i386 RPMs in x86_64 repos?

[Paul Howarth]

Jeff Vian wrote:
> On Mon, 2006-11-06 at 09:01 +0000, Neil Bird wrote:
>>    A friend updated his box FC4 to FC6 recently, and it didn't go too well. 
>>   One of the things I've noticed is that he has >300 'duplicate' RPM 
>> entries, with both i386 & x86_64 versions apparently installed on top of 
>> each other.
>>
>>    Looking at the release/updates repos., there are lots of i386 & x86_64 
>> RPMs alongside each other there.
>>
>>    Is that right?
>>
> There are still a lot of 32 bit packages that need to run in the 64 bit
> environment.  The list in the repo is usually those that fit that
> category.  If he has those that are not in the repo then you can
> manually clean them up by doing an "rpm -e <package.i686> for those that
> should be removed.
> 
> However, if he has a LOT of i686 and x86_64 packages it seems likely
> that he did an upgrade which _does not_ remove all the 32bit packages as
> would be needed for a clean update.  For a better environment and to
> make sure all is truly an FC6 install it is recommended that you do a
> clean install and not an upgrade.
> 
> To do it cleanly you would need to do the update as a new install.

Unlikely to help. The trend is towards having *more* i386 packages in 
the x86_64 repo, not less. See:

http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2006-October/msg00722.html

Whilst some of us would like to be able to easily install a "pure" 
64-bit system, some regard the omission of 32-bit support as "crippling 
the OS".

Paul.