretty much had to start over and then migrate over whatever data was
not dependent on 32 or 64 bit binaries.

It might be that today you can simply install 64 bit bootstrap code
and a 64 bit kernel and it will work? I have no idea. There is
probably some userland compatibility stuff that is needed.

It would be really nice to have a migrate/upgrade guide though because
i386 is sorta slowly going to fall behind amd64 at some point.

If I was going to do it today, I would probably start with a new
machine or new disks and install a new, clean OS and install or build
all the necessary packages. Then either move the data over, or just
move the /home disk over and call it done. Not simple or quick, but it
works.

Andy