Is there a way to upgrade a 32bit fedora34 installation to a 64bit Fedora24?

[Joachim Backes]

Hi all,

does anybody know a simple way to upgrade a 32bit fedora24 workstation 
to a 64bit fedora24 workstation without a complete system reinstall?

All comments are welcome.

Kind regards

Joachim Backes

Is there a way to upgrade a 32bit fedora24 installation to a 64bit Fedora24?

[Joachim Backes]

On 06/28/16 12:10, Joachim Backes wrote:

Subject modification:
Is there a way to upgrade a 32bit fedora24 installation to a 64bit Fedora24?

(not Fedora34), sorry for typo.
> Hi all,
>
> does anybody know a simple way to upgrade a 32bit fedora24 workstation
> to a 64bit fedora24 workstation without a complete system reinstall?
>
> All comments are welcome.
>
> Kind regards
>
> Joachim Backes

Is there a way to upgrade a 32bit fedora24 installation to a 64bit Fedora24?

[Frank Elsner]

On Tue, 28 Jun 2016 12:12:58 +0200 Joachim Backes wrote:
> On 06/28/16 12:10, Joachim Backes wrote:
>
> Subject modification:
> Is there a way to upgrade a 32bit fedora24 installation to a 64bit Fedora24?

Same question for me. I came up with the following solution for my Fedora 23 Mate System:

- Save all relevant dirs/files where you did local modifications
- Save an actual packagelist (names only!)
- Install 64bit System 
- Re-install dirs/files where you did local modifications

Any comments?

--Frank Elsner

Re(2): Is there a way to upgrade a 32bit fedora24 installation to a 64bit Fedora24?

[Frank Elsner]

On Tue, 28 Jun 2016 14:39:08 +0200 Frank Elsner wrote:
> On Tue, 28 Jun 2016 12:12:58 +0200 Joachim Backes wrote:
> > On 06/28/16 12:10, Joachim Backes wrote:
> >
> > Subject modification:
> > Is there a way to upgrade a 32bit fedora24 installation to a 64bit Fedora24?
>
> Same question for me. I came up with the following solution for my Fedora 23 Mate System:
> Save all relevant dirs/files where you did local modifications
> Save an actual packagelist (names only!)
> Install 64bit System

Install/update all packages from saved packagelist
> Re-install dirs/files where you did local modifications
>
> Any comments?
>
> --Frank Elsner

[Rex Dieter]

Joachim Backes wrote:
> does anybody know a simple way to upgrade a 32bit fedora24 workstation
> to a 64bit fedora24 workstation without a complete system reinstall?

short answer: no

-- Rex

[Joachim Backes]

On 06/28/16 14:07, Rex Dieter wrote:
> Joachim Backes wrote:
> > does anybody know a simple way to upgrade a 32bit fedora24 workstation
> > to a 64bit fedora24 workstation without a complete system reinstall?
>
> short answer: no

Hi Rex,

does your answer "no" mean that *you* don't know a solution, or does 
"no" mean that my problem can't be solved in a simple manner?

I fear you meant the last alternative :-)

Kind regards

Joachim Backes
> -- Rex
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[Rex Dieter]

Joachim Backes wrote:
> On 06/28/16 14:07, Rex Dieter wrote:
> > Joachim Backes wrote:
> > > does anybody know a simple way to upgrade a 32bit fedora24 workstation
> > > to a 64bit fedora24 workstation without a complete system reinstall?
> >
> > short answer: no
>
> Hi Rex,
>
> does your answer "no" mean that *you* don't know a solution, or does
> "no" mean that my problem can't be solved in a simple manner?
>
> I fear you meant the last alternative :-)

It means it's not easily possible (certainly not by any official/supported 
method).

-- rex

[Gordon Messmer]

On 06/28/2016 03:10 AM, Joachim Backes wrote:
> does anybody know a simple way to upgrade a 32bit fedora24 workstation 
> to a 64bit fedora24 workstation without a complete system reinstall?

There is no simple way to do this.  There are complex and dangerous 
ways.  One way would be to install the x86_64 kernel and boot the system 
with it.  Install an x86_64 bit system and configure it the way you'd 
like your target system to be set up. Use rsync to copy /lib64 and 
/usr/lib64 first, then use rsync to copy the remainder of the system.

Otherwise, you'd probably boot the system from some other media and 
replace the i686 packages with x86_64 in a chroot-type setup.

[John Morris]

On Tue, 2016-06-28 at 12:10 +0200, Joachim Backes wrote:
> does anybody know a simple way to upgrade a 32bit fedora24
> workstation 
> to a 64bit fedora24 workstation without a complete system reinstall?

You are changing archs.  RPM just wasn't meant to do that.  There are
no simple ways and as others pointed out the hard ones are not exactly
safe.  Fedora isn't intended to be upgraded live even for normal
version updates so a live image and chroot is going to be involved.

I'd suggest pulling a list of every package being managed by RPM with
"rpm -qal" into a file and then get a list of every file on the system
partition(s) with find,  Now sort em and use diff to find files that
aren't part of the OS.  Either clean em up or preserve accordingly.
Then use rpm -Va to find any files that are changed from the packaged
one, usually config files but not always marked as such depending on
how much tweaking you have done.  Preserve the changed files.

Finally use rpm -qa to get a listing of every package you have
installed.

After you have all of that and a FULL AND VERIFIED BACKUP just
reinstall from scratch.  Now is also a once in a long time opportunity 
to change filesystems btw.  Now pull another rpm -qa list and compare
the two, and pull in the missing packages.  Finally you can reapply
your config file changes.

All that sounds like a lot of work, but it is probably quicker and
certainly safer than some harebrained scheme to to an in place arch
change.