Fedora Core 6 - 64 bit

After hearing many complaints about trouble using Fedora Core 6 with a 64 bit processor, I decided to test it myself. For the most part almost everything is identical however there were some issues I found. I decided to write a mini-guide with some notes and tips for 64 bit.

Personal Fedora Core 6 64 bit Notes

The only seriously confusing problems I had was with the co-existing of both i386 and x86_64 libraries and packages, commonly referred to as multilib. The rpm command is improved when adding:

%_query_all_fmt         %%{name}-%%{version}-%%{release}.%%{arch}

to the file: /etc/rpm/macros

I noted that having duplicate libraries and applications did make the installation a bit larger, apx. 0.5GB. While this isn’t very large, I could not figure out what was the reason that some 32 bit apps are included while others aren’t.

The 64 bit Firefox did not load the 32 bit browser plugins, so I removed Firefox.x86_64 and installed Firefox.i386 this allowed the browser plugins to work correctly.

Additionally the Nvidia driver installation had some yum problem due to some 32 bit dependencies. I removed those and that problem was resolved.

I currently have a power management problem with kernel 2.6.20-1.2933.fc6 x86_64 as my desktop won’t properly suspend (mode S3).

In conclusion I found the multilib to be such a nuisance. I would consider switching entirely to 64 bit if there was perfect 64 bit support for everything. In that I mean if there was absolutely no need for any 32 bit parts. I didn’t notice a significant speed increase and I am not aware of any major benefits I’m losing by staying with 32 bit Linux.

Posted in: FC6, Fedora, Setup,

1 Comments:

• Philip on April 10, 2007 - 08:08 AM

  I’m planning to install Fedora 7 as 64bit on my laptop. I’ve tried to go fully 64bit a few times - the main hold up each time was Openoffice.org but this will no longer be the case. Here’s some of the tips I’ve managed to learn:
  
  1. 32 bit firefox plugins work using nspluginwrapper. I preferred this option to having a 32bit firefox.
  1b. Realplayer and Flash have to be 32bit for the time being, I’ve managed to avoid needing any other 32bit apps. The only possible problem could be that they both use the fedora alsa libs.
  2. Most media can be played using gstreamer - which means not having to use xine 32bit + win32 codecs.
  
  Most of the other tips are hardware specific (like getting a broadcom wifi working with x86_64).